The Alphabet, Part 2

Revelation closes the way it opened. In 1:8 the Lord God says 'I am the Alpha and the Omega.' In 21:6 the One seated on the throne says it again. And in 22:13 a voice says 'I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End,' which the SBL Greek New Testament (SBLGNT) prints as ἐγὼ τὸ Ἄλφα καὶ τὸ Ὦ, ὁ πρῶτος καὶ ὁ ἔσχατος, ἡ ἀρχὴ καὶ τὸ τέλος (egō to Alpha kai to Ō, ho prōtos kai ho eschatos, hē archē kai to telos). Three pairs, one claim: the speaker is before all things and after all things, the source and the goal. By the end of this lesson you will be able to read every letter of that line.

Who is speaking? The voice of 22:13 is the one who has just said 'Behold, I am coming soon' (22:12), and three verses later that voice says 'I, Jesus, have sent My angel to give you this testimony for the churches' (22:16). Most commentators therefore take 22:12-16 as the words of Jesus, and note that he has already been given the matching title 'the First and the Last' at 1:17 and 2:8, where it is joined to his death and resurrection: the one 'who died and returned to life.' Jehovah's Witnesses read it differently, and their case deserves to be heard as they make it. They point out that Revelation 22 has several speakers and does not always say who is talking: the angel speaks in 22:6, a voice says 'Behold, I am coming soon' in 22:7, and then the angel speaks again in 22:9-10. The book does not name the speaker of 22:13, and everywhere else the title Alpha and Omega belongs to the Lord God (1:8, 21:6). So, they conclude, 22:13 is God the Father speaking, and Jesus begins to speak at 22:16. The reply most commentators give is that the one who says 'I am coming soon' in 22:12 goes straight on into 22:13 with no sign of a new speaker, that the coming one is named as Jesus in 22:16 and 22:20, and that the title 'the First and the Last' in the same verse is given to Jesus at 1:17 and 2:8, as Witnesses themselves accept. Read 22:6-20 for yourself and weigh it. The Apologetics track's lesson 'False Teaching and New Religions' takes up the wider conversation.

If most commentators are right, Revelation does something remarkable. It takes a title Isaiah gave only to the LORD, the claim that sets him apart from every idol (Isaiah 44:6), and gives it to Jesus, while still insisting, as the angel does in 22:9, that only God is to be worshipped. Richard Bauckham, in The Theology of the Book of Revelation (1993) and later work, argued that Revelation includes Jesus within the identity of the one God of Israel rather than setting him beside God as a second, lesser figure, and that the shared title of Alpha and Omega is one of the clearest signs of it. You do not need to know Bauckham's argument to see the point. Revelation 5 shows the Lamb worshipped together with the One on the throne, and Revelation 22 lets the Lamb speak in the words of the throne.

For a church under threat, this was not abstract. The believers at Smyrna were facing slander, prison and possible death (2:9-10). The letter to them opens with the one who is first and last 'who died and returned to life.' Whatever they faced, he had been before it, he had been through death itself, and he would be after it. That is the God whose alphabet you are now learning, and it is worth remembering, as you copy letters into a notebook, that the letters were first written down for people who needed that comfort.

As in Lesson 2, each entry gives the capital and small letter, the name, the transliteration, the classroom sound and the modern Greek sound where it differs, and a warning where you need one. Keep your notebook open at the alphabet page and add each letter as you read it.

Mu, Μ μ, transliterated m. Sounded like the m in mother. The capital looks like English M. Warning: the small letter μ looks like an English u with a long tail hanging down on the left. Start the stroke below the line, come up, and make the u. If you have seen the sign µ for a micrometre, that is a mu.

Nu, Ν ν, transliterated n. Sounded like the n in no. The capital looks like English N. Warning, and this is one of the four great traps: the small letter ν looks exactly like an English v. It is an n. Write it with a pointed bottom, and keep it clearly different from upsilon, υ, which has a rounded bottom and comes later in this lesson. Now you can see why Lesson 2 told you to make your eta drop below the line: η is a long e and ν is an n, and neither is what it looks like.

Xi, Ξ ξ, transliterated x. Sounded like the x in box, a k and an s together. The capital is three horizontal bars stacked, the middle one shorter. The small letter is a squiggle that drops below the line, like a zeta with an extra curl on top; write it as a small 3 sitting on a z. It is rare, so it is easy to forget. Make a flashcard for it.

