Chapter 4

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Please take your textbooks and open to chapter four. Chapter four is the second speed bump, ladies and gentlemen. It's the second hurdle, it's the second peak. The first listen, the first hurdle was understanding inflection in the Greek verbs. You've got it in the Greek verb.

Let me ask you a question: did you get over it? Kind of. Maybe some of you have, and some of you haven't. But you have to get over that first hurdle. You have to understand how inflection works in the what? In a Greek verb.

Now, this lesson is the second Mount Everest, and I recognize it is a huge hurdle. I couldn't get over it myself; I could never master it. And that is the concept of inflection, not in the verb, but in the what? In the noun.

Nouns in Greek do not work like nouns in English. The problem, however, is that nouns in Greek work just like nouns in German. You say, "Great, that doesn't help me; I don't know German." So we have to start at the beginning, right? We can't assume you know German. We can't even assume you know English that well, and we know you don't know Greek that well. So we're going to start at the beginning.

Okay, we're going to start at the very beginning. Now, what is the title of this lesson? The title is "Nouns of the Second Declension."

Okay, you say, "What do you mean by second declension?" Greek has three ways of forming nouns. These ways of forming nouns are called the first declension, the second declension, and the third declension.

Let me repeat: Greek has three different patterns for forming nouns. The first pattern is called the first declension, the second pattern is called the second declension, and the third pattern is called the third declension.

Now, you say, "Wait a minute, Dr. Black, why are you starting with the second? You should be starting logically with the first, right?" Well, first, second, and third. There are two reasons, ladies and gentlemen, why we are starting with the second declension.

Okay, number one: the second declension is the easiest of all three. It's the easiest; it's not that hard. So we're going to go from what is easy to what is a little bit more difficult.

Okay, secondly, the great majority of nouns in the New Testament belong to which declension? Would you guess the second declension? And that's why we're starting out with the second declension. The first declension is going to be the next chapter.

Now, watch this: the object of this lesson is not to memorize "anthropos." No, now are you going to have to do that? Yeah, just like you had to memorize "the way," right? You had to memorize that. But that was not the goal of that lesson. The goal of that lesson was not to memorize "lou lewis louie." The goal of that lesson was to understand how it works, right?

Understand how it works. I've had people come up to me yesterday who've had four semesters of Greek and say, "Now I understand it for the first time. I understand how it works." You see, we can all memorize, but memory is not the goal; it's comprehension.

So the goal of this lesson is understanding the concept of inflection in the what? In the Greek noun.

Let me give you an illustration. Let me give you a sentence that illustrates what I'm talking about. This is a sentence in Greek. How many words does it contain? How many words? Three. What kind of a word is the middle word right here? We call this a verb, right? This is a verb.

This sentence is comprised of one verb and two what we call nouns. Two nouns. Now forget about the nouns for a minute and just look at the verb. If you will, see a few on your paper, on your scratch paper. See if you can correctly translate "blepharus soon."

Okay, on your scratch paper, see if you can correctly translate the verb. The weapons. Will you do that? And write down your translation. Write it down; you should be able to do this.

Let me say, "All right, blood pacific." It takes how many morphemes, class? Two. What does blood mean? Good. See, what does Zeus mean? So please translate for me into English. Level. So go say "C." No problem, right? No problem, because you have learned what? Understand the concept of inflection in the Greek what? Verb.

See that? That's how that works.

Okay, now this sentence has an independent subject, and it has an independent object. Now this is very important. Listen carefully; I'm going to try my best to explain this, even though sometimes words fail me.

Well, evolution contains how many morphemes, class? Two. This one was called the what morpheme? The lexical. Remember that? Why do I call it the lexicomorphine? Because it contains the lexical or dictionary meaning of the word.

What do I call this suffix? This is called the person number suffix. Why do I call it the person number suffix? Because it tells me two things about the verb. One, two things: it's person and its number.

Can you please tell me what person it is? A third person. Can you please tell me what number it is? Got it.

Now watch this: nouns work in just the same way. These words also contain how many morphemes? Two. One of which you already learned: "anthropo" is what we call the lexical morpheme because it contains the what? The lexical or dictionary meaning of the word.

"Apostol" is what we call a lexical morpheme. Why do I call it the lexical morpheme? Because it contains the what? The lexical or dictionary meaning of the word.

"Anthro" has something to do with what concept? The concept of man. "Apostol" has something to do with what concept? It's a concept of apostle.

Okay, this is a lexical morpheme. This is a lexicomorphine. This is a lexical morpheme. "Anthropo" has something to do with what concept? Man. "Black" has something to do with what concept? C. "Apostol" has something to do with what concept? Apostle. Got it?

All right, now here are the new suffixes that you need to learn: "oi" in Greek. Watch this: "boy" tells me two things about this noun.

This suffix "oy," and you'll be learning these today; you haven't seen these before, but you'll be learning them. But "boy" tells me—take my word for it—"oy" tells me two things about this noun.

The first thing that it tells me is that this word is the subject of the sentence, and the second thing this suffix tells me is that this subject is not singular, but this subject is what? Plural.

"Oi" tells me that suffix "boy" tells me that this word here, "anthropo," is the subject and that it is the plural subject.

"Ooze," on the other hand, tells me the following two things about this noun. Now it tells me that it is what we call not the subject of the sentence, but the what? The object. Some people call the direct object. All we need to say is the object. It's the object of the verb, not the subject of the verb.

And secondly, it tells me that this is also a plural object. So how many morphemes does this sentence contain? Let's see if we can count them. One, two, three, four, five, six.

This morpheme tells me that this word has something to do with the concept of man. This morpheme tells me that this noun is the subject of the verb, and it is a plural subject.

"Bleph" tells me that this verb has something to do with what? I did see, and it tells me that the people doing it are they, right? Not I, not you, not ye, not we, not you, but what? They.

"Right" tells me that this noun "apostolus" has something to do with what concept? Causes of apostle. And this morpheme tells me that "apostolus" is the object of the sentence and is a plural object.

Now please look at the board and see if you can begin to understand, begin to digest this. There's a lot of new information here; I know it's difficult. Look at the board and see if you can begin to internalize this.

Okay, now on that basis, will anybody like to raise their hand and attempt to translate this sentence for me? Would anybody like to take a stab at it? We have a plural subject, we have a verb, and we have a plural object.

Anybody want to take a step? Yes, sir, exactly. Did you hear that? Here's the correct translation: "Men see men see apostles." That is what the Greek is telling me.

Now watch this: Greek does not use word order to tell me that. Greek changes the noun to tell me whether it's the subject or the object.

Watch this now, because that is true, I can rewrite this sentence as follows, and it will still be translated the same way. I can start with the verb. I can start with the verb, and this translation will be the same.

Why? Because "oi" is telling me that this is the subject of the verb and that it is a plural subject, and "ooze" is telling me this is the object of the verb and it is a plural object.

