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Koine Greek
Koine Greek (UK: /ˈkɔɪniː/,[1] US: /kɔɪˈneɪ, ˈkɔɪneɪ,
Koine Greek
kiːˈniː/),[2][3] also known as Alexandrian dialect, common
Region Eastern Roman Empire
Attic, Hellenistic or Biblical Greek, was the common supra-
regional form of Greek spoken and written during the Era 300 BC – 300 AD
Hellenistic period, the Roman Empire, and the early Byzantine
(Byzantine official use
until 1453)
Empire, or late antiquity. It evolved from the spread of Greek
following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the fourth Language Indo-European
family
century BC, and served as the lingua franca of much of the Hellenic
Mediterranean region and the Middle East during the following
Greek
centuries. It was based mainly on Attic and related Ionic speech
Attic–Ionic
forms, with various admixtures brought about through dialect
levelling with other varieties.[4] Koine Greek

Early Proto-Greek
Koine Greek included styles ranging from more conservative
forms
literary forms to the spoken vernaculars of the time.[5] As the Ancient Greek
dominant language of the Byzantine Empire, it developed Writing Greek alphabet
further into Medieval Greek, which then turned into Modern system
Greek.[6] Language codes
ISO 639-2 grc (https://www.loc.go
Literary Koine was the medium of much of post-classical Greek
v/standards/iso639-2/ph
literary and scholarly writing, such as the works of Plutarch and
p/langcodes_name.php?co
Polybius.[4] Koine is also the language of the Christian New
de_ID=173)
Testament, of the Septuagint (the 3rd-century BC Greek
ISO 639-3 (includes all pre-
grc
translation of the Hebrew Bible), and of most early Christian
modern stages)
theological writing by the Church Fathers. In this context, Koine
Greek is also known as "Biblical", "New Testament", Linguist grc-koi (http://multitr
List ee.org/codes/grc-koi)
"ecclesiastical" or "patristic" Greek.[7] The Roman Emperor
Marcus Aurelius also wrote his private thoughts in Koine Greek Glottolog None
in a work that is now known as The Meditations.[8] It continues
to be used as the liturgical language of services in the Greek Orthodox Church.[9]

Contents
Name
Origins and history
Sources
Types
Biblical Koine
Septuagint Greek
New Testament Greek

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Patristic Greek
Differences between Attic and Koine Greek
Differences in grammar
Phonology
New Testament Greek phonology

Sample Koine texts

Sample 1 – A Roman decree
Sample 2 – Greek New Testament
Notes
References
Further reading
External links

Name
The English-language name Koine derives from the Koine Greek term ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος he koinè
diálektos, "the common dialect". The Greek word koinē (κοινή) itself means "common". The word is
pronounced /kɔɪˈneɪ/, /ˈkɔɪneɪ/ or /kiːˈniː/ in US English and /ˈkɔɪniː/ in UK English. The pronunciation of
the word in Koine itself gradually changed from [koinéː] (close to the Classical Attic pronunciation [koinɛ́ː])
to [kyˈni] (close to the Modern Greek [ciˈni]). In Greek, the language has been referred to as Ελληνιστική
Κοινή, "Hellenistic Koiné", in the sense of "Hellenistic supraregional language").

Ancient scholars used the term koine in several different senses. Scholars such as Apollonius Dyscolus
(second century AD) and Aelius Herodianus (second century AD) maintained the term Koine to refer to the
Proto-Greek language, while others used it to refer to any vernacular form of Greek speech which differed
somewhat from the literary language.[10]

When Koine Greek became a language of literature by the first century BC, some people distinguished two
forms: written as the literary post-classical form (which should not be confused with Atticism), and
vernacular as the day-to-day vernacular.[10] Others chose to refer to Koine as "the dialect of Alexandria" or
"Alexandrian dialect" (ἡ Ἀλεξανδρέων διάλεκτος), or even the universal dialect of its time. Modern
classicists have often used the former sense.

