Hey,

I'm a new learner of ancient/koine greek just getting started and was wondering what the word meaning "eternity" would be in ancient greek. I know that αιων is usually the most common translation, but I did find that it's actual connotation was a bit different, referring to an age or a period. Would there be another word that would be a more accurate translation of "eternity"? Thanks!

I'm quite in need of such a group, and even encourage someone to make one.
I've seen groups for English Bible, also for Homer, Plato etc. But is it any special thing avoided or I am unaware?

I have a question about this passage of scripture. I am of the understanding that everything in this passage is specifically directed at Yeshua's "unbelieving and hardhearted" Apostles. While belief in Yeshua will save anyone (that is why He came and that is the message the Apostles are to bring)), I am of the understand that Yeshua was directing that statement toward the Apostles. ALSO, when Yeshua talked about the "signs" that would follow "those who believe," it is my understanding that He is still directing that statement specifically to His Apostles and NOT changing the subject to include anyone/everyone who would believe in Him. In other words, the "signs" were to be performed by the Apostles specifically (if they would repent of their unbelief). Can anyone confirm this one way or another grammatically from the Greek? Thank you.

Mark 16:14-18

14 Ὕστερον [δὲ] ἀνακειμένοις αὐτοῖς τοῖς ἕνδεκα ἐφανερώθη, καὶ ὠνείδισεν τὴν ἀπιστίαν αὐτῶν καὶ σκληροκαρδίαν ὅτι τοῖς θεασαμένοις αὐτὸν ἐγηγερμένον οὐκ ἐπίστευσαν. 15 καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, Πορευθέντες εἰς τὸν κόσμον ἅπαντα κηρύξατε τὸ εὐαγγέλιον πάσῃ τῇ κτίσει. 16 ὁ πιστεύσας καὶ βαπτισθεὶς σωθήσεται, ὁ δὲ ἀπιστήσας κατακριθήσεται. 17 σημεῖα δὲ τοῖς πιστεύσασιν ταῦτα παρακολουθήσει· ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί μου δαιμόνια ἐκβαλοῦσιν, γλώσσαις λαλήσουσιν καιναῖς, 18 [καὶ ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν] ὄφεις ἀροῦσιν, κἂν θανάσιμόν τι πίωσιν οὐ μὴ αὐτοὺς βλάψῃ, ἐπὶ ἀρρώστους χεῖρας ἐπιθήσουσιν καὶ καλῶς ἕξουσιν.

So, echaresan in Matt 2:10 is in the passive voice - what's up with that?

Everywhere else, forms of chairo seem to be used actively.

Any thoughts?

In Matthew 8:7 it says:

καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ· Ἐγὼ ἐλθὼν θεραπεύσω αὐτόν.

Would a a more accurate translation be I, coming, will heal him or I will come and heal him

Thanks for any insight you can give this stressed greek student!

I and another pal meet each other to read weekly. We've done some sections of NT. We do not intend to start OT from the scratch but just trying to start with easier books. Any suggestion is appreciated.

Χαίρετε!

I'm stoked to have finished my first translation and then read through the whole translation of 1 John. I started this journey 4 months ago (crosspost), in December, and am now working my way through the GNT.

u/Poemen8**,** u/IndividualParsnip655**,**

Your advice was helpful in this endeavour. Thank you!

Now I'm reading through the books of the NT by...

• Learning the vocabulary upfront before reading a book.
• Translating a verse at a time in Google word. Ensuring that I don't move on until I know the grammar of every inflected word and noting the inflections I need to go over.
• Read multiple chapters after translating them.
• Rinse and repeat.

What is amazing to me is I can read and understand the text after going through this process.

I'm still working on non indicative grammar identification, I have memorised the indicative system and am working on fulling recognizing the non indicatives.

I personally don't find any of the concepts in Greek hard, it is just there is a lot to put into long term memory and the only way that will happen is to put things into ones working memory repeatedly until it is in long term memory.