So how would we translate sentence number two? Translate the subject first. Remember, watch this: English is what we call an SV language. What in the world does that mean?

Yeah, in English, what comes first in the sentence? The subject. Then what comes next? The verb. Then what comes next? The object.

So it doesn't matter what the Greek word order is; I have to look for what first in English? I have to look for the subject.

So translate "anthropoi" (men), translate your verb (see), translate your plural object (apostles). Take a minute to look at the board; try to understand what we're talking about here.

Here's the point I'm trying to make: whereas English depends on word order to indicate subject and object, Greek does not depend on word order. Greek depends on word formation.

This is what is called the concept of inflection in the noun system. These sentences are translated identically because it doesn't matter where the subject comes in the Greek sentence, whereas in English, the subject has to come first.

Now watch this: let me give you two more illustrations, and then we'll throw it open for questions.

All right, let's do morphological analysis on sentence number two. This word contains two morphemes. This morpheme has something to do with the concept of man.

This word contains two morphemes. This morpheme has something to do with the concept of see. This word contains two markings. This morpheme has something to do with the concept of apostle.

Okay, now remember I told you that this is the plural subject and this is a plural object.

Okay, in other words, whenever I see "oi," that means plural subject. Whenever I see "foos," that means plural object. Got that?

Whenever I see "oi," it's a plural subject. Whenever I see "ooze," it's a plural object.

Okay, now let's look at this word "anthropos." Is this the subject or the object of the sentence? The object. Is it singular or plural? Plural.

Please look at "apostelloid." Is this the subject or the object? Subject. Is it singular or is it plural? Plural.

All right, now take a look at number two. On the basis of the morphology of that sentence, would anybody like to take a stab at translating sentence number two for me? Yes, sir, exactly right: "Apostles see men."

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Men, stop right there. If you can understand how sentence number two is to be translated, "Apostles see men," congratulations, because you understand the concept of inflection in the Greek noun system.

If you can't understand it, join the club. I couldn't. I could never understand this. You know how I would have translated the sentence? I'll tell you how I would have translated this sentence: "Men see apostles." That's how I would have done it, right?

Because I was not looking at word formation; I was looking at word order. You cannot look at word order. Greek communicates subject, verb, object not by word order, but by what? Word formation through the morphemes that the word contains.

Okay, let's look at one more example. On your piece of scratch paper, see if you can translate sentence number three for me. On your piece of scratch paper, divide the words into their morphemes, determine whether the noun is the subject or the object, and on that basis, please translate on a piece of paper. Write it down, the correct translation of sentence number three.

See if you can do this, but you have to do morphological analysis. You cannot depend on the word order; you have to depend on the word formation.

So look at the morphemes in each of these words. Each word contains two morphemes. These morphemes are telling you what the sentence means. Figure it out; you can do it, but you've got to think, and you can't look at the word as a unit of meaning. You've got to look at the morpheme as the unit of meaning.

All right, who would like to translate for us number three? Anybody? Thank you, sir. Correct: "Men see apostles."

See that there? "Men see apostles." How many morphemes does Andrew Boyd could take in class? Two. "Anthrope" has something to do with what concept, class? Man.

"Boy" tells me it is a what? Plural subject. "Apostolos" contains two morphemes. "Apostol" has something to do with apostle, and "ooze"—let me check my chart here—let's see, "ooze" means is equivalent to what? A plural object.

Let me see: contains how many morphemes, class? Two. "Blood" has something to do with what concept? C. And "luci" means they.

Now here's what the Greek literally says: watch this. Here's what the Greek literally says: "Man plural subject apostle plural object see they." That's not the Greek stock.

Here's how they thought: "Man plural subject apostle plural object see they." That makes impeccably good Greek, but it makes kind of lousy English, doesn't it?

So let's kind of sort of translate that into somewhat good English. Okay, start with one. In English, always start with a subject and then go to the what? The verb, and then the object.

Here's the subject translation: "Men." Here's the verb: translate. Yeah, you know what the Greek literally says: "Men they see." But when you have a subject expressed, then this idea drops out.

That would be not a translation. Listen, that is what we call an over-translation. If you go "Men they see," that's what the Greek says: "Men they see." But "Men" is what replacing the "they."

So to translate this, "Men they see," would be not a translation, but what? An over-translation. So let's smooth that out. Instead of saying "Men they see," we'll just say what? We'll just say "Men see."

Now what do men see? Apostles. Okay, okay, we'll stop right there.

Try to digest this. Like I said yesterday, I mean, I'm blown away that you should be trying to do what you're doing, that you should be learning Greek in English. That, to me, just blows my mind that anybody could be that smart to do that, really, right?

Because you're like learning two languages, right? You're like learning Greek and English at the same time. You're learning English grammar; you're learning Greek grammar at the same time.

I mean, it'd be so much easier, wouldn't it, to learn it in that mirror? Wouldn't it? So I admire what you're doing. I recognize it's great difficulty, and I empathize with you.

I studied, as I said, at a German-speaking university. Everything was in German. And by the way, when I got to the University of Basel, I was expected to speak what kind of German? Good German, right?

It's not like the professor said, "Well, Dr. Black, he's that boy from Hawaii; his German isn't very good, so I'll kind of make my—I'll kind of speak to him kind of like in third-grade German." No, guess what? They spoke fluent right German, and it was expected of me to do what? Speak that level.

They didn't come down to my level; I had to go up to their level, and I did. So I met my professor; he was actually from Sweden when I got there in 1980, and he was from Sweden. He spoke Swedish as his mother tongue.

And when I found him, I was looking for him because I just arrived at Basel. I was looking forward to seeing him, and someone said he's in the library. So I went through the library; finally, there he was. I saw him, and here's a man from Sweden, here's a little boy from Hawaii, and what language do we speak with each other? German.

Got it? Why? Because that was the official language of the university. Now, did he know English? Of course he did, but he spoke English better than I did. But we never spoke English with each other; we always spoke what? German.

Because why? That was the official language of the university. So I'm saying all that to say this: there's a lot going on here, right? And it's not just Greek, is it? Some of it is trying to understand the what? The English part, isn't it? The English part.

Please look at the board and see if you can understand what we're trying to say. Here's the key idea: what English accomplishes by word order, Greek doesn't accomplish by word order. Greek accomplishes by what? Word formation, right? And that's called morphology, right? Morphology.

All right, now we need to talk about what are called the cases in Greek. The cases. We've already said that Greek can indicate what is the subject of the sentence and what is the object of the sentence.

But in Greek, and in grammar in general, rather than calling this the subject case, there's a special word in Greek. Have you seen this word before? The case of the subject in Greek is called the nominative. The nominative case.

That may be a brand new word for you. The case of the subject in Greek is called the nominative case. That's a word you're going to need to learn and get familiar with if you don't know it already.

