Contract Verbs

A contract verb is one whose stem ends with the short vowels alpha (α), epsilon (ε), or omicron (ο)—for example, γεννάω (“I begat”), ποιέω (“I do”), and πληρόω (“I fulfill”). (Observe the short vowels in bold in these examples.) In this chapter, we will discuss the challenges of conjugating contract verbs. We will also learn the imperfect indicative paradigm of εἰμί.

In John 21:15–17, when Jesus reinstates Peter, the contract verbs ἀγαπάω (“love”) and φιλέω (“love”) are central to the conversation. Many sermons have been preached claiming that properly understanding this passage turns on the nuanced difference between these two verbs—with Jesus asking if Peter loves him with a pure, divine love (ἀγαπάω), while Peter can only affirm a “friend-type” love (φιλέω). According to this understanding of the flow of the passage, Jesus ends with a piercing, “Peter, do you even love me like a friend (φιλέω)?” Jesus’s conversation here certainly is piercing. (How would you like the Lord Jesus to ask you three times in succession, “Do you love me?”—especially after you denied him three times?). But the assertion that the verb φιλέω means here “just a friend-type love” is likely wrong. We should probably see no difference in meaning here between ἀγαπάω and φιλέω. Modern English translations are correct to translate both words as “love.” What are some arguments in favor of this view?

• In John 21:17, Peter was grieved because Jesus asked him “the third time” (note the explicit wording) as to whether he loved him. It is Jesus’s repetition of the question, which implies some doubt about Peter’s previous responses, that grieved the apostle.

• All writers and speakers have certain stylistic tendencies. The apostle John, for example, loves using nearly synonymous words with no intended different nuances of meaning. (See John 6:53–59, where John uses both the verbs ἐσθίω and τρώγω for eating.) In fact, John uses both verbs ἀγαπάω and φιλέω for the Father’s love of the Son (e.g., John 3:35; 5:20). John’s idiolect (i.e., his personal stylistic patterns) argues against seeing any intended semantic difference between the two verbs for “love” in John 21:15–17.

• During the Koine Greek period, the word φιλέω was used to mean both “love” (John 21:17) and “kiss” (Mark 14:44). It’s understandable how a word with this range of meaning could cause confusion. Does this potential confusion perhaps explain early Christians’ statistically-verifiable preference for the verb ἀγαπάω?

• It is sometimes wrongly asserted that ἀγαπάω can only refer to divine, self-giving love. God’s love certainly is unique and self-giving, but we know that truth from the many descriptions of God’s love in Scripture—not from the inherent semantic range (that is, the range of possible meanings) of the word ἀγαπάω. In the ancient Greek translation (LXX, or Septuagint) of 2 Sam 13:15, for example, the verb ἀγαπάω is used to describe Amnon’s incestuous lust for his half-sister, Tamar.

So, why do we have a separate chapter for verbs whose stems end with an alpha (α), epsilon (ε), or omicron (ο)? And why are they called contract verbs? In English, when we speak about a “contraction,” we expect letters to drop out or combine. For example, “Don’t” is a contraction of “Do not.” In Greek, contract verbs will frequently have letters drop out or combine when the various personal endings are added to the stem. There is a visible contraction that takes place between the verb stem and these personal endings—resulting in students’ difficulties in recognizing the combined forms. Thus, we need a chapter to talk about these tweaks to contract verbs’ spellings.

Please note: we are not introducing new tenses or endings in this chapter! We are only discussing how the endings you have already learned for the present and imperfect tenses will “crash” into the stem vowels of contract verbs and cause changes in spelling. Contract verbs are mainly affected in the present and imperfect tenses because other tenses (which we have not covered yet) have a consonant inserted before verbs’ personal endings, preventing a “crash” or contraction of the verb stem and personal ending. To say it differently: for the future, aorist, and perfect tenses (covered in future chapters), the inserted consonant acts as a buffer which prevents the vowel at the end of the verb stem and the connecting vowel from colliding (καλεσ + εις → καλέσεις, future: “you will call”).

What does a contract verb conjugation actually look like? Below is the present active indicative paradigm for ποιέω (“I do”):

You may have noticed several things. For starters, you likely could have guessed the parsings of these forms. In fact, four of the six contracted endings appear the same as the present active indicative endings of λύω, except for accents. Only the first person plural form (ποιοῦμεν) and second person plural form (ποιεῖτε) have endings that differ from the λύω paradigm; even then, the differences are slight. Note how a circumflex stands over each place where the vowels have contracted. This accentuation pattern (accents standing over combined vowels) is consistent for present tense verbs, but it does not hold true for the imperfect tense. Also, observe how the lexical form (ποιέω) is different from the actual form as it will appear conjugated in a written text (ποιῶ).

How do we arrive at the lexical form? It is as if we pried apart the contracted form and stuck a piece of glass between the vowels to keep them from combining. We then place that artificial form on the page of a lexicon for safe keeping. You will never actually see the form ποιέω in any Greek text. Nevertheless, by memorizing the word in this artificial un-contracted form, you will be reminded that it belongs to a special class of verbs (“Oh, yeah, this is one of those contract verbs!”). You also will be able to predict or recognize the various combined (“contracted”) forms, if you know the artificial (lexical) forms well.

Truth be told, starting with ποιέω is a bit misleading because of the various contract verb paradigms; it has the least changes from the λύω paradigm. Sometimes contract forms can be challenging to parse.

At this point, we recommend that you focus mainly on recognizing (rather than memorizing) the contract verb paradigms. Perhaps create flash cards of the various possible forms from the charts below and see if you can recognize them when you encounter them in random order.

There are various methods that introductory Greek grammars have used to teach students all the ways contract vowels can combine with personal endings. One such method is to list all possible vowel combinations under the alpha, epsilon, and omicron headings.

