AN INTRODUCTION TO THE MOST COMMONLY USED WORD IN THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT

The article is used more than other word in the New Testament and a firm grasp of its various uses is crucial to your progress in NT Greek.

The English Article

English has two articles:

1. The indefinite article “a, an” e.g. a king, an egg

2. The definite article “the” e.g. the king

There is a third articular usage called the anarthrous usage. This is a noun without the article e.g. king, as in the man who would be king.

In English, an article is a word that comes before a noun to show if it’s specific (the definite article) or general (the indefinite article).

The definite article limits the meaning of a noun to a particular thing or class. The indefinite article points to a general idea of the thing.

THE GREEK ARTICLE

The Greek article is both similar and different.

New Testament Greek has one article only - the definite article “ο, η, τό”. These is no indefinite article in New Testament Greek. That is at least one less paradigm to learn.

That is, a Greek substantive is either arthrous (possessing the article) or anarthrous (not possessing the article). There is no third articular usage in NT Greek as there is in English.

THE ARTICLE AS ALLY

The Greek article can be a useful aid as, unlike the English article, it is highly inflected but inflected in a single paradigm only i.e. it does not have three declensions like nouns. Learn this single paradigm and you can always tell the case, gender and number of the noun it sits in front of. This is particularly useful when you come to some of the more slippery noun morphologies. Some nouns can “morph” into monsters, particularly in the third declension, but the form of the article always remains the same.

A Technical Interlude

The definite article agrees with the noun it goes with in case, number and gender.

It is declined as below.

THREE BASIC USES

The Greek article can also be a little challenging at first because it performs some rolls in NT Greek that it does not perform in English. In fact, it is generally agreed that the primary role of the “definite” article in Greek is NOT to make something definite, although it can be used in this role.

Kostenberger, Merkle and Plummer in Going Deeper with New Testament Greek identify at least three basic uses of the article:

1. The article conceptualises: the Greek article commonly sits in front of an adjective, a prepositional phrase or a participle to “point to” them as a substantive concept or entity.

   e.g οὐ χρείαν ἐχουσιν οι ἰσχύοντες ιατροῦ - “those who are well have no need of a physician” Mark 2:17 ESV

   Here the article “οι” points to the present active participle of ἰσχύω (be in good health, be healthy) to formulate a concept or entity that can be rendered into clumsy English as “the ones having good health”. The article has tuned the participle into a substantive.

2. The article identifies: the Greek article distinguishes a substantive, separating individual from individual, class from class or quality from quality.

   e.g. μακάριοι οι πραεῖς - “blessed are the meek” Matthew 5:5 ESV

   Here the article “οι” distinguishes between the class of people who are meek and the class of people who are not meek. Here, coincidentally, the article also conceptualises as per 1: above, turning the adjective “meek” into a substantive “the meek”.

   When the article distinguishes between individual persons or things, it is called the Particularising (or Individualising) Article, when it distinguishes between classes of things it is called the Generic Article.

3. And last but not least, the article makes a substantive definite. When the article appears before a substantive, that substantive is necessarily definite. However, it is important to keep in mind that a substantive in NT Greek can also be definite without the article, for example: proper nouns, prepositional objects, predicate nominatives and abstract nouns.

THE ARTICLE AS PRONOUN

Although the article is not a pronoun, it often acts like one. This is the so-called independent use of the article. Commonly, it can take the place of:

1. a personal pronoun (he, she, it): ο εἶπεν - “he said”

2. a relative pronoun (who, which): παιδίοις τοῖς ἐν ἀγορᾶ “children who are in the marketplace” (this is also an example of the prepositional object definite substantive - ἀγορᾶ does not have the article, but is rendered definite by the preposition ἐν).

3. a possessive pronoun ((his, her): Οι ἀνδρες, ἀγαπᾶτε τὰς γυναῖκας - Husbands, love your wives

(these examples are courtesy of The Berean Christian Bible Study Resources website (bcbsr.com)

This introduction is intended to provide you with a view of the Greek article from 30,000 feet.

Future posts will descend to land on a few of the special rules pertaining to its use and more detailed analyses of its use with substantives.