Origins and history

Koine Greek arose as a common dialect within the armies of Alexander the Great.[10] Under the leadership
of Macedon, their newly formed common variety was spoken from the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt to the
Seleucid Empire of Mesopotamia.[10] It replaced existing ancient Greek dialects with an everyday form that
people anywhere could understand.[11] Though elements of Koine Greek took shape in Classical Greece, the
post-Classical period of Greek is defined as beginning with the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC,
when cultures under Greek sway in turn began to influence the language.

The passage into the next period, known as Medieval Greek, dates from the foundation of Constantinople
by Constantine the Great in 330. The post-Classical period of Greek thus refers to the creation and
evolution of Koine Greek throughout the entire Hellenistic and Roman eras of history until the start of the

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Middle Ages.[10]

The linguistic roots of the Common Greek dialect had been

unclear since ancient times. During the Hellenistic period,
most scholars thought of Koine as the result of the mixture
of the four main Ancient Greek dialects, "ἡ ἐκ τῶν τεττάρων
συνεστῶσα" (the composition of the Four). This view was
supported in the early twentieth century by Paul Kretschmer
in his book Die Entstehung der Koine (1901), while Ulrich
von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff and Antoine Meillet, based on
the intense Ionic elements of the Koine – σσ instead of ττ
Greek-speaking areas during the
and ρσ instead of ρρ (θαλάσσα – θάλαττα, 'sea'; ἀρσενικός – Hellenistic period (323 to 31 BC).
ἀρρενικός, 'potent, virile') – considered Koine to be a
Dark blue: areas where Greek
simplified form of Ionic.[10]
speakers probably were a majority.
The view accepted by most scholars today was given by the Light blue: areas that were
Greek linguist Georgios Hatzidakis, who showed that, Hellenized.

despite the "composition of the Four", the "stable nucleus"

of Koine Greek is Attic. In other words, Koine Greek can be
regarded as Attic with the admixture of elements especially from Ionic, but also from other dialects. The
degree of importance of the non-Attic linguistic elements on Koine can vary depending on the region of the
Hellenistic World.[10]

In that respect, the varieties of Koine spoken in the Ionian colonies of Anatolia (e.g. Pontus, cf. Pontic
Greek) would have more intense Ionic characteristics than others and those of Laconia and Cyprus would
preserve some Doric and Arcadocypriot characteristics, respectively. The literary Koine of the Hellenistic
age resembles Attic in such a degree that it is often mentioned as Common Attic.[10]

Sources
The first scholars who studied Koine, both in Alexandrian and contemporary times, were classicists whose
prototype had been the literary Attic Greek of the Classical period and frowned upon any other variety of
Ancient Greek. Koine Greek was therefore considered a decayed form of Greek which was not worthy of
attention.[10]

The reconsideration on the historical and linguistic importance of Koine Greek began only in the early 19th
century, where renowned scholars conducted a series of studies on the evolution of Koine throughout the
entire Hellenistic period and Roman Empire. The sources used on the studies of Koine have been
numerous and of unequal reliability. The most significant ones are the inscriptions of the post-Classical
periods and the papyri, for being two kinds of texts which have authentic content and can be studied
directly.[10]

Other significant sources are the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, and the Greek
New Testament. The teaching of the Testaments was aimed at the most common people, and for that
reason they use the most popular language of the era.

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Other sources can be based on random findings such as inscriptions on vases written by popular painters,
mistakes made by Atticists due to their imperfect knowledge of Attic Greek or even some surviving Greco-
Latin glossaries of the Roman period,[12] e.g.:

Καλήμερον, ἦλθες;
Bono die, venisti?
Good day, you came?

Ἐὰν θέλεις, ἐλθὲ μεθ' ἡμῶν.

Si vis, veni mecum.
If you want, come with us.[13]

Ποῦ;
Ubi?
Where?

Πρὸς φίλον ἡμέτερον Λεύκιον.

Ad amicum nostrum Lucium.
To our friend Lucius.

