2001 Translation

While you don’t need to know Koine Greek to understand the Bible, knowing some basics can open up some insights into the text.

Quick Navigation

• What is Koine Greek?
• Cases - How Words Relate
• Gender - More Than Male/Female
• Number - How Many?
• Verbs - Where the Action Is
  • Tenses
  • Moods
  • Voice
  • Person
  • Aspect
  • Participles
• Additional Features
  • Declensions
  • Word Forms
  • Dialects
  • Breathing Marks and Elision
• Frequently Asked Questions
• ‘A little knowledge is a dangerous thing’

What is Koine Greek?

Think of Koine Greek as the English of the ancient Mediterranean world. While Classical Greek was like Shakespeare’s English, Koine was the everyday language that everyone used.

When was it spoken?

Koine Greek was the common shared language of the eastern Mediterranean world roughly from the time of Alexander the Great’s conquests (around 330 BC) until the Roman Empire’s later period (around AD 330).

It wasn’t just spoken by native Greeks; people across vast regions used it for trade, government, and everyday communication. This is the Greek used in the New Testament and the Septuagint.

A different alphabet

Greek uses its own alphabet, starting with Alpha (α) and Beta (β) - hence the word ‘alphabet’!

It might look unfamiliar at first compared to the Latin letters we use in English, but it’s the foundation for many scientific terms and symbols you already know. Each letter has a distinct sound, making it quite phonetic once you learn the basics.

Like our alphabet, Greek letters are uppercase and lowercase. The lowercase letters were not invented until the 15^th century AD, so all Greek Bible manuscripts were written using only the uppercase letters, in a style known as Majuscule, and later, a more formal style known as Uncial.

For modern convenience, most transcripts of ancient Bible manuscripts, lexicons, and interlinears all use lowercase letters, as most people find them easier to read. However, we’re quite sensitive to the fact that copyist errors have occured over the years, and these may have occurred in UPPERCASE. You may wish to try and figure out where these have occurred, so our interlinears all use the uppercase letters — just like the original manuscripts.

The uppercase and lowercase letters are:

• ΑΒΓΔΕΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΠΡΣΤΥΦΧΨΩ
• αβγδεζηθικλμνξοπρστυφχψω

Here are the sounds:

Do you see how the last letter is Omega (Ω ω), not Zeta (Ζ ζ) as you might expect coming from English? Bible readers will recognise Alpha and Omega as the first and last letters, famously used in Revelation (‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’).

Also, note that the sounds of the Greek language have changed over time, and the sounds of Koine Greek are not the same as Modern Greek!

Similarities to English

Despite the differences, there are some familiar concepts.

Both languages use:

• nouns (things),
• verbs (actions),
• adjectives (descriptions).

You’ll often find sentences can follow a Subject-Verb-Object pattern (e.g. ‘the dog bit the man’), just like in English. However, Greek is much more flexible thanks to its case system, which we’ll explain below. Both languages also use prepositions (like ‘in’, ‘on’, ‘with’) to show relationships between words.

Differences from English

While English relies heavily on word order (Dog bites man vs. Man bites dog), Greek uses special word endings (called ‘cases’) to show who did what to whom.

This means word order can change for emphasis without losing the core meaning – something we’ll explore below!

Greek nouns also have ‘gender’ (masculine, feminine, neuter) that often has nothing to do with real-world gender.

Greek verbs are powerhouses, packing information about time, type of action (ongoing or completed?), mood (fact or possibility?), and voice (who’s doing the action?) right into their endings, far more explicitly than in English.

The Building Blocks

Cases: How Words Relate

In English, we use word order to show how words relate to each other. But Greek uses special endings instead. This means words can move around in the sentence while keeping their meaning clear - it’s like each word wears a badge showing its role.

• Nominative: The ‘doer’ of the action (‘The man walked’).
• Accusative: The ‘receiver’ of the action (‘He saw the man’).
• Genitive: Shows possession or relationship (‘The man’s hat’).
• Dative: Shows indirect objects (‘He gave it to the man’).
• Vocative: Used for direct address (‘Hey, man!’).

When you’re reading an interlinear Bible, watching these case endings can reveal relationships between words that English translations might handle differently. For example, when you see a word in the genitive case, it might be translated with ‘of’ in English, but sometimes it shows a deeper connection that English misses!

Gender: More Than Just Male and Female

This might surprise you, but in Greek, every noun has a gender - and it’s not about being male or female! It’s more like a category system that helps show which words go together. Think of it like a filing system.

• Masculine
• Feminine
• Neuter

But here’s the important part: these often have nothing to do with actual gender! For example, the word for ‘book’ is feminine, but not because books are female.

Number: How Many?

Just like English has singular and plural, Greek goes one step further! While we mostly see singular (one) and plural (many), Greek also has a special form for pairs of things - though it’s pretty rare in Koine.

