Matthew 1:19

We will return later to the use of the various noun cases. Now, let us forge ahead with the next verse of Matthew. I have added a more-or-less literal translation in English, followed by a translation that makes sense. Remember that Joseph and Mary have just been betrothed, and Mary has been discovered to be pregnant.

Ιωσήφ δε ο ανήρ αυτής,
Joseph and/but/_ the husband of her
But Joseph her husband

δίκαιος ων
just being
being a just man

και μη θέλων αυτήν δειγματίσαι,
and not wishing her to make an example of
and not wishing to shame her publicly

εβουλήθη λάθρα απολύσαι αυτήν.
planned secretly to send away/release her.
secretly planned to send her away.

The word 'εβουλήθη' in the last phrase is given various definitions, from 'wish' or 'will' to 'have an intention' or 'be disposed.' (Left-click on this word at www.greekbiblestudy.org to see more.) In this case, I think the King James wording, old-fashioned as it is, gives a nice option: 'be minded to'.

Joseph is at the beginning of this verse:

Ιωσήφ δε ο ανήρ αυτής,
Joseph and/but/_ the husband of her
But Joseph her husband

'Ο ανήρ' is the Greek word for both 'husband' and 'man' ('man' as opposed to 'woman', not 'man' as opposed to 'animal'); it has retained this double meaning in modern Greek. Joseph is the husband 'αυτής', 'of her' ('αυτής' is the feminine genitive singular of the personal pronoun).

In the next phrase, we find and adjective ('δίκαιος') and a participle ('ων'). The adjective 'δίκαιος' means 'just' or 'righteous'. The participle is a form of the present participle of 'ειμί'; in other words it is the participle of 'to be' -- 'being.'

Both the adjective and the participle are in the masculine nominative singular form, because they both modify and agree with 'Ιωσήφ'. Here is the declension of the present participle meaning 'being', in the singular only:

........................ Masculine .......... Feminine .......... Neuter
Nominative..............ων.....................ούσα..................ον
Genitive................όντος...................ούσης...............όντος
Dative...................όντι.....................ούσῃ................όντι
Accusative............όντα.....................ούσην................ον

In the next phrase we have another participle, 'θέλων' - 'wishing', which also modifies 'Ιωσήφ' and thus is also in the masculine nominative singular form. Note the '-ων' ending, like the 'ων' of the participle of 'to be'.

και μη θέλων αυτήν δειγματίσαι

The 'μη' before 'θέλων' negates it, i.e., Joseph was 'not willing'.

What was he not willing to do? More next time . . . . Χαίρετε!

Further uses of the accusative: as the subject of an infinitive

We've actually met another use of the accusative already, in Matthew 1:18:

3) The accusative is used as the subject of an infinitive.

(Greek grammarians will tell you that, technically, the accusative here is not a true subject; it only seems like it is. But never mind.)

First of all, what is an infinitive? In English, it is the form of the verb using the word 'to':

to walk
to sleep
to circumnavigate

We use it in constructions such as

Peter doesn't want to take the bus to school, he wants to walk.
I tried to warn him.
She reads the newspaper to keep up with world events.

In English, we generally find the infinitive as a compliment, or explanation of the primary verb:
Peter wants something - what? He wants to walk, not to take the bus. I tried - what? I tried to warn him.

In the third example the use is slightly different. She reads the newspaper - why? In order to keep up with world events. Here the infinitive gives a reason for the action of the first verb, and in this kind of use the sentence still makes sense if you add the words 'in order' before the infinitive.

The infinitive is much used in koine Greek for similar constructions: here is John the Baptist, giving a warning (Matthew 3:7):

Γεννήματα εχιδνών,
Offspring of vipers

τις υπέδειξεν υμίν φυγείν από της μελλούσης οργής;
who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

In other words, who warned you - what? Who warned you to flee?

But the infinitive is also used in constructions which don't correspond so neatly to English. One of these is the construction we saw in Matthew 1:18:

πριν ή συνελθείν αυτούς
before they were married

This is an example of a temporal clause introduced by the conjunction 'πριν' (or, in this case, the variation 'πριν ή'). The conjunction 'πριν' can be followed by an infinitive, with the general meaning of 'before (an action happens)', the action being expressed by an infinitive.

In the example from Matthew 1:18 above, the action is 'were married', and is expressed by the infinitive of the verb συνέρχομαι, which is 'συνελθείν'.

