Skip to content

Course 5 · Lesson 3.2

Nouns, cases and the definite article

11 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 5 outline

Module 1: What the Languages Are and What This Course Can Do

  1. The languages of the Bible: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek
  2. What an introduction can and cannot do: no fluency, and why
  3. Biblical Hebrew in brief: history, script and sound
  4. Koine Greek in brief: history, script and sound

Module 2: Hebrew Fundamentals

  1. The Hebrew alphabet, reading right to left, and the vowel points
  2. Roots, nouns, gender, number and the construct chain
  3. Hebrew verbs: perfect, imperfect and the seven stems in outline
  4. A core Hebrew vocabulary and how to learn it

Module 3: Greek Fundamentals

  1. The Greek alphabet, accents and breathing marks
  2. Nouns, cases and the definite article
  3. Greek verbs: tense, aspect, voice and mood in outline
  4. A core Greek vocabulary and how to learn it

Module 4: The Texts: Masoretic, Septuagint and New Testament Manuscripts

  1. The Masoretic Text and the codices that preserve it
  2. The Septuagint and where translators consult it
  3. Greek New Testament manuscripts and printed editions
  4. How variants are recorded in footnotes and critical editions

Module 5: How Translations Are Made

  1. Formal and dynamic equivalence, and the middle positions
  2. Who translates: committees, churches and traditions of translation
  3. Hard cases: idioms, word play, gender and untranslatable words
  4. Reading a translation’s preface to learn its principles

Module 6: Tools for the Reader

  1. Interlinear Bibles: what they show and what they hide
  2. Lexicons and concordances: how to read an entry
  3. How to do a word study, step by step
  4. Common word study errors and how to avoid them

Module 7: Evaluating Translation Differences

  1. Locating the Hebrew or Greek words behind a verse
  2. Types of translation differences: text, grammar, word meaning and style
  3. A worked example from the Old Testament
  4. A worked example from the New Testament
  5. Knowing your limits, and when to ask a specialist

All courses

Program / Course 5: Biblical Languages / Lesson 3.2

What you will learn

  • Name the five Greek cases and give the basic job of each.
  • Explain why Greek word order is flexible and what that does to a translator’s task.
  • Describe the definite article and the absence of an indefinite article.
  • Explain the genitive and the debates it creates in passages such as Romans 3:22 and John 1:1.

The big idea

Greek nouns, adjectives and the article change their endings to show their role in a sentence. These roles are called cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and vocative. Because the ending carries the role, word order is flexible and often shows emphasis. Greek has a definite article, the, but no indefinite article, a or an. A translator must decide what a case relationship means, and the choice can alter the sense of a verse. This lesson gives an outline and does not teach the forms to fluency.

Key terms

Case
The form of a noun, adjective or article that shows its role in a sentence, such as subject, object or possessor.
Nominative
The case of the subject, and of the word that completes the verb to be.
Genitive
The case of possession, source, description and many other relations, often translated with of.
Dative
The case of the indirect object, and of means, place or time. Often translated with to, for, by or in.
Accusative
The case of the direct object, and of extent in space or time.
Vocative
The case of direct address, as in O Lord.
Declension
A group of nouns that share a pattern of endings. Greek has three main declensions.
Article
The word the. In Greek it changes form to match the gender, number and case of the noun it goes with.

Background

In English, word order tells the role of each word. In the sentence The dog bites the man, the dog is the subject because it comes first. In Greek, the ending tells the role, and the same sentence can be written in several orders without changing who bites whom. A writer can place a word first for emphasis, or last for weight, and a reader sees the choice.

This system is why Greek is called an inflected language. It also means that a Greek sentence cannot be translated word by word. A translator must unpack each case and decide how to express the relation in English, which has only a few small words, such as of, to and by, for the work.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: The five cases

The nominative marks the subject: the word is the subject of the sentence. The genitive marks a relation between nouns, usually of: the word of God. The dative marks the one to whom or for whom something is done, or the means or place: he gave to the man, he came by faith, in the temple. The accusative marks the direct object: he loved the world. The vocative marks the one addressed: Lord, save me. Nouns also have gender, masculine, feminine or neuter, and number, singular or plural.

The example word logos, word, is a masculine noun of the second declension. Its singular forms are logos, logou, logo, logon and loge, for nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and vocative. Its plural forms are logoi, logon, logois, logous. Notice that the forms are not all distinct: the genitive and accusative plural share letters with other forms. Context and the article help to tell them apart.

Step 2: Declensions

Greek nouns fall into three groups by their endings. The first declension includes many feminine nouns whose stem ends in a long vowel, such as hemera, day. The second includes most masculine and neuter nouns ending in os or on, such as logos, word, and teknon, child. The third includes nouns of many kinds with stems ending in a consonant, such as sarx, flesh, and pneuma, spirit. A beginner learns the patterns one at a time, and uses a chart to check forms. For tool use it is enough to know that the endings change and that the lexicon lists the nominative and genitive.

Step 3: The article

The Greek article, ho, he, to, corresponds to the in English. It has forms for each gender, number and case, and agrees with its noun. There is no indefinite article, so anthropos by itself may be translated man or a man, depending on context. The article is used differently from English. Greek often uses it with proper names, as in the Jesus, and sometimes omits it where English would use it.

The article can also turn other words into nouns. Placed before an adjective, a participle or a phrase, it makes the whole a noun phrase, as in the one who believes or the good. This is one reason why Greek can be so compact.

Step 4: The genitive and its debates

The genitive has a wide range. It can show possession, as in the house of the man. It can show source, description, apposition or the thing measured. And it can mark either who does the action or who receives it. In the phrase the love of God, the genitive can mean the love God has or the love toward God. Grammarians call these the subjective and objective genitive.

