Using the tools, and what next

Reading on your own

You have reached the last lesson of the course. You began with twelve letters; you can now read John 1:1–5, John 3:16–17 and the Lord's Prayer in Greek. This lesson does not teach a new rule of grammar. Instead it gives you one routine for any verse, shows five labels the course has not yet used, and suggests what to do next.

Six steps for reading a verse

First, open the verse and open the 원어 panel. Second, tap each unfamiliar word: you will see its form, its transliteration, its gloss and its G number. Third, read the grammar labels in their fixed order: for nouns case, number and gender; for verbs tense, voice, mood, person and number. Fourth, if a label is unfamiliar, tap Learn this grammar to go to the lesson that explains it. Fifth, look at the lexicon form and the count: a word used hundreds of times is worth learning, and a rare one can be left. Sixth, set the 개역한글 and the BSB side by side and see how each translated the Greek. A TR or NA badge on a word means that it is found in only one Greek edition.

Let us practise on John 1:29.

Word 3, βλέπει ("BLEH-pay"), is a present indicative, 3rd person singular: "he sees". Word 8, ἐρχόμενον ("er-KHOM-en-on"), is a participle, "coming", describing the accusative Ἰησοῦν. Words 4 and 5 (ὁ Ἰωάννης) carry the TR badge. Word 13, ἴδε ("EE-deh"), is an interjection, "behold", one of the new labels below, and ἀμνὸς ("am-NOS"), "lamb", is the nominative that follows it. Word 19, αἴρων ("AI-rone"), is a present participle with its article, "the one who takes away", and ἁμαρτίαν ("ham-ar-TEE-an") is its accusative object, "sin". Reading label after label, a whole verse opens. The two translations differ in a way worth noticing: the 개역한글 reads αἴρων as "지고 가는", "carrying (away)", the BSB as "takes away". The lexicon form αἴρω covers lifting, carrying and taking away, so both renderings sit within the word's range. Checking the lexicon form, the fifth step, is just what you do when translations part.

Five labels you have not met

You will see five more labels in the panel. Each is easy once it has a name.

τίς ("tis"), with its accent, asks "who?" or "what?" and occurs about 560 times. In John 1:19 the priests ask σὺ τίς εἶ, "Who are you?" The usually unaccented τις ("tis") is the indefinite "someone", about 530 times, as in John 3:3, ἐὰν μή τις γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν, "unless someone is born from above". They look alike, but the accent and the sentence tell them apart.

πόθεν ("POTH-en") asks "from where?"; the panel labels it "Adverb · Interrogative". At Cana the master of the feast did not know πόθεν ἐστίν, where the wine was from. Interjections call for attention. ἴδε and ἰδοὺ ("id-OO") both mean "behold"; ἰδού occurs about 200 times. ἴδε is in origin the imperative of "see", so in other verses the panel labels it an imperative, as in John 1:46, where Philip says ἔρχου καὶ ἴδε, "come and see". Last, μείζων ("MEYE-zone") is the comparative of μέγας, "great": "greater". The Samaritan woman asks Jesus whether He is greater than our father Jacob. Also keep the adverb νῦν ("noon") in mind: "now", about 150 times, as in 1 John 3:2, "we are now children of God".

What next

This course can give you the start of reading. A few suggestions follow.

First, keep reading. John and 1 John have simple vocabulary and a great deal of repetition, which makes them the best practice there is. Second, keep up your vocabulary drill; the 200 or so most common words make up about three quarters of the words in the New Testament, so knowing them makes more of every verse familiar. Third, keep comparing translations. The places where Bibles disagree are the places where you learn the most.

A full grammar course goes further. It teaches you to write Greek, to memorise paradigms, to analyse whole sentences, and to compare manuscripts in textual criticism. Those are rewarding, but you do not need them to benefit from what you have learned here. A reader who can open the panel, read the labels and weigh two translations already has many doors open.

Words in this lesson

• τίςtiswhich?557 times in the NT
• τιςtisone530 times in the NT
• ἰδούidoulook!200 times in the NT
• νῦνnunnow146 times in the NT

Practice