Now, if you knew Latin or if you knew German, no problem; you would have already learned these words. The case of the object is called the what? The accusative case. The accusative case.

See that there? The accusative case. Greek has two other cases. One of them describes the possessor; the other describes not the direct object, but the what? What would this mean? Indirect object.

The case of the possessor in Greek is called the what case? Genitive case. Say that: genitive. That's called the genitive case. And the case of the indirect object is called the dative case. The dative case.

Now, there's one other case in Greek called the vocative that we're not going to bother with in this class because the vocative is very obvious. Whatever you encounter in the New Testament, you will not be memorizing the vocative for our purposes.

So we have four basic cases in Greek. The case of the subject is called the nominative; the case of the possessor is called the genitive; the case of the indirect object is called the dative; and the case of the object, or we could say direct object, is called the accusative.

Listen to them. Listen to me say the four names again: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative. Say those with me: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative. One more time: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative.

Please turn to page 25 and please look at the top of the page. You will see these four cases at the top of page 25. Greek has four basic cases: the nominative representing the subject, the genitive representing the possessor, the dative representing the indirect object, and the accusative representing the object.

Look at the English examples: the nominative: "Men see apostles." The genitive: "The wisdom of men." In other words, in English, when I translate the genitive, I have to use a little helping word, and my little helping word with the genitive is going to be what? English word.

So when you think genitive, think what? When you think genitive, think of "of."

The dative represents the indirect object: "He gave gifts to men." So what's my little helping word with the dative case? "To."

And finally, the accusative represents the object: "Apostles see men."

By the way, look at number two: "The wisdom of man." How else could I express that in English? The wisdom of men. Is there another way I can say that in English? Men's wisdom, right?

Look at number three: is there another way I can translate "He gave gifts to men"? He gave men gifts, right? Can you hear that in English? He gave men gifts.

Now listen to that sentence: "He gave men gifts." What is the object of that sentence? What was he giving? He gave men gifts. What was he giving? Gifts.

He gave men gifts. Men is not the object; it is the what? The indirect object, right? He gave gifts to men, or he gave men gifts, right?

Okay, so there are many different ways of communicating these ideas in English, but the most common way of translating the genitive is by using what little helping word in English?

And the most common way of translating the dative case is using what little helping word in English? "To."

Okay, now, middle of 25. Oh, this is going to be tough for some of you because you are very unfamiliar, perhaps, with gender generation.

Right? Look at gender, folks. This is kind of different, I think, because English does not have gender, grammatical gender. But in Greek, every noun has what we call gender.

And there are three genders in Greek: there's masculine, feminine, and not neutral, but neuter. Let me repeat that: every noun in Greek has a gender. A noun will either be masculine, or it will be feminine, or it will be neuter.

Now again, I know you haven't had German, but if you had had German, you would understand exactly what we're talking about because in the German language, every noun has gender, and there are three genders in German: there's masculine, and there's feminine, and there's neuter.

And it has nothing to do with sex. It's not sexual gender, not male or female; it has nothing to do with that.

So that in German, this thing right here, or this thing right here, is masculine. This is a masculine noun. This thing right here is feminine. It's not female, is it? But it's feminine, right?

"Horus" is neuter, and you just don't know what gender it is unless you learn the gender because it has nothing to do with sexual gender. It's just a grammatical category.

Now in English, we don't have that. We don't have that. But in German, they had it, and in Greek, they have it.

Okay, and you just kind of have to sort of memorize it. You know, like "death." Did you see there? "Death" is what? Masculine. And "sin" is what? Don't read any theology into that.

All right, "sin" is permanent. Don't touch it. Don't make a big deal out of that. Okay? You know, "death" is masculine. No, no, no, don't do that. It has nothing to do really with men or women, you know what I'm saying?

All right, so one of the things you're going to need to do in Greek is when you learn a noun, you're going to have to learn its gender. Okay? You don't have to learn its gender.

Bottom of 25, we discuss second declension nouns. Please turn the page, and let's look at how this works. Page 26.

Page 26. Please take a look at the words "anthropos" and "doran." "Anthropos" and "dora." Those are your two pattern words or pareto words for this chapter. Those are your pattern words that will help you to form nouns of the second declension.

Okay, and let's just look at "androbots." Now please look at the board. Nouns in Greek can be either what? Singular or plural, and they can be four different what we call cases.

Please can you remember the names? N stands for nominative, and it means it is the subject. G stands for genitive, and it means that it is the possessor. D stands for dative, and it means it is the indirect object.

And A stands for accusative, and it means it's the direct object, or we can just call it the object.

Here's how this works: "anthropos" is going to be your pattern word for all masculine nouns of the second declension, and the majority of nouns of the second declension are masculine.

Now watch this: here's how this works. As you can see from your book, this is the singular of "anthropos," and here's the plural.

Let me say the lab for you: "anthropos," "anthropo," "anthropo," "anthropoi," "anthropon," "anthropos," "anthropos." See that there?

Now one part—let me ask you this, class. You can get this. What part never changes? "Anthro." Right? What do we call that morpheme in this class? Not the stem. We don't call it a stem; we have a more specific word for it. We call it the what morpheme?

Thank you, the lexical morpheme. So here's what I can do. You see, I can draw a line separating the lexicomorphy from these suffixes.

Okay, now let me review something with you. If you recall, in a verb, I have two morphemes, correct? In this room, I have two morphemes. This is called the what morpheme, class? Lexical. Thank you.

This is called the one more thing: person number suffix. Now be very clear about that. This is the person number suffix.

Be very specific about it. Don't just say it's the ending. A lot of people say, "Well, that's the verb ending." Right? It is the verb ending, isn't it? But we could be more specific than that.

Why do I call class omega the person number suffix? Because it tells me two things about the verb. What two things does it tell me? Person and number.

God, what person is it? First. What number? Got that? Good.

Now watch this: listen. Take that concept, same concept, and now apply it to the noun. Nouns also have morphemes. This noun has two morphemes. "Anthro" is called the good, the lexical morpheme.

Why do I call it the lexical morpheme? Because it tells me the lexical or dictionary meaning of the word. Now I'm going to tell you what we call these suffixes right here.

Okay, I'm going to tell you what we'll call them in this class. Don't just call them the suffix. Don't just say a noun subjects. No, no, Greek is much more specific than that.

Okay, now watch this. This will make sense to you because this suffix indicates both the case of the noun and what else about the noun? Its number.

Right? This suffix will indicate both the case of the noun and the number of the noun. Guess what I call it? The case number suffix. Got it?

Yes, it's the case number suffix. What was this suffix called, class? Person number suffix. This is called the case number suffix.

Why, Dr. Black, do you call it the case number suffix? Because it tells me two things about the noun. What two things does it tell you, Dr. Black? It tells me the case and number.

