New Testament Greek Class

p52 (John Rylands Library) John 18:31-33

Contact me at: [email protected] - Eric Weiss

Also see the class blog at New Testament Greek Class

I. FOR THE FIRST CLASS

A. THE TEXTBOOKS

Students are responsible for purchasing their own textbooks. The textbooks for the course (less than $50 total at Amazon.com) are:

1. N. Clayton Croy A Primer of Biblical Greek ISBN-10: 0802860001 ISBN-13: 978-0-8028-6000-2. The book has a Teacher's Guide on CD, with answers to all the Exercises.

2. United Bible Societies Greek New Testament 4th Edition (UBS4) with Greek-English Dictionary ISBN: 1598561693 or 3438051109 or (older) 3438051133. The text is the same for these various ISBNs; the more recent printings are "REVISED PRINTING WITH NEWLY PUBLISHED PAPYRI 98-116."

(NOTE: While the UBS Greek-English dictionary is a handy tool to have in the back of one's Greek New Testament - hence my recommendation of this as the edition to buy and use - it is no substitute for a real lexicon like BDAG.)

The first four lessons of Croy's grammar are here so students will be able to print them out and work on them if they don't yet have their textbooks. They're in Microsoft Word. You will need the free TekniaGreek font to read the Greek. (See II. Class Documents and Handouts (in MS Word and MS Excel) below for the TekniaGreek font.)

To keep my costs and printing time down, many of the handouts will be linked on this page so students can download and/or print copies for themselves. They'll be either Microsoft Word (.doc) or Microsoft Excel (.xls) files, or Webpages (.htm). If you're using a Macintosh, make sure you can read and work with Word and Excel files.

B. GREEK NEW TESTAMENT OPTIONS

Students who have other editions of the Greek New Testament and do not want to purchase a new one can use those. However, students will not be allowed to use an interlinear (i.e., English printed under the Greek) or diglot (i.e., Greek side-by-side with English) New Testament.

(NOTE: Each Lesson in Croy's textbook has several sentences to translate from the Septuagint (i.e., the Greek translation of the Old Testament that was the source for most of the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament, and abbreviated as "LXX"). Though Croy gives the additional vocabulary as necessary, students can purchase and use The Septuatint with Apocrypha: Greek-English by Lancelot Brenton, ISBN: 0913573442 ($29.67 at Amazon.com), a diglot, to check their translations, as well as for their own reading and study in conjunction with this course.)

The Greek texts of UBS4 and the earlier UBS3 (corrected) and UBS3, as well as the texts of Nestle-Aland 27th Edition (NA27) and NA26, are identical except for punctuation and pagination. The primary difference between the UBS and NA editions is that while the UBS editions list fewer textual variants, those they list are done so in more detail in terms of textual witnesses, and the reading chosen is rated for certainty. Also, since the UBS editions were prepared to help translators, they have some features like section headings and notes of how different translations vary in their punctuation that the NA editions do not have. There is now an edition of NA27 with the same Greek-English dictionary as the UBS "with dictionary" editions, but it costs more. There is also an edition of UBS4 with a Greek-Spanish, rather than Greek-English, dictionary.

There are also non-UBS/NA Greek New Testament editions available, including the Majority Text editions of Hodges and Farstad, and Robinson and Pierpont. These will differ in places from the readings in the UBS/NA text. These differences are likely often minor (e.g., occasional differences in word order), but there are also differences in the words included or omitted in various passages. This course does not really go into textual criticism, so students who want to know the arguments for one Greek text versus another should read the various books and papers on the subject.

C. FIRST THINGS FIRST

The first thing students will (and must) learn is 1. the pronunciation of the letters and sounds, and 2. the article paradigm (i.e., the word "the"). Students are expected to learn these by the third class.

1. For pronunciation, see the items under "Class Links and Resources" in section II. Class Documents and Handouts (in MS Word and MS Excel) below. Students can use either the Historical Pronunciation of Greek (HPG, sometimes referred to as "Modern Greek," as it's also how the language is pronounced today) or Dr. Randall Buth's Phonemic Koine Greek, which differs only slightly from HPG. Dr. Chrys Caragounis makes a good case for using the term "Historical Pronunciation of Greek" rather than "Modern Greek Pronunciation." See the link on this page to his article about this.

