[B-Greek] accents

Ted Shoemaker tedsmath at yahoo.com
Wed Nov 19 12:02:45 EST 2003


 
Hello,
 
This is an ignorant question, but I have to ask it.

When I studied Greek (long ago!), we were usually permitted 
to "slide by" the accents.  Only occasionally did that lead 
to trouble.  
(Case in point:  Matthew 4:6 EI hUIOS EI TOU QEOU
at first looked like "if son if of God"
until the teacher pointed out the accents.)

Today I noticed *four* different ways of accenting the 
word ESTIN, found in 1 John 5:11 and 5:17:
     acute accent on last syllable
     grave accent on last syllable
     accent on first syllable
     no accent

So my two questions are:
(1)  What are the differences among these four (and possibly 
     more) accentings for ESTIN; and
(2)  Generally, how important is it to know the accents?

Thank you very much!

Ted Shoemaker


=====
Ted Shoemaker
 
You have to know what the rules are, and why, before you can break them intelligently.

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