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

kgraham0938 at comcast.net kgraham0938 at comcast.net
Wed Jul 15 17:32:10 EDT 2009


Hey Ben, I think what is going on (and I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong) is that an enclitic is accented on the ultima when the word before it is disyllabic, and the preceding word is accented with the acute on the penult. So PRWTH is disyllabic with an accute on its penult. With regards to the second use of ESTIN, that is just how it is normally accented. The third use is because it is behind a proclitic. When EIMI follows a proclitic, the proclitic remains unaccented adn the enclitic is accented. 



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Benjamin Griffiths" <jamino at gmail.com> 
To: B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org 
Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 4:40:33 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern 
Subject: [B-Greek] Accents for ESTIN in Mk 12:29-31 

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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