   Dr. Caragounis has produced a CD for learning the proper pronunciation of Greek. Per his description:

   "The CD is a simple but (I believe) adequate course for learning the Greek pronunciation. It works with Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP or NT 4.0. It requires 50 MB RAM. It consists of twelve lessons. The first seven lessons give the various rules succinctly with examples. All the examples have voice animation (i.e., click on the words to hear the word read/pronounced). Lesson 8 has some 25 sentences from very short to very long. Again, these have voice animation. Lessons 9-12 quote each a number of paragraphs from different books of the NT, normally important texts, which could be memorized. Again, voice animation. The voice is that of a Classical professor at Thessaloniki University. It is a very clear, strong voice, slowly modulated in order to make it possible for the non-Greek student to follow every syllable of the word. At the same time it is read in a natural way, where one can perceive the intonational fluctuation. (Those who think that Neohellenic has lost the pitch are out in the forest picking mushrooms! Their misunderstanding is due to their ridiculous overemphasis of pitch in ancient Greek and their neglect of stress. Stress and pitch are not exclusive of one another.) Anyway, in this voice animation you can hear the harmonious and pleasant fluctuation in pronunciation."

   Students will be purchasing this CD as part of the course, for hearing and learning proper pronunciation is very important. Dr. Caragounis has granted me permission to make and sell copies for $10 each to my students (versus the normal $15 + $5 shipping price), and I'll collect and send the payment to him. I also have a Macintosh version for students who need that; it runs on a Mac with OS X.3.9 (Panther) system, and should run with Tiger, too.

   Here is the sound file for Matthew 6:9-13 (The Lord's Prayer) from the CD so you can hear how it sounds.

   Installation Instructions for PC version:

   Windows Systems
   • Microsoft Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP or NT 4.0
   • Pentium II (or higher) PC
   • At least 32 MB RAM
   • 50 MB free disk space for Java JRE and program files
   • CD-ROM drive
   Program Installation
   • Copy all files to a new directory on your hard disk
   • Run the "Install Greek Font" batch file (If this doesn't install the fonts so you see the Greek characters in the Lessons, use the usual method of installing fonts - i.e., go to Start - Control Panel - Fonts - File - Install New Font - browse to the directory/folder with the fonts - Select all)
   • Restart your computer (this may or may not be necessary)
   To Run the Program
   • Go to the directory where you copied the files and run the "RUN_NTG" batch file (RUN_NTG.BAT) by double-clicking the left mouse button on the filename.

   NOTE: Though my work PC (XP Service Pack 2) runs the program fine by running the "RUN_NTG.BAT" file as instructed, it freezes up on my home PC (also XP Service Pack 2). However, running (i.e., double-clicking) the "NTG.jar" file in the "NTG" subfolder runs the program with no problems.

   I cannot stress too much how important it is for students to master the alphabet and pronunciation as soon as possible. It is my experience, as well as that of others, that students who do not learn to sight-read and pronounce Greek fairly well pretty early in the course will not master the course material. My best students have always been the best readers, and vice-versa. Students should a) read the class material and homework exercises, as well as the Greek New Testament, out loud at all times or whenever possible, and b) listen to the Caragounis CD until they can "hear" the sounds and intonation in their minds when they read the Greek New Testament.

2. For the article, see section III. The Greek Article below.

   Memorizing the article paradigm early on helps with noun and pronoun and adjective endings in so many ways that I am surprised that grammars do not have students do this at the beginning of the course when they learn the alphabet and pronunciation.

D. FIRST LESSONS

We'll do one Lesson per week so students can memorize all the new vocabulary each week. The textbook will be supplemented with additional vocabulary so students learn all words that occur 25x or more (and many or all that occur 20x or more), and with reading or other activities to use the class time and increase the learning content of the course. Students will learn more than in a typical 1st-year New Testament Greek course.

