The Greek verb gives heart to the Greek sentence, expressing something about the subject of the sentence.  Consider the verse, “Jesus wept (ἐδάκρυσεν)” (John 11:35 All scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB ©1995) unless otherwise noted.).  The root word for wept is the noun δάκρυ, which means a tear.  Therefore Jesus shed tears.  The word wept shows heart, which shedding tears does not convey.

Content

• 4.1  Voice
• 4.2  Mood
• 4.3  Participle
• 4.4  Infinitive
• 4.5  Regular Verbs
• 4.6  Irregular Verbs
• 4.7  Terminations
• 4.8  Deponent Verbs
• 4.9  Vocative
• 4.0  Sheepfold
• 4.0  Comments

If you were to parse the Greek word ἐδάκρυσεν, it would break down as follows:

• Number:  Singular
• Person:  3rd Person
• Tense:  Aorist
• Mood:  Indicative
• Voice:  Active

Voice

There are three voices in Greek – active, passive, and middle.  The voices determine how the action of the verb relates to the subject.

In the active voice, the action of the verb originates from the subject.  In the example below, the subject is John performing the action baptized:

“John baptized (ἐβάπτισενActive Voice • Indicative Mood •
Aorist Tense • 3rd Person Singular) with water” (Acts 1:5).

“He healed (ἐθεράπευσενActive Voice • Indicative Mood •
Aorist Tense • 3rd Person Singular) them all” (Matthew 12:15).

“The kindness of God leads (ἄγειActive Voice • Indicative Mood •
Present Tense • 3rd Person Singular) you to repentance” (Romans 2:4).

“God, who comforts (παρακαλῶνActive Voice • Participle •
Present Tense • Nom. Masc. Sing.) the depressed, comforted (παρεκάλεσενActive Voice • Indicative Mood •
Aorist Tense • 3rd Person Singular) us by the coming of Titus”

(2 Corinthians 7:6).

The passive voice is used when the action of the verb is being done to the subject.  In English, the auxiliary verb, being, often indicates the passive voice.  In the active voice, John baptized them, but in the passive voice the direction of the action is reversed as shown below:

“They were being baptized (ἐβαπτίζοντοPassive Voice • Indicative Mood •
Imperfect Tense • 3rd Person Plural) by him (John)” (Matthew 3:6).

“They were all being healed (ἐθεραπεύοντοPassive Voice • Indicative Mood •
Imperfect Tense • 3rd Person Plural)” (Acts 5:16).

“For all who are being led (ἄγονταιPassive Voice • Indicative Mood •
Present Tense • 3rd Person Plural) by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Roman 8:14).

“Now he (Lazarus) is being comforted (παρακαλεῖταιPassive Voice • Indicative Mood •
Present Tense • 3rd Person Singular) here, and you (a rich man) are in agony” (Luke 16:25).

In the middle voice the subject performs the desired action in which the subject is personally involved.  The middle reflexive is used when the subject does action to itself, and often is translated with such words as himself or themselves.  The middle reciprocal is used when the subject does action to benefit itself.  It can be said that the subject does something for its own purpose or plan.

Reflexive:    “They were warming themselves (ἐθερμαίνοντοMiddle Voice • Indicative Mood •
Imperfect Tense • 3rd Person Plural)” (John 18:18).

Reflexive:    “No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself (μετασχηματίζεταιMiddle Voice • Indicative Mood •
Present Tense • 3rd Person Singular) as an angel of light”

(2 Corinthians 11:14).

Reciprocal:  “God chose (εἵλατοαἱρέω — To take for one’s self •
Middle Voice • Indicative Mood •
Aorist Tense • 3rd Person Singular) you” (2 Thessalonians 2:13 NIV).

Reciprocal:  “God has chosen (ἐξελέξατοἐκλέγω — To pick or choose out
for one’s self •
Middle Voice • Indicative Mood •
Aorist Tense • 3rd Person Singular) the foolish things of the world to shame the wise” (1 Corinthians 1:27).

Reciprocal:  “He (Pilate) took water and washed (ἀπενίψατοMiddle Voice • Indicative Mood •
Aorist Tense • 3rd Person Singular) his hands in front of the crowd, saying, ’I am innocent of this Man’s blood’” (Matthew 27:24).

In the New Testament the active voice is used approximately 74% of the time, passive voice 14%, and middle voice 12%.

Mood

The indicative mood presents action which is real or certain, being an objective fact.  This is the most common verb form.  The other moods (subjunctive, imperative, and optative) indicate action which is relative or though of.  The indicative tenses are shown in the terminations section.

Of particular interest is the aorist tense which refers to an action or event which the writer wishes to present as complete.  The aorist verb tells you that something happened where the element of time is secondary.  Therefore a future event can be spoken of as if it happened.  “In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished (ἐτελέσθηVerb:  τελέω - to end, to finish •
Passive Voice • Indicative Mood •
Aorist Tense • 3rd Person Singular), as He preached to His servants the prophets” (Revelation 10:7).

The subjunctive mood expresses probability or possibility.   It suggests that some action may happen, or that some action may happen if some condition is met.  Two examples can be seen in the τηρέω Table  

The imperative mood indicates a command, exhortation, or strong request.  The person giving the command must have the authority to request some action.   Consider the man in the crowd who said, “Teacher, tell (εἰπὲActive Voice • Imperative Mood •
Aorist Tense • 2nd Person Singular) my brother to divide the family inheritance with me” (Luke 12:13).   The person giving this command did not realize who Jesus really was.

The optative mode expresses a wish or desire.  By the time the New Testament was written the optative mode was falling into disuse.  Even so the apostle Paul used the optative phrase, “May it never be (μὴNegative particle meaning not) (γένοιτοMiddle Voice • Optative Mