The Greek Alphabet

In this opening chapter, we will introduce you to the Greek alphabet as well as how to pronounce the various letters and letter combinations. We will also explain breathing marks, accent marks, and punctuation marks. Are such terms completely new to you? Don’t worry. We are here to guide you. Your joyful journey into reading the Greek New Testament is about to begin!

In this chapter, you will learn the letters of the Greek alphabet. Did you know that a single Greek letter can make a difference in interpretation? The Greek text of James 2:14 looks like this:

Τί τὸ ὄφελος, ἀδελφοί μου, ἐὰν πίστιν λέγῃ τις ἔχειν, ἔργα δὲ μὴ ἔχῃ; μὴ δύναται ἡ πίστις σῶσαι αὐτόν;

An English translation (ESV) reads this way:

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

The bold Greek letter toward the end of the verse is an eta (ἡ). It looks much like the English letter “n.” This one-letter word is the Greek article (similar to “the” in English), but it also has other functions. One function is called “the article of previous reference.” That is, in some contexts, it can serve to mark a previous reference to the same noun (which usually appears the first time without an article). Note above how the first (underlined) instance of faith (πίστιν) does not have an eta in front of it, but the second (also underlined) appearance of the word (πίστις) does. This use of eta allows the writer to say, in effect, “the kind of faith I just mentioned above.” Observe the apt translation of the ESV above (“that faith”). Of course, interpretations based on Greek grammatical observations should always be further supported by the surrounding context, as this interpretation is. Not to translate the noun “faith” with an explicit marker for previous reference in English (e.g., “such” or “that”) actually introduces significant theological distortion. Note how the Douay-Rheims version (DRA) introduces this error:

What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but hath not works? Shall faith be able to save him?

This translation wrongly gives the impression that faith cannot save. James actually says that a false faith characterized by an empty verbal profession (“that faith”) is unable to save. One Greek letter can make a significant difference in interpretation.

Since you are using a textbook written in English, it’s possible you have never thought about other languages in the world, such as Chinese, that use tiny pictures (or ideographs) to convey meaning. To be competent in reading such a language one must learn thousands of characters. English and Greek, on the other hand, employ a limited number of symbols (26 and 24, respectively) to create a phonetic approximation of spoken speech. The famous biblical archaeologist W. F. Albright (1891–1971) once quipped about the Hebrew alphabet: “Since the forms of the letters are very simple, the 22-letter alphabet could be learned in a day or two by a bright student and in a week or two by the dullest.” We take alphabets for granted, but their introduction was revolutionary—akin to the introduction of the smartphone in more recent history.

Scholars debate the best way to pronounce Koine Greek, which is Greek used from roughly 300 BC to AD 330 and the language in which the New Testament was penned. We follow a pronunciation system ultimately derived from Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536). This system is used by most Greek professors and has the benefit of clearly differentiating the various vowel sounds. In contrast, modern Greek is pronounced such that eta (η), iota (ι), and upsilon (υ) all have the same sound.

Some scholars advocate pronouncing Koine Greek the same way as modern Greek because we don’t know precisely how Koine Greek was pronounced. Others argue for a “reconstructed Koine” pronunciation based on a study of spelling mistakes made by ancient scribes. There are benefits and limitations to any pronunciation scheme. Therefore, we suggest that you use the pronunciation system employed by your instructor.

Note that sigma has two forms. The first form (σ) is used at the beginning (σύν) and middle (πίστιν) of a word. The final sigma (ς) is used if it is the last letter of a word (λόγος).

The Greek alphabet has 24 letters. Perhaps you will find it easier to learn them in six groups of four:

One of the most effective ways to learn a new language’s alphabet is with a song. Use the web links in this book to access additional audio and video resources, including a version of the Greek alphabet song.

Five Greek letters are considered double consonants since they require the use of two letters when transliterated: θ (th), ξ (xs), φ (ph), χ (ch), and ψ (ps). Transliteration means writing one language phonetically (that is, writing out its sounds) with another language’s letters or characters.

The letter gamma (γ), by itself, is always pronounced with a hard g (as in “goat” but never like “giraffe”). When placed before certain other consonants (γ, κ, ξ, χ), it is pronounced with an “n” sound. For example, ἄγγελος is pronounced an-ge-los (not ag-ge-los).