Lesson 1 is basically the alphabet and pronunciation (plus accents and syllabification). Ignore the pronunciations in the textbook and use my pronunciation charts instead (see C. FIRST THINGS FIRST above).

Lesson 2 is the Present Active Indicative and Present Active Infinitive forms of the verb, with some exercises to do.

Students who don't yet have the textbook can read and print out the first four Lessons of Croy's grammar here. They're in Microsoft Word. You will need the free TekniaGreek font to read the Greek. (See II. Class Documents and Handouts (in MS Word and MS Excel) below for the TekniaGreek font.)

E. MISCELLANEOUS

There is an online set of materials for Croy's textbook from a University of Oklahoma course. This is the first time I have taught using Croy, so I'll be developing the quizzes and handouts as the course progresses, supplementing the textbook as necessary. Some of this online material may be useful for both you and me. Note, though, that the pronunciation used and described is a combination of Erasmian and Ancient (i.e., pre-Koine) Greek, so ignore the pronunciation information and do not use or rely on the audio files.

II. Class Documents and Handouts (in MS Word and MS Excel)

These require the TekniaGreek font, available for free at http://www.teknia.com/index.php?page=tekniagreek.

"It is absolutely free without any restrictions, both its design and its mapping -- we would encourage you to adopt it in your writing, programming, and websites."

My appreciative "Thanks!" go to Dr. William (Bill) Mounce for his work in creating and distributing this font.

Class Links and Resources:

1. Greek Alphabet and Pronunciation - Historical Pronunciation of Greek and Dr. Randall Buth's Phonemic Koine Greek:
• MS Excel (.xls) spreadsheet
• Webpage (.htm)
2. Flashcards (front and back) - Letters and Sounds - HPG (and / Buth's pronunciations where they differ)
3. Greek Pronunciation links - Several links to hear various pronunciations
4. Katerina Sarri's Website with many, many links re: Greek and pronunciation:
• Greek Language and Alphabet
• Links for Greek Language and Alphabet
5. The Error of Erasmus and Un-Greek Pronunciations of Greek
by Dr. Chrys Caragounis. This article has now been superseded by the sixth chapter of Dr. Caragounis's book, The Development of Greek and the New Testament, which contains about 80% more material than the 1995 article (explanations, new information, additions of inscriptions and papyri, bibliography). Though the position is not changed, the presentation is much fuller in the book.
6. Phonemic Koine Pronunciation - Dr. Randall Buth's Notes on the Pronunciation System of Koine Greek, Imperial Koine Pronunciation
7. Vocabulary list for A Primer of Biblical Greek (in progress; expanded from the textbook to include all words that occur in the New Testament 25x or more).
• MS Excel (.xls) spreadsheet
8. Basics of Biblical Greek Vocabulary Cards - first 320 cards based on order of BBG (Mounce - every word 50x or more); cards 321-1000 ordered according to frequency:
• MS Excel (.xls) spreadsheet
• Class 20x words versus BBG Vocabulary Cards - Excel spreadsheet
9. Test on Greek Article (NGDA) - also see III. The Greek Article below

Links and Resources from past classes and other textbooks:

