3.21 Septuagint and New Testament Verses

Although you are not required to work through the Septuagint and New Testament verses in Croy, you will find it to be very valuable practice! Below you will find some commentary on those sentences.

If you want to work on the sentences and take a quiz about the sentences for extra credit, you will find the quiz at Desire2Learn. It consists of multiple choice questions, and you can earn up to 2 points of extra credit.

Septuagint

1. καὶ ἔσῃ ἐν διασπορᾷ ἐν πάσαις ταῖς βασιλείαις τῆς γῆς

Notice that the subject of the verb ἔσῃ is the second person singular. Out of context, you do not know who the speaker is addressing (in other words, you do not know who "you" is!).

2. ἐδίκαζεν Σαμουηλ . . . Ισραηλ πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας τῆς ζωῆς αὐτοῦ

The name Σαμουηλ is an indeclinable name; here it is in the nominative case, the subject of ἐδίκαζεν (and notice how the subject follows the verb). Ισραηλ is another indeclinable name; here it is in the accusative, the object of ἐδίκαζεν. The word ἡμέρας is in the accusative case, which is the case used to express the duration of time (in English, we use the preposition "for" to express duration of time: "I sat there for six hours.") The genitive αὐτοῦ is used here to indicate possession ("of him" = "his").

3. δουλεύσατε αὐτῷ ἐν ἀληθείᾳ καὶ ἐν ὅλῃ καρδίᾳ ὑμῶν

Again, out of context, you do not know who the second person plural subject of the verb δουλεύσατε is, and you also do not know who the pronoun αὐτῷ refers to. The genitive ὑμῶν is used here for possession ("of you" = "your").

4. καὶ γνώσονται πᾶσαι αἱ βασιλεῖαι τῆς γῆς ὅτι σὺ κύριος ὁ θεὸς μόνος

Notice that the nominative subject, βασιλεῖαι, follows the verb. As often in Greek, the form of the verb "to be" is implied but not expressed in the subordinate clause ( σὺ κύριος ὁ θεὸς μόνος).

5. ἀλήθεια ἐκ τῆς γῆς ἀνέτειλεν

As often in Greek, the preposition phrase (ἐκ τῆς γῆς) precedes the verb (ἀνέτειλεν), whereas in English a prepositional phrase almost always comes after the verb.

6. ἐξομολογήσονται οἱ οὐρανοὶ . . . τὴν ἀλήθειάν σου ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ ἁγίων

Notice that the nominative subject comes after the verb. The genitive σου here indicates possession ('of you" = "your").

7. καὶ βοήσει . . . ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ ὡς φωνὴ θαλάσσης

Notice that the subject of the verb βοήσει is not expressed. You can check the Isaiah 5 for the context.

New Testament

1. ὅτι τὴν ἀλήθειαν λέγω, οὐ πιστεύετέ μοι.

Notice that the object ἀλήθειαν precedes the verb λέγω.

2. τὰ πρόβατα . . . . ἀκούει . . . ὅτι οἴδασιν τὴν φωνὴν αὐτοῦ

One of the most odd features of Greek is that a neuter plural noun, like πρόβατα here, can take a singular verb: ἀκούει. The genitive αὐτοῦ is being used to express possession ("of him" = "his").

3. λέγει αὐτῷ . . . Ἰησοῦς, Ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωή

Notice that the subject, Ἰησοῦς, follows the verb λέγει. Notice also the absence of quotation marks, but the first word of the direct speech, Ἐγώ, is capitalized (not all Greek books follow this convention of using capitalization to indicate the first word of quoted speech).

4. [God] ἐποίησεν τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν καὶ τὴν θάλασσαν

Croy has supplied the word "God" in brackets here so that you will know who the subject of the verb is. The verb form only tells you that the subject is she or he or it. You need the context to indentify the specific identify of the subject of the verb.

5. [To God be] ἡ δόξα ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ καὶ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ . . . ἀμήν.

As you will learn, the word χριστός in Greek is from the verb χρίω which means to rub or anoint, so χριστός means "anointed".

6. ἐγὼ . . . λέγω εἰς Χριστὸν καὶ εἰς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν.

The use of the pronoun ἐγὼ is emphatic, because the subject of the verb is already indicated as first person singular by the form of the verb itself: λέγω. This emphatic use of the personal pronoun is hard to translate into English, since we use the pronouns as a matter of grammatical necessity to indicate the subject of the verb. When you see the first and second person pronouns in the nominative case, they are being used for stylistic reasons, since the first and second person subjects are already indicated by the verb form.

7. βλέπετε ἐγγίζουσαν τὴν ἡμέραν.

Notice that when you translate this sentence into English you pretty much have to put the participle (ἐγγίζουσαν) after the noun it agrees with (ἡμέραν), instead of letting it stand before the noun, as it does here in the Greek.