Τί γὰρ ἔχει;
Quid enim habet?
Indeed, what does he have?
What is it with him?

Ἀρρωστεῖ.
Aegrotat.
He's sick.

Finally, a very important source of information on the ancient Koine is the modern Greek language with all
its dialects and its own Koine form, which have preserved some of the ancient language's oral linguistic
details which the written tradition has lost. For example, Pontic and Cappadocian Greek preserved the
ancient pronunciation of η as ε (νύφε, συνέλικος, τίμεσον, πεγάδι for standard Modern Greek νύφη,
συνήλικος, τίμησον, πηγάδι etc.),[14] while the Tsakonian language preserved the long α instead of η
(ἁμέρα, ἀστραπά, λίμνα, χοά etc.) and the other local characteristics of Doric Greek.[10]

Dialects from the southern part of the Greek-speaking regions (Dodecanese, Cyprus, etc.), preserve the
pronunciation of the double similar consonants (ἄλ-λος, Ἑλ-λάδα, θάλασ-σα), while others pronounce in
many words υ as ου or preserve ancient double forms (κρόμμυον – κρεμ-μυον, ράξ – ρώξ etc.). Linguistic
phenomena like the above imply that those characteristics survived within Koine, which in turn had
countless variations in the Greek-speaking world.[10]

Types

Biblical Koine

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Biblical Koine refers to the varieties of Koine Greek used in Bible

translations into Greek and related texts. Its main sources are:

The Septuagint, a 3rd-century BC Greek translation of the

Hebrew Bible and texts not included in the Hebrew Bible;
The Greek New Testament, compiled originally in Greek.

Septuagint Greek
There has been some debate to what degree Biblical Greek
represents the mainstream of contemporary spoken Koine and to
what extent it contains specifically Semitic substratum features.
These could have been induced either through the practice of
translating closely from Biblical Hebrew or Aramaic originals, or
through the influence of the regional non-standard Greek spoken
by originally Aramaic-speaking Hellenised Jews.
Papyrus 46 is one of the oldest
extant New Testament
Some of the features discussed in this context are the Septuagint's
manuscripts in Greek, written on
normative absence of the particles μέν and δέ, and the use of papyrus, with its 'most probable
ἐγένετο to denote "it came to pass." Some features of Biblical Greek date' between 175–225.
which are thought to have originally been non-standard elements
eventually found their way into the main of the Greek language.

S.J. Thackery, in A Grammar of the Old Testament in Greek According to the Septuagint (1909), wrote
that only the five books of the Pentateuch, parts of the Book of Joshua and the Book of Isaiah may be
considered "good Koine". One issue debated by scholars is whether and how much the translation of the
Pentateuch influenced the rest of the Septuagint, including the translation of Isaiah.[15]

Another point that scholars have debated is the use of ἐκκλησία ekklēsía as a translation for the Hebrew ‫קָ הָ ל‬
qāhāl. Old Testament scholar James Barr has been critical of etymological arguments that ekklēsia refers to
"the community called by God to constitute his People". Kyriakoula Papademetriou explains:

He maintains that ἐκκλησία is merely used for designating the notion of meeting and
gathering of men, without any particular character. Therefore, etymologizing this word could
be needless, or even misleading, when it could guide to false meanings, for example that
ἐκκλησία is a name used for the people of God, Israel.[16]

New Testament Greek

The authors of the New Testament follow the Septuagint translations for over half their quotations from the
Old Testament.[17]

The "historical present" tense is a term used for present tense verbs that are used in some narrative
sections of the New Testament to describe events that are in the past with respect to the speaker. This is
seen more in works attributed to Mark and John than Luke.[18] It is used 151 times in the Gospel of Mark in
passages where a reader might expect a past tense verb. Scholars have presented various explanations for
this; in the early 20th century some scholars argued that the use of a historical present tense in Mark was

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due to the influence of Aramaic, but this theory fell out of favor in the 1960s. Another group of scholars
believed the historical present tense was used to heighten the dramatic effect, and this interpretation was
favored in the New American Bible translation. In Volume II of the 1929 edition of A Grammar of the New
Testament, W.F. Howard argues that the heavy use of the historical present in Herodotus and Thucydides,
compared with the relatively infrequent usage by Polybius and Xenophon was evidence that heavy use of
this verb tense is a feature of vernacular Koine, but other scholars have argued that the historical present
can be a literary form to "denote semantic shifts to more prominent material."[19][20]

Patristic Greek
The term patristic Greek is sometimes used for the Greek written by the Greek Church Fathers, the Early
Christian theologians in late antiquity. Christian writers in the earliest time tended to use a simple register
of Koiné, relatively close to the spoken language of their time, following the model of the Bible. After the
4th century, when Christianity became the state church of the Roman Empire, more learned registers of
Koiné also came to be used.[21]

Differences between Attic and Koine Greek

The study of all sources from the six centuries which are symbolically covered by Koine reveals linguistic
changes from ancient Greek on elements of the spoken language including grammar, word formation,
vocabulary and phonology (sound system).

Most new forms start off as rare and gradually become more frequent until they are established. As most of
the changes between modern and ancient Greek were introduced via Koine, Koine is largely familiar and at
least partly intelligible to most writers and speakers of Modern Greek.

Differences in grammar

Phonology
During the period generally designated as Koine Greek a great deal of phonological change occurred. At the
start of the period pronunciation was virtually identical to Ancient Greek phonology, whereas in the end it
had much more in common with Modern Greek phonology.

The three most significant changes were the loss of vowel length distinction, the replacement of the pitch
accent system by a stress accent system, and the monophthongization of several diphthongs:

The ancient distinction between long and short vowels was gradually lost, and from the second century
BC all vowels were isochronic (having equal length).[10]
From the second century BC, the Ancient Greek pitch accent was replaced with a stress accent.[10]
Psilosis: loss of rough breathing, /h/. Rough breathing had already been lost in the Ionic Greek
varieties of Anatolia and the Aeolic Greek of Lesbos.[10]
ᾱͅ, ῃ, ῳ /aːi eːi oːi/ were simplified to ᾱ, η, ω /aː eː oː/.[10]
The diphthongs αι, ει, and οι became monophthongs. αι, which had already been pronounced as /ɛː/ by
the Boeotians since the 4th century BC and written η (e.g. πῆς, χῆρε, μέμφομη), became in Koine, too,
first a long vowel /ɛː/ and then, with the loss of distinctive vowel length and openness distinction /e/,
merging with ε. The diphthong ει had already merged with ι in the 5th century BC in Argos, and by the

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4th century BC in Corinth (e.g. ΛΕΓΙΣ), and it acquired this pronunciation also in Koine. The diphthong
οι fronted to /y/, merging with υ. The diphthong υι came to be pronounced [yj], but eventually lost its
final element and also merged with υ.[22] The diphthong ου had been already raised to /u/ in the 6th
century BC, and remains so in Modern Greek.[10]
The diphthongs αυ and ευ came to be pronounced [av ev] (via [aβ eβ]), but are partly assimilated to [af
ef] before the voiceless consonants θ, κ, ξ, π, σ, τ, φ, χ, and ψ.[10]
Simple vowels mostly preserved their ancient pronunciations. η /e/ (classically pronounced /ɛː/) was
raised and merged with ι. In the 10th century AD, υ/οι /y/ unrounded to merge with ι. These changes
are known as iotacism.[10]
The consonants also preserved their ancient pronunciations to a great extent, except β, γ, δ, φ, θ, χ
and ζ. Β, Γ, Δ, which were originally pronounced /b ɡ d/, became the fricatives /v/ (via [β]), /ɣ/, /ð/,
which they still are today, except when preceded by a nasal consonant (μ, ν); in that case, they retain
their ancient pronunciations (e.g. γαμβρός > γαμπρός [ɣamˈbros], ἄνδρας > άντρας [ˈandras], ἄγγελος
> άγγελος [ˈaŋɟelos]). The latter three (Φ, Θ, Χ), which were initially pronounced as aspirates (/pʰ tʰ kʰ/
respectively), developed into the fricatives /f/ (via [ɸ]), /θ/, and /x/. Finally ζ, which is still metrically
categorised as a double consonant with ξ and ψ because it may have initially been pronounced as σδ
[zd] or δσ [dz], later acquired its modern-day value of /z/.[10]