Omicron, Ο ο, transliterated o. Sounded like the short o in lot or top. Capital and small letter are both simple circles. The name means small o, given by Byzantine grammarians to tell it apart from omega, the big o, after the two had come to sound the same; in classical times it was called simply ou. It is short, as epsilon is short, and its long partner is omega.

Pi, Π π, transliterated p. Sounded like the p in pot. The capital looks like a doorway or gate. The small letter is the π you may know from the circle's ratio in mathematics. A note of comfort: pi always sounds p, including at the start of words where English would drop it. πνεῦμα (pneuma, spirit, wind), which you will read in section 5, begins with a sounded p. English words borrowed from this family, such as pneumonia, are spelled with a p that English speakers simply do not sound.

Rho, Ρ ρ, transliterated r. Sounded like a lightly rolled r, as in many languages other than English. Warning, the second great trap: both capital Ρ and small ρ look like the English letter P. They are r. Write the small letter with its tail dropping straight down below the line. When rho begins a word it always carries a rough breathing, ῥ, which is transliterated rh; that is why English writes rhetoric, rhythm and rhinoceros with an h that nobody pronounces. Χριστός (Christos, Christ) has a rho as its second letter, so it is not xpistos.

Sigma, Σ σ ς, transliterated s. Sounded like the s in sing. It is the only Greek letter with two small forms, and which you use depends only on where it stands. At the start or in the middle of a word, write σ, a circle with a short tail running to the right along the top. At the end of a word, write ς, which looks a little like an English s that has lost its top curve, or a c with a tail. The sound is exactly the same. Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous, Jesus) has one of each. So does πίστις (pistis, faith). The name John, Ἰωάννης (Iōannēs), has only the final shape, because its one sigma stands at the end. Train your eye to ask, for every s sound, whether it is at the end. Some printed editions and many ancient manuscripts use a third shape, the lunate sigma, written ϲ like an English c, in every position. If you see a c in a Greek text, it is a sigma.

Tau, Τ τ, transliterated t. Sounded like the t in top. The capital looks like English T. The small letter looks like a small T as well; write it without a curl at the bottom so that it does not become an English t with a hook.

Upsilon, Υ υ, transliterated y on its own and u when it is part of a vowel pair, as in ou or hui. In the classroom it is sounded like the French u in tu or the German ü, made by saying ee with your lips rounded as if for oo; many teachers simply say oo. Modern Greek says ee. The capital looks like English Y, and the small letter like a rounded English u. It begins many words with a rough breathing, written ὑ and transliterated hy, which is why the Greek for water, ὕδωρ (hydōr), gives us hydrant and hydraulic. Every word that begins with upsilon has a rough breathing.

Phi, Φ φ, transliterated ph. Sounded like the f in fun. Capital and small letter are both a circle with a vertical stroke through it; in the small letter the stroke runs well above and below the line. It is one letter, not two, though we write it with two in English, as in philosophy, from φιλο- (philo-, love) and σοφία (sophia, wisdom).

Chi, Χ χ, transliterated ch. Sounded in the classroom like the ch in the Scottish loch or the German Bach, a k sound with breath in it; many English speakers simply say k. Warning, the third great trap: chi looks like an English X. It is not x. Remember the word Christmas, which is sometimes written Xmas: the X there is a Greek chi, the first letter of Χριστός. Greek x is xi, ξ, which you met above.

Psi, Ψ ψ, transliterated ps. Sounded like the ps in lips, with the p sounded even at the start of a word. Capital and small letter both look like a trident or a candlestick with three branches. ψυχή (psychē, soul, life) begins with it, and gives English psychology. Like phi, theta and chi, it is one letter written with two in English; when you count letters, count it as one.

Omega, Ω ω, transliterated ō. Sounded like the long o in tone. Warning, the fourth great trap: the small letter ω looks like an English w. It is a long o. The capital Ω is a horseshoe standing on two feet. In John's day it was called simply ō; the name omega means big o, given later. It is the last letter, the one in Revelation 22:13.

