Greek I; Lesson 3

John 1:5

καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει

καὶ τὸ φῶς

φως is the subject of φαινει. What case is it?If it is the subject, then it must be nominative.

• What case is the article? If φως is nominative, then principle 7 dictates that its article must be the same. (principle 7)?

ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ

This is a prepositional phrase with σκοτια as OP.

1. What is the preposition?εν
2. What is the OP?σκοτια
3. Is this phrase adverbial or adjectival?It is adverbial answering the where? question.
4. Which word does it modify?φαινει

Note the final sigma. cf. λογος, προς, θεος, χωρις, φως but σoκτια

A iota subscript almost always means that the noun is dative singular.

φαίνει

φαινει comes from φαινω and means “to shine”. The ending indicates how it is to be translated:

• φαινω means “I shine”first person, singular
• φαινεις “you shine”second person, singular
• φαινει “he/she/it shines”third person, singular
• φαινομεν “we shine”first person, plural
• φαινετε “you shine”second person, plural
• φαινουσιν “they shine”third person, plural

You can see all these endings here or BBG 16.10.

καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.

Look at its article and think about principle 7. Why must σκοτια be nominative?Since the article is nominative, feminine, singular, σκοτια must be the same. How do you know σκοτια is the subject?Because nouns in the nominative case are always subjects. What is the gender, number, case of αυτο?It is neuter, singular, and in the accusative case.

ου is an adverb meaning “not”.

κατέλαβεν

Two things are noteworthy about κατέλαβεν:

First, κατέλαβεν is a compound verb; the preposition κατα and the verb λαβεν (BBG 22.6).

Second, κατέλαβεν is a second aorist. This means that this verb has a different stem in the aorist than it does in the present. The stem in the present is καταλαμβαν-; the stem in the aorist tense is κατελαβ-.

λαμβαν- the present tense stem
λαβ- the aorist tense stem
καταλαβ add the preposition to make a compound verb
κατελαβ- add the augment
κατελαβε add the connecting vowel
κατελαβεν this verb always appears with a movable nu

John 1:6

Ἐγένετο ἄνθρωπος ἀπεσταλμένος

Ἐγένετο ἄνθρωπος

“There was a man…”

απεσταλμενος

απεσταλμενος is a participle. You can see that this participle is a conglomeration of the preposition απο with the verb στελλω (cf. compound verb). To translate it, we need to find its tense, voice, gender, number, and case.

The first thing to look for when analyzing participles is the participle morpheme. Here the participle morpheme is -μενο which clearly marks this participle as middle/passive and either masculine or neuter. So we have the voice and gender.

Finding the tense of this participle is especially difficult, so we will not take the time to explain it now. It is a perfect tense participle; and since it is perfect, you will use some form of “has”, “have”, or “had” in your translation.

To find the number and case, you will analyze the case endings (just like you would any noun or adjective). See the chart in BBG 30.8.

So we have a perfect, middle/passive, nominative, masculine, singular participle.

Now it simply remains to determine which noun απεσταλμενος is modifying. Recall that participles are verbal adjectives which means they will modify some noun. They will agree with that noun in gender, number, and case (principle 7). Notice that ανθρωπος is also nominative, masculine, singular. Hence, we conclude that απεσταλμενος is modifying ανθρωπος.

παρὰ θεοῦ

This is a prepositional phrase. παρα is the preposition; θεου is the OP. Is it adverbial or adjectival?It is adverbial, answering the (from) where? question. Note that the case of the OP determines its meaning. παρα takes on different meanings depending on the case of its OP. παρα can take an object in the genitive, dative, or accusative cases (GGBB p. 378). What is the case of its OP here?The object of the preposition παρα is in the genitive case.

ὄνομα αὐτῷ Ἰωάννης·

This is an idiom literally, this is translated “name to him John”. The translator must add the verb “to be”; “name to him was John” or in better English, “…his name was John”. It is relatively common to see the dative used this way (GGBB p. 150).