• National Biblical Greek Exam
• Greek To Me vocabulary
• Verb Paradigms: Chart 1 (arranged by Principal Part) | Chart 2 (fits on one page) (MS Excel)
• Helps for Third Declension Nouns (MS Word)
• Square of Stops (consonants + sigma) helps sheet (MS Word)
• Contract Verbs Contraction Chart
• Exegetical Fallacies - summary listing of word-study and grammatical fallacies from D. A. Carson's book of that title
• New Testament Greek Resources - books cited, used, or recommended in the class
• Greek New Testament Insert - comments and corrections
• Summary of NT Grammar - simplified summary of grammar taught in the class "Greek for the Rest of Us" (Greek for non-Greek students)
• Dr. Carl W. Conrad:
• Main Webpage
• Why Study Classical Greek?
• Propositions Concerning Ancient Greek Voice - Excerpt:
  2. The terms "deponent" and "deponency" are not useful in a discussion of ancient Greek voice, a fact that has been noted at least since A. T. Robertson�s big NT Greek Grammar. Conventionally the term has been used to refer to verb forms that have middle or passive voice forms but no active voice forms, e.g. δύναμαι, αποκρίνομαι, πορεύομαι. A distinction commonly employed is that between "middle deponents" (verbs with middle forms in the present tense and in the aorist tense, e.g. μάχομαι, εμαχεσάμην) and "passive deponents" (verbs with middle forms in the present tense and passive forms in the aorist tense, e.g. πορεύομαι, επορεύθην). Some verbs having active forms in the present tense but future tense forms that are middle (e.g. μανθάνω, μαθήσομαι) are often referred to as "future deponents." The term is sometimes also employed to refer to verbs that have middle or passive voice forms in the present tense but active forms in the aorist or perfect tense (e.g. ερχομαι, ηλθον, ελήλυθα; γί(γ)νομαι, γέγονα). The term "deponent" has been explained as deriving from the participle of the Latin verb depono, deponens with the sense "setting aside" or "laying aside," the idea being that "deponent" verbs "set aside" or "lay aside" their present-tense forms. Although the term "deponent" seems to derive from Latin grammatical descriptions of Latin verb forms, it is really questionable whether the term is properly applicable even to Latin verbs � but that is another matter altogether. My objection to the terms "deponent" and "deponency" is that they seem to imply that Greek verbs having no active present tense forms do not conform to standard Greek patterns of morphology or that they are somehow irregular, while I would contend that these verbs are so numerous in ancient Greek that they should not be deemed less standard than the admittedly larger body of verbs that do have active present tense forms. Alternatively the term "defective" is sometimes used for verbs that lack forms in one or more of the morphological paradigms of the ancient Greek verb; that might be a better term, but I think it would be preferable to acknowledge that a great many of the verbs in common everyday usage are "irregular" in that they do not display the full array of verb-forms one sees in the paradigms of λύω or παιδεύω in the appendices of primers of ancient Greek.
  3. In lieu of the term "deponent" I would suggest that we speak of "middle verbs." I would use this term for verbs whose primary present-tense form is middle-voice; that would include all the verbs that are traditionally or conventionally termed "deponent" but it would also include a sizable number of essentially intransitive verbs that display common middle-voice present-tense forms but also have a transitive active-voice form in the present tense, e.g. εγείρομαι "awake" or "rise up" with present active εγείρω "awaken" or "rouse" or "raise up," or ισταμαι "stand up" with present active ιστημι "cause to stand" or "establish," εγείρομαι(?) "assemble together" with present causative active εγείρω(?) "bring together" or "cause to gather."
• The Nicene (Nicene-Constantinopolitan) Creed - translation exercise after Chapter 12-B

III. The Greek Article (i.e., "the")

A good way to memorize the article is to write it out repeatedly, pronouncing the words out loud as you're writing them. Learning the article paradigm will help students identify the case, gender and number of adjectives, nouns, pronouns and relative pronouns. It's shown in the most commonly presented order of Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative (NGDA).

Greek Article Pronunciation (HPG / Randall Buth Reconstructed Koine; u = French u)

Singular	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	oh	ee / ey	toh
genitive	too	teece / tace	too
dative	toh	tee / tay	toh
accusative	tohn	teen / tane	toh
Plural	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	ee / u	eh	tah
genitive	tohn	tohn	tohn
dative	teece / tuce	tess	teece / tuce
accusative	tooce	tahs	tah

To aid in memorizing the article paradigm, note (per the colors in the paradigm chart):

1. the masculine and neuter forms are identical in the genitive and dative
2. for the singular and the plural, the neuter nominative and accusative forms are identical
3. the genitive plural is the same for all three genders
4. i, whether as a full letter or as a subscript i, is an indicator for the dative case
5. feminine forms are characterized by h or a, and masculine and neuter forms by o or w

IV. Examples of things obscured in English translation, but revealed in the Greek text

The symbol font is used for the Greek characters to enable most people viewing this Web page to read it without having to download special fonts. However, the symbol font will not allow the display of accents, breathing marks or iota subscripts.