New Testament Greek phonology

The Koine Greek in the table represents a reconstruction of New Testament Koine Greek, deriving to some
degree from the dialect spoken in Judea and Galilee during the first century and similar to the dialect
spoken in Alexandria, Egypt.[23] The realizations of certain phonemes differ from the more standard Attic
dialect of Koine.

Γ has spirantized, with palatal allophone before front-vowels and a plosive allophone after nasals, while β is
beginning to develop a fricative articulation intervocalically.[24] φ, θ and χ still preserve their ancient
aspirated plosive values, while the unaspirated stops π, τ, κ have perhaps begun to develop voiced
allophones after nasals.[25] Initial aspiration has also likely become an optional sound for many speakers of
the popular variety.[26][27] Monophthongization (including the initial stage in the fortition of the second
element in the αυ/ευ diphthongs) and the loss of vowel-timing distinctions are carried through, but there is
still a distinction between the four front vowels /e/, /e̝ /,[28] /i/, and /y/ (which is still rounded).

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letter Greek transliteration IPA

Alpha α a /a/
Beta β b /b/ ([b, β])
Gamma γ g /ɣ/ ([ɣ, g, ʝ])
Delta δ d /d/
Epsilon ε e /e/
Zeta ζ z /z/
Eta η ē /e̝/
Theta θ th /tʰ/
Iota ι i /i/ ([i, j])
Kappa κ k /k/ ([k, g])
Lambda λ l /l/
Mu μ m /m/
Nu ν n /n/ ([n, m])
Xi ξ x /ks/
Omicron ο o /o/
Pi π p /p/ ([p, b])
Rho ρ r /r/
Sigma σ (-σ-/-σσ-) s (-s-/-ss-) /s/ ([s, z])
Tau τ t /t/ ([t, d])
Upsilon υ y /y/
Phi φ ph /pʰ/
Chi χ ch /kʰ/
Psi ψ ps /ps/
Omega ω ō /o/
. αι ai /e/
. ει ei /i/ ([i, j])
. οι oi /y/
. υι yi /yi/ (or /y/)
. αυ au [aɸʷ, aβʷ]
. ευ eu [eɸʷ, eβʷ]
. ου ou /u/
. αι (ᾳ) āi /a/
. ηι (ῃ) ēi /i/
. ωι (ῳ) ōi /o/
. ῾ h (/h/)

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Sample Koine texts

The following texts show differences from Attic Greek in all aspects – grammar, morphology, vocabulary
and can be inferred to show differences in phonology.

The following comments illustrate the phonological development within the period of Koine. The phonetic
transcriptions are tentative, and are intended to illustrate two different stages in the reconstructed
development, an early conservative variety still relatively close to Classical Attic, and a somewhat later,
more progressive variety approaching Modern Greek in some respects.

Sample 1 – A Roman decree

The following excerpt, from a decree of the Roman Senate to the town of Thisbae in Boeotia in 170 BC, is
rendered in a reconstructed pronunciation representing a hypothetical conservative variety of mainland
Greek Koiné in the early Roman period.[29] The transcription shows raising of η to /eː/, partial (pre-
consonantal/word-final) raising of ῃ and ει to /iː/, retention of pitch accent, and retention of word-initial
/h/ (the rough breathing).