And now we arrive, finally, at our accusative: as was mentioned earlier, in the discussion of this verse, the subject of 'were married' ('συνελθείν') is Mary and Joseph, 'they'. The form of 'they' used here is the accusative plural, 'αυτούς'; thus we have an accusative subject of the infinitive.

Χαίρετε!

The accusative case

The accusative case has a number of uses. We will begin with two of these; its use as direct object, and the accusative following a preposition.

1) The accusative case is used for a noun or pronoun which is the direct object of a verb.

In the sentence we discussed previously

Ο απόστολος βλέπει τον προφήτην.
The apostle sees the prophet.

the direct object is the object (in this case, the person) which is seen: the prophet. So 'τον προφήτην' is in the accusative case.

Here's another example, taken from John 3:16:

τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν
the son the only-begotten he gave
(he gave the only-begotten son)

God gave ('έδωκεν') the son ('τον υιόν'): 'the son' is the direct object of the verb 'gave', and is put in the accusative.

ο υίός . . . . . the son (nominative)
τον υιόν . . . . the son (accusative)


This is not the only use for this case, however.

2) The accusative is used following certain prepositions, in a prepositional phrase.

These are prepositional phrases:

in the house
with the apostle
over the hill

The preposition can be thought of as expressing some kind of relationship. In the sentence

The prophet is with the apostle.

the preposition 'with' indicates a relationship between the prophet and the apostle.

'Mary is in the house' also expresses a relationship - in this case, between Mary and the house.

In Greek, the noun or pronoun which follows a preposition is put into one of the non-nominative cases; i.e., into the accusative, the genitive, or the dative.

The preposition 'εις' for example ('into') is always followed by a noun/pronoun in the accusative:

Η Μαρία έρχεται εις τον οίκον.
Mary goes into the house.

The preposition 'εις' is always followed by the accusative. Other prepositions, however, may be followed by more than one case, with a resultant difference in meaning. For example, when the preposition 'κατά' is followed by the accusative, it can mean 'according to':

κατά τας γραφάς
according to the writings (Scriptures)

But when 'κατά' is followed by a noun/pronoun in the genitive, it means something else, generally 'down from' or 'against'. For example (from 2 Corinthians 13:8):

κατά της αληθείας
against the truth

Clearly, it is important to recognize this difference in the use of 'κατά', since 'against the truth' would mean something entirely different from 'according to the truth'.

A bit more on the accusative next time. Χαίρετε!

A second use for the nominative case

2) The nominative case is used for a predicate noun following a linking verb.

This is easier than it sounds in grammar-speak. In the sentence

Ο απόστολος βλέπει τον προφήτην.
The apostle sees the prophet.

only 'απόστολος' is in the nominative case, as subject of the verb. 'The prophet' ('τον προφήτην') is in the accusative case, as the direct object (what is being seen) of the verb.

But in the sentence

Ο απόστολός εστιν προφήτης.
The apostle is a prophet.

both 'απόστολος' and 'προφήτης' are in the nominative, because the verb 'εστιν' is a linking verb: it doesn't describe what the subject does, it describes what the subject is. The apostle is a prophet. In this sentence 'προφήτης' is a predicate noun, or predicate nominative.

The verbs that can serve as linking verbs include:

ειμι ('I am')

and

γίνομαι ('I become').

Χαίρετε!

Noun cases: the nominative

English is not a highly inflected language, and for that reason native English speakers often find noun cases confusing. In the sentences

The dog sees the cat.

and

The cat sees the dog.

we do not spell 'cat' and 'dog' differently. We understand which animal is the subject of the verb - which animal is doing the seeing - only via word order; in these examples, the subject comes first.

Greek, on the other hand, is a highly inflected language. Word order is flexible, and meaning comes from the use of different case endings. To read and understand a Greek sentence, you must be able to recognize the case form of each noun.

There are five noun cases in koine Greek: the nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and vocative. Today we will start our look at the nominative case.

1) The nominative case is used for the subject of a sentence.

Ο απόστολος βλέπει τον προφήτην.
The apostle sees the prophet.

'Ο απόστολος' is in the nominative case because 'the apostle' is the subject of the verb: he is doing the seeing. We have two clues indicating nominative: the 'ο' - the definite article in its masculine nominative singular form, and the '-ος' ending of 'απόστολος', also indicating masculine nominative singular.

If the sentence was reversed

Ο προφήτης βλέπει τον απόστολον.
The prophet sees the apostle.

the form of the nouns used would not be the same. Instead we would have 'τον' instead of 'ο' for the definite article, and 'απόστολον' instead of 'απόστολος' for 'apostle'.