• The correct antecedent of a relative pronoun - Matthew 1:16

  Matthew 1:16 reads: "And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, from whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ." There is nothing in this fairly literal English translation to indicate who is the "whom" that Jesus was born from. Was it Joseph, or was it Mary? But the Greek text reads: "Iakwb de egennhsen ton Iwshf ton andra MariaV ex hV egennhqh IhsouV o legomenoV CristoV." hV is a feminine relative pronoun, and clearly shows that the "whom" who begot Jesus was Mary, and not Joseph.

• The author's emphasis as indicated by word order - Ephesians 2:10

  The New American Standard Bible translation of Ephesians 2:10 reads: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Without using italic or boldface type, it is not apparent what the author's main point or emphasis is. However, the Greek text reads: "autou gar esmen poihma ktisqenteV en Cristw Ihsou epi ergoiV agaqoiV oiV prohtoimasen o qeoV ina en autoiV peripathswmen." "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand, in order that in them we should walk." The word order shows that Paul is emphasizing, in keeping with what he wrote in 2:7-9, that our being/becoming a new creation is God's doing, not ours (and also likely emphasizing, though less so, what we are to God, i.e., a "work" of his). Paul is also emphasizing that God's intent in (re)creating us in Christ was so that we would live ("walk") in accordance that purpose, rather than after our former manner of life (2:1-3), and he'll develop those details beginning in chapter 4.

• Poetic alliteration - Hebrews 1:1

  The Greek text of Hebrews 1:1 reads: "PolumerwV kai polutropwV palai o qeoV lalhsaV toiV patrasin en toiV profhtaiV...." The alliterative repetition of p is almost impossible to convey in English translation. One could perhaps transate it as: "In many and different parts and portions God in the past spoke to the patriarchs by the prophets."

• Presence of significant perfect tense verbs - I Corinthians 15:3-20

  The Greek text of I Corinthians 15:3-20 reads:

  3 paredwka ("I handed over" - aorist tense = simple statement of past event) gar umin en prwtoiV o kai parelabon ("I received" - aorist tense) oti CristoV apeqanen ("he died" - aorist tense) uper twn amartiwn hmwn kata taV grafaV
  4 kai oti etafh ("he was buried" - aorist tense) kai oti eghgertai ("he is raised/he has been raised" - perfect tense = emphasing a present or continuing state, often resulting from a past action) th hmera th trith kata taV grafaV
  5 kai oti wfqh ("he appeared/he was seen" - aorist tense) Khfa eita toiV dwdeka ...
  12 ei de CristoV khrussetai oti ek nekrwn eghgertai ("he is raised/he has been raised" - perfect tense) pwV legousin en umin tineV oti anastasiV nekrwn ouk estin
  13 ei de anastasiV nekrwn ouk estin oude CristoV eghgertai ("he is raised/he has been raised" - perfect tense)
  14 ei de CristoV ouk eghgertai ("he is raised/he has been raised" - perfect tense) kenon ara [kai] to khrugma hmwn kenh kai h pistiV umwn
  15 euriskomeqa de kai yeudomartureV tou qeou oti emarturhsamen kata tou qeou oti hgeiren ("he raised" - aorist tense) ton Criston on ouk hgeiren ("he raised" - aorist tense) eiper ara nekroi ouk egeirontai ("they are raised" - present tense = simple statement, or possibly with a futuristic sense)
  16 ei gar nekroi ouk egeirontai ("they are raised" - present tense = simple statement, or possibly with a futuristic sense) oude CristoV eghgertai ("he is raised/he has been raised" - perfect tense)
  17 ei de CristoV ouk eghgertai ("he is raised/he has been raised" - perfect tense) mataia h pistiV umwn eti este en taiV amartiaiV umwn
  18 ara kai oi koimhqenteV en Cristw apwlonto ("they perished" - aorist tense)
  19 ei en th zwh tauth en Cristw hlpikoteV esmen ("we have hoped" - periphrastic perfect participle, with the same sense as a perfect tense verb) monon eleeinoteroi pantwn anqrwpwn esmen
  20 nuni de CristoV eghgertai ("he is raised/he has been raised" - perfect tense) ek nekrwn aparch twn kekoimhmenwn.

