New Testament Greek for Beginners

(Based on the book with the same title by Gresham Machen, The MacMillan Company, 1923)

LESSON XXVI

Declension of πᾶς, πολύς, μέγας
Numerals
Attributive and Substantive Uses of Prepositional Phrases and of the Genitive
Accusative of Extent of Time and Space

364. Vocabulary

365. The declension of πᾶς, πᾶσα, πᾶν, adj., all, every, is as follows:

366. The masculine and neuter stem is παντ- and the word is declined nearly like the first aorist active participle of λύω. But the accent is slightly irregular in the masculine and neuter, since it follows the rule for monosyllables of the third declension (see §221) in the singular but not in the plural.

The Use of πᾶς

367. πᾶς can stand in the predicate position with a noun that has the article. This usage corresponds so exactly with English as to call for little explanation.

Example: πᾶσα ἡ πόλις, all the city.

368. But πᾶς can also stand in the attributive position.

Example: ἡ πᾶσα πόλις, the whole city; οἱ πάντες μαθηταί the whole body of disciples, all the disciples.

369. With a singular noun, πᾶς often means every.

Example: πᾶς ὄρος, every mountain.

πᾶς is frequently used with article and participle.

Examples: πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων, everyone who believes; πάντες οἱ πιστεύοντες, all those who believe; πάντα τὰ ὄντα ἐκεῖ, all the things that are there.

370. Declension of πολύς and of μέγας

Learn the declension of πολύς, πολλή, πολύ, much, many, great, and of μέγας, μεγάλη, μέγα, great, in (see §§574,575. It will be observed that except for the short forms in the nominative, vocative and accusative, masculine and neuter singular, these two adjectives are declined like ordinary adjectives of the second and first declension.

Numerals

371. The declension of εἷς, μία, ἕν, one, is as follows:

The slight irregularities should be noticed.

372. The declension of οὐδείς, οὐδεμία, οὐδέν, no one, and μηδείς, μηδεμία, μηδέν, no one, is like that of εἷς.

373. δύο, two, is indeclinable (the same for all cases and genders) except that it has a dative form δυσί(ν).

374. The declension of τρεῖς, τρία, three, and of τέσσαρες, τέσσαρα, four, may be found in §588.

375. The other cardinal numerals up to διακόσιοι, two hundred, are indeclinable.

Attributive and Substantive Uses of Prepositional Phrases and of the Genitive

376. Prepositional phrases are frequently treated as attributive adjectives, being placed after the article.

Example: οἱ ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ πόλει μαθητεαί, or οἱ μαθηταὶ οἱ ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ πόλει, the in-that-city disciples, or (by a free translation) the disciples who are [or, if the leading verb is past, were] in that city. Here the prepositional phrase takes the exact place of an attributive adjective. It will be remembered that οἱ ἀγαθοὶ μαθηταί or οἱ μαθηταὶ οἱ ἀγαθοί means the good disciples (see §70). If in these two Greek phrases ἐν τῇ πόλει be substituted for the attributive adjective ἀγαθοί we have the idiom now under discussion.

377. Like other attributive adjectives, these prepositional phrases can be used substantively.

Example: As οἱ ἀγαθοί means the good men, so οἱ ἐν τῇ πόλει means the in-the-city men, or the men who are (or were) in the city.

378. A noun in the genitive case can be used in this same way.

Example: As οἱ ἀγαθοί means the good men, so οἱ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ means the of-Jesus men, the belonging-to-Jesus men, the ones/the men/those who belong to Jesus.

379. The genitive in this usage may indicate various relationships. Sometimes it indicates sonship. Thus ὁ τοῦ Ζεβεδαίου may mean the son of Zebedee. The context must determine. All that is certainly implied in the Greek is that the person spoken of is connected in some way with Zebedee. The literal meaning of the phrase is the belonging-to-Zebedee man.

380. Notice that the disciples who are in the city may be expressed by οἱ μαθηταὶ οἱ ὄντες ἐν τῇ πόλει, the being-in-the-city disciples. But the ὄντες is not needed. So also those who are in the city might be οἱ ὄντες ἐν τῇ πόλει, the being-in-the-city people. But again the ὄντες is not needed. The prepositional phrase can be used as an attributive adjective just as well as the participle (with its modifiers) can.

381. All three of the idioms just discussed (οἱ ἐν τῇ πόλει μαθηταί, οἱ ἐν τῇ πόλει and οἱ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ) are important. It should now be increasingly evident how much of Greek syntax is dependent on the distinction between the attributive and the predicate position. See §§68-74.

382. Accusative of Extent of Space and Time

The accusative is used to express extent of space or time, answering the question how far? or how long?