Pay attention, since some letters are easy to confuse with others:

Moreover, you will soon notice that Greek fonts differ slightly from each other. The difference seems huge to some beginning students, but in a short time, you will barely notice the slight variations—just as you likely don’t consciously think about the differences between the Times New Roman and Courier fonts. Even if you are one of those aesthetically sensitive people who does notice the differences in English fonts, you’re neither confused nor troubled by them.

Take care because some Greek letters closely resemble letters in the English alphabet.

In using the terms “short vowel” and “long vowel,” linguists are classifying sounds based on how long it originally took to say them, relative to other vowels in the same language. This time difference is not something you will be able to distinguish by listening to Greek and is somewhat hypothetical based on where and how the vowels are articulated in the mouth. These labels of “short” and “long,” however, will become important later. For now, learn this: there are seven vowels in Greek: α, ε, η, ι, ο, υ, and ω. Some of these vowels are considered short (α, ε, ι, ο, υ) and others are considered long (α, η, ι, υ, ω). Note that the vowels α, ι, and υ can be either long or short. Later, you will learn that vowels can sometimes lengthen (shift from short to long) when changes are made to a word. Here is a chart demonstrating how short vowels lengthen:

When the letter iota (ι) follows the long vowels α, η, and ω, it is frequently written underneath that vowel and is not pronounced. This is called an iota subscript: καρδίᾳ, ἀγάπῃ, λόγῳ. You will not have to decide whether to subscript the iota. It will just be part of the spelling of the word or form you are memorizing or reading.

A diphthong (from the Greek word διφθόγγος, meaning “having two sounds”) is two vowels together that are pronounced as one sound.

When two vowels are together yet not a diphthong, a diaeresis mark (i.e., two raised dots above the vowel: ϊ, ϋ) is frequently placed above the second vowel to signal that the two vowels are pronounced separately (cf. the English word naïve). This mark is most commonly found on proper nouns (names and places—especially those imported from Hebrew or Aramaic) and usually occurs above an iota (e.g., Κάϊν = Kah-een, “Cain”; Μωϋσῆς = Mō-oo-seys, “Moses”; Ἑβραϊστί = Heh-bra-ee-stee, “in Hebrew/Aramaic”). Other vowel combinations don’t form diphthongs and are also pronounced separately (e.g., ηυ = ay-oo; ιε = ee-eh, and ιη = ee-ay). Because this last vowel combination (ιη) is used to mirror the Hebrew/Aramaic yod sound, the vowels are typically pronounced together (“yea”). Thus, the name for “Jesus” is Ἰησοῦς and is pronounced “yea-soos.”

Every Greek word that begins with a vowel (including a diphthong) is given a breathing mark. Writing a breathing mark is analogous to dotting the lowercase letter “i” in English. Most of the time, it does not even effect pronunciation; the accepted conventions of writing the language just require it. There are two types of breathing marks: smooth and rough. With a smooth breathing mark (̓), the most common type, there is no change in pronunciation. With a rough breathing mark (̔), an “h” sound is added to the beginning of the word. If a word begins with a single uppercase (capital) vowel, the breathing mark is written to the left of that letter, at the top of the line (e.g., Ἀβαδδών, “Abaddon” or Ἡρῴδης, “Herod”). Also, if a word begins with a diphthong, the breathing mark appears over the second letter (αἷμα, “blood” or Αἴγυπτος, “Egypt”). An initial upsilon (υ) always has a rough breathing mark. The only consonant to receive a (rough) breathing mark is rho (ῥ). The “h” sound does not affect the pronunciation of rho but is evidenced in English words derived from Greek (e.g., rhetoric → ῥητορική). If you have a Greek lexicon, flip to the list of words that begin with rho and note how few there are. Observe too how all the words that begin with rho have a rough breathing mark. In ancient Greek, the rough breathing mark over the rho was apparently a cue to the reader to trill the “r sound.”

