The verb εἰμί, 'to be'

The subject hidden inside the verb

The priests and Levites come to John the Baptist and ask, "Who are you?" John 1:19 In Greek that is three words: σὺ "you", τίς "who", and εἶ "are".

The little word σὺ could be left out and the question would still work, because the shape εἶ already says "you are". A Greek verb, a word for an action or a state, carries its subject in its ending. That "who" is called person and number.

There are three persons. First person is the speaker (I, we), second person is the one spoken to (you), and third person is everyone and everything else (he, she, it, they). Number is singular or plural. The app's 원어 panel prints both under every verb, for example "2nd, singular", and it uses the same labels on pronouns such as σύ and ἐγώ, which you met in the lesson on pronouns.

The six present forms of εἰμί

The first verb to learn is εἰμί, "to be" or "to exist". It is the most frequent verb in the New Testament vocabulary list, about 2,300 occurrences. It is irregular, so it does not look like the verbs you will meet next, but it is so common that the six forms are worth recognising.

Here they are in real verses. First person singular is εἰμι, which we are about to read. Second person singular is the εἶ we just saw. Third person singular is ἐστὶν, from the start of the same verse, literally "And this is the testimony of John" (the BSB has "this was"). In the plural, John writes that we are God's children with ἐσμεν 1 John 3:2. Jesus tells His disciples:

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.

Matthew 5:14

"You are" there is ἐστε, second person plural, because He is speaking to a group. And εἰσὶν, third person plural, appears in 1 John 2:19, where John says that none of them belong to us. The same verse has ἦσαν, "they were". Like ἦν, "was", in John 1:1, it is a past form of εἰμί, and we will look at it properly in the lesson on the imperfect. Do not try to memorise the table in one sitting; come back to it whenever a form turns up in a verse.

The "I am" sayings

εἰμί is at its most powerful in the "I am" sayings of John's Gospel. Look at the first.

On both sides of εἰμι stand words in the same case. ἐγώ, "I", and ἄρτος "bread" (about 100 times in the New Testament) are both nominative. A "to be" verb takes no object. It simply links two nominatives, so the sentence says "I = bread of life". You already know the little words around it from the lessons on the article and cases: ὁ is the article, and "of life" is the genitive.

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

John 14:6

Again the verb εἰμι is followed by three nominatives: ὁδὸς "road, way" (about 100 times), ἀλήθεια "truth" (about 110) and ζωή "life". Each has its own article, which makes the three claims distinct, and each is linked to "I" by the same verb.

Notice one more thing. εἰμι already contains "I", yet Jesus adds ἐγώ. When Greek writes the subject pronoun even though the verb ending already shows it, the effect is usually emphasis: "I, and no other." English cannot show that in a plain translation, but in the original you can see it.

Summary

A Greek verb's ending tells you the person (1st, 2nd, 3rd) and the number (singular, plural) of its subject. The present of εἰμί is εἰμί, εἶ, ἐστίν, ἐσμέν, ἐστέ, εἰσίν. A "to be" sentence joins two nominatives, and an added ἐγώ usually adds emphasis.

Words in this lesson

• εἰμίeimito be2,336 times in the NT
• ἄρτοςartosbread97 times in the NT
• ὁδόςhodosroad101 times in the NT
• ἀλήθειαalētheiatruth109 times in the NT

Practice