Can you please tell me what case "us" is? Nominative. Can you please tell me what number "us" is? Singular.

See that? Look at "o." Can you please tell me what case "o" is? Genitive. Can you please tell me what number "o" is? Plural.

There's no person; it's case number. What case is "owned" genitive? What number is "old"? Got it?

Got it? So let me repeat. Let me review. Let me repeat. We've got to repeat over and over again. Is that okay with you? I'm just going to repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. I don't mind it.

There are four cases in Greek. The nominative is the case of the subject. The genitive is the case of the possessor. The dative is the case of the indirect object, and the accusative is the case of the object.

So in Greek, how can I tell whether a noun is the subject or the object? Not by word order. I have to look at the suffix. The suffix will tell me what function the noun is in the sentence, and it will also tell me whether that noun is singular or plural.

By the way, nouns in Greek used to have duals. Some nouns used to have dual form. What would a dual refer to? Just two, right?

In other words, it was neither singular nor plural, but it was two. Dual. And by the way, in Hebrew, have you had any Hebrew yet? Some of you, there are some words that are duals, like the word for "I" is "eyes." It's a dual form.

There are some words that are dual form, right? Greek once had the ability to distinguish between one, two, and many. You got it?

But that was one too many for the Greeks, so they got rid of one of them, and the one they got rid of was a dual. So now I can only talk about singular or plural.

All right, so there is no dual anymore. Thank the Lord. See, this could have been a lot harder. It could have had a dual to memorize, but there's no dual anymore. There's only the singular and the plural.

So whereas English depends upon word order, Greek depends upon word formation. And ladies and gentlemen, this is called the concept of inflection in the Greek.

Now, it's not that hard; it's not that bad. Language is scientific. God put it together that way, and God does everything how? First Corinthians 14 says God does everything decently and how? In order.

Remember that? That's why Paul says he's writing to the church. He says, "Let all things be done how? Decently in order." Why? Because that's how God does everything. God organizes things. There is system; there is structure in everything.

Right? In the smallest microcosm, in the smallest cell, in the largest macrocosm, the universe, isn't there order? Yeah, you can study the universe scientifically, and ladies and gentlemen, you can also study what scientifically? Language.

So don't just memorize "anthropos." Understand it. And listen to me: when you understand it, it'll stay with you long after you've graduated.

But if all you've done is memorized, I almost can guarantee you you'll lose all your Greek. You won't even be able to read your Greek. But if you understand it, wow!

And that's why I teach this morphological approach. I understand it's harder. I understand it's easier just to say the ending, right? This is the noun ending.

I understand that would be a lot easier, but it's not precise, and God made this language very precise. And that's how we ought to approach it because God made us.

We are created in whose image and likeness? God. And if God does everything decently in order, that's how he made us to understand things as well.

All right, now let me give you—take out a piece of scratch paper, and I want you to translate a sentence for me. See if you can do this.

So here is a sentence in Greek. See if you can correctly translate it. Divide the words into their constituent morphemes, do morphological analysis on them, and then see if you can correctly translate the sentence: "aku sin andropoi apostolus."

By the words into their constituent morphemes, identify the meaning of each morpheme. That's called analysis. That means taking it apart. To analyze is to take it apart.

Take this sentence apart, identify the meaning of each of the morphemes, and then engage in synthesis. Put it all together again and see if you can derive the correct translation.

And then please write down your translation. Write it down; commit yourself to a translation. Let's say this is a quiz. I want to see if you got it right. After I give you the answer, I'm going to ask you to raise your hand if you got it correct.

Okay, so make sure you jot it down. Please jot down your final translation: "anthropo apostolos."

All right, we'll give you 13.5 seconds. Finish up your translation. Jot it down on a piece of paper. Make sure you write it down; commit yourself to a final translation.

All right, here we go. Translate the sentence for me, class: "Men see apostles."

Look at your translation. Did you get "Men see apostles"? If you did, raise your hand, please. Everybody raise your hand if you got it right.

Okay, that's good. About half the class. That's good. "Men see apostles."

Class, look at this sentence. How many morphemes does it contain? The sentence, the whole sentence contains one, two, three, four, five, six. See them there?

Let's name the morphemes. "Aku" is a lexical morpheme. "Using" is a person number suffix. "Anthropo" is a lexical morpheme. "Oi" is a case number suffix.

Say that: case number suffix. One more time: case number suffix.

What does "aku" mean? What does it mean? They. What does "anthropo" mean? Man. What does "oi" mean?

Oh boy, now I'm completely lost. I am completely—Dr. Black is not going to totally lose me, so I'm going to have to be mechanical, right?

I have to go to my chart here, and I have to find "boy," and I keep looking, and finally, I find it, don't I? "Boy," and there's two things that this case number suffix is telling me about the noun.

What two things? It's case and it's number. What case is it? It is the nominative. What number is it? Plural.

Good. What does "apostol" mean, class? Apostle. Now what does "zeus" mean? Well, let's find "zeus." What number is it? Plural.

Okay, now in translating English, it doesn't—listen to me—it doesn't matter about the Greek order, does it? Greek does not have to start a sentence with the subject.

In fact, let me say something to you: Greek normally doesn't start a sentence with a subject. If English word order is what? SVO. Here's Greek order. Here's Greek word.

What does this mean? Verb, subject, and object. In a Greek sentence, what normally comes first? The verb, right?

You'll see this as we begin to read Greek. As you begin to read your New Testament, you say, "When Jesus said to them," it said, "Jesus to them."

But if you've had Hebrew, you understand it's the same thing in Hebrew. The verb usually comes first, and then the subject. Is that true?

And in America, I don't know where does the subject come? Does it always come before the verb, or is it part of the verb? I don't know.

But in Greek, the normal word order is VSO. All right, so to correctly translate this sentence, I have to find whatever's in the nominative case.

Is there a noun in the nominative case? Yes. Is it singular or plural? Yes, it is plural. So translate your subject.

Okay, now over-translate your verb. Over-translate the Greek as "Men they see." But that's not a translation; that's a what? Over-translation.

Now translate: "Men see." Now this is your accusative case. Is it singular or plural?

Translate "apostolos." Souls. Sit there. That's how it works.

Now we're going to get out a little early for our break today. Okay, I'm going to give you a long break because you've worked really hard, and you're getting up. You're getting brain fade about now, aren't you?

It's like overkill. It's like sensory overload. There's too much, Dr. Black. But hang with me for another five minutes, will you please?

Look at page 26 again. Page 26 again. Did you notice I gave you another word, "doran," in there? Do you see "doran"?

"Doron" is the pattern for all of the neuter nouns of the second declension. So here's what I'd like you to do. You see the left-hand side of the page, the left-hand side, "anthropos" and all the "anthropos" words.

