Notes On Koine Greek: Part 2

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1. Morphemes: All Greek verbs contain at least 2 morphemes: Lexical

Morpheme and Person-Number Suffix Morpheme.
2. Mood: The most common is the Indicative Mood. 75% of the verbs in the New
Testament are in the Indicative mood.
3. Indicative Mood: In Greek, mood refers to the way that a speaker affirms the
reality or unreality of a particular action. More will be said about mood in later
notes.
4. Voice: Greek has 3 Voices: Active, Passive, Middle. Voice deals with the way
in which the speaker desires to relate the subject of the sentence to the verb.
5. Active Voice: Subject is producing the action. (I am teaching)
6. Passive Voice: Subject is receiving the action. (I am being taught)
7. Middle Voice: Originally, the middle voice combined the active and passive
voice. (Thus: I am teaching myself); it used to be reflexive. However, in the
New Testament that’s not really its usage at all. In the New Testament, its usage
is akin to saying: “He’s Showering…himself” except, the “himself” is already
assumed, you don’t have to say it. Or “He’s bathing…himself”. Again,
“himself” is already assumed, so, you really don’t include it, you just say: “He’s
bathing.” The Passive & Middle will be discussed more later.
a. Use the mnemonic of “AMP” (which is related to sound) to
remember the “voices” of Greek. (Note: “M” represents
“Imperfective)
8. Tense: Greek has the following 7 tenses: Present, Future, Imperfect, Aorist,
Perfect, Pluperfect and the Future Perfect. Tense is related to Aspect.
9. Aspect: Greek aspect tells us “how” something happened.
a. Aoristic: Undefined, simply states that it happened; not calling attention
to how it happened. (Jesus took the loaves, blessed the loaves, broke the
loaves, and gave the loaves. – All aorist.)
b. Imperfective: Continual, habitual, not completed (example of a
continuing line). (Jesus took the loaves, blessed the loaves, broke the
loaves, and he kept on giving the loaves. – All aorist except the very last
one, where Jesus kept on giving.) Another example: “The disciple that
Jesus kept on loving.”
c. Perfective: Completed (example of a dot or period; it’s completed).
Example: Christ is risen!
10. In Summary, it is important to remember that Greek verbs have Mood, Voice,
Tense & Aspect as well as Person & Number.