This is the basis of the debate over the phrase in Romans 3:22, which the King James Version renders “by faith of Jesus Christ”. The Greek is pistis Iesou Christou. It can mean faith in Jesus Christ, with an objective genitive, or the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, with a subjective genitive. Translations divide, and a later lesson looks at this as a case study.

Step 5: The article and John 1:1

The King James Version of John 1:1 reads “the Word was God”. The Greek is theos en ho logos. The word logos has the article, and theos, which comes first in the clause, does not. Some interpreters read the lack of an article as meaning a god, but most grammarians observe that a predicate noun coming before the verb often has no article, and that the lack points to the quality of the word, or simply to a predicate noun and not to an indefinite sense.

Christian traditions that confess the Trinity read the verse as saying that the Word is God. Other groups, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, translate it as a god. Most Greek scholars reject that translation on grammatical grounds, though the discussion continues about the precise nuance of the construction. The verse shows that a single feature of the article can carry a theological debate, and that a beginner should not settle it alone.

  1. What case is each noun in the clause, and how can I tell?
  2. Is the genitive here possessive, descriptive, subjective or objective, and does it matter?
  3. Does the noun have the article, and what is the article doing?
  4. Is the word order unusual, and might it show emphasis?
  5. How do the translations I am comparing render the case relationship?
  6. Does my argument rest on a feature that the Greek does not clearly decide?

Examples

Word order for emphasis

In Greek the sentence he loved the world can be written with the object first. A writer who puts the world first draws attention to it. English translators sometimes show this with an italic, an added word or a change of structure.

Two readings of one genitive

The phrase agape tou theou can mean God’s love for people or people’s love for God. The context of the passage must decide, and commentators sometimes disagree. An interlinear shows only love of God.

The article with a name

Greek often puts the article before the names of persons, as in the Paul or the Jesus. English leaves it out. A reader of an interlinear sees the Greek article glossed the in places where it would sound odd, and learns that it does not always add emphasis.

Different perspectives

Catholic

Catholic translators and commentators read John 1:1 as stating the divinity of the Word, in agreement with the creeds of the early church. Catholic Bibles generally render Romans 3:22 as faith in Jesus Christ, though notes sometimes mention the alternative.

Orthodox

Orthodox readers also hear John 1:1 as a statement of the Word’s divinity, and the verse is read in the liturgy on the feast of Pascha. The Greek of the passage is known to many Orthodox believers by heart.

Protestant

Protestants broadly hold the same reading of John 1:1. On Romans 3:22 there is open debate: many Protestant translations read faith in Christ, and some scholars within the tradition defend the faithfulness of Christ, as a matter of grammar and of Paul’s wider argument.

Other readings

Some groups, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, translate John 1:1 as the Word was a god, and defend it by pointing to the missing article. Most Greek grammarians of all traditions do not accept this rendering, but its defenders consider it a plain reading of the Greek.

Scholarly

Grammarians describe the cases with great care and agree on most of their uses. They debate how best to classify the genitive in many verses, and whether the rule linked to the scholar E. C. Colwell about the article is as firm as once thought.

Why it matters

Many of the differences among English translations of Paul and John arise from cases and the article. A student who understands that the endings carry the role, and that the translator must choose how to express them, will see that a difference may not be a disagreement about facts, and will know which points need an expert.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Greek word order is the same as English, and the Greek says exactly what the interlinear shows.

Correction: Greek order is flexible and can show emphasis. An interlinear keeps the Greek order but does not show how the cases work.

Misunderstanding: A missing article always means a or an.

Correction: Greek has no indefinite article. A noun without the article may be definite, indefinite or qualitative, depending on context and grammar.

Misunderstanding: The genitive always means of, so the translation is clear.

Correction: Of is a placeholder. The genitive covers many relations, and the choice among them is a matter of interpretation.

Misunderstanding: A grammatical rule settles a theological debate.

Correction: Grammar limits the options but often leaves several open. The final choice involves the wider context and, for many readers, the teaching of their church.

Knowledge check

Name the five Greek cases and give the basic job of each.

The nominative marks the subject. The genitive marks relations such as possession or source, often of. The dative marks the indirect object, means, place or time. The accusative marks the direct object. The vocative marks the person addressed. Each also appears with gender and number.

Why can Greek word order vary without changing the basic sense?

The ending of each word shows its role in the sentence, so the order does not have to. Writers use word order to give emphasis. This means the translator cannot rely on order to know who does what, and must read the endings.

What does Greek do about the words a and an?

Greek has no indefinite article. It has a definite article, which agrees with its noun in gender, number and case. A noun without the article may be translated with a, an or no article at all, depending on context. The absence of the article must not be read as meaning a by itself.

Why is Romans 3:22 debated?

The Greek phrase pistis Iesou Christou has a genitive that can be objective, faith in Jesus Christ, or subjective, the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Grammar allows both, so scholars use the wider argument of Paul to decide. Translations differ, and many give the other reading in a footnote.

Think it through

  1. How do you think a language that puts roles in endings shapes the way a writer arranges a sentence?
  2. Why might a translator prefer one rendering of a genitive and still note another in a footnote?
  3. What should you do when a grammatical argument seems to settle a doctrinal question?
  4. How does it affect your reading to know that the English the and a are not found in the same ways in Greek?

Independent assignment

Cases in one passage

In your own notebook, write 300 to 450 words. Take John 3:16 in an interlinear or in a Greek text with an English gloss. For each noun, write the case and one reason for it, using a chart of endings. Choose one genitive or one article in the passage and say how three translations treat it. Then write what you cannot judge without further study of Greek. Do not send this to anyone.

Further study