Here are the thirteen, in order: μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ/ς τ υ φ χ ψ ω, and their capitals: Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω. Now the whole alphabet, all twenty-four, small letters: α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ τ υ φ χ ψ ω. Say it aloud as names, alpha to omega, until you can do it without looking. Then make one card with the four great traps together and keep it at the front of your pack: η is not n, ν is not v, ρ is not p, χ is not x. Add two lesser ones from Lesson 2 and this lesson: γ is not y, and ω is not w.

Greek has seven vowels: α, ε, η, ι, ο, υ and ω. Two are always short (ε and ο), two are always long (η and ω), and three can be either (α, ι and υ). You do not need to master length for this track; the tools will show you what you need. What you do need is to recognise when two vowels stand together and make a single sound. These pairs are called diphthongs, from a Greek word meaning two sounds, and there are eight of them. The second letter of a diphthong is always ι or υ.

In the classroom pronunciation: αι is sounded like the ai in aisle; ει like the ei in eight; οι like the oi in oil; υι like the wee in sweet, and since a word that begins with it always has a rough breathing, it usually comes out as hwee, as in υἱός (huios, son). αυ is sounded like the ow in how; ευ and the rare ηυ like the eu in feud; and ου like the oo in food. The transliteration keeps both letters: ai, ei, oi, ui, au, eu, ēu, ou. In modern Greek pronunciation the diphthongs are sounded quite differently: αι as e, ει, οι and υι all as ee, ου as oo, and αυ and ευ as av and ev, or af and ef before some consonants. That is part of the case for and against each system, which Lesson 4 sets out.

How do you know when two vowels are a diphthong and when they are two separate sounds? Usually, any of the eight pairs above is one sound. When an editor wants to tell you that it is not, the second vowel carries two dots above it, called a diaeresis. You met one in Lesson 1, in τῇ Ἑβραΐδι διαλέκτῳ (tē Hebraidi dialektō, in the Hebrew dialect), where the two dots on ΐ tell you to say Heb-ra-i-di, not Heb-rai-di. The name of Isaiah in the SBLGNT, Ἠσαΐας (Ēsaias), and the name of Moses, Μωϋσῆς (Mōysēs), use the same mark. When you see two dots, split the vowels.

There is one more piece. Look again at that phrase from Acts 21:40: under the eta of τῇ and under the omega at the end of διαλέκτῳ there is a tiny stroke, like a comma hanging below the letter. That is an iota subscript, an iota written underneath the vowel instead of beside it. It appears only under three long vowels, ᾳ, ῃ and ῳ, and it is not pronounced at all in any system in use today. Why write it, then? Because it changes the meaning. The iota subscript very often marks the dative case, which you will meet in Module 3. In John 1:1 the second word is ἀρχῇ (archē, beginning), and the little iota under its eta marks the dative case, the case the preposition ἐν (en, in) takes, so that the two words together mean in the beginning. Without it, and with the dictionary accent, you would have ἀρχή, the nominative, a different form of the noun. A beginner who ignores the iota subscript will misread whole verses. Train your eye to look under every eta, omega and alpha.

Transliteration systems treat the iota subscript differently. Many tools and most older books simply drop it, so ἀρχῇ appears as archē, which hides the very mark that matters. Some scholarly systems show it with a small mark under the English letter. This is another reason to read the Greek letters themselves. When you copy a word into your notebook, copy the iota subscript too, every time.

You now have the whole alphabet. Here are fifteen of the most important words in the New Testament, in the forms you will usually meet them in a dictionary. Read each one aloud, letter by letter, before you look at the transliteration. Ignore the accent marks above the letters; Lesson 4 deals with them. Do pay attention to a backward hook at the start of a word, which means an h.

λόγος (logos, word). θεός (theos, God). ζωή (zōē, life): did you read the last letter as w? φῶς (phōs, light). κόσμος (kosmos, world): kappa, omicron, sigma, mu, omicron, final sigma. Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous, Jesus): one sigma of each shape, and ου sounded oo. Χριστός (Christos, Christ, anointed): chi, not x; rho, not p. κύριος (kyrios, lord): upsilon on its own is y. πνεῦμα (pneuma, spirit, wind, breath): sound the p, and sound ευ as in feud.

ἄνθρωπος (anthrōpos, human being): count the letters. There are eight Greek letters but nine English ones, because the single Greek letter θ needs two English letters, th. ψυχή (psychē, soul, life). ἀγάπη (agapē, love). πίστις (pistis, faith, trust, faithfulness). χάρις (charis, grace). ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia, assembly, church): two kappas, and an eta, not an n. εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion, good news, gospel): εὐ sounded as in feud, then γγ sounded ng; the English word evangelist comes from it. οὐρανός (ouranos, heaven, sky).

