top Lesson 30
GreekMeaningNotes
ἀκολουθέωI follow 
αἰτέωI ask 
δοκέωI think, seem 
ἐρωτάωI ask, request 
ἐπερωτάωI ask (a question) 
μαρτυρέωI testifyCognate: martyr
προσκυνέωI worship 
πληρόωI fill, fulfill 
ἀλλήλωνof one another 
τὸ ὑπάρχονταone's belongings 
τίς, τίwho? what? 
τις, τιsomeone, something, a certain one, a certain thing 
ἐὰν μήunless 

Relative pronoun

  1. The relative pronoun: ὅς (who, which, that, as in The man who sleeps in class won’t learn.)
 SingularPlural
 MascFemNeutMascFemNeut
Nomὅς οἵ αἵ
Genοὗἧςοὗὧν ὧν ὧν
Dat οἷςαἷςοἷς
Accὅνἥν οὕςἅς

  1. The relative pronoun is used to relate one substantive to another.
    1. A substantive is a word or expression that is a noun or acts like a noun
  2. A relative pronoun agrees with its antecedent in gender and number, but its case is determined by its function in its clause.
  3. ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὃς εἶδε τὸν κύριόν ἐστιν νῦν ἀπόστολος.
    The man who saw the lord is now an apostle.
    1. The pronoun ὃς is masculine and singular to agree with ἄνθρωπος "man"
    2. but it is nominative because it is the subject of εἶδε "saw."
  4. ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὃν εἶδες ἐξῆλθεν ἐκ τῆς πόλεως.
    The man whom you saw came out of the city.
    1. The pronoun is masculine and singular
    2. but it is accusative as the direct object of εἶδες "you saw" even though "man" is in the nominative case.
  5. Often a relative pronoun is so closely related to its antecedent that it is attracted to the case of the antecedent.
    1. In other words, it takes the case form of the antecedent even though it retains is own case function.
    2. ὃς ἂν πίῃ ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος οὗ ἐγὼ δώσω αὐτῷ Whoever drinks of the water which I shall give him.
    3. The relative pronoun "which" should have been in the accusative case, but it is so close to the genitive case of "water" that it took its case.
  6. Sometimes the antecedent of a relative pronoun is not expressed.
    1. ὃς οὐκ ἔστιν καθʼ ὑμῶν ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν ἐστιν.
    2. There is no antecedent for ὃς
    3. Translate it as: He who is not against you is for you.

Interogative pronoun

  1. The interrogative pronoun τίς Who? What?
 SingularPlural
 M & FNM & FN
Nomτίςτίτίνεςτίνα
Genτίνοςτίνοςτίνωντίνων
Datτίνιτίνιτίσι (ν)τίσι (ν)
Accτίνατίτίσαςτίνα

  1. Notes:
    1. This pronoun introduces a direct or indirect question.
    2. The acute accent never changes to a grave accent
    3. τίς εἶ; Who are you? (a direct question)
    4. τί λέγει; What is he saying? (a direct question)
    5. οὐ τί ἐγὼ θέλω, ἀλλὰ τί σύ Not what I wish but what you (wish). (an indirect question)
    6. οἶδά σε τίς εἶ I know you who you are. (an indirect question)

Indefinite pronoun τις, τι

  1. The forms of the indefinite pronoun are exactly the same as those of the interrogative pronoun except for the accent.
    1. Either the accent will be missing or it will be grave.
    2. It will never be an acute.
  2. It is translated: someone, something, a certain one, a certain thing.
  3. ἐὰν μή τις γεννηθῇ ἄνωθενunless someone is born from above.
  4. εἰς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν εἰσῆλθέ τιςinto the church came a certain man.

