“Have you ever wondered or considered,” asked Dr. D. James, President and teacher here at The Lay School in Clinton, Tennessee, “what is actually involved in translating the Bible from the original languages of Hebrew and Greek? I remember my Greek professor in college making this statement the first day of class, ‘We thought that if we went back to the original Greek we would clear up some of the ambiguity, but instead, we found more ambiguity than in the English!’ What we are about to present in this succinct overview is just the absolute tip of the iceberg of what is involved in translating from Koine Greek, and should quite quickly boggle the minds of most rank-and-file Christians.”
The process involved in translating from one language to another is very rewarding, but requires a great deal of study and practice to learn not only the basic structures of the language from which you are translating, but all of the individual nuances of that language; something that most people who speak English never give a thought to, forgetting much of what we were taught in our earliest days of elementary school where we learned the intricacies of the English language.
VERBS
Koine Greek has two conjugations for verbs: the omega (ω) and the mi (μι).
There are three verb voices in the Omega conjugation in Greek: active, middle, and passive.
The active voice contains eight tenses:
– present
– imperfect
– future
– first aorist
– second aorist
– first perfect
– second perfect
– first pluperfect
The middle voice contains seven tenses:
– present
– imperfect
– future
– first aorist
– second aorist
– perfect
– pluperfect
The passive voice contains four tenses:
– future
– future perfect
– first aorist
– second aorist
The mi conjugation contains two voices: the active voice and, the middle and passive voice. Both contain four tenses:
– present
– imperfect
– second aorist
– aorist passive
Then, all verb forms in most of the various tenses in both conjugations also have what is called ‘mood’:
– indicative
– subjunctive
– optative
– imperative
– infinitive
(the mi (μι) does not have the optative mood)
And, all verb forms in most of the various tenses in both conjugations also have participles, or verb adjectives.
[The chart at the top left of this article shows the conjugation of both the Omega and the Mi verbs. Although the verb forms cannot be read in this particular picture due to space limitations, a normal car key and key chain are laid on top of the foldout chart from Ray Summers book Essentials of New Testament Greek, to give the reader some idea of the size of the chart as well as the fine print of the details of the conjugations.]
NOUNS
Koine Greek contains three noun declensions:
– first in which the alpha “α” sound predominates
– second in which the omega “ο” sound predominates
– third in which the consonant stems predominate
The second declension contains the largest number of Greek nouns.
Each noun in Koine Greek appears in one of eight cases:
– Nominative
– Genitive
– Ablative
– Dative
– Locative
– Instrumental
– Accusative
– Vocative
The basic idea conveyed in each case is:
– Nominative – designation
– Genitive – description
– Ablative – separation
– Dative – interest
– Locative – location (or position)
– Instrumental – means
– Accusative – limitation
– Vocative – address
In addition, all noun forms also appear as either masculine, feminine, or neuter, and are either singular or plural; each with their own endings which are sometimes duplicated in other cases.
An example may be in order to help the reader appreciate the various forms and endings a noun in the second declension may take, and how it is translated:
CASE SINGULAR TRANSLATED AS
– Nominative ό λόγος the word
– Genitive τοΰ λόγου of the word
– Ablative τοΰ λόγου from the word
– Dative τω λόγω to the word
– Locative τω λόγω in the word
– Instrumental τω λόγω by the word
– Accusative τον λόγον –the word
– Vocative λόγε word
CASE PLURAL TRANSLATED AS
– Nominative οί λόγοί the words
– Genitive των λόγων of the words
– Ablative των λόγων from the words
– Dative τοις λόγοις to the words
– Locative τοις λόγοις in the words
– Instrumental τοις λόγοις by the words
– Accusative τούς λόγους — the words
– Vocative λόγοι words
NOTICE that several of the forms and endings are identical, meaning that any word having those endings may be translated in any of several ways, depending on the context or other factors.
In verb tenses and moods, as well as noun cases, the endings of the word determine which tense and mood (for verbs), or, what case (for nouns) the word falls in. One problem translators face is that some endings are duplicated across tenses and moods, (for verbs), as well as cases (for nouns), creating a challenge (as well as ambiguity) for the translator; ambiguity meaning that any of the variant forms and therefore possible translations are equally correct, with little definitive means to tell which is correct.
Then, if that is not enough, there are also prepositions, pronouns, adjectives, and the definite article (the word ‘the’), all of which also have endings related to the case of the noun they modify and by which they are respectively translated. (FYI- all of these facts concerning verbs, nouns, prepositions, pronouns, adjectives, and the definite article are very similar to the translation of Latin as well.)
All of these specific details (as well as others not mentioned here) MUST be taken into account by the translator in order to produce an accurate translation.
Why present this succinct overview of the basics of translation? Of what use is this information to the average rank-and-file church member or Christian, or for that matter, the typical Sunday School teacher and even most of our pastors? Most people, when confronted with these very basics of translation, begin to recognize the enormous amount of specific information and knowledge that is necessary to accurately translate any verse of the Bible from the original Greek language into English, and it gives them a new appreciation for those who devote their lives to the faithful preservation and transmission of the Holy Scriptures.