Above the word "anthropos," put an "M." What does "M" stand for? Masculine. That's right. "Anthropos" is your pattern word for all masculine nouns of the second declension.

Okay, so you see this whole long list of words, "anthropologists," this one coming down like this, the left-hand side. Put an "M" on top, and then you see "doran," "doru," "doro," all those. "Doran" is your paradigm word for all neuter nouns.

What does "N" stand for? Neuter. Okay, so please put an "N" above "doran."

And now, ladies and gentlemen, there's one last thing I need to ask you to do before we take our break. I want you to draw a line. Don't do it yet, but I want you to draw a line very carefully between the lexical morpheme and the case number suffix of these words.

Okay, now just look at your book. Look at the middle of 26. Do you see "anthropos"? Watch this. Watch it. Don't write anything again because "anthropos," "anthropo," "anthropo," "anthropod," "anthropez," "throat," "boy," "on the phone."

See that? What is the lexicomorphine? What never changes? "Anthro." Right? Excuse me; sorry, I didn't mean to spit on you.

"Anthro." Got it? And throw. Got it? Now here's what you want. Here's what I want you to do. Take out a ruler or a straight edge or something you can draw a straight line with, or if you have a steady hand, draw a line separating the lexical morpheme from the case number suffixes all the way down.

All the way down. Would you do that? Draw a line. Make sure you do it correctly. The line comes after "anthro." Okay? The line is after "anthro." Draw a line all the way down, straight down, separating the endings from the lexical morpheme.

Would you do that for me? All right, take a minute to do that. Did you do it?

Okay, draw a line straight down. Now "doran," "goru," "doro," etc. What is the lexical morpheme of "doran," do you think? "Door."

I know what you're—you're getting hungry. You're thinking of "dora." What? I know what you did. "Door" means chicken.

Listen, do the same thing. Draw a line. Be very careful. Make sure you draw it in the right place, but separate "door" from all of its suffixes. Would you do that?

And the line will go all the way down, all the way down, separating the case number suffixes.

All right, have you done that? Okay, all right. It is now 10 o'clock. Okay, we normally take our break at what time? 10:15, right? And it goes to what time? 10:30.

We're going to take a half-hour break. Okay? And I'll be here if you have any questions. If I can help you, fine. But let's take a half-hour break. We'll pick up at 10:30 on the dot.

Okay? Thank you very much. Have a good break. Get your shy yarbuna or whatever.

Ladies and gentlemen, please turn to page 26 again as we continue our discussion of nouns of the which declension? Second declension.

Page 26. 826. And please notice that in your chart in the middle of page 26, it goes like this: it has an N, then a G, then a D, then an A, then a what? A V.

Please put a parenthesis around the V. You are never responsible to memorize the V, the locative.

Okay? So please put a parenthesis around the V. Okay? And for test purposes, you never have to give the V. I will never, ever, ever, yay verily, never ask people to be.

And here's the reason why: in reading your Greek New Testament, whenever you have a vocative, the vocative will always be set off in your Greek New Testament by what? By commas.

You will always be able to tell the vocative. Like, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God." Right? Remember that verse?

"I beseech you therefore, brethren." The word "brothers" will always be set off. The vocative will always be set off by commas, so you don't even have to learn it.

So for our purposes, what are the four cases you need to know? Nominative, genitive, dative, accusative. Right?

Okay, so please put parentheses around that if you will. Now, on the bottom of 27, we talk about the definite article.

Now listen carefully because you will actually not be learning the definite article until the next lesson. You won't be learning how to say "the" until the next lesson.

Okay? Greek has a definite article, but it does not have an indefinite article.

Okay? Greek does not have an indefinite article. So let me give you an example. Well, let me not use "doulon." Let me use "anthropos," since you're familiar with that word.

This sentence is "A man sees an apostle." "Anthropos" is singular; the verb is singular; the object is singular.

Now you look at the board, and you might think—you might want to translate it now: "Man sees apostle." Right?

But in English, we have to supply the what? Article. Sometimes not the definite. Don't put "the man sees the apostle." No, no, no, no.

But sometimes in English, to make a good English, we have to supply what article? The indefinite article.

So we would correctly translate the sentence: "A man sees an apostle." You say, "Dr. Black, I don't see the indefinite article." It's not up there.

In other words, every time I have a noun in Greek, this could either be translated "man" or "a man." This could be translated "apostle" or "an apostle."

Right? Okay, so here's the point. In the exercises for today, from this grammar, from this lesson, in the exercises, you will never translate "the," but you may have to supply what? What word? "A" or "an."

Right? Don't put any of those in there. You haven't learned "the" yet; that's next lesson. But sometimes you may have to supply an "a" or an "an."

Now, before we look at the vocabulary, please turn to page 28, and let's talk about conjunctions—joining words.

Conjunctions. And the three most common conjunctions in Greek are introduced in this lesson: "kai" and pronounce this word for me: "don't go allah."

It has nothing to do with Islam. Don't say "allah." The most common conjunction in Greek, it means "and." Normally, normally you will translate it as "and."

It's the most common way of conjoining two thoughts. "De" will either be translated "now" or "but," depending upon the context.

"Now" or "but." And then "alla" is the strongest way of saying "but." These are the three most common conjunctions in Greek, and they are being introduced in this lesson.

Okay? In other words, we're going to be going from really simple sentences to what we call compound sentences or complex sentences at this point.

So just be aware of that. And you notice in your chapter, I have a whole lengthy section on conjunctions, right?

And you're going to read that, aren't we? I mean, not now, but later on today, aren't you going to read it?

Yeah, remember, I don't cover everything in class, but you need to read this chapter very carefully, every word of it.

And by the way, look at the bottom of 28. You see how the print gets smaller? You see how the print gets smaller? Do you know what that means?

That means it's irrelevant. You can pass over it. It's absolutely worth—no, that's not what it means. It means it's kind of like additional information, additional insights.

Okay? Not the primary insights of the chapter, but some additional insights. So please read the fine print too. Don't just say, "Well, it's in fine print; it's small print; it does not."

No, you do need to read that. There's a lot of important stuff there.

Okay? And then finally, you see a section on 29 called Greek word order. Word order. What will you expect to come first in the Greek sentence? The subject? No, no, no, no, no.

What? Yeah, in Greek, the subject usually follows the verb. Now sometimes it'll precede it. Yeah, sometimes the subject will come first, but the normal word order in Greek is VSO.

So please keep that in mind as you go through your exercises.

All right, I'd like to take you through the vocabulary, and then we're going to do some of the exercises together.

Okay? So on page 29, let's look at the vocabulary. These are the first nouns that you will learn in Greek, and here they are.

First of all, we have masculine nouns of the second declension, and the first word has two gammas in it, ladies and gentlemen. So how is a double gamma?

Is the first word "agolas"? No. What is the first word? "Angelas." "Angelos." Okay? And you can translate it either as "angel," or if it's a human being, you translate it as "messenger."