Another way of conveying this same information is through a chart that summarizes all possible vowel combinations, such as this:

Perhaps the most student-accessible method condenses this tempestuous sea of combinations into a summary list. Bill Mounce, in his Basics of Biblical Greek, wins the pedagogy prize for giving us an accessible summary of seven possible combinations. We gratefully acknowledge these rules as coming directly from him. Note below how the seven guidelines are further divided into five rules for a contract vowel combining with a singular vowel at the beginning of a verb’s personal ending and two rules for a contract vowel combining with a diphthong at the beginning of a verb’s personal ending.

Contract Vowel + Singular Vowel at Beginning of Verb’s Personal Ending (5 rules)

1. ε + ο, ο + ε, ο + ο = ου

2. ε + ε = ει

3. ω is formed from almost any vowel combined with ο or ω, except for cases covered by the first bullet point above.

4. α + ε = α

5. ο + ει = οι

Contract Vowel + Diphthong at Beginning of Verb’s Personal Ending (2 rules)

1. If the contract vowel and the first vowel of the diphthong are the same, they simplify (i.e., one of the double letters drops out).

ε + ει = ει

ο + ου = ου

2. If the contract vowel and the first vowel of the diphthong are different, they contract. If the second vowel of the diphthong is an iota, it subscripts if possible; if it is an upsilon, it drops off.

ε + ου = ου

α + ει = ᾳ

Below is a summary of both present and imperfect contract verb forms. We recommend you go through each chart, using Mounce’s seven rules, and see how every verb contraction is explained by the rules. A video for this chapter applies this very method.

The imperfect form of εἰμί must be mastered (i.e., memorized) since it occurs almost 450 times in the New Testament.

Thelise forms all begin with an eta (η) since the epsilon of εἰμί lengthens to an eta when augmented. The first person singular form (ἤμην) is closer to the middle/passive form (cf. ἐλυόμην). The third person plural form (ἦσαν) uses an alternate form that is closer to one you will learn later (the aorist active tense-form: ἔλυσαν). The third singular form (ἦν) represents about half of the occurrences (226×). Finally, there are rare alternate forms for the second person singular (ἦσθα, 2×) and first person plural (ἤμεθα, 5×) forms.

Although the direct object is typically found in the accusative case, some verbs can take their direct objects in the genitive or dative case. When this occurs, “of” (gen case) or “to/for” (dat case) is not added. Verbs that have direct objects in the genitive case include: ἀκούω, ἄρχω (chapter 10), κρατέω (chapter 17), and πληρόω. For example, ἀκούουσιν τῆς φωνῆς (“they hear the voice”) or ἐπληροῦντο χαρᾶς (“they were filled with joy”). Verbs that have direct objects in the dative case include: ἀκολουθέω, ἀποκρίνομαι, πιστεύω, and προσκυνέω (chapter 10), For example, ἀκολουθοῦσιν αὐτῷ (“they are following him”) or οὐ πιστεύετέ μοι (“you do not believe me”).

A. Paradigms: Memorize the imperfect paradigm of εἰμί (see section 7.5). Then write out the paradigm ten times from memory.

B. Parsing: Parse the following verbs.

1. γεννῶσιν

2. ἦμεν

3. ἠρώτων

4. ἠκολούθουν

5. ἐζήτει

6. φοβούμεθα

7. ἐμαρτυρεῖτο

8. παρακαλοῦμεν

9. ἐποιοῦντο

10. φοβῇ

C. Translation: Translate the following sentences.

1. τὰ ἔργα τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ ἐποιεῖτε (John 8:39).

2. ἐφοβοῦντο γὰρ τὸν λαόν (people) (Luke 22:2).

3. καὶ περιεπάτει ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐν (in) τῷ ἱερῷ (John 10:23).

4. γινώσκομεν ὅτι ἀγαπῶμεν τὰ τέκνα τοῦ θεοῦ (1 John 5:2).

5. αἰτεῖτε καὶ οὐ λαμβάνετε (Jas 4:3).

6. ἀλλὰ λαλοῦμεν θεοῦ σοφίαν (wisdom) (1 Cor 2:7).

7. ἦτε δοῦλοι τῆς ἁμαρτίας (Rom 6:17).

8. ἀδελφοί, ἐρωτῶμεν ὑμᾶς (you, pl) καὶ παρακαλοῦμεν ἐν (in) κυρίῳ Ἰησοῦ (1 Thess 4:1).

9. ᾐτοῦντο εἰρήνην (peace) (Acts 12:20).

10. καὶ ἀκολουθοῦσιν αὐτῷ (him) οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ (his) (Mark 6:1).

11. καὶ ζητοῦσιν τὴν ψυχήν μου (my) (Rom 11:3).

12. ἡ πέτρα (rock) δὲ ἦν ὁ Χριστός (1 Cor 10:4).

13. οἵ τε μαθηταὶ ἐπληροῦντο χαρᾶς (joy) (Acts 13:52).

14. Τί (Why) δέ με (me) καλεῖτε, Κύριε, κύριε καὶ οὐ ποιεῖτε ἃ (what) λέγω; (Luke 6:46).

D. Translation: Translate the following sentences into Greek.

1. You (pl) were calling the sons of men.

2. Do you (sg) seek the Lord?

3. They were speaking the words of truth.

4. The slave loves the church.

5. The prophet is walking to the disciples.

Note: Some Greek prepositions have different meanings depending on the case of the objects that follow them. So, for example, see below how κατά means “down” or “against” when followed by a genitive object, but the preposition is best translated as “according to” when followed by an accusative object. The accompanying video of the vocabulary will help explain this concept.