The indefinite relative pronoun ὅστις, who

  1. This pronoun is a combination of the relative pronoun ὅς and the indefinite pronoun τις
  2. In the New Testament, it is found only in the nominative case
  3. Singular: ὅστις, ἥτις, ὅτι
  4. Plural: οἵτινες αἵτινες, ἅτινα
  5. There is a qualitiative sense to the use of the word, but can be translated "who"

Reciprocal pronoun ἀλλήλων, each other

  1. In the New Testament, it appears only as Genitive, Dative, and Accusative plural forms. ἀλλήλων, ἀλλήλοις, ἀλλήλους.
  2. The word expresses an interchange between the members of the group
  3. ἀγαπῶμεν ἀλλήλους -- let us love one another.
  4. ἐξεκαύθησαν ἐν τῇ ὀρέξει αὐτῶν εἰς ἀλλήλουςthey burned in their lust for one another

Reflexive pronoun

First Person, myself
 SingularPlural
Genέμαυτοῦἐμαυτῆςἑαυτῶνἑαυτῶν
Datἐμαυτῷἐμαυτῇἑαυτοῖςἑαυταῖς
Accἐμαυτόνἐμαυτήνἑαυτούςἑαυτάς



Second Person, yourself
 SingularPlural
Genσεαυτοῦσεαυτῆςἑαυτῶνἑαυτῶν
Datσεαυτῷσεαυτῇἑαυτοῖςἑαυταῖς
Accσεαυτόνσεαυτήνἑαυτούςἑαυτάς



Third person: himself, herself, itself
 Singular
 MascFemNeut
Genἑαυτοῦἑαυτῆςἑαυτοῦ
Datἑαυτῷἑαυτῇἑαυτῷ
Accἑαυτόνἑαυτήνἑαυτό

Third person: themselves
 Plural
 MascFemNeut
Genἑαυτῶνἑαυτῶνἑαυτῶν
Datἑαυτοῖςἑαυταῖςἑαυτοῖς
Accἑαυτούςἑαυτάςἑαυτά



  1. There is no Nominative case in the reciprocal pronouns
  2. Note that the plural forms for the third person are the same as for the first and second person.
  3. The use of the reciprocal idea is found in the intensive use of the pronoun αὐτὸς which we studied in a previous lesson.
  4. In that earlier lesson, we learned that if αὐτὸς is not in the attributive position (i.e., no "the" in front of it) and is in the Nominative case, then it is to be translated self or selves as an intensive of the subject.
  5. Now we come to the reflexive pronoun which seems to be similar.
Intensive use of αὐτόςReflexive Pronoun
αὐτὸς ἀκοὺω τὸν λόγονἀκοὺω ἐμαυτόν
I myself hear the wordI hear myself
intensifies the subjectreflects the action back to the subject
is part of the complete subjectis part of the complete predicate
is always nominativeis never nominative


  1. The function of the reflexive pronoun expresses action of the subject upon itself
  2. οὐ γὰρ ἑαυτοὺς κηρύσσομεν -- For we preach not ourselves
  3. λέγω ταῦτα περὶ ἐμαυτοῦI say these things concerning myself.

The possessive pronouns or adjectives

First person ἐμός, my
 SingularPlural
 MascFemNeutMascFemNeut
Nomἐμόςἐμήἐμόνἐμοίἐμαίἐμά
Genἐμοῦἐμῆςἐμοῦἐμῶνἐμῶνἐμῶν
Datἐμῷἐμῇἐμῷἐμοῖςἐμαῖςἐμοῖς
Accἐμόνἐμήνἐμόνἐμούςἐμάςἐμά


Second person singular σός, your (thy)
 SingularPlural
 MascFemNeutMascFemNeut
Nomσόςσήσόνσοίσαίσά
Genσοῦσῆςσοῦσῶνσῶνσῶν
Datσῷσῇσῷσοῖςσαῖςσοῖς
Accσόνσήνσόνσούςσάςσά


Third person singular ἴδιος, his/her/its
 SingularPlural
 MascFemNeutMascFemNeut
Nomἴδιοςἰδίαἴδιονἴδιοιἴδιαιἴδια
Genἰδίουἰδίαςἰδίουίδίωνίδίωνίδίων
Datἰδίῳἰδίᾳἰδίῳἰδίοιςἰδίαιςἰδίοις
Accἴδιονἰδίανἴδιονἰδίουςἰδίαςἴδια