Now stop right there for quiz purposes. Listen carefully. For quiz purposes, if I give you "angelos" tomorrow on the vocabulary, all you need to do is give me one definition. Got it?

You never have to give more than one. Okay? Now you can give both if you want to, but for test purposes, I will only require one.

Now if you have to choose between the two, which one would you give me? Which one should you give me? The first one. Why? Because the way in my vocabulary, I always give you the most common meaning first.

Got it? So if you're just going to memorize one, memorize the first one.

Okay? And for quiz purposes, ladies and gentlemen, you don't need to memorize more than one. Just one is fine.

But you see, it doesn't always refer to as an angel; sometimes it's referring to a human messenger, right? But most of the time, the word "angelos" in the New Testament refers to what? Angel.

Okay, the next word in Greek is "field." "Adelphas" is "brother" or "fellow believer." By the way, there's a city in America called what? Philadelphia.

Can anybody tell me what that means? The city of brotherly love, which has the highest crime rate in America. It's like Los Angeles.

I lived in Los Angeles for 27 years. You know what Los Angeles means in Spanish? The angels.

Oh, please, sinner. Have you studied home archaeology? You know what home archaeology is? The study of "anthropos," man or person.

"Apostolos" is "apostle" or "messenger." "Diaconaz" is "minister." "Doulas" is "servant" or "slave."

"Thanatos" is "death." There's your word for "God." See it there? Now notice it's capital G or small g, right?

Right? Only the context can tell you whether it's referring to Xavier or who's the other guy? Who's the small g god?

Right? Can you say small g god? Can you say that? You say the Gentiles have gods. Would you use the word "Xavier" for gods? You'd use a different word, wouldn't you?

Watch this: this word "theos" can either mean the true and living God, or it can mean like an idol, right? And only the context will tell you.

So "God" or "god." You see the difference between "God" and "god"? One has a capital G, and one has a lower g.

Here's the word for "Jesus." Here's the word for "world." "Kosmos." By the way, don't say "kosmos." It's "kosmos," isn't it? It has amicrons in it.

"Lord" or "master." "Lithos" is "stone." "Logos" is "word." "Oykas" is "house" or "household."

Ooh, what's the difference? What's the difference between "house" or "household"? A house can refer to the building, right?

What would the household refer to? The people within the building, right? So like in Hebrews chapter 3, it says Moses was faithful in all of his house.

It didn't mean the house building, right? Moses was faithful among his household, and a household was comprised of parents, children, and servants, right?

In all of his household. Now that's "boycotts," see? And it's translated, "Moses was faithful in all of this house." But it means Moses was faithful among his household.

All right, "aphas" is "crowd." Look at that word; it has a rough period. "Huios" is "son." "Christos" is "Christ."

Now all of these words follow which pattern word? "Anthropos," right? All of these words follow this pattern word. Where is this pattern word found? What page is that? 26.

Which column? The left-hand or the right-hand? Good. All of these words follow "anthropos."

The next group of words are all neuter nouns, and they all follow which word? Go back to page 26. The right-hand column. They all follow which word? "Doron."

See there? That is your pattern word for all neuter nouns. So let's look at the neuter nouns. "Doron" is "gift."

"Ergon" is "work." If you'll turn the page now, this word has another double gamma, right? So how would I pronounce this word correctly? "Evangellion."

See it there? "Evangellion" is "gospel." "Hiran" is "now."

In this lesson, we introduced two feminine nouns of the second declension. Now remember, most of the nouns in the second declension are masculine or what? Neuter, right?

They'll either follow "anthropos," or the great majority, about 99%, are what? Masculine or neuter.

However, there are two nouns that are feminine, and I want to introduce them to you today. The first is "eremos," meaning "wilderness" or "desert."

And by the way, when you translate "desert," how many essences does it have? What does this word mean in English? What does this word mean? Like after you eat dinner, you have what? Dessert.

How can you tell the difference? Because whenever you have dessert, how many portions do you have? You have two desserts, don't you?

Okay, all right, that's how you remember that. All right, and then the next word meaning "road" or "way" is the word "hadas."

There are four additional verbs I want you to learn from this lesson. You see them there? The first means "I know," and that's the word "genosko."

The second is "I take" or "receive," and that's "blambano." The third is "I say" or "I speak," and that is "lego."

And finally, I bring or I bear, and that is "pharaoh."

Okay, now notice I did not give you the futures, did I? Like in the last lesson, I did not. And the reason is, is this: all of these verbs have irregular futures.

So don't try to figure out the future. Don't say, "Oh, I'm going to try to do the future." No, no. Unless I give you the future, you don't need to worry about it.

Okay? Don't worry about the futures. Later on, we'll learn them. All of these verbs have very irregular futures.

Okay? So don't worry about the futures. All you need to know are the present tenses. Got it? The present tenses.

Finally, we have the conjunctions. Now, before we work on these exercises, just a couple of things. First of all, my cassette that you will be receiving, I have gone through all this vocabulary.

I have gone through the alphabet. I've gone through John 1:1-5. I've gone through these exercises, reading them out, reading them aloud.

Okay? So when you get this cassette and you listen to it, you will be able to improve your pronunciation of Greek and your enunciation of Greek.

Okay? And I believe—are they ready now? They will be ready. So after class, if you want to pick up your cassette, come and see Fossil.

Okay? And how much will they be? We don't know yet. Three bird, three bur per cassette.

Okay? So if you signed up, we made one for you, so please come and pick it up after class today.

Now let's talk about what will be on the quiz tomorrow. If you look at the exercises on page 30, the page 30, you see it there? It says exercises.

What is the first thing it says? Read the lesson. Got it? Have I read the lesson? No, I've only highlighted certain important features of the lesson.

Now it is your job sometime today or tomorrow to what? Read the lesson and read it how? Carefully.

In fact, I would recommend that you read it twice. So not just once; I'd recommend that you read it twice.

Then it says this: make use of the lesson material to gain an understanding of what is declension.

Declension refers to the changes in a noun. Conjugation refers to changes in the verb. So inflection is the broad term.

Conjugation refers to changes in the verb. Declension refers to changes in the noun.

So read this. Listen carefully until it sinks in how this works, how inflection in the noun works. Keep reading it until you get it.

And then, ladies and gentlemen, please know it says learn by heart. What does that mean for quiz purposes? What does that mean for quiz purposes?

You better come prepared tomorrow, right, to write out all these Greek forms correct.

I was coming around during that first quiz. A lot of you didn't. A lot of you didn't have those Greek words. A lot of you didn't memorize the paradigms from yesterday. Yes?

Okay? Learn by heart what the paradigms of "anthropos" and "doran." Would you please turn them? What page is that on? 26.

Do you have to memorize the vocative? No, no, you don't have to memorize the vocabulary.

