What is the difference between ὁ θεὸς and ὁ θεός?

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schwartz
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What is the difference between ὁ θεὸς and ὁ θεός?

Post by schwartz »

John 20:28 says …ὁ θεός μου.

1 John 4:8 says …ὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν.

Why is the direction of the accent mark apparently context-dependent?

And which would be correct to refer to the phrase by itself embedded in English text? David Bentley Hart, who presumably knows how these things work, writes in the footnote to John 1:1 in his New Testament translation "…where the Greek speaks of ὁ θεός…", so that would seem to be proper, but confusion remains as to why the accent would ever be different.
Jonathan Robie
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Re: What is the difference between ὁ θεὸς and ὁ θεός?

Post by Jonathan Robie »

schwartz wrote: April 23rd, 2024, 5:37 pm John 20:28 says …ὁ θεός μου.

1 John 4:8 says …ὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν.

Why is the direction of the accent mark apparently context-dependent?
The accent changes based on the sound of the surrounding words - the phonological context. The rules for this are in most grammars, they are kind of complicated. Wikipedia has a decent article on this - see "rules for the placement of the accent":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_G ... the_accent

James Tauber's diagrams are really helpful here:

https://jktauber.com/2016/11/07/diagram ... placement/
schwartz wrote: April 23rd, 2024, 5:37 pmAnd which would be correct to refer to the phrase by itself embedded in English text?
θεός
schwartz wrote: April 23rd, 2024, 5:37 pmDavid Bentley Hart, who presumably knows how these things work, writes in the footnote to John 1:1 in his New Testament translation "…where the Greek speaks of ὁ θεός…", so that would seem to be proper, but confusion remains as to why the accent would ever be different.
Did my answer help?
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
schwartz
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Joined: April 23rd, 2024, 4:57 pm

Re: What is the difference between ὁ θεὸς and ὁ θεός?

Post by schwartz »

Jonathan Robie wrote: April 24th, 2024, 7:52 am Did my answer help?
Yes, thank you. Is the basic idea just reproducing the pronunciation that comes naturally/instinctively to a native speaker, and it only seems needlessly complicated to someone who's trying to learn it from a language like English that doesn't bother with accent marks?
Jonathan Robie
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Re: What is the difference between ὁ θεὸς and ὁ θεός?

Post by Jonathan Robie »

schwartz wrote: April 24th, 2024, 4:26 pm
Jonathan Robie wrote: April 24th, 2024, 7:52 am Did my answer help?
Yes, thank you. Is the basic idea just reproducing the pronunciation that comes naturally/instinctively to a native speaker, and it only seems needlessly complicated to someone who's trying to learn it from a language like English that doesn't bother with accent marks?
Yes. And listening to it read out loud can help give you a feel for that, over time.

YouVersion, for instance, can read the text to you out loud. Or FCBH.
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
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