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Introduction to Greek go back to top

All English Bibles are a translation of the original language. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and Aramaic. The New Testament was written in koine, or “common” Greek. Until about 110 years ago the language of the New Testament was thought to be a special form of Greek developed by the apostles as they combined their Jewish culture with the Greek language or even a special “holy ghost” language only used in writing scripture. But around 1900 the increase of the discovery of ancient documents written on papyri and preserved in the dry Egyptian climate for 2,000 years from the same time period as the writing of the New Testament have shed new light on the Greek language. It revealed that the language of the original New Testament documents was the Greek used in the streets by common people every day.

In the classic Greek period, 850-400 BC, there were three dialects of Greek, one for each of the three main Greek tribes: Doric, Aeolic and Ionic. Homer wrote in Ionic in the 800’s. By the 400’s Ionic Greek had developed into the Attic dialect. Attic Greek became the most widely used and the language of the great Greek writers such as Herodotus, Plato, Socrates, Thucydides, and even Aristotle (384-322). When Alexander the Great (356-323) was a boy he was sent from his father, Philip, the king of Macedonia, to Aristotle in Athens, Greece, to be educated. When Alexander left Macedonia to conquer the world, the Greek world still had many dialects. Alexander combined these dialects with the Attic Greek he had learned in Athens and took it to the world. The result was a period from 300 BC – 500 AD where koine Greek was the language of business and trade, politics and government, letters and other forms of correspondence between people in their daily lives.

One of the key papyri discoveries is known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri. In 1896 in the ancient Egyptian city of Tebtunis, near Oxyrhynchus in Upper Egypt on the west side of the Nile, a cemetery that held sacred crocodiles was uncovered. (During the time of the Ptolemies and the early Romans the practice of mummifying and burying sacred crocodiles in shallow pits became a popular ritual.) Hoping to find ancient tombs the archeologists were disappointed to find over 1,000 mummified crocodiles that they considered worthless. The crocodiles were stuffed on the inside and then wrapped on the outside with ancient papyri. The papyri, though, was covered with text written in koine Greek and included: Greek literature, royal proclamations from the Ptloemies, Egyptian land records, tax receipts, contracts, letters from officials to delinquent taxpayers, fragments of a lost Greek play by Sophocles and fragments from Homer, Plato and Euripides’ writings. There is even a marriage contract from 311 BC and tax receipt from the time of Nero. Also included in the find were koine Greek grammar and etymology books which also helped understand the language of the New Testament. Many of the papyri were written while the New Testament itself was being written. With this find scholars realized that the Greek used in the New Testament was the Greek used by all classes of people to write letters, records, and to educate children. Since this time the meanings and usage of New Testament Greek words has opened up. The recent development of our understanding of ancient koine Greek makes it much easier for the “common” person to study Greek. There are many more Greek study tools and books available for us today than for any other generation in the church age.

“The New Testament is written simply in the popular form of the Koine which
was spoken in the cities throughout the whole of the Greek-speaking world.”

J. Gresham Machen, D.D., LITT.D., 1923

“There is no sphere of knowledge where one is repaid more quickly for all the toil expended. Indeed, the Englishman’s Greek Concordance almost makes it possible
for the man with no knowledge of Greek to know something about it, paradoxical as
that may sound.”
A. T. Robertson, M.A., D.D., LL.D., LITT.D.

Introduction to the Greek Language

In these next few pages you will be introduced to the Greek letters, some basic Greek words, understanding of Greek verbs and a few other insights. The goal is to introduce you to the bare basics of the language to enable you to read and understand what the Greek scholars have written and to use the study tools they have produced. We want to take heed to A. T. Robertson’s words from his book The Minister and His Greek New Testament that this “might seem to encourage the charlatan and the quack. It is possible for an ignoramus to make a parade of a little lumber of learning to the disgust and confusion of his hearers.”

The Greek Alphabet go back to top

The large or capital letter in the Greek is called the “uncial” and the smaller letter is called the “minuscule”.