But if on the quiz tomorrow I ask you to give the declension of "anthropos," you are going to have to write out "anthropos," then what? "Anthropos," then what?

Now watch this. Watch this. In this class, our accent marks are optional. Yeah, our breathing marks are optional.

Yes, you will never, ever, ever have to give accent marks or breathing marks. Well, watch this: this is called the what?

Kyota subscript. Now listen, that is part of the spelling of the word. Let me repeat: the yoda subscript in Greek is part of the spelling of the word.

It's not optional. Therefore, whenever you have a yoda substitute, make sure you always give it for quiz purposes.

Okay? That's not optional. Let me repeat: accent marks are optional; breathing marks are optional; yoda subscripts are not optional.

Watch this: if you wrote this word this way and left out the other subject, guess what? That word is wrong.

Okay? It is misspelled. So make sure you have that yoda subscript.

So what two things do you have to memorize by heart? "Anthropos" and "dora." You sit there: "anthropos," "anthropo," "anthropo," "antapon," "anthropoi," "anthropon," "anthropoise," "anthropus."

Got it? Each word has eight forms, right? Each word has eight forms.

So make sure you memorize them because you don't know. I may get sneaky, and I may be in a bad mood, and I may even ask for both of them.

Okay? So you don't know what I'm going to ask, do you? But I may not ask either of them, but you don't know, do you?

So you have to be prepared on tomorrow's quiz to spit them out, to regurgitate them.

Go back to the exercises. Secondly, it says memorize the vocabulary to this lesson.

Okay? Okay, memorize the vocabulary. And may I just say this: how many of you have started to write little vocabulary cards yet?

Anybody here? Vocabulary cards? Do you know what a vocabulary card is? You put every word on a little card. You can cut paper up into little pieces, and then that's the easiest way to review these because eventually there'll be so many words that you cannot just read the grammar anymore.

You're going to have to put them on cards. I would recommend—I'm not requiring it, but I recommend that you make a little card for every word.

Those are called vocabulary cards. And what you do is you put the Greek on one side, and what will you put on the other side? The English.

You put the Greek on one side, and then you put the English on the other side. Those are called vocabulary cards.

Am I requiring you to do that? No. But in America, everybody does it. It's just in the end, it's going to be the easiest way for you to memorize and to retain your vocabulary.

I would encourage you to do something like that. By the way, on the vocabulary, I will always give you the Greek, right?

And you will give me the what? English. I will not give you the English and expect you to give me the Greek, right?

Why then should you work both ways? Why should you memorize your vocabulary both ways in this class? Always for the what? Extra credit.

Always for the extra credit. Remember the extra credit in here? I'll give you the English, and you must give me the what? Greek.

For that reason, I would encourage you to memorize your vocabulary both ways.

Right? So on this side, it will say "namas." This side will say "namas." I'll turn the card over, and it will say what? Law.

Right? So I'll start with the Greek "namas." I'll say that means law. But eventually, I'll look at the English side. It says what? Law.

And I want to try to be able to remember the other side. Law. Let me see, that was "namas."

See what I'm saying? If you can do that, that will enable you to do the extra credit. It will enable you to do the extra credit.

One last thing for tomorrow's quiz: be sure that you have translated all of these sentences and have parsed all of the verbs.

Translated and parsed these sentences. Now we're going to do some. We can do quite a number in class today.

Okay? For practice, by the way, before you come to class tomorrow, always check the what in the back? The answer key, right?

The answers are found in the back. Always check the answers and make sure your translation is correct.

But listen to me: don't start—don't open up the answer key and translate. It doesn't work that way. You are doing yourself a disservice.

Try it yourself first, and then check to see whether you've got it right or wrong. Okay? That's the best way to learn this language.

Yes? Yeah, in the vocabulary. Good question. The vocabulary, you'll see this word like this: that is the definite article.

That's the word "ho." Now you don't need to memorize that. You know, you don't need to memorize which article it is.

All you need to know is that "namaste" is translated as "law." Got it?

But in grammars in general, we try to indicate what gender it is, and "ho" tells me it's masculine.

The problem is that we haven't learned the article yet. That's going to be learned in the next lesson.

So for our purposes, just kind of ignore it for now. Don't worry about it for now. You'll understand it in the next lesson.

Thank you. That was an excellent question. Yes, sir?

26, page 26. Yes, sir. How do you differentiate between—very good question. On page 26, you will notice something about the neuter that "goran" in the nominative and "goran" in the accusative are the same, aren't they?

Did you notice that? And also in the plural, "dora" and "dora." That's a very good question.

How do I distinguish between "doran" and "doran"? In other words, how do I distinguish between nominative and both in the singular and in the plural?

And the answer is very simple: only the what can tell us? Only the context. The context alone will tell us whether "doran" is the subject or the object.

Very good question. So when you do your exercises, the context will tell you.

Context will tell you. Yes, you're right again. Only the context will tell you. Just the context of that.

The question is, if you recall the accusative singular "ban" for "bosses," what accusative singular is "after all"? Fun.

So here I have an "on," here I have an "on," and here I have an "on." Yeah, and again, it'll be that basically the context that kicks in at this point to tell you.

To tell you. Okay? And, boy, it's tough, isn't it? You have to really—in Greek, you have to rely on the what? Always on the context.

You really do have to rely often on the context. Very good. Are there any other questions before we start some of these exercises?

These are great questions. Anything else?

Okay, in class, here's the sentences I'd like you to do today. Let me put them on the board, and please do this without looking at the key.

[Music]

Please work on number one, number three, number eight, number fourteen, and number eighteen.

Please work on those in class: number one, three, eight, fourteen, and eighteen.

Okay? We'll give you, let's say, we'll give you 15 minutes to work on them, and then we will come back, and we will put them on the board, and we will analyze them.

Okay? So take 15 minutes to work on these, and then we'll go over that. Thank you.

Okay, here's what we're going to do. Whenever we have a sentence, we're always going to circle the verb.

So here's what we're going to do from now on: when I'm translating a sentence and I see a verb, I'm going to circle that verb.

Okay? I'm going to circle that verb. Secondly, if I see anything in the nominative case, I'm going to underline it one time.

"Doulos" is in what case? Nominative. I'm going to underline it one time. Anything in the nominative, I will underline it once.

Finally, anything in the accusative case, I will underline twice. Anything in the accusative case, I will underline it twice.

So let me repeat: whatever the verb is in the sentence, circle it because it's the most important word.

In fact, can I have a one-word sentence in Greek? Look at the board. Look at "grapho." Could that stand on its own and be a complete sentence? Yes.

So that's the most important word. And wherever I see that verb, I'm going to underline—I'm going to circle it.

If there's anything in the nominative, I'm going to underline it once. And if there's anything in the accusative, I'm going to underline it twice.