The negative pronouns

  1. οὐδείς = no one, used with indicative mode
  2. μηδείς = no one, used with other modes than the indicative
  3. There is only the singular, not plural
  4. The pattern for μηδείς is similar to οὐδείς
 MascFemNeut
Nomοὐδείςοὐδεμίαοὐδέν
Genοὐδενόςοὐδεμιᾶςοὐδενός
Datοὐδενίοὐδεμιᾷοὐδενί
Accοὐδέναοὐδεμίανοὐδέν


  1. οὐδεὶς ἔρχεται πρὸς τὸν πατέρα εἰ μὴ διʼ ἐμοῦ.
    No one comes to the Father except [lit. if not] through me.
  2. μηδεὶς πλανάτω ὑμᾶς.
    Let no one deceive you !

Distinguish the following similar words

  1. = the (fem)
  2. = relative pronoun who (fem) nominative
  3. = relative pronoun in whom (fem) Dative
  4. = or
  5. = than
  6. ἤ + πριν = before
  7. = he may be

Translate the following:

  1. Ὃ ἦν ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς, ὃ ἀκηκόαμεν, ὃ ἑωράκαμεν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἡμῶν, ὃ ἐθεασάμεθα καὶ αἱ χεῖρες ἡμῶν ἐψηλάφησαν περὶ τοῦ λόγου τῆς ζωῆς —
  2. καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἐφανερώθη, καὶ ἑωράκαμεν καὶ μαρτυροῦμεν καὶ ἀπαγγέλλομεν ὑμῖν τὴν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον ἥτις ἦν πρὸς τὸν πατέρα καὶ ἐφανερώθη ἡμῖν —
  3. ὃ ἑωράκαμεν καὶ ἀκηκόαμεν, ἀπαγγέλλομεν καὶ ὑμῖν, ἵνα καὶ ὑμεῖς κοινωνίαν ἔχητε μεθ᾿ ἡμῶν. καὶ ἡ κοινωνία δὲ ἡ ἡμετέρα μετὰ τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ μετὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ.
  4. καὶ ταῦτα γράφομεν ἡμεῖς, ἵνα ἡ χαρὰ ἡμῶν ᾖ πεπληρωμένη.
  5. καὶ ἔστιν αὕτη ἡ ἀγγελία ἣν ἀκηκόαμεν ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀναγγέλλομεν ὑμῖν, ὅτι ὁ θεὸς φῶς ἐστιν καὶ σκοτία ἐν αὐτῷ οὐκ ἔστιν οὐδεμία.
  6. Ἐὰν εἴπωμεν ὅτι κοινωνίαν ἔχομεν μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐν τῷ σκότει περιπατῶμεν, ψευδόμεθα καὶ οὐ ποιοῦμεν τὴν ἀλήθειαν·
  7. ἐὰν δὲ ἐν τῷ φωτὶ περιπατῶμεν ὡς αὐτός ἐστιν ἐν τῷ φωτί, κοινωνίαν ἔχομεν μετ᾿ ἀλλήλων καὶ τὸ αἷμα Ἰησοῦ τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ καθαρίζει ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ πάσης ἁμαρτίας.
  8. ἐὰν εἴπωμεν ὅτι ἁμαρτίαν οὐκ ἔχομεν, ἑαυτοὺς πλανῶμεν καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν ἡμῖν.
  9. ἐὰν ὁμολογῶμεν τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν, πιστός ἐστιν καὶ δίκαιος, ἵνα ἀφῇ ἡμῖν τὰς ἁμαρτίας καὶ καθαρίσῃ ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ πάσης ἀδικίας.
  10. ἐὰν εἴπωμεν ὅτι οὐχ ἡμαρτήκαμεν, ψεύστην ποιοῦμεν αὐτὸν καὶ ὁ λόγος αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν ἡμῖν.