Help Figuring Out What Definition and Gender to Use

How do I work out the meaning of a Greek text? How can I best understand the forms and vocabulary in this particular text?
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LearningGreek
Posts: 27
Joined: September 18th, 2021, 10:00 pm

Help Figuring Out What Definition and Gender to Use

Post by LearningGreek »

Hello,

I am trying to teach myself Koine Greek using Mounces Basics of Biblical Greek 4th ed. kit (book, lectures, flash cards, workbook, lexicon).

I am having problems with the first set of translating workbook exercises and the answers are not provided so I am unable to determine if I am correct or not.

I am having the same problem with all the exercises, so I will just pick one. He gives the verb meaning since he has not yet covered verbs, but tells us to figure out the gender of the verb.

10. καὶ νῦν ἡ βασιλεία σου (your) οὐ στήσεται (he/she/it will continue).

I have it broken down as follows

καὶ = and/even/also/namely
νῦν = adverb: now, noun: the present
ἡ βασιλεία = nom sg fem the kingdom
οὐ = not
στήσεται = she continue

My listeral "translation" would be:

And present the kingdom not she will continue

Moving the grammar around to fit into English (correct postpositive's)

And the present kingdom will not continue. (dropped the she because I think im missing something the translation of (στήσεται)

I have three questions:

1. Is my translation right or wrong (or how wrong is it more likely).
2. Where does the verb pull its gender from? The subject (nominative) or the direct object (accusative).
-I know this example does not have an accusative but others do.
3. How do I know which of the word definitions to use? The conjunctions (κὰι) give me the most trouble.

Any help or pointers would be appreciated.
Barry Hofstetter
Posts: 2159
Joined: May 6th, 2011, 1:48 pm

Re: Help Figuring Out What Definition and Gender to Use

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

It's good that you are getting started. My "pointers" are:

1) Finite verbs in Greek are not marked for gender, only person and number. When used without a nominative subject in the sentence, we render according to whether it's first, second or third person, but any idea of gender has to be supplied from context. However, if a nominative subject is expressed (as in your example), then we do not supply a subject pronoun.

2) While Greek has grammatical gender, English does not. We have personal gender terms (he and she) referring to people, and personifying certain nouns such as pets and ships. But for the most part, we use the impersonal "it" when referring to non-humans, objects, and abstractions.

3) νῦν is only a noun when used with the article (which you'll learn later). Here you actually translate it as an adjective. It simply means "now" in your exercise.

4) You mention some of your exercises use the accusative. The accusative is most often used of the direct object, receiving the action of the verb.

5) How to pick the best meaning? Common sense. What makes the best sense in the context of the sentence? I actually think that contextless sentences can be a bit difficult at times because one has to imagine of a bit of context with them.

Much of this will resolve with practice and as you get more Greek under your belt.
N.E. Barry Hofstetter, M.A., Th.M.
Ph.D. Student U of FL
Instructor of Latin
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy
καὶ σὺ τὸ σὸν ποιήσεις κἀγὼ τὸ ἐμόν. ἆρον τὸ σὸν καὶ ὕπαγε.
Stephen Carlson
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Joined: May 11th, 2011, 10:51 am
Location: Melbourne
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Re: Help Figuring Out What Definition and Gender to Use

Post by Stephen Carlson »

Barry Hofstetter wrote: September 22nd, 2021, 8:56 am 5) How to pick the best meaning? Common sense. What makes the best sense in the context of the sentence? I actually think that contextless sentences can be a bit difficult at times because one has to imagine of a bit of context with them.
True. A tip for Mounce is that he’ll put the most common glosses first, so try the first ones first before attempting the others.
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
Shirley Rollinson
Posts: 415
Joined: June 4th, 2011, 6:19 pm
Location: New Mexico
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Re: Help Figuring Out What Definition and Gender to Use

Post by Shirley Rollinson »

LearningGreek wrote: September 21st, 2021, 6:33 pm Hello,

I am trying to teach myself Koine Greek using Mounces Basics of Biblical Greek 4th ed. kit (book, lectures, flash cards, workbook, lexicon).

I am having problems with the first set of translating workbook exercises and the answers are not provided so I am unable to determine if I am correct or not.

I am having the same problem with all the exercises, so I will just pick one. He gives the verb meaning since he has not yet covered verbs, but tells us to figure out the gender of the verb.

10. καὶ νῦν ἡ βασιλεία σου (your) οὐ στήσεται (he/she/it will continue).

I have it broken down as follows

καὶ = and/even/also/namely
νῦν = adverb: now, noun: the present
ἡ βασιλεία = nom sg fem the kingdom
οὐ = not
στήσεται = she continue

- - - snip snip - - -
You're welcome to try the Online Textbook http://www.drshirley.org/greek/textbook02/index.html which has lots of practice sentences (Greek and English) so that learners can correct their work as they go along. It is also associated with sets of Homework Pages and Reading Reports, for which I can supply Answer Keys.
In your translation above, try to group the words into grammatical chunks
eg
ἡ βασιλεία σου = "your kingdom"
οὐ στήσεται = "he/she/it will not stand"

Because ἡ βασιλεία is grammatically feminine, the Greek would be (literally) "she will not stand", but English does not use a grammatical gender to the same extent as Greek, so English would say "it will not stand". Either way, the Greek verb is 3rd Person Singular στήσεται
Bill Mounce's book tends to be rather grammar-oriented - fine if you have a good foundation in English grammar and a bit of experience with other inflected languages, but it can be tough going for a self-learner.

Shirley Rollinson
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