The word katastolē (καταστολή)

I read something that tells me the noun is from the verb katastellō (καταστέλλω) but there are words in Koine Greek, kata and stolē (κατά and στολή)

I was pointed here from the r/GREEK subreddit since Greek has changed a bunch over time. Anyways from my understanding in Luke 1:28 during the annunciation when the Archangel Gabriel tells Mary "Hail full of grace..." its that "full of grace" part that Catholics derive the sinlessness teaching in regards to Mary and how in the original Greek it implies she is unable to receive more grace again implying sinlessness. I was hoping someone could break down the Greek for me especially the "κεχαριτωμένη" because from what I've heard that specific conjugation of the word is what makes it special as opposed to other versions of that word.

"καὶ εἰσελθὼν πρὸς αὐτὴν εἶπεν Χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη, ὁ Κύριος μετὰ σοῦ."

Greetings,

I've been doing some analysis of the Greek New Testament by getting a lemma count and placing it into a database.

Dan Wallace has created a Reading Plan with the hardest book to read as Hebrews. However I have listed the books with the most unique lemmas to the least and Hebrews is 6th on the list.

So what metric makes Hebrews the hardest book to read in the GNT? Is it its Attic like syntax or something else?

Ordering the books with the most unique lemmas, I get the following:

https://preview.redd.it/leff08jym8sc1.png?width=620&format=png&auto=webp&s=8900fc3b8e871be2c4cffe1e59c90e77ab436fd2

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I’m trying to find the difference between two verbs, laleō (λαλέω) and legō (λέγω), supposedly they both mean to speak. Found in Matthew 12:32-37

Hey guys I wanted to ask if this word is always meant in a worship kind of way?

Because I found: woship, show reverence, pay homage and kneel down as a possible possible translations and they all mean something different.

For example this verse of the bible: John 9:38 Then the man said, “I believe, Lord,” and he bowed (prosekynēsen | προσεκύνησεν | aor act ind 3 sg) in reverence before him.

How do we know that the man bowed in reverence meaning in a way of accepting Jesus as his God and not in a way of bowing simply to show his respect for Jesus?

Thank you for reading!

Following the rules, it should be ανεβας, but it doesn't seem to exist in the gloss... why is that?

1 Timothy 2:9 NASB1995 ”Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing (katastolē), modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments (different word),”

What does katastolē mean and how do you apply the word in regards to clothing today?

I am aware that parts of the Bible are written in Kione Greek, and I was wondering, how accurate are the translations?

I am wanting to better study the languages the Bible was written in, and I figured I could use some help from people who are more familiar with the language. I’ll copy and paste the verse I’m looking into and I’ll put my understanding of the research I found after

οὐκ ἔνι Ἰουδαῖος οὐδὲ Ἕλλην οὐκ ἔνι δοῦλος οὐδὲ ἐλεύθερος οὐκ ἔνι ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ πάντες γὰρ ὑμεῖς εἷς ἐστε ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ

So someone said that the word καὶ should have been translated to and instead of nor in scripture (claimed it was used to trap people which seems kinda far fetched but I was interested in more studying) and the interlinear source I’ve used and have found to be reliable says it was translated to “nor” cuz it was following the pattern of οὐκ. What are your thoughts and how would you translate this?

I am learning Koine primarily to read the NT and am getting a bit overwhelmed with all the verb forms. Like I know German and Spanish but it's nothing like the complexity of verbs in Greek!

Just wondering what the most frequent/ infrequent conjugations might be in the NT to focus on until I can wrap my mind around the less common stuff. I'm using Machen and it seems things aren't necessarily taught by highest frequency (like putting participles in the back of the book).

Any thoughts would be appreciated :)

Hello, in David Black's grammar, the following explanation for the preposition ἐπί is given:

(1) ἐπί (878 occurrences)

Gen. upon ἐπὶ γῆς upon earth

Dat. upon ἐπὶ γῇ upon earth

Acc. upon ἐπὶ γήν upon earth

In the New Testament, the distinction between the uses of ἐπί with the various cases has become blurred.

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My question is did Black explain ἐπί like this because for beginner learners it is not so important or is there actually no difference between the use of the preposition in the different cases? If there is a subtle difference, what is it?

