Section 1
New Testament Greek, written in the common language circulating throughout the empire of Alexander the Great, was originally founded upon the Greek of Athens, so some knowledge of New Testament Greek is necessary.
The Greek noun has a grammatical gender – masculine, feminine, and neuter. The five cases indicate the relationship with other words in a sentence – nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and vocative. The number of the noun can be either singular or plural. The definite article and adjective must agree in gender, case, and number with the noun it modifies.
In an English sentence, there is a subject and object, corresponding to the nominative and accusative cases in Greek. The genitive denotes possession as indicated by the word of, such as of God or God’s. The dative is technically the indirect object. The vocative marks the one addressed, such as O Lord.
The preposition combines with a noun or pronoun to form a phrase, where the meaning of a preposition depends on the case used by the noun or pronoun. For example, the Greek preposition ὑπὸ with a noun in the accusative case means under, “You are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14). And where ὑπὸ with a noun in the genitive case means by, “For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:21).
The English sentence is subject–verb–direct object, the latter being in the accusative case. The verb to be does not take the accusative but the nominative, as shown in “God was the Word.” Notice when the mouse hovers over a Greek word in a Greek-English interlinear, a drop-down will occur.
There are no original manuscripts of the New Testament books, only copies. The link above is from the Textus Receptus published by ErasmusDesiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (1466-1536)
Dutch philosopher, scholar, and theologian. in 1516. Textual criticism by scholars since that time has endeavored to come as close as possible to the original texts by studying and dating the many existing documents. The earliest manuscripts are the most accurate, being closer to the original, the archetypal exemplar.
The Codex Sinaiticus, written in the middle of the fourth century, is the earliest complete copy of the New Testament. Shown below is John 1:1 as it appeared in that manuscript:
ΕΝΑΡΧΗΗΝΟΛΟΓΟΣ
ΚΑΙΟΛΟΓΟΣΗΝ
ΠΡΟΣΤΟΝΘΝΚΑΙ
ΘΣΗΝΟΛΟΓΟΣ
This style of writing is known as scriptio continua, which did not use spaces between words, lowercase letters, punctuation, and diacritical marksDiacritical Marks: acute (´) • grave (`) •
circumflex (῀) • apostrophe (᾽) • diaeresis with
circumflex (῁) • coronis (῾). This was a common way of writing in ancient Greek. In the example above, different colors separate the words. The copyist of this document used a method known as nomina sacra to abbreviate frequent keywords such as God from ΘΕΟΣ to ΘΣ with an overline. This was a way to conserve space since the writing material was expensive. Most manuscript punctuation of the second and third centuries used full-stop (.) and semi-colon (˙), whereas the comma (,) and question mark (;) were developed later.
The literal translation is the preferred method of translation which is a word-for-word rendering of Greek and Hebrew. The New American Standard Bible (NASB) is perhaps the best English translation, and unless otherwise noted, this translationThe NASB 1995 translation. will be used for all scriptural quotations.
A brief study of the neuter gender in Greek is necessary, beginning with the definite article in the table below, usually translated as the. Highlighted in red are the neuter definite articles.
Often in Greek, a neuter definite article without an accompanying noun is translated as a thing or the things. The definite article may also modify the meaning of a participle in such phrases as of things having been spoken (τῶν λαληθέντων)) in Luke 2:18 and things having been written (τὰ γεγραμμένα) Revelation 1:3).
In the table below the Greek words in the neuter gender add the word thing or things:
Young Jesus
Let us consider what Jesus said as a youth. When Jesus was twelve, he traveled to Jerusalem with his parents to observe the Passover. As his parents were returning home after the feast, they found Jesus was not among those traveling. Returning to Jerusalem and searching for him, they found him in the temple listening to the teachers and asking them questions. His mother said to Him, “Son (Child), why have You treated us this way” (Luke 2:48)? His reply, as it appears in Greek, is shown below:
The above verse in the NASB appears as, “Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house,” and in the KJV appears as, “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?”
The Greek word τοῖς can be either masculine plural or neuter plural. If masculine plural, it refers to a noun understood in the text. The word temple (ἱερόν) is neuter but singular in the text. Some translators thought τοῖς referred to the temple in Luke 2:46.
Loosely translated, young Jesus said, “In the … of my Father it is necessary me to be.” It makes sense that Jesus was active in the things or affairs of his Father. Often, the neuter used in this way translates as the things.
Looking Further
Having shown the Greek neuter is often translated as a thing or the things, consider the pivotal verse found in John chapter 10:
22 At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem;
23 it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon.
24 The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in
24 suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s
25 name, these testify of Me.
26 But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep.
27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;
28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of
28 My hand.
29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out
29 of the Father’s hand.
30 I and the Father are one.”
31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him.
Of primary importance is verse 30, which lays the foundation for the divinity of Jesus. The Greek-English interlinear translation below shows the actual Greek words:
Translators render the above Greek word ἕν as “one.” Since translators do not like to refer to God as a thing, they may add a comment in the margin of the Bible, speaking of unity or one essence.
Summary
With the Greek neuter illustrated and the divinity of Christ ready for discussion, the relationship of the Father and Son is the subject of the Division webpage.