περὶ ὧν Θισ[β]εῖς λόγους ἐποιήσαντο· περὶ τῶν καθ᾿αὑ[τ]οὺς πραγμάτων, οἵτινες ἐν τῇ

φιλίᾳ τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ ἐνέμειναν, ὅπως αὐτοῖς δοθῶσιν [ο]ἷς τὰ καθ᾿ αὑτοὺς πράγματα
ἐξηγήσωνται, περὶ τούτου τοῦ πράγματος οὕτως ἔδοξεν· ὅπως Κόιντος Μαίνιος στρατηγὸς
τῶν ἐκ τῆς συνκλήτου [π]έντε ἀποτάξῃ οἳ ἂν αὐτῷ ἐκ τῶν δημοσίων πρα[γμ]άτων καὶ τῆς
ἰδίας πίστεως φαίνωνται.
[peri hoːn tʰizbîːs lóɡuːs epojéːsanto; peri toːn katʰ hautûːs praːɡmátoːn, hoítines en tiː pʰilíaːi
tiː heːmetéraːi enémiːnan, hópoːs autois dotʰôːsin hois ta katʰ hautùːs práːɡmata
ekseːɡéːsoːntai, peri túːtuː tuː práːɡmatos húːtoːs édoksen; hópoːs ˈkʷintos ˈmainios strateːɡòs
toːn ek teːs syŋkléːtuː pénte apotáksiː, hoi an autoːi ek toːn deːmosíoːn praːɡmátoːn kai teːs
idíaːs písteoːs pʰaínoːntai]
Concerning those matters about which the citizens of Thisbae made representations.
Concerning their own affairs: the following decision was taken concerning the proposal that
those who remained true to our friendship should be given the facilities to conduct their own
affairs; that our praetor/governor Quintus Maenius should delegate five members of the
senate who seemed to him appropriate in the light of their public actions and individual good
faith.

Sample 2 – Greek New Testament

The following excerpt, the beginning of the Gospel of John, is rendered in a reconstructed pronunciation
representing a progressive popular variety of Koiné in the early Christian era.[30] Modernizing features
include the loss of vowel length distinction, monophthongization, transition to stress accent, and raising of
η to /i/. Also seen here are the bilabial fricative pronunciation of diphthongs αυ and ευ, loss of initial /h/,
fricative values for β and γ, and partial post-nasal voicing of voiceless stops.

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Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ
πρὸς τὸν θεόν. πάντα δι᾽ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν ὃ γέγονεν. ἐν
αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων. καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ
ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.
[ˈen arˈkʰi in o ˈloɣos, ke o ˈloɣos im bros to(n) tʰeˈo(n), ke tʰeˈos in o ˈloɣos. ˈutos in en arˈkʰi
pros to(n) tʰeˈo(n). ˈpanda di aɸˈtu eˈjeneto, ke kʰoˈris aɸˈtu eˈjeneto ude ˈen o ˈjeɣonen. en
aɸˈto zoˈi in, ke i zoˈi in to pʰos ton anˈtʰropon; ke to pʰos en di skoˈtia ˈpʰeni, ke i skoˈti(a)
a(ɸ)ˈto u kaˈtelaβen]
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything
made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in
darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Notes
1. "Koine" (http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/koine?showCookiePolicy=true). Collins
Dictionary. n.d. Retrieved 24 September 2014.
2. "Koine" (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/Koine). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House.
3. "koine" (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/koine), Merriam-Webster.
4. Bubenik, V. (2007). "The rise of Koiné". In A. F. Christidis (ed.). A history of Ancient Greek: from the
beginnings to late antiquity. Cambridge: University Press. pp. 342–345.
5. Horrocks, Geoffrey (1997). "4–6". Greek: a history of the language and its speakers. London:
Longman.
6. Horrocks, Geoffrey (2009). Greek: A History of the Language and its Speakers (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=f__JVG7TGKsC&pg=PR13). Wiley. p. xiii. ISBN 978-1-4443-1892-0.
7. A history of ancient Greek by Maria Chritē, Maria Arapopoulou, Centre for the Greek Language
(Thessalonikē, Greece) pg 436 ISBN 0-521-83307-8
8. THE MEDITATIONS OF MARCUS AURELIUS (http://wisehouse-classics.com/project/the-meditations-
marcus-aurelius/)
9. Makrides, Vasilios N; Roudometof, Victor (2013). Orthodox Christianity in 21st Century Greece: The
Role of Religion in Culture, Ethnicity and Politics (https://books.google.com/books?id=WrQxT4sk2x8C
&pg=PA8). Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 8. ISBN 978-1-4094-8075-4. "A proposal to introduce Modern
Greek into the Divine Liturgy was rejected in 2002"
10. Andriotis, Nikolaos P. History of the Greek Language.
11. Pollard, Elizabeth (2015). Worlds Together Worlds Apart. 500 Fifth Ave New York, NY: W.W. Norton&
Company Inc. p. 202. ISBN 978-0-393-91847-2.
12. Augsburg (http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost03/Dositheus/dos_col3.html).
13. The Latin gloss in the source erroneously has "with me", while the Greek means "with us".
14. On the other hand, not all scholars agree that the Pontic pronunciation of η as ε is an archaism. Apart
from the improbability that the sound change /ɛː/>/e̝(ː)/>/i/ did not occur in this important region of the
Roman Empire, Horrocks notes that ε can be written in certain contexts for any letter or digraph
representing /i/ in other dialects––e.g. ι, ει, οι, or υ, which never pronounced /ɛː/ in Ancient Greek––not
just η (c.f. óvερov, κoδέσπεvα, λεχάρι for standard óvειρo, oικoδέσπoιvα, λυχάρι.) He therefore
attributes this feature of East Greek to vowel weakening, paralleling the omission of unstressed
vowels. Horrocks (2010: 400)