  English translations sometimes translate the perfect tense verbs in this passage, especially in 15:4, as they translate the aorist tense verbs, i.e., as English past tense verbs (e.g., "(Christ) rose" or "(Christ) was raised" for eghgertai, the 3rd person singular perfect passive indicative form of egeirw), because to do otherwise (i.e., as perfect tense verbs) would perhaps sound awkward. The NET Bible translates this as: "... that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised⁴ on the third day according to the scriptures," and they explain their translation with the following footnote: "⁴tn Grk 'he has been raised/is raised,' using a Greek tense [i.e., the perfect tense - EW] that points to the present effect of the act of raising him. But in English idiom the temporal phrase 'on the third day' requires a different translation of the verb."

  When stating that Christ "died" and "was buried" and "appeared," and when simply stating that God "raised" Christ, Paul unremarkably uses the aorist tense. But he consistently uses the perfect tense of the verb when he writes of Christ that he "is raised" or "has been raised." This is probably significant for his argument against those who discount the fact of the resurrection, for Paul is not merely stating that, like his death and burial, Christ "was raised" at some time or as some event in the past, but that he is at present raised/risen. And the presence among them of the living, resurrected Christ (and/or of his spirit) as one who "is raised" (not merely "was raised") should be proof to them both of Christ's resurrection and that the dead "are (or "are to be") raised" (note Paul's use of the present tense for this phrase).

  While English translations often do revert to a perfect-tense-form translation of this verb in 15:12ff., e.g., "he has been raised" (but note that the King James Version has the aorist-sounding "he rose from the dead"), the English doesn't fully capture the effect and meaning of the Greek perfect, for I believe (as I stated above) that Paul's use of the perfect is also to emphasize that Christ "is raised/risen," not just that "he has been raised." I.e., he's emphasizing Christ's present state and position and standing vis-a-vis God and the church as a Risen and Living Lord.

  Note: Not all verbs in this passage have been color-highlighted and translated, as those that have been color-highlighted are sufficient to illustrate the point being made.

• Clues to the author's argument - Romans 10

  What Paul is setting forth in Romans 10 is more clearly understood when one sees, via the Greek text, how he has constructed or supported his argument. The Greek text of Romans 10 reads:

  5 MwushV gar grafei thn dikaiosunhn thn ek [tou] nomou oti o poihsaV auta anqrwpoV zhsetai en autoiV
  6 h de ek pistewV dikaiosunh outwV legei mh eiphV en th kardia sou tiV anabhsetai eiV ton ouranon tout estin Criston katagagein
  7 h tiV katabhsetai eiV thn abusson tout estin Criston ek nekrwn anagagein
  8 alla ti legei egguV sou to rhma estin en tw stomati sou kai en th kardia sou tout estin to rhma thV pistewV o khrussomen
  9 oti ean omologhshV en tw stomati sou kurion Ihsoun kai pisteushV en th kardia sou oti o qeoV auton hgeiren ek nekrwn swqhsh
  10 kardia gar pisteuetai eiV dikaiosunhn stomati de omologeitai eiV swthrian
  11 legei gar h grafh paV o pisteuwn ep autw ou kataiscunqhsetai
  12 ou gar estin diastolh Ioudaiou te kai EllhnoV o gar autoV kurioV pantwn ploutwn eiV pantaV touV epikaloumenouV auton
  13 paV gar oV an epikaleshtai to onoma kuriou swqhsetai
  14 pwV oun epikaleswntai eiV on ouk episteusan pwV de pisteuswsin ou ouk hkousan pwV de akouswsin cwriV khrussontoV
  15 pwV de khruxwsin ean mh apostalwsin kaqwV gegraptai wV wraioi oi podeV twn euaggelizomenwn [ta] agaqa
  16 all ou panteV uphkousan tw euaggeliw HsaiaV gar legei kurie tiV episteusen th akoh hmwn
  17 ara h pistiV ex akohV h de akoh dia rhmatoV Cristou
  18 alla legw mh ouk hkousan menounge eiV pasan thn ghn exhlqen o fqoggoV autwn kai eiV ta perata thV oikoumenhV ta rhmata autwn

  en is a preposition meaning "in, with, by," and hence Paul can use this same Greek word to write what we must translate with different prepositions as "by them," "in your heart," "in your mouth," "with your mouth," etc. The Greek text makes it clear how Paul is able to derive "confess with (en) your mouth" from Moses's statement that the word is "in (en) your mouth."

