New Testament / Koine Greek, 1st year, #16: Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar, William Mounce, 15-16

Lecture #16 in New Testament or Koine Greek, a first year Greek at a college or seminary level taught by independent Baptist professor Thomas Ross, covers chapters 15 & 16 in Dr. William Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar, as well as the cardinal and ordinal numbers for conversational Koine in T. Michael W. Halcomb, Speak Koine Greek: A Conversational Phrasebook & pages 24-31 of Halcomb's 800 Words and Images: A New Testament Greek Vocabulary Builder.

Chapter 15 begins with an exhortation based on the Biblical texts concerning binding and loosing (Matthew 16:19; 18:18), which are about authoritative Biblical teaching, unrepentant violation of which requires church discipline or excommunication. Roman Catholic (allegedly) infallible Papal tradition or about charismatic or Keswick claims to bind Satan are not in view. Chapter 15 in Bill Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek (BBG) then covers an introduction to the Greek verb. Verbs express an action or a state of being; they possess person and number and must agree with their subjects. They also possess time, tense, voice and mood. Verbal aspect is central to the Greek verb, which also secondarily expresses time.

Greek verbs can be first, second, or third person, singular or plural, active, middle, or passive voice, and be in various tenses. Mounce employs "tense" only for aspect, not for time--the grammar uses "tense" for the specific form of the Greek word, as Greek verbs have a variety of personal endings and other changes that explain what they portray. Greek verbs can have a continuous or a snapshot aspect (Daniel Wallace in his Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics prefers "summary" or "snapshot" to Bill Mounce's term, "undefined.") In Greek, punctiliar aspect expresses how an action is represented--the action itself may or may not be a once-for-all action. Understanding aspect helps to illuminate the meaning of texts such as Mark 8:34 & Luke 23:34.

Greek verbs are formed from a stem, connecting vowel, and personal endings. Nouns are declined, while verbs are parsed, that is, broken into parts. When parsing a verb, one should state its person, number, tense, voice, mood, lexical form, and inflected meaning.

In summary, chapter 15 of BBG explains that Greek verbs agree with their subjects in person—1st, 2nd, or 3rd, and in number, singular or plural. They agree with their subjects by having a different set of personal endings based on what person and number the subject possesses. They have tense, which BBG uses only to describe the actual form of the Greek verb. The Greek verbal system expresses time-when the action of the verb occurred. The Greek verb also has aspect, the kind or type of action of the verb. Verbs may possess one of two aspects-continuous and summary or undefined. The continuous aspect describes an action as ongoing, while the summary aspect simply states an action or event occurred, presenting it as a “snapshot.” Greek verbs have voice—they are active or passive (or middle). A totally different set of personal endings is employed for verbs that are active and for ones that are passive. Finally, Greek verbs have mood. Only the indicative mood appears in these chapters. The indicative is used to make a statement of fact or to ask a question.

After an exegetical insight in BBG chapter 16 on the ego eimi (ἐγώ εἰμι) statements in John's Gospel as evidence for the Deity of Christ, the present active indicative portion of the Greek verbal system is presented. Verbs in present time and active voice are taught. The beginning of Mounce's Master Verb Chart and Master Personal Ending Chart appear. To form the present active indicative, one adds a connecting vowel and primary active personal endings to the present tense stem. The stem of a verb is the most basic form of the verb in a particular tense. The connecting vowel is just omicron or epsilon added for pronunciation, followed by the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person singular or plural personal ending. On λύω, the present active indicative verb paradigm reads: λύω I am loosing λύεις Thou art loosing λύει He/she/it is loosing λύομεν We are loosing λύετε Ye are loosing λύουσι(ν) They are loosing The true personal endings are: nothing, ς, ι, μεν, τε, νσι; with their connecting vowels they are: -ω, -εις, -ει, -ομεν, -ετε, -ουσι(ν). A Greek verb in the present tense usually, but not always, describes an action that takes place in present time. Explicit pronouns with Greek verbs portray emphasis, contrast, or gender. After reviewing vocabulary, the fact that John 8:58 cannot be a historical present but indicates Christ is Jehovah, the "I AM," is proven. Categories of Greek present usage discussed include the instantaneous, aoristic or punctiliar; progressive or descriptive; iterative; customary, habitual, or general; gnomic; historical or dramatic; and futuristic. Conversational Koine covers the cardinal numbers in Greek from 1-20 and the ordinals from 1-10 and other phrases.

[ryanmoore]

Your videos are really helpful! I used them a lot for getting through the early chapters. I'm on Chapter 20 and can't wait till you upload more!

[petercrego]

When you first mentioned aspect, I did not recognize the term, but I realized I learned that in high school, just a different name. It is exciting to finally be to verbs!

[joeruss]

In Mounce 's fourth addition he uses he term perfective aspect when he calls an undefined action and imperfectice which he calls continuous action. A little different than what you covered in class. This was in the discuss of the English verb uses. When using the 4th edition the sections of the nouns line up with the section of the 3rd edition. That is not the case when he started the verb system. That seems to be where the 4th edition starts to vary from the 3rd.

[jodyupright]

Thank you for sharing the lesson. So far, it looks like verbs behave similarly to how they behave in Latin.