Now the whole of Revelation 22:13 as the SBLGNT prints it: ἐγὼ τὸ Ἄλφα καὶ τὸ Ὦ, ὁ πρῶτος καὶ ὁ ἔσχατος, ἡ ἀρχὴ καὶ τὸ τέλος. Take it one word at a time. ἐγώ (egō, I): epsilon, gamma, omega. τό (to, the): tau, omicron. Ἄλφα and Ὦ you know. ὁ (ho, the) is a single omicron with a rough breathing. πρῶτος (prōtos, first): pi, rho, omega, tau, omicron, final sigma. ἔσχατος (eschatos, last): epsilon, sigma in the middle, chi, alpha, tau, omicron, final sigma. ἡ (hē, the) you met in Lesson 2. ἀρχή (archē, beginning). τέλος (telos, end, goal). Notice that the Greek has no word for am; Revelation leaves the verb to be understood, as Greek often does, and the BSB rightly supplies it.

Early Christians made a confession out of five capital letters. The Greek word for fish is ΙΧΘΥΣ (ichthys), and its letters are the first letters of Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς Θεοῦ Υἱὸς Σωτήρ (Iēsous Christos Theou Huios Sōtēr), Jesus Christ, God's Son, Saviour. Around AD 200 Tertullian of Carthage, in his treatise On Baptism, already called Christians little fishes after the example of our ichthys, Jesus Christ, and the fish appears in early Christian art and inscriptions. Read the five words aloud, then check yourself: Θεοῦ has theta and the diphthong ου; Υἱός begins with upsilon and the diphthong υι, so it carries a rough breathing; Σωτήρ has a capital sigma and an omega. You can now read a confession of faith that early believers carved, painted and wrote for centuries.

One more ancient habit is worth knowing, because the tools sometimes mention it. The scribes who copied the New Testament wrote certain sacred names in abbreviated form, usually the first and last letters with a line drawn over the top: ΙΣ for Ἰησοῦς, ΧΣ for Χριστός, ΘΣ for θεός, ΚΣ for κύριος, and others. Scholars call these the nomina sacra, Latin for sacred names. They appear in the very earliest Christian manuscripts, and many scholars see in them a sign of reverence for the names of God and of Jesus written in the same way. When a commentary on a manuscript variant mentions a nomen sacrum, this is what it means.

Finish your alphabet page. Under lambda, write the thirteen letters from this lesson, capital and small, with name, transliteration and sound, so that your page has all twenty-four in order. At the bottom of the page add three lines: the eight diphthongs with their sounds; the iota subscript, ᾳ ῃ ῳ, with the note silent but never ignore it; and the four great traps, η ν ρ χ, with what each really is. Make flashcards for the new letters and for the diphthongs, and add them to your pack. Go through the whole pack every day this week until you can say every sound without hesitating.

Then do the exercise that this lesson has been building toward. On your My passage page you copied the Greek of the first verse of your passage under Lesson 2. Now write a transliteration of that verse underneath it, one word at a time, using the system in this lesson: one English letter or pair for each Greek letter, h for a rough breathing, a line over e and o for eta and omega, and every diphthong kept as two letters. Do it from the Greek, with your alphabet page beside you, and without looking at the tool's transliteration.

When you have finished, open the same verse in the Blue Letter Bible interlinear and compare your transliteration with the one it gives. Where they differ, work out why. Most differences will be one of three kinds. The tool may write a letter or a vowel pair differently from this course, which is a difference of system, not an error. It may drop an iota subscript that you kept, which is again a difference of system. Or you may have misread a letter, most likely one of the four traps, and that is the kind of difference you need to find. Mark each of your own mistakes in the margin with the letter you confused it with.

Finally, read your verse aloud in Greek, slowly, three times, using your transliteration only when you get stuck. Then read it once more with the transliteration covered. It will feel clumsy. Every reader of Greek began this way, including the children of Ephesus who first learned to say alpha and ō. Under your verse, write the date and one line: Read aloud in Greek. Next week you will add the breathings and accents, and the verse will begin to sound like a language.