  The Greek words pistewV, pisteushV, pisteuetai, pisteuwn, episteusan, pisteuswsin, episteusen and pistiV all come from pistiV ("faith/belief") or pisteuw ("I believe/I have faith"). Some have made false distinctions between merely "believing" something (or merely having a "belief" about something) and having true "faith," based on the fact that we often use these two different English words (i.e., "faith" and "believe/belief") to translate what in the Greek are the same word (or, rather, come from the same root piq = "bind" and are in the pist- cognate group).

  The Greek words hkousan and akouswsin are forms of the Greek word akouw ("I hear"); uphkousan is a form of upakouw, which comes from upo ("under") + akouw ("I hear") and means "obey"; and akoh (and its genitive form akohV) is the Greek word that means "a report" or "what is heard," as well as "the act of hearing." It is clear in the Greek how Paul can derive in 10:17 that "faith comes from akoh (i.e., the act of hearing)" from his quote in 10:16 from Isaiah which reads: "Lord, who has believed our akoh (i.e., that which was heard from us)?" These akouw/akoh (i.e., "hearing") words are also linked by Paul to the pisteuw/pistiV (i.e., "believing") words in this passage through uphkousan ("they obeyed"), for Paul uses "who has believed (episteusen) our report" to prove that "not all obeyed (uphkousan) the gospel." Also, peiqw, a Greek word that also has piq = "bind" as its root, can, like upakouw, mean "I obey." In fact, in Hebrews 3:18, the word apeiqhsasin (participle of apeiqew, "I disobey") is in some manuscripts apisthsasin (participle of apistew, "I disbelieve"), perhaps because of the close semantic relationship between apeiqew and apistew, i.e., between (dis)obeying and (un)believing, or maybe because the words were considered interchangeable in some contexts. Also see Hebrews 4:6 where some manuscripts have apistian ("unbelief") instead of apeiqeian ("disobedience").

  The word euaggelizomenwn is the participial form of euaggelizomai ("I preach the gospel"), and the word euaggeliw is the dative form of euaggelion ("the gospel"). Hence the connection Paul makes between the preaching of the gospel and his use in 10:15 of the quote from Isaiah 52:7.

  After writing in 10:17 that hearing comes through or by the rhmatoV (genitive singular of rhma, "word") of or about Christ, Paul begins his discourse on the fact that Israel has indeed heard the gospel by quoting in 10:18 from Psalm 19 that "their rhmata ("words," nominative plural of rhma; hence, the rhma about Christ, i.e., the gospel) have gone out to the ends of the world."

• Allusions to OT passages - Galatians 3:28 (but cf. Colossians 3:11)

  Galatians 3:28 in the Greek text reads: "ouk eni IoudaioV oude Ellhn ouk eni douloV oude eleuqeroV ouk eni arsen kai qhlu panteV gar umeiV eiV este en cristw ihsou." While "Jew/Greek" and "slave/freeman" are joined by ouk ... oude ("neither ... nor"), the third pair, "male/female," is joined by ouk ... kai ("not ... and"), a possible or probable allusion to the wording in the LXX (Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures) of Genesis 1:27 where this exact phrase occurs. Paul may be using this as a reminder of the fact that the old creation (in which man was made "male and female") is no more, as there is a new creation in Christ. A comparison with Colossians 3:11 where Paul uses similar language, including the same verb in 3:10 that is used in Galatians 3:27 about putting on Christ or the new man, suggests that the distinction between ouk ... oude and ouk ... kai may be merely stylistic, as in the Colossians passage he uses ouk ... kai to join Ellhn ("Greek") and IoudaioV ("Jew"), and he serially lists and groups together all the other categories, including douloV ("slave") and eleuqeroV ("freeman"), with just commas.