• Singular: One thing
• Plural: Many things
• Dual: Exactly two things (though this is rare in Koine)

This can be especially interesting in passages about pairs of things - like eyes, hands, or the two witnesses in Revelation. Sometimes these subtle distinctions can add extra meaning to the text!

Verbs: Where the Action Is

Verbs change their spelling to show different meanings. For example, in English, the word for ‘to walk’ changes to ‘to be walking’ or ‘to have walked’. It’s the same in Koine Greek, except they have many more ways to change the spellings of verbs to show all kinds of different things, far beyond what we can do in English!

We cover many of these endings below.

Tenses: More Than Just Time

Here’s where Koine Greek gets interesting! While English tenses mostly tell you when something happened, Koine Greek’s tenses tell you both when and how it happened. It’s like watching an action movie where you can see whether something’s happening in slow motion or all at once.

• Present: Ongoing or repeated action
• Imperfect: Continuous action in the past
• Future: Action that will happen
• Aorist: Simple completed action
• Perfect: Completed action with ongoing results
• Pluperfect: Action completed before another past action

This becomes crucial in passages like when Jesus says ‘It is finished’ on the cross - He uses the perfect tense, suggesting not just that it’s done, but that its effects continue!

Moods: The ‘Attitude’ of the Verb

Think of moods as the ‘tone of voice’ for verbs. Just like how you can say something as a fact, a question, or a command, Greek verbs have different forms to show their ‘attitude’.

• Indicative: States facts
• Subjunctive: Expresses possibility
• Optative: Expresses wishes (rare in Koine)
• Imperative: Gives commands
• Infinitive: The verbal noun (‘to run’)
• Participle: The verbal adjective (‘running’)

This helps us understand, for example, whether a New Testament writer is stating a fact or expressing a hope - something translations don’t always make clear!

Voice: Who’s Doing What?

Voice tells us about the relationship between the subject and the action. Is someone doing something, having something done to them, or both? Greek makes these distinctions very clear.

• Active: Subject does the action
• Middle: Subject acts on/for themselves
• Passive: Subject receives the action
• Middle-Passive: Could be either middle or passive

This becomes particularly important in theological passages about salvation - is someone being saved (passive), or saving themselves (middle)? The voice makes all the difference!

Person: Who’s Speaking?

Just like in English, Greek shows who’s involved in the action. But Greek is often more precise because the person is built right into the verb ending!

• First Person: I/we
• Second Person: you
• Third Person: he/she/it/they

This can be crucial when studying prophecies or promises - knowing exactly who’s speaking to whom can change the whole meaning of a passage!

Aspect: The ‘Shape’ of the Action

Aspect is like a camera lens for actions - it shows you whether to view something as a snapshot or a movie. This is one of Greek’s most powerful features!

• Perfective: Views action as a complete whole
• Imperfective: Views action as ongoing

When Jesus says ‘Ask and it will be given to you,’ He uses the imperfective aspect - suggesting we should keep on asking. That’s a detail many English readers miss!

Participles: Super-Flexible Word Tools

Participles are like Swiss Army knives in Greek - they can do the job of several different parts of speech! They’re verbs that can act like adjectives or nouns, and they can pack a lot of meaning into a few words.

• Circumstantial: Telling when/how/why (‘While walking, he saw…’)
• Attributive: Describing like an adjective (‘the walking man’)
• Substantive: Acting like a noun (‘the one who walks’)

And because they work like adjectives, they change form based on gender and case. These are everywhere in the New Testament, and understanding them can often reveal connections between ideas that get split into separate sentences in English!

And these forms change by gender:

Additional Features

Declensions: Noun Patterns

Just like English has different patterns for making plurals (cat/cats, child/children), Greek has three main patterns (called ‘declensions’) for changing noun endings. Each declension has its own set of rules for how the endings change.

• First Declension: Mostly feminine nouns ending in -α or -η
• Second Declension: Mostly masculine and neuter nouns ending in -ος or -ον
• Third Declension: Mixed group with various endings

When you’re reading an interlinear text, knowing the declension patterns helps you spot the case endings more easily. This can help you understand how words relate to each other in complex sentences!

Word Forms: Changes and Contractions

Greek words can change their form in special ways when they come together - kind of like how English combines ‘do not’ into ‘don’t’. These changes make the language flow more smoothly.

• Contracted Verbs: Some verbs combine (or ‘contract’) their vowels. For example, ποιέω (‘I make’) often appears as ποιῶ - the 'εω' contracts into 'ω'. This is very common in verbs ending in -εω, -αω, and -οω.
• Elided Forms: Words sometimes drop final vowels when the next word starts with a vowel. For example, ἀπό (‘from’) becomes ἀπ' before a vowel, like in ἀπ' ἀρχῆς (‘from the beginning’).
• Degrees of Comparison: Just like English has good/better/best, Greek adds special endings to make comparatives and superlatives. For example, μέγας (great) becomes μείζων (greater) and μέγιστος (greatest).

