Kimberly asked an excellent question after translating Acts 1:1-2. Luke said that somebody or other chose (ἐξελέξατο) the apostles. Published English translations all seem to agree that the apostles were chosen by Jesus.
But is this clear in the Greek text? How do we know that it was not the Holy Spirit (who is also present in these verses) that did the choosing? How does Luke mean us to understand his text?
Reducing ambiguity of meaning is a challenge every language has to resolve. One of the tools Greek uses is noun cases.
After the discussion of cases, at the end of this lesson, I will revisit Kimberly's question.
A lot of the meaning that, in English, we package about nouns by means of word order is captured in Greek by noun-suffixes, which define their "case". There is one relatively rare case, and four very common cases in NT Greek.
The rare case is:
The four very common cases are:
Use:
- Vocative is the case you use when you address a person by name.
If I said in Greek, “Watson come here, I want you" (as Alexander Graham Bell said on March 10, 1876 in the world's first phone call), then the name "Watson" would be in the vocative case because I am addressing Watson directly.
In the NT, there is not much you need to learn about the vocative case. The context typically makes it crystal clear that a person is being addressed directly. So you don't need to spend a lot of energy on deliberately learning the vocative case.
Uses:
- Subject of sentence.
- Second half of verbal equation of: nominative + "be verb" + predicate nominative.
Subject of Sentence
The subject of the sentence is that which is sentence is about, or that which performs the action of the verb.
- The Word existed in the very beginning. (Jn. 1:1)
Word is the subject of the sentence, so in Greek it will be in the nominative case. And since the definite article in Greek agrees with its noun, The will also be in the nominative case.
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος. In this sentence the highlighted characters tell you that "Word" is in the nominative case, as well as its definite article. And in this case, it is nominative singular masculine.
- Love is from God. (1 Jn. 4:7)
Love is the subject of this sentence, and so in Greek is in the nominative case.
ἡ ἀγάπη ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐστιν. These endings are also nominative...in this instance, nominative singular feminine.
You can see that, unlike English, where the subject of the sentence typically comes first, the subject of a Greek sentence can come at the beginning or the end.
What clarifies that it is the subject is the case ending. If a given noun (with, if present, its definite article) is nominative, it is indeed the subject of that particular sentence.
- It is possible for a sentence to have no noun in the nominative case, if the subject of the sentence is sufficiently implied by the verb.
(I) wrote the first book.... (Acts 1:1)Since Greek verbs come in flavors like first person singular or third person singular, in Acts 1:1 the verb wrote (which has a first person singular suffix) makes it crystal clear that the subject of the sentence is Luke himself, the "I" of the sentence.
In addition to being the subject of the sentence, a nominative nouns will occur as the second half of the verbal equation "A is (or was) B", as in:
- God is love. (1 Jn. 4:8) ὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν
calls the structure of a sentence like this a Nominative plus a be-verb plus a predicate nominative.
Which of the two nominative nouns is the actual subject of the sentence in 1 Jn. 4:8 is clarified by the use of the definite article. So the translation is "God is love" rather than "Love is God."
Uses:
- Follows a preposition, and clarifies how the preposition is to be translated.
- Of, From, to Indicate Possession.
When it is preceded by a preposition, the use of the genitive (rather than the dative or accusative) can indicate how the preposition is to be translated.
- Acts 1:1, "I wrote about everything" (περὶ πάντων).
The suffix of "everything" ων tells you that the noun "everything" is a genitive plural neuter, which in turn tells you that the preposition περὶ is to be translated as "about" rather than "around".
- The genitive frequently is translated by "of" or as a mark of possession. So in Acts 1:3 "the kingdom τοῦ θεοῦ", which has a genitive singular masculine ending , could either be translated as:
- the kingdom of God
or as...
- God's kingdom.
- So also in Acts 1:4, we have "the promise τοῦ πατρὸς" as "the promise of the Father" or "the Father's promise."
This one is tricky, as the ὸς of πατρὸς looks like a nominative singular masculine, like λόγος. But the tip-off that we are looking at a genitive singular masculine (of πατήρ, as it turns out) is in the definite article.
The τοῦ of τοῦ πατρὸς is unequivocally a genitive definite article, while the ὁ of ὁ λόγος is unequivocally nominative.
- Another use of the genitive is to capture the notion of "from" as in Acts 1:4 where Jesus talks to his disciples about "the promise you heard about μου", the promise you heard about from me.
Uses:
- Follows a preposition, and clarifies how the preposition is to be translated.
- To (including its use as indirect object).
- By, With.
When it is preceded by a preposition, the use of the dative (rather than the genitive or accusative) can indicate how the preposition is to be translated.
- In John 1:1, we ran into ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν (The Word was with God).
We know the intended meaning is "with God" because τὸν θεόν is in the accusative.
Had "God" been in the dative (ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τῷ θεῷ) then the proper translation would have been "The Word was near God".
Your lexicon will indicate where prepositions shift meaning depending on the case of the noun following.
The indirect object of a verb is the recipient of the direct object.
- Acts 1:2 Jesus gave instructions to the apostles (τοῖς ἀποστόλοις).
- Acts 1:3 Jesus appeared to them (αὐτοῖς)
- Acts 1:5 John baptized you with water (ὕδατι is an irregular dative of the noun ὕδωρ water).
In this sentence, there is no preposition in the phrase "with water". The sense of "with" is captured by the word "water" being in the dative case.
Uses:
- Follows a preposition, and clarifies how the preposition is to be translated.
- Direct Object of Verb
See the section above on the dative for how the πρὸς in ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν gets its meaning because τὸν θεόν is in the accusative case.
A direct object is a noun that receives the action of the verb.
- Acts 1:1 I wrote the first book (Τὸν μὲν πρῶτον λόγον ἐποιησάμην).
- Acts 1:3 Jesus presented himself (παρέστησεν ἑαυτὸν).
- Acts 1:4 Wait for the promise (περιμένειν τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν).
Click for the next page, to review vocabulary and case/function.