Most words in a modern Greek New Testament will have accent marks. According to tradition, it was the head of the library in Alexandria, Aristophanes of Byzantium (c. 257–180 BC), who first developed a system of accentuation to help non-native speakers pronounce Greek. In the second and third centuries BC, Greek was still a tonal language, with accents guiding speakers on rising and falling pitches. By the first century AD, the time of the composition of the New Testament, Greek likely had lost its tonality; thus, we should understand the accents as communicating stress or emphasis to the reader/speaker. That is, a reader should say the accented syllable a bit louder or longer, stressing or emphasizing it. For example, as we saw above, the word for “sin” is ἁμαρτία, pronounced “hah-mar-teé-ah.” The accent mark signifies that the emphasis is given to the third syllable (“teé”). The presence and behavior of accents on words can also help readers know whether a vowel is long or short, which reveals the proper pronunciation. Accents are not found widely in Greek manuscripts until the fifth century AD and are lacking from the oldest manuscripts of the Greek New Testament.

Modern editions of the Greek New Testament have three different accent marks:

Accent marks can only be placed on a word’s last three syllables. The names of these syllables are the (1) antepenult (before next-to-last syllable), (2) penult (next-to-last syllable), and (3) ultima (last syllable).

We will not spend much time on accent marks except when it is significant, especially in distinguishing words (e.g., τίς [“who”] versus τις [“anyone”] or εἰ [“if”] versus εἶ [“you are”]). For now, we simply provide the following guidelines: (1) the acute can be placed on any of the last three syllables; (2) the circumflex can be placed on the last two syllables; and (3) the grave can be placed only on the last syllable. Finally, if the ultima is long (that is, if it contains a long vowel or diphthong with a long value), the accent cannot be placed on the antepenult (ἄνθρωπος → ἀνθρώπων). Also, if the ultima is long, any accent on the penult will be an acute rather than a circumflex (δοῦλος, but δούλου). In addition, the circumflex can only occur over a long syllable (that is, one that contains a long vowel or a diphthong with a long value). Unless your instructor tells you otherwise, we recommend that your main focus on accents at this point would be to let them guide you in stressing the correct syllables when you read Greek aloud.

Punctuation marks are rarely found in Greek manuscripts written before the eighth century. In the earliest extant (that is, still existing) New Testament manuscripts, the script consists of all capital letters (majuscule script) that lacks spacing between words and that has only rare, erratic punctuation. Over time, copies of the New Testament came to be written with lowercase letters (miniscule script) and spacing between words. Eventually, other editorial elements were added which today include paragraphs, indentations, and breaks between clauses and sentences. Below is an example of John 1:1 in a format likely similar (though neater!) to how the apostle John originally penned it. This majuscule text is followed by the same words as they appear in most modern editions of the Greek New Testament:

ΕΝΑΡΧΗΗΝΟΛΟΓΟΣΚΑΙΟΛΟΓΟΣΗΝΠΡΟΣΤΟΝΘΕΟΝΚΑΙΘΕΟΣ ΗΝΟΛΟΓΟΣ

Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Modern Greek editions of the New Testament do not capitalize the first word of each sentence. Capitalization usually occurs (1) in the title of New Testament books (with every letter capitalized), and in the first letter of (2) proper names, (3) direct quotations, and (4) words that begin a new paragraph. Here are the punctuation marks commonly used in most modern editions of the Greek New Testament:

A. Alphabet: Memorize the Greek alphabet (see section 1.3). The easiest way to do this is to learn to sing it (e.g., to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”). You’ll know you have it when you can write out the lowercase script of the alphabet in the correct order and form ten times from memory.

α β γ δ—ε ζ η θ—ι κ λ μ—ν ξ ο π—ρ σ/ς τ υ—φ χ ψ ω

B. Vowels: Circle the words in Eph 1:3–6 that have a diphthong:

Εὐλογητὸς ὁ θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ὁ εὐλογήσας ἡμᾶς ἐν πάσῃ εὐλογίᾳ πνευματικῇ ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις ἐν Χριστῷ, καθὼς ἐξελέξατο ἡμᾶς ἐν αὐτῷ πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου εἶναι ἡμᾶς ἁγίους καὶ ἀμώμους κατενώπιον αὐτοῦ ἐν ἀγάπῃ, προορίσας ἡμᾶς εἰς υἱοθεσίαν διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ εἰς αὐτόν, κατὰ τὴν εὐδοκίαν τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ, εἰς ἔπαινον δόξης τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ ἧς ἐχαρίτωσεν ἡμᾶς ἐν τῷ ἠγαπημένῳ.

