Lesson 3 - John 1:1b The Greek Letters and Translation

Here are the Greek letters and their English letter translation.

New letters: k, i (ee like the i in police), p, t, th (th as in thin), e (short e- you met the capital version earlier- E).

Letters you already know: a, o (short), l, g, s, e(long), e(short), r, n.

Note: Greek has several two-vowel combinations that are pronounced as if they were one  vowel.  English has two vowel combinations also. "Kai" introduces us the the first one we have come across in the text. The two vowel combination is ai.  The fancy term for two letter combinations that are pronounced as one sound is diphthong (pronounced diff-thong and Greek for  "two sounds"). The diphthong "ai" is pronounced as "ai" in aisle or like the word "eye" or the English pronunciation of the letter i. So kai is pronouced ki.

The meaning of the above Greek words are:

kai = and,  o = the,  logos = word,  en = was,
pros = with,  ton = the,  theon (from theos) = God.

Translation: and the word was with the God


Pronunciation of the Greek words:     
 kai (ki),  o (ah),  lo-gos ( lah-gahs), en (ayn),
pros (prahs),  ton (tahn), the-on (theh-ahn).



Note "THE"- Spelling: Have you noticed that now we have two words that translate "the" - o and ton. Why two different spellings for the same word? We will deal with this a little later. Don't worry about it right now.


Grammer "THE" -Absence or Presence: In John 1:1a - "the" was left out of the Greek to draw attention to and intensify the meaning of the word "beginning". Here in John 1:1b we have another use of "the". The Greek "the" is there to make definite the word "God" (THE God), so we will translate it definite too. This will help you to take notice when "the" is used or not. English translations leave out "the" before God. In English we do not routinely say "the God" did this or that. We say God did this or that. Greek usually is translated the way we speak English.

For Interest: There is an English word that has two of the above words in it: theology (theos + logos). Logos at the end of words in English means "the study of". So theology is the study of God. (When you study, you study the words  written in books, so logos also became the study of words on a subject, then the study of the subject itself.)

To go to Lesson four click here.

Lesson 2 John 1:1a Translation

Now we put together the sounds we have learned for the letters and pronounce the words.

Greek

English 
Pronun- ciation


The Greek word En when pronounced sounds like our English word "in". Also, the ar of arche sounds like the letter r when pronounced.

Now that you know how to pronounce the words, it is time to learn what the words mean. Their meanings are:

En = in, arche = beginning, en = was, o = the,
logos = word.

In a sentence they mean:

In [the] beginning was the word.

Vocabulary: The Greek language is second only to the English language for having the greatest number of words. The Koine of the Bible numbers above 5000 words. The Classical is even larger. However, one does not have to memorize that many words, just the most used ones. As we go through the text of John learn the vocabualry. Almost all will be useful for Biblical or Classical use.

Grammar lesson. Notice that in the translation "In [the] beginning was the word" that "the" is supplied before "beginning" to make the English translation sound smooth. It is not there in the original Greek. The reason "the" is left out before "beginning" is to draw attention to the word to intensify and make stronger its meaning. Anytime in the Greek that a "the" is left out there is a grammatical reason. This is just one of several ways that the lack of "the" is used in the Greek.

The word "was" (en) also needs to be explained. It has several uses in the Greek. Here the word "was" means "exist". It is expressing that from the beginning (as far back as you can go) the logos existed/was.

Note: " Logos" This is an interesting word in the Greek. In John 1:1 Logos is translated "word", which is a correct translation, but logos has another meaning. It can also be translated as "reason or  principle". When this book was written, there were two basic groups of people, the Jews and those of  the Roman Empire which had adopted the Greek culture. The choice of "logos" was deliberately chosen to grab the attention of both the Jews and Greek thinking culture. The Greeks had long debated and searched for the answer to their question- what was  the reason behind the universe, and what was the creative principle of the universe. The Jews also were looking for something, too. They were looking for the great out pouring of God's word that would come when Messiah came. John 1:1 introduces the Jews and the Greeks to the "logos" for which they both were searching.

Note: The use of "logos" which is a two meaning or two sided word is typical of the text of John. Many two sided words with both meaning that fit are used, and are meant to be understood this way.

Also, the first 18 verses of the book of John are called the Prologue, the introduction leading up to showing the readers that the Logos is Jesus. The Prologue also lays the ground work for the entire book of John.

To go to Lesson three click here.