What is the subject of this new sentence? 'Ο προφήτης', 'the prophet'. The word for 'prophet' is now in the nominative case instead of the word for 'apostle' (which is now in the accusative case; more on that later). Notice that although our first clue is the same (the definite article is always 'ο' for masculine nominative singular) the ending of the noun itself is different: '-ης' instead of '-ος'.

Why? (ask generations of Greek students, beating their heads against the nearest wall). It would certainly be easier if all masculine nouns ended in '-ος' in the nominative singular.

But they don't. The proper declension and pattern of endings must be identified for each word. Fortunately, after even a little reading in the New Testament you will become familiar with the endings of the most common nouns, and recognition of the proper forms will become automatic.

I promise. Next time we will move on to the second major use of the nominative case: the predicate nominative. In the meantime, χαίρετε!

Matthew 1:18, completed!

So far we have:

Mνηστευθείσης της μητρός αυτού Μαρίας τῳ Ιωσήφ,
(After/when) his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph

πριν ή συνελθείν αυτούς
before they got married

ευρέθη εν γαστρί έχουσα εκ πνεύματος αγίου.

The first word, 'ευρέθη' is an aorist passive form of the verb 'ευρίσκω', meaning generally, 'find'.
Since it's in the passive form, we can translate it as 'was found'. Who or what was found? - Mary.

Then we have an idiom: 'εν γαστρί έχουσα'. Literally this means, 'in belly/womb having', but the idiomatic meaning is 'pregnant'.

So before they got married, Mary was found (to be) pregnant. Notice that the literal meaning of these first four words, in the same order, would not make an easily readable phrase in English:

ευρέθη εν γαστρί έχουσα
was found in womb having
(was found to be pregnant)

But the kicker is at the end of the verse. Mary was found to be pregnant

εκ πνεύματος αγίου
out of spirit holy

The adjective 'άγιος' means 'holy', and 'πνεύματος' is the genitive singular form of the word 'πνεύμα', which has various meanings centered around 'breath' or 'wind', but here is translated 'spirit' (in older terminology, 'ghost'). (See www.greekbiblestudy.org and left-click on 'πνεύματος' in Matthew 1:18. Then choose 'short definition' or 'long definition' for more information about this word.)

The word 'εκ' is a preposition taking the genitive case; it means 'out of'.

So we have

εκ πνεύματος αγίου
out of (the) holy spirit

The article ('the') is typically added in English translations; it is not present in the Greek, which literally reads 'out of a spirit holy'.

So one genitive absolute, one use of the accusative as subject of an infinitive, two participles, and a couple more verbs later, and we're done! Altogether we read:

Του δε Ιησού Χριστού η γένεσις ούτως ην.
And the birth of Jesus the Messiah was thus -

Mνηστευθείσης της μητρός αυτού Μαρίας τῳ Ιωσήφ,
After his mother was betrothed to Joseph

πριν ή συνελθείν αυτούς
before they were married

ευρέθη εν γαστρί έχουσα
she was found to be pregnant

εκ πνεύματος αγίου.
out of (by) the holy spirit.

One verse, a lot of grammar. Χαίρετε!

Matthew 1:18, continued almost (!) to the end

Mνηστευθείσης της μητρός αυτού Μαρίας τῳ Ιωσήφ,
πριν ή συνελθείν αυτούς ευρέθη εν γαστρί έχουσα
εκ πνεύματος αγίου.

Now that one difficulty - the genitive absolute - is out of the way, we can continue with the rest of the verse. The first phrase told us that Mary was betrothed to Joseph. The rest of the verse explains what else happened while she was betrothed.

Let's start with:

πριν ή συνελθείν αυτούς
before got married they

The two words 'πριν ή' mean 'before.' Then we are faced with a second tricky piece of Greek grammar: the use of the accusative case as the subject of an infinitive. The verb 'συνελθείν' is the aorist infinitive of the verb 'συνέρχομαι' and the word 'αυτούς' is a pronoun in the accusative plural.

Although normally the subject of a verb is put in the nominative, when the verb is an infinitive, the subject is put into the accusative case. Here, 'αυτούς' refers to Mary and Joseph, and 'συνελθείν', which has a basic meaning of 'come together' or 'gather, assemble' can be translated 'got married'. Or (more directly, and in case anyone is still unclear as to the meaning) - 'slept together.'

So - before Mary and Joseph got married . . . what?

On Wednesday we will finish the verse, I promise.

Χαίρετε!