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15. Vergari, Romina (2015-01-12). "Aspects of Polysemy in Biblical Greek: the Semantic Micro-Structure
of Kρισις" (https://www.degruyter.com/view/books/9783110312164/9783110312164-013/97831103121
64-013.xm). In Eberhard Bons, Jan Joosten, Regine Hunziker-Rodewald (eds.) (eds.). Biblical
Lexicology: Hebrew and Greek. Berlin, München, Boston: De Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-031216-4.
Retrieved 2018-07-03.
16. Papademetriou, Kyriakoula (2015-01-12). "The dynamic semantic role of etymology in the meaning of
Greek biblical words. The case of the word ἐκκλησία" (https://www.degruyter.com/view/books/9783110
312164/9783110312164-012/9783110312164-012.xml). In Eberhard Bons, Jan Joosten, Regine
Hunziker-Rodewald (eds.) (eds.). Biblical Lexicology: Hebrew and Greek. Berlin, München, Boston: De
Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-031216-4. Retrieved 2018-07-03.
17. Evans, Craig A.; Tov, Emanuel (2008-10-01). "Introduction". Exploring the Origins of the Bible (Acadia
Studies in Bible and Theology): Canon Formation in Historical, Literary, and Theological Perspective.
Baker Academic. ISBN 978-1-58558-814-5.
18. Porter, Stanley E.; Pitts, Andrew (2013-02-21). "Markan Idiolect in the Study of the Greek New
Testament". The Language of the New Testament: Context, History, and Development. Brill. ISBN 978-
90-04-23477-2.
19. Osburn, Carroll D. (1983). "The Historical Present in Mark as a Text-Critical Criterion". Biblica. 64 (4):
486–500. JSTOR 42707093 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/42707093).
20. Strickland, Michael; Young, David M. (2017-11-15). The Rhetoric of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark.
Fortress Press. ISBN 978-1-5064-3847-4.
21. Horrocks (1997: ch.5.11.)
22. Horrocks (2010: 162)
23. Horrocks (2010: 167) citing Teodorsson, S.-T. (1974) The phonology of Ptolemaic Koine, Göteborg.
24. For evidence c.f. Gignac, Francis T. (1970). "The Pronunciation of Greek Stops in the Papyri".
Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. The Johns Hopkins University
Press. 101: 185–202. doi:10.2307/2936047 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F2936047). JSTOR 2936047 (ht
tps://www.jstor.org/stable/2936047).
25. Horrocks (2010): 111, 170–1
26. Horrocks (2010): 171, 179.
27. For convenience, the rough breathing mark represents /h/, even if it was not commonly used in
contemporary orthography. Parentheses denote the loss of the sound.
28. For convenience, the mid-vowel value of ε/αι is transcribed here as /e/, rather than /e̞/ or /ɛ̝/. The two
mid vowels ε and η were apparently still distinguished in quality, as they are far less confused than ει is
with ι, ω with o and οι with υ. η perhaps represented a near-close vowel /e̝/, not fully merged with /i/, cf.
Horrocks (2010: 118, 168.)
29. G. Horrocks (1997), Greek: A history of the language and its speakers, p. 87, cf. also pp. 105–109.
30. Horrocks (1997: 94).