A a . . . a ALPHA a as in father 1
B b . . . b BETA b as in bat 2

G g . . . g GAMMA g as in go 3
D d . . . d DELTA d as in down 4
E e . . . e(short) EPSILON e as in bed 5
Z z . . . z or dz ZETA z as in zero 7
H h . . . ey(long) ETA e as in they 8
Q q . . . th THETA th as in theology 9
I i . . . i IOTA i’s as in indian 10
K k . . . k KAPPA k as in keen 20
L l . . . l LAMBDA l as in light 30
M m . . .m MU m as in music 40

N n . . . n NU n as in novel 50
X x . . . x XI x as in axe 60
O o . . . o (short) OMICRON o as in omelet 70
P p . . . p PI p as in pull 80
R r . . . r RHO r as in road 100
S s(V) .s SIGMA s as in sing 200
T t . . . t TAU t as in tiger 300
U u . . . u UPSILON u as in “hoop” 400
F f . . . f (ph) PHI f as in foot 500
C c . . . ch CHI ch as in loch 600
Y y . . ps PSI ps as in lips 700

W w . . o (long)OMEGA o as in note 800

(V is used if it is the last letter of a word; s is used all other times in the word)

(The number 6 is represented by the obsolete letter digamma, the number 90 is represented by the obsolete letter koppa and the number 900 is represented by the obsolete letter san.)

Writing the Letters

Make copies of this page so you can trace the following letters and practice writing the Greek letters.

Fill in the Greek Letter
Write the Greek minuscule or small letter on the blank

________ . . . a ALPHA
________ . . . b BETA

________ . . . g GAMMA
________ . . . d DELTA
________ . . . e EPSILON
________ . . . z or dz ZETA

________ . . . ey ETA
________ . . . th THETA
________ . . . i IOTA
________ . . . k KAPPA
________ . . . l LAMBDA
________ . . .m MU

________ . . . n NU
________ . . . x XI
________. . . o OMICRON
________. . . p PI
________ . . . r RHO
________. . . s SIGMA
________ . . . t TAU
________. . . u UPSILON
________ . . . f (ph) PHI
________. . . ch CHI
________ . . . ps PSI

________ . . . o OMEGA

Practicing Recognizing and Pronouncing the Greek Alphabet go back to top

1. Say the Greek alphabet in this correct order:

a b g d e z h q i k l m n x o p r s (V) t u f c y w

2. Say these ten Greek letters that are similar to our English letters:

a b d e i k o V t u

3. Say these fifteen Greek letters that are less familiar:

g z h q l m n x p r s f c y w

4. Say these seven Greek vowels:

a e h i o u w

5. Say these Greek consonants

b h d z q k l m n x p r s V t f c y

6. Say these Greek letters that are written in reverse order of the Greek alphabet:

w y c f u t (V) s r p o x n m l k i q h z e d g b a

7. Say this first line of random Greek letters:

m t e q p b o k a w d l i V z x c f y s g h n r u

8. Say this second line of random Greek letters:

r k e t k o p d q a f u V c b g w y i z h l x s m

9. Make flash cards with the Greek letter on one side and the corresponding English letter on the back.

Vowels, Diphthongs, Breathing Marks in Greek

These vowels are always short: e o

These vowels are always long: h w

These vowels must be observed to determine if they are long or short: a i u

Diphthongs are two vowels that are combined to make one sound. These are the Greek diphthongs:

ai = ai as in aisle

au = au as in kraut

ei = ei as in height

oi = oi as in boil

eu = eu as in feud

ui = as in the sound in wee

ou = as in soup

Every Greek word that begins with a vowel has one of two breathing marks. The first is the smooth breathing mark that looks like this ’ and appears before the word like this ’ek . The word ’ek is pronounced just like it is written as “ek”. The second is the rough breathing mark that looks like this ‘ and appears before the word like this ‘ektoV. The word with this rough breathing mark before the vowel is pronounced with an “h” sound before the vowel is pronounced. The word ‘ektoV is pronouned “hektos”.

Pronounce these words or dipthongs:

’en . . . . . . . . . . . (“en”)

‘en . . . . . . . . . . . (“hen”)

‘ou . . . . . . . . . . ._________

’ou . . . . . . . . . . ._________

’oikou . . . . . . . . _________

‘oikoV . . . . . . . . _________

Pronouncing Greek Letters

Below are some English words written in Greek letters. Pronounce these words.

1. dig bhb kid lap
2. bklh men laq am
3. ill lamb gab bag
4. abba bed dad zeb
5. egg angel qh zid
6. ep larkin polis sit
7. stand nix los thm
8. lift fil ‘it ’up

Pronouncing Greek Words

Below are Greek words written in the Greek script. Pronounce these words

1. telioV polis kardia fobos

2. bhma cariV yuch didwmi

3. ’oikia ginomai ’autoV ’eimi

4. sabbaton ’egw ’anqropoV gar

5. ‘uios ’eipon ‘agioV pistiV

6. fwnh dunamai gunh logoV

7. ’oikia kurioV qeoV ‘amartia

Greek Vocabulary go back to top

1. Greek words used more than 500 times in the Greek New Testament:
• ’anqrwpos man
• ’apo from
• ’autoV himself, herself, itself, same
• gar for
• ginomai I become
• de but, and
• dia