Examples: ἐπορεύθην μετ' αὐτοῦ στάδιον ἕν , I went with him one furlong; ἔμεινα μίαν ἡμέραν , I remained one day.

383. Exercises

I.

1. μείνας σὺν αὐτῷ ἔτη τρία ἦλθεν εἰς ἐκείνην τὴν πόλιν.
2. ἰδὼν δὲ τοὺς ἐν τῇ μεγάλῃ πόλει ἔγραφε καὶ τοῖς ἐν τῇ μικρᾷ. ^(*1)

^(*1) What noun is naturally to be supplied with τῇ μικρᾷ?

3. πορευθέντες δὲ οἱ τοῦ Ἰακώβου σταδίους ὡς πέντε εἶδον τὸν Ἰησοῦν καὶ πάντας τοὺς μετ' αὐτοῦ μαθητάς.
4. ἀκούσαντες δὲ ταῦτα πάντα οἱ ἐν τῇ συναγωγῇ εἶπον ὅτι θέλουσιν ἰδεῖν τὸν ταῦτα ποιοῦντα.
5. ἐθαύμασεν πᾶν τὸ πλῆθος ἐν τὸ βλέπειν αὐτοὺς τὰ ποιούμενα ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ.
6. οὐκ ἔμεινε μίαν ἡμέραν ὁ μετὰ δύο ἔτη ἰδὼν τὸν ἀπόστολον τὸν εὐαγγελισάμενον αὐτόν.
7. τῶν ἀρχιερέων ὄντων ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ μεγάλῃ πόλει ἔμεινεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐν τῇ κώμῃ ἡμέρας ὠς πέντε ἢ ἕξ.
8. δεῖ τοὺς ἐν ταῖς πόλεσιν ἐξελθεῖν εἰς τὰ ὄρη.
9. θεραπευθέντος ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ τοῦ ὑπὸ τῶν τεσσάρων προσενεχθέντος αὐτῷ ἐδόξασαν πάντες οἱ ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ τὸν ποιήσαντα τὰ μεγάλα ταῦτα.
10. πρὸ δὲ τοῦ ἐλθεῖν τοὺς ἐκ τῶν πόλεων ἦν ὁ Ἰησοῦς μετὰ τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ.
11. ἐποιήθη μὲν δι' αὐτοῦ ὁ κόσμος καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ, αὐτὸς δὲ ἐγένετο δι' ἡμᾶς ὡς δοῦλος.
12. τοῦτο ἐποίησεν ἵνα σώσῃ πάντας τοὺς πιστεύοντας εἰς αὐτόν.
13. πᾶς ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὸν θεὸν ἀγαπᾷ καὶ τοὺς ἀδελφούς.
14. συνήχθησαν πάντες οἱ ἐν τῇ πόλει ἵνα ἀκούσωσι τὰ λεγόμενα ὑπὸ τῶν ἀποστόλων.
15. ταῦτα ἔλεγον οἱ ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ πᾶσι τοῖς ἀρχιερεῦσι καὶ γραμματεῦσι διὰ τὸ γινώσκειν αὐτοὺς πάντα τὰ περὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ.
16. ταῦτα ἐποίει ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων, ἤθελε γὰρ ἀποκτεῖναι τὰ ἐν τῇ κώμῃ παιδία.
17. οὐδεὶς γινώσκει πάντα τὰ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ εἰ μὴ ^(*2) ὁ ποιήσας τὰ πάντα.

^(*2) εἰ μή and ἐάν μή are often to be translated except.

18. σωθήσεται οὐδεὶς ἐὰν μὴ διὰ πίστεως· ἐτήρησε γὰρ οὐδεὶς πάσας τὰς ἐντολὰς τοῦ θεοῦ.
19. προσευχώμεθα ὑπὲρ τῶν διωκόντων ἡμᾶς, ἵνα γενώμεθα υἱοὶ τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν τοῦ ἐν οὐρανοῖς.
20. μακάριοι οἱ καθαροί, αὐτοὶ γὰρ τὸν θεὸν ὄψονται.

Answer Key

II.

1. The chief priests saw that all the things which were being spoken by Jesus were true.
2. In that place there were about five thousand men with many gifts and many garments.
3. Many are those that go down into the evil way, but few are those who walk in the ways of life.
4. If ye become disciples of me I will show you all things.
5. By the grace of God we all have become disciples of Jesus.
6. Through faith we have become children of our Father who is in heaven, for Jesus has saved us.
7. Let us do all the things that are in the law, according to the things that are being said to us by the prophets.
8. In that great city we saw three disciples of the Lord praying to their Father in heaven. ^(*3)

^(*3) With what is in heaven to be construed? If it is to be construed with Father, it should be put in the attributive position. The meaning then is our in-heaven Father, our Father who is in heaven.