References
Abel, F.-M. Grammaire du grec biblique.
Allen, W. Sidney, Vox Graeca: a guide to the pronunciation of classical Greek – 3rd ed., Cambridge
University Press, 1987. ISBN 0-521-33555-8
Andriotis, Nikolaos P. History of the Greek Language
Buth, Randall, Ἡ κοινὴ προφορά: Koine Greek of Early Roman Period (https://www.biblicallanguagece
nter.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Greek_Pronunciation_2008.pdf)
Bruce, Frederick F. The Books and the Parchments: Some Chapters on the Transmission of the Bible.
3rd ed. Westwood, NJ: Revell, 1963. Chapters 2 and 5.

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Conybeare, F.C. and Stock, St. George. Grammar of Septuagint Greek: With Selected Readings,
Vocabularies, and Updated Indexes.
Horrocks, Geoffrey C. (2010). Greek: A history of the language and its speakers (2nd ed.). Oxford:
Blackwell.
Smyth, Herbert Weir (1956), Greek Grammar, Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-36250-5.

Further reading
Bakker, Egbert J., ed. 2010. A companion to the Ancient Greek language. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Blass, Friedrich, and Albert Debrunner. 1961. Greek grammar of the New Testament and other early
Christian literature. Translated and revised by R. W. Funk. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Christidis, Anastasios-Phoivos, ed. 2007. A history of Ancient Greek: From the beginnings to Late
Antiquity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Colvin, Stephen C. 2007. A historical Greek reader: Mycenaean to the koiné. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Easterling, P. E., and Carol Handley. 2001. Greek Scripts: An Illustrated Introduction. London: Society
for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies.
Evans, T. V., and Dirk Obbink, eds. 2009. The language of the papyri. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Gignac, Francis T. 1976–1981. A grammar of the Greek papyri of the Roman and Byzantine periods. 2
vols. Milan: Cisalpino-La Goliardica.
Horrocks, Geoffrey. 2010. Greek: A history of the language and its speakers. 2nd ed. Oxford: Wiley-
Blackwell.
Palmer, Leonard R. 1980. The Greek language. London: Faber & Faber.
Stevens, Gerald L. 2009. New Testament Greek Intermediate: From Morphology to Translation.
Cambridge, UK: Lutterworth Press.
––––. 2009. New Testament Greek Primer. Cambridge, UK: Lutterworth Press.

External links
KoineGreek.com (https://www.KoineGreek.com) Koine Greek audio/video resources produced in a
"Living Koine Greek" pronunciation along with resources on pronunciation.
Free Koine Greek Keyboard (http://www.westarinstitute.org/resources/koine-greek-keyboard/) A
unicode keyboard originally developed by Char Matejovsky for use by Westar Institute scholars
The Biblical Greek Forum (http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/forum/) An online community for Biblical Greek
Greek-Language.com (http://greek-language.com) Dictionaries, manuscripts of the Greek New
Testament, and tools for applying linguistics to the study of Hellenistic Greek
Diglot (http://www.biblegreek.net) A daily di-glot or tri-glot (Vulgate) reading

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