C. Accents: Identify the accent marks (A = acute; G = grave; C = circumflex) and the breathing marks (S = smooth; R = rough), if any, in the following words:

D. Reading: Read aloud John 3:16–18, paying close attention to accent and breathing marks. (Although you may not yet understand what the words mean, learning to read Greek out loud is vital. It is very difficult to learn, understand, or translate words that you cannot pronounce.)

Οὕτως γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον, ὥστε τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν, ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν μὴ ἀπόληται ἀλλ᾽ ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον. οὐ γὰρ ἀπέστειλεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν υἱὸν εἰς τὸν κόσμον ἵνα κρίνῃ τὸν κόσμον, ἀλλ᾽ ἵνα σωθῇ ὁ κόσμος δι᾽ αὐτοῦ. ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν οὐ κρίνεται· ὁ δὲ μὴ πιστεύων ἤδη κέκριται, ὅτι μὴ πεπίστευκεν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ μονογενοῦς υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ.

In this text, some new vocabulary terms will be presented at the end of a chapter in preparation for the next chapter’s teaching. We believe familiarity with new words will aid in assimilating the new grammatical discussion.

The words are listed alphabetically and are often grouped together. For instance, nouns in this lesson are all “first declension nouns”; they are further subdivided into nouns ending in eta (η) and nouns ending in alpha (α). A declension is a grammatical term for a pattern. Greek nouns follow certain patterns, as discussed in the next chapter. For now, you just need to know that all the nouns below are “first declension” or “pattern 1” nouns.

Also, you will notice that the article (ἡ) follows the noun, indicating the gender of the noun—something we will discuss in more detail in the next chapter. ἡ is the feminine article, so all the nouns below are feminine. In English, we have an indefinite article “a” and definite article “the.” Greek only has one article, but it is used similarly to our definite article and is frequently translated “the.” Note that below the list of nouns are two conjunctions. Conjunctions are small words (e.g., “and,” “but,” “also”) that speakers and writers use to stitch together larger groups of words (clauses).

The vocabulary words listed appear in their lexical forms (i.e., the dictionary forms which are the nominative singular form for nouns). Another term for a dictionary is a lexicon. Below, each Greek term is given at least one English gloss (i.e., a brief English equivalent of the Greek term). Be mindful that an English definition given is merely one of many possible renderings. The more Greek you learn, the more your knowledge of individual vocabulary words will be nuanced.

One of the most helpful ways to learn new Greek vocabulary words is to note English cognates, that is, English words that can ultimately be traced to a Greek ancestor form. English cognates will be given in parentheses and italicized alongside English definitions. If a Greek word does not list any English cognates, or the cognates are not familiar to you, you are advised to create your own memory device.

For example, the word ἁμαρτία means “sin.” Those who know the term hamartiology from systematic theology should have no trouble remembering the meaning of ἁμαρτία. Most beginning Greek students, however, do not know such a rare, specialized word. So, you may need to make your own memory device based on associations and visual images related to the sound of the vocabulary word. When pronounced, the word ἁμαρτία sounds sort of like “hammer tea-a,” so you can imagine sinning against your mother by smashing her favorite tea cup with a hammer. In fact, the more memorable, shocking, and visual an association can be, the better. So, involve all your senses. You can even act out walking to a table, closing your eyes, raising your arm, and seeing yourself smash the tea cup with a hammer. As you do, say ἁμαρτία. Then imagine your poor mother looking at you in amazement, pointing her trembling, outstretched finger at you and yelling, “Sin!” After all, the most effective memory devices are the ones you create!

For further help in creative methods to learn Greek, we recommend another book we penned: Greek for Life: Strategies for Learning, Retaining, and Reviving New Testament Greek (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2017). We also suggest this helpful free website that includes a section on learning foreign language vocabulary: www.mullenmemory.com.