Understanding these changes helps you recognize words in their modified forms. When you see ποιῶ in a text, you’ll know it’s just ποιέω in disguise!

Dialects in the Bible

While the New Testament uses Koine Greek, you might encounter other dialects in ancient texts. Think of these like British vs. American English - same language, just flavors.

• Koine: The common language of the New Testament
• Attic: The prestigious dialect of ancient Athens
• Ionic: Similar to Attic, used in some older texts
• Doric: Found in some poetic passages

Here’s an example of how the same word can be spelled differently in different dialects:

Breathing Marks and Elision

Greek has some special marks that appear on words:

Breathing Marks are diacritical marks (not standalone characters) that appear on words beginning with vowels or rho (ρ):

• Rough breathing (῾, U+0314) indicates an ‘h’ sound at the start of the word
  • Used on words that begin with an ‘h’ sound (e.g., ὁ, ἡμέρα)
  • Always used on initial rho (ρ becomes ῥ, e.g., Ῥώμη)
• Smooth breathing (᾿, U+0313) indicates no ‘h’ sound
  • Used on all other words starting with vowels (e.g., ἀγάπη, ἐν, εἰς)

Every Greek word that begins with a vowel or rho must have either a rough or smooth breathing mark - it’s not optional, it’s part of the word’s spelling — at least, in Greek texts written from the 9^th century AD onwards (known as minuscule script).

The original ancient Greek texts were written in majuscule (all capitals) without any breathing marks, accents, or other diacritics. However, many people who work with ancient Koine Greek texts today typically use the minuscule script with these added marks, as this helps with pronunciation and disambiguation. However, to keep things simple (and closer to the originals), we don’t use these marks in our interlinear texts.

Modern Greek no longer uses these marks.

Elision is marked by the Koronis (᾽, U+1FBD), which is a standalone character (not a diacritical mark). It shows where a final vowel has been dropped before a word beginning with a vowel:

• ἀπό + ἐμοῦ becomes ἀπ᾽ἐμοῦ
• ἀλλά + ἐγώ becomes ἀλλ᾽ἐγώ

Note that there’s usually no space after the Koronis, as it marks where two words join together. For simplicity, our interlinear texts show them as separate words.

Frequently Asked Questions

When was Koine Greek spoken?

Koine Greek was the common language of the Mediterranean world from about 300 BC to AD 300.

It became widespread after Alexander the Great’s conquests spread Greek culture across the ancient world. Think of it as the ‘English’ of its day - millions of people, even non-Greeks, used it for trade, education, and communication across cultural boundaries.

How different is Koine from Modern Greek?

Think of the difference between Shakespeare’s English and modern English - that’s similar to the gap between Koine and Modern Greek.

While a Modern Greek speaker might recognize some Koine words, the grammar and many meanings have changed significantly. It’s like an English speaker trying to read Geoffrey Chaucer - you’ll spot familiar words, but understanding the whole text is very difficult.

Do I need to learn Greek to understand the Bible?

No.

While knowing Greek can add depth to your study, it’s not necessary for understanding the Bible’s message. That’s why we have translations. However, even learning a few basic concepts (like those in this guide) can help you better understand why translations sometimes differ and what the original text might be emphasizing.

Why does the Greek Bible manuscripts use Koine instead of Classical Greek?

It’s likely because it was the language of everyday people.

While Classical Greek was more prestigious (like Latin in medieval Europe), Koine was what ordinary people spoke and understood. The Bible texts were supposed to be read and understood by everyone, not just the educated elite, so it would have made no sense to use Classical Greek.

How do we know how Koine Greek was pronounced?

We have several clues. These include:

• Spelling variations in ancient manuscripts
• Descriptions by ancient grammarians
• Transcriptions into other languages
• Surviving traditions in Greek Orthodox Church pronunciation
• Modern linguistic reconstruction

However, there’s still some debate about exact pronunciation — just like we’re not 100% sure how Shakespeare’s English sounded.

‘A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.’

Here’s a word of caution regarding the ancient languages.

A shallow understanding of the language can also lead you astray because there are always exceptions to the rules.

We occasionally get emails from irate people claiming we have translated something incorrectly, because they don’t understand the nuances of language, such as exceptions to the rules, and how meanings sometimes change by their context. They incorrectly apply a rule rigidly to everything, everywhere, at all times.

It’s a bit like someone angrily messaging you for translating a sentence into English which says:

‘He had two sheep.’

They may complain, saying something like this:

‘Are you stupid? Don’t you know that plurals in English end with -s? It should be ‘He had two sheeps’! I’m going to make my own translation and will be a lot better than yours!’

To these people, we say, ‘Good luck! You’re gonna need it!’

Learn More

• Our Greek manuscript sources
• Read our Greek Septuagint interlinears