Hello, everyone! I’m trying to figure out the traditional writing style of Ancient Greeks for a project to be as accurate as possible. My main concern is when it comes to accents and diacritics in Koine. What I mean is how you’ll see words typed out like “ἀρχή” or “γεννηθῇ” in various resources, but I can’t find source material to definitively say if Greeks actually used to write or scribe the accents and diacritics on papyrus and stone consistently. Was the language similar to the Russian “ё” where you’re expected to know when to use “ё” versus a standard “е” in words like “Пётер” being written as “Петер”? Or did they matter enough that you were expected to always include them? Was there a difference in writing styles between upper and lower classes?

Basically, would someone writing Koine have written words like “ἀρχή” or left them as “αρχη”?

Any help is super appreciated, thanks!

I was writing a paper on Jesus' resurrection for a college class, and I was going to use this verse to make a point about Jewish beliefs on the resurrection, but there are differences between translations that slightly change the meaning of the text. Unfortunately, it's such a small change that I couldn't find any paper or article anywhere discussing this, and I don't know how to read Koine Greek. Here are the differences in translation.

NRSVUE “Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of humankind and devised the origin of all things, in his mercy gives life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws.”

NRSVCE “Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of humankind and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws.”

In the NRSVUE, the mother says that God gives her martyred sons life again, but in the NRSVCE, as well as every other translation I found (NRSVA, CEB, GNT, NABRE, NCV), she said that God will give them life again. This difference is important because if the latter is the correct translation, this verse helps show that Jews who believed in resurrection always, or almost always, meant an eschatological material resurrection. If the former is correct, and this verse means that God is currently giving them life, it would most likely be referring to some sort of spiritual resurrection and would be an example of when resurrection isn't referring to a material return to life.

When I looked at an online Greek Interlinear, it said that the Greek word was grammatically in the present tense, but I don't know Koine Greek, so I don't know what reason there may or may not be to believe that it is referring to a future event.

Could someone please tell me if this verse is referring to a future resurrection, or a present resurrection, and to what degree of certainty they hold this?

Would the modern Greek version on duolingo.com facilitate in learning Koine Greek or would it be more confusing with the modern vocabulary vs koine vocabulary? Or, is there a koine version similar to duolingo.com?

Thank you, in advance for any thoughts.

Obviously, I’m sure one CAN do this. But I’m worried I’m setting myself up for failure by first learning Koine, then Classical Greek. My ultimate goal is to be able to read a wide breadth of Greek literature, biblical and otherwise, from antiquity. I had planned for a while to use Athenaze and other resources to become proficient in Classical Greek before transitioning to Koine. But now an opportunity for a masters in biblical languages has come up and I need to pounce — timing works out with other life events.

Am I screwed for learning Classical Greek down the road? Thanks for any insight, especially from folks with first hand knowledge!

I've always been a fan of stoicism and the story of its founder Zeno in Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius.

In particular, I like the phrase οὐδὲν δεινὸν πέπονθας which I always believed was translated "nothing has terrible has befallen you". It has sort of been my own motto that I carry with me.

But I just also found another translation by Yonge that translates it as, "you have done no harm" which now means something very different.

Can anyone help shed some light on this for me? Is οὐδὲν δεινὸν πέπονθας mean nothing has terrible has befallen you?

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Original text

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Hicks translation

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Emphasis on simple.

I am working through koine now, and have hit a snag. I have relatively little difficulty understanding grammar, or memorizing vocabulary, but I get bogged down with reading comprehension.

Of course, the goal is to read NT texts, but the complexity of even the simpler sentences is a bit much. Every reader I have seen uses read material, NT, LXX, Josephus and the like. Has anyone discovered a simple, cheap reader for koine, akin to material for popular modern languages.

Ideally sentences like "This tree is large" or "The tree on the hill has no leaves"

Maybe such a resource does not actually exist. (Hopefully I explained myself well enough.)

Greetings,

Years ago, I was listening to a sermon by Timothy Keller (1950-2023) and he talked about how the Greek language was able to convey kindness and love through tone. This is one of the many reasons I wanted to study Greek for many years, I'm now coming close to the completion of a first year grammar on my own and will be working on vocabulary soon so I can read the Greek NT, however I haven't learnt anything that will lead me to understand if Greek can convey emotions other than spelling it out.

So does anyone know if emotional conveyance is possible through diacritical marks or some other Greek specific idiosyncrasies, like tone etc?