Now watch this: once I have done this, the word I'm going to start translating is the verb. I'm going to translate the verb all by itself before doing anything else.

So please look at the board. Look at "grapho." Can you please translate for me "grapho" all by itself? Writes. Got it?

Now, if you were like me, I couldn't do that. That's when I dropped Greek. I couldn't do that. I couldn't get "he writes."

Now where are we getting "he writes" from? "Graph" contains how many morphemes? Two of them. The first one we call the what? Lexical morpheme.

Why do we call it the lexicomorphine? Because it contains the lexical or dictionary meaning of the word. What does "graph" mean? Write.

Why do we call this the person number suffix? Because it tells me two things about the verb. What two things? The person and the number.

Can you tell me what person and number it is? Third singular. And what does it mean? Got it. No problem.

Now I understand it. Why? Because I'm not looking at the word; I'm looking at the what? The morpheme.

Got it? You can't look at the word. Don't look at the word. I was looking at the word, and I couldn't figure it out.

I have to divide the word into its what? Constituents. Bits and pieces of meaning. And another word for bits and pieces of meaning are morphemes.

See that? Okay, now I have translated "grapho." "He writes."

Now here's what I'm going to do next. I'm going to ask the sentence this question: do you have an independent subject?

Do you have a subject expressed? And the sentence goes like this, right? The sentence says, "Yeah, I have a subject."

And how is the sentence telling me it has a subject? It puts the noun in what case? The—what's this called? The nominative case.

The case of the subject is called the what case? The nominative. Say that word: nominative.

Again, nominative. What is the nominative case? It's the case of the subject.

So does this sentence have a subject? Yes. What is it? "Doulos."

Now "doulos" says how many more things? Two. This part has something to do with servant or slave.

Now I'm left with "us." See it? Now I'm going to go to my chart here. Remember after "boston doran," here are the endings.

I'm going to look on this chart and find "os." Can you find "os"? Sit there.

Now why do I call this suffix here? I do not call it the person number suffix. I call this the what? The case number suffix.

Say that: case number suffix. One more time: case number suffix.

Because you say, "Dr. Black, why do you call that the case number suffix?" Well, I'll tell you why.

Because it tells me two things about the noun. What two things does it tell you, Dr. Black? It tells me the case and its number.

Can you please tell me what case "us" is? Nominative. Can you please tell me what number "us" is? Singular.

See that? Look at "o." Can you please tell me what case "o" is? Genitive. Can you please tell me what number "o" is? Plural.

There's no person; it's case number. What case is "owned"? Genitive. What number is "old"? Got it?

Got it? So let me repeat. Let me review. Let me repeat. We've got to repeat over and over again. Is that okay with you?

I'm just going to repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. I don't mind it.

There are four cases in Greek. The nominative is the case of the subject. The genitive is the case of the possessor. The dative is the case of the indirect object, and the accusative is the case of the object.

So in Greek, how can I tell whether a noun is the subject or the object? Not by word order. I have to look at the suffix.

The suffix will tell me what function the noun is in the sentence, and it will also tell me whether that noun is singular or plural.

By the way, nouns in Greek used to have duals. Some nouns used to have dual form. What would a dual refer to? Just two, right?

In other words, it was neither singular nor plural, but it was two. Dual. And by the way, in Hebrew, have you had any Hebrew yet?

Some of you, there are some words that are duals, like the word for "I" is "eyes." It's a dual form.

There are some words that are dual form, right? Greek once had the ability to distinguish between one, two, and many. You got it?

But that was one too many for the Greeks, so they got rid of one of them, and the one they got rid of was a dual.

So now I can only talk about singular or plural.

All right, so there is no dual anymore. Thank the Lord. See, this could have been a lot harder. It could have had a dual to memorize, but there's no dual anymore.

There's only the singular and the plural.

So whereas English depends upon word order, Greek depends upon word formation. And ladies and gentlemen, this is called the concept of inflection in the Greek.

Now, it's not that hard; it's not that bad. Language is scientific. God put it together that way, and God does everything how?

First Corinthians 14 says God does everything decently and how? In order.

Remember that? That's why Paul says he's writing to the church. He says, "Let all things be done how? Decently in order."

Why? Because that's how God does everything. God organizes things. There is system; there is structure in everything.

Right? In the smallest microcosm, in the smallest cell, in the largest macrocosm, the universe, isn't there order?

Yeah, you can study the universe scientifically, and ladies and gentlemen, you can also study what scientifically? Language.

So don't just memorize "anthropos." Understand it. And listen to me: when you understand it, it'll stay with you long after you've graduated.

But if all you've done is memorized, I almost can guarantee you you'll lose all your Greek. You won't even be able to read your Greek.

But if you understand it, wow! And that's why I teach this morphological approach.

I understand it's harder. I understand it's easier just to say the ending, right? This is the noun ending.

I understand that would be a lot easier, but it's not precise, and God made this language very precise.

And that's how we ought to approach it because God made us. We are created in whose image and likeness? God.

And if God does everything decently in order, that's how he made us to understand things as well.

All right, now let me give you—take out a piece of scratch paper, and I want you to translate a sentence for me. See if you can do this.

So here is a sentence in Greek. See if you can correctly translate it. Divide the words into their constituent morphemes, do morphological analysis on them, and then see if you can correctly translate the sentence: "aku sin andropoi apostolus."

By the words into their constituent morphemes, identify the meaning of each morpheme. That's called analysis. That means taking it apart. To analyze is to take it apart.

Take this sentence apart, identify the meaning of each of the morphemes, and then engage in synthesis. Put it all together again and see if you can derive the correct translation.

And then please write down your translation. Write it down; commit yourself to a translation. Let's say this is a quiz. I want to see if you got it right.

After I give you the answer, I'm going to ask you to raise your hand if you got it correct.

Okay, so make sure you jot it down. Please jot down your final translation: "anthropo apostolos."

All right, we'll give you 13.5 seconds. Finish up your translation. Jot it down on a piece of paper. Make sure you write it down; commit yourself to a final translation.

All right, here we go. Translate the sentence for me, class: "Men see apostles."

Look at your translation. Did you get "Men see apostles"? If you did, raise your hand, please. Everybody raise your hand if you got it right.

Okay, that's good. About half the class. That's good. "Men see apostles."

Class, look at this sentence. How many morphemes does it contain? The sentence, the whole sentence contains one, two, three, four, five, six. See them there?

Let's name the morphemes. "Aku" is a lexical morpheme. "Using" is a person number suffix. "Anthropo" is a lexical morpheme. "Oi" is a case number suffix.

Say that: case number suffix. One more time:

Put to work all of what they are learning, Lord, so that they can comprehend that they can translate, they can parse, all with the goal of knowing You, Lord Jesus, better through the New Testament.

I ask now, Father, that You would dismiss us with the blessing of Your presence.

In Jesus' name, thank You.