Lesson 1 -- John 1:1a The Greek Letters

The first text we will deal with is here:






This is Greek without the normal accent marks which we will learn later. The first letter is a capital Greek letter. See any letters that look familiar? E, a, o, and s are what they seem to be. The v, p, x and y are not. The v is a N with a leg missing, p is actually an R with a leg missing, the x is really ch (which is equal to a k sound), and the y is a g (g as in good, not as in George). Look at the following Greek text with its equal in English letters.








Notice that there are two "e" vowels in the Greek alphabet. Greek has a short and a long e. The short Greek E that looks like our capital E is pronounce like "eh" as the e in "pet". The Greek e which looks like our letter n is a long e pronounced like "ay" as in the e in "they".

The Greek also has two o vowels, one long and one short. The o here that looks like our English o is a short o pronounced like "ah" as the first o in "bottom". We will learn the long one later.

One interesting fact that will help you learn is that generally Greek letters only have one pronunciation. In English there can be up to eight different sounds for each letter or combination of letters. Our English "a" is one of those letters with eight different sounds, but in Greek "a" has only one pronunciation. It is pronounced like the a in father (ah).

Note: If you feel overwhelmed or confused, don't worry. Most of this will be covered several times. Take your time with this. Learning any language takes some work. Also, since our brains often rebel at learning new things that don't fit neatly into previously learned facts, give yourself time to digest the information.
To go to Lesson two click here

At the Beginning

Most of what we will deal with is the Koine Greek. If you are interested in the older Classical, the Koine is still a good place to start as it is a less complicated version. Many schools teach the Koine first then move into the Classical writings.

History: The Classical Greek deals with the Greek writings from about 800BC to 300BC. When in 300BC Alexander the Great conquered Greece and the Middle East he introduced the Greek culture and language to a much larger area. The Middle East speakers simplified the more ornate Classical Greek to something the common, everyday person could speak. Thus the name Koine which means common. The original language of the Bible's New Testament was written in what was the everyday language of  the people in the eastern half of the Roman Empire. Though the language of the Roman government was Latin (their native language), Greek became the everyday trade and cultural language of the Roman Empire. The Romans had fallen in love with the Greek culture and all things Greek. Even their children were tutored in the Greek language and culture by Greek tutors. The Koine Greek  covers from 300BC to around 300 AD.

Alphabet: The Greeks borrowed around 900 - 1000 BC the Phoenician alphabet. The Greeks modified it and passed it on indirectly to the Romans who continued modifying the alphabet. The modern English alphabet comes directly from the Roman one. Thus, when you study Greek many letters are the same as our alphabet, and many are not. Some many even resemble ours, but they mean something entirely different.

Expressiveness of the Greek Language: The earliest writing using the Greek alphabet was by Homer who wrote down the Iliad (Helen of Troy and the Trojan horse) based on fact with mythical additions, and the mythical Odyssey (The adventures of Ulysses/Odysseus). The Iliad was a centuries old poem of a time and events that happened centuries before it was written down. Before these poems were written down, the stories were learned, passed on, and told verbally by and to the people. These poems were the people's entertainment and history. They were written in such a way that as the events were spoken the words themselves related the sounds of what happening in the poem. If it was a battle, the words chosen for this part of the poem sounded like the battle sounds as it was quoted. If it was a scene at the beach you could hear the sound of gulls and birds as that section was quoted. The Greek of that time was also very musical in sound and beat as it was spoken in these poems. Thus, as the poems were spoken, the Greek  was painting a picture for the listener. Though the Greek of the Koine is not as verbal or musical as the older Greek in painting pictures, the Koine is every bit as expressive as it paints pictures with the meaning of the words themselves.

Text: We will use the text that some Classical and Theological schools use to teach first year Greek: The Gospel of John. It is the best and easiest one to use to learn Greek. We will jump right into the text from the first lesson. Each lesson will study a small section of text to learn the alphabet, pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary.

When I  took first year Greek half of the class had dropped out by the second lesson. They were given too much information to learn at one time. They became overwhelmed and gave up. Thus, the goal of this study is to teach simply small amounts of information that will allow you to be able to comprehend and learn at your own pace.

Pronunciation: The pronunciation used here is USA, and what I learned in my school. If your area in America or the world pronounces the Greek differently, use your pronunciation. All pronunciation is best guess anyway. No one had a tape player 2000 years ago. Having said that, it seems only a couple of vowels or vowel combinations are spoken differently from area to area.

Greek Fonts/Letters: Since Blogger does not have Greek font letters that can be used in this blog, I have used my art/photo program to make the Greek text available (as a photo) to use in the blog. To type Greek words as I teach, I will have to type them in their English letter equals.

To go to the first lesson click here