If you don't know who Timothy Keller is, I highly suggest listening to a one of his sermons in the youtube channel Gospel In Life or pick up one of his many best seller books, he was the C.S. Lewis of our day.

Looking to buy an electronic version of BDAG. I find it on Kindle, Logos.com , and accordancebible.com. There may be other places as well. Is there a difference? What are the pros and cons of each if so?

This was a book recommended by Dr. Allan Black in his grammar book. The reviews I've seen on Amazon are good but it is not available in Kindle Format.

https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/isbn/9780310201755/

What caught my eye about this book is that, it is in canonical order of the bible by book, chapter and verse.

Is anyone aware of a reference book like this but in Kindle or Logos digital format?

Is there anyone hear who can speak, read, and write Koine Greek?

Hi,

For the past few months, I've been working on a website that calculates the difficulty of texts. I've attached an image ranking the corpus provided by Sacred Texts for both the LXX and the Greek New Testament. The results are here, the realistic reading number representing an estimated number of words from the scriptures you would need to read for a 95% comprehension, and the extensive indicating 98%. This can be seen here

I don't have a huge amount of experience with Ancient Greek or Koine (I'd say in all I've probably read or listened to perhaps 150k words overall, and almost all of that from textbooks with the exception of 1 John, most of John and some of 2 Chronicles).

However, I've read about 10x this in Latin, especially from the Vulgate, and the order it generates seems to be generally accurate, but not 100%.

Does the order, if not the actual numbers themselves, seem to concord with your experience?

Hi all. This is the much-interpreted introduction of Papias to his Exegetical books. After looking over a lot of evidence recently, apparently there are many sources that contradict Eusebius' opinion of it. I recently read an article that Eusebius appears to have had no firsthand knowledge of Papias' writings. It has me looking at the passage more carefully (areas of interest specifically bolded):

ὀκνήσω δέ σοι καὶ ὅσα ποτὲ παρὰ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων καλῶς ἔμαθον καὶ καλῶς ἐμνημόνευσα, συγκατατάξαι ταῖς ἑρμηνείαις, διαβεβαιούμενος ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν ἀλήθειαν. Οὐ γὰρ τοῖς τὰ πολλὰ λέγουσιν ἔχαιρον ὥσπερ οἱ πολλοί, ἀλλὰ τοῖς τἀληθῆ διδάσκουσιν, οὐδὲ τοῖς τὰς ἀλλοτρίας ἐντολὰς μνημονεύουσιν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς τὰς παρὰ τοῦ κυρίου τῇ πίστει δεδομένας καὶ ἀπ̓ αὐτῆς παραγινομένας τῆς ἀληθείας: εἰ δέ που καὶ παρηκολουθηκώς τις τοῖς πρεσβυτέροις ἔλθοι, τοὺς τῶν πρεσβυτέρων ἀνέκρινον λόγους, τί Ἀνδρέας ἢ τί Πέτρος εἶπεν ἢ τί Φίλιππος ἢ τί Θωμᾶς ἢ Ἰάκωβος ἢ τί Ἰωάννης ἢ Ματθαῖος ἤ τις ἕτερος τῶν τοῦ κυρίου μαθητῶν ἅ τε Ἀριστίων καὶ ὁ πρεσβύτερος Ἰωάννης, τοῦ κυρίου μαθηταί, λέγουσιν. οὐ γὰρ τὰ ἐκ τῶν βιβλίων τοσοῦτόν με ὠφελεῖν ὑπελάμβανον ὅσον τὰ παρὰ ζώσης φωνῆς καὶ μενούσης.

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to chime in on two parts:

(1) At the beginning, παρὰ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων, rather than utilizing a construction involving ἀπό would seem to me to suggest he is speaking of lessons he actually heard firsthand.

(2) In the middle, εἰ δέ που καὶ. I understand this to mean "And also if perhaps," which implies not a first but a second manner of collection.

(3) The differences in tenses also seems to suggest there is a difference intended between the living and the dead.

For context, this was supposedly written around AD 95, and John is said to have lived for another three years after.

Obviously, this is a fragment and I'm approaching this from the assumption that this information is correct and am really just looking for a second opinion on my Greek interpretation.

Thank you all in advance!