[B-Greek] Accents for ESTIN in Mk 12:29-31

Benjamin Griffiths jamino at gmail.com
Wed Jul 15 16:40:33 EDT 2009


Dear all,
I have been trying to learn the rules for accentuation. I thought I
understood how it functioned but was reading the Bible this morning in Greek
and noticed that ESTIN in Mark 12:29-31 behaves differently to how I
expected. On one occasion it has an acute on the ultima, another time the
acute is on the penult and on one occasion there is no accent at all for no
apparent lengthening of vowel or change to the word itself.
Here is the passage with the ESTIN's in bold.

29 ἀπεκρίθη ὁ Ἰησοῦς ὅτι πρώτη *ἐστίν*· ἄκουε Ἰσραήλ, κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν
κύριος εἷς *ἐστιν*, 30 καὶ ἀγαπήσεις κύριον τὸν θεόν σου ἐξ ὅλης τῆς καρδίας
σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς διανοίας σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς
ἰσχύος σου. 31 δευτέρα αὕτη· ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον3 σου ὡς σεαυτόν. μείζων
τούτων ἄλλη ἐντολὴ οὐκ *ἔστιν*.

(29) APEKRIQH hO IHSOUS OTI PROTH *ESTI/N*; AKOUE ISRAHL, KURIOS hO QEOS
HMWN KURIOS hEI=S *ESTIN* (30) KAI AGAPHSEIS KURION TON QEON SOU EX hOLHS
THS KARDIAS SOU KAI EX hOLHS THS YUCHS SOU KAI EX hOLHS THS DIANOIAS SOU
 KAI EX hOLHS THS ISXUOS SOU. (31) DEUTERA hAUTH; AGAPHSEIS TON PLHSION SOU
hWS SEAUTON. MEIZWN TOUTWN ALLH ENTOLH OUK *E/STIN.*
*
*
Why is this the case? Is it because the hEIS/εἷς and the OUK/οὐκ join with
the ESTIN/ἐστιν to effectively form one word to which the accents then
apply? This is my guess, but not sure..

Thanks for your help,

Benjamin Griffiths - UK


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