Matthew 1:6

Now we come to the end of the first series of begats, which began with Abraham, and ends with King David:

Ιεσσαί δε εγέννησεν τον Δαυίδ τον βασιλέα.

Jesse and/_ fathered the David the king.

Note that in modern Greek pronounciation, 'Δαυίδ' is pronounced thav-EETH. The 'αυ' vowel combination is pronounced 'av' (as in avant garde), and so we get the English 'v' sound in the middle of the word. The 'th' sounds are confusing, however, because there is no simple way to distinguish in typescript between the two versions of the 'th' sound in English: 'though' vs. 'thought'. The Greek delta ('δ') is pronounced the first way, as in 'though'.

The New King James Version translates this as 'and Jesse begot David the king.' Both the NIV and the NRSV read 'and Jesse the father of King David.'

The word 'βασιλέα' means 'king.' It is in the accusative case, because King David is the object of the verb εγέννησεν. The dictionary (nominative) form of this word is ο βασιλέυς ('the king').

One of the most useful ways of learning Greek vocabulary is to learn words in cognate groups; that is, to learn a group of words that are related to each other. For example, in the case of βασιλεύς we also have:

βασιλεύω - the verb meaning 'to rule, be king, become king'
η βασιλεία - a noun meaning 'kingdom, reign, royal power'
η βασίλισσα - the noun meaning 'queen'
βασίλειος - an adjective meaning 'royal'
βασιλικός - another adjective, also meaning 'royal'

This isn't the end of the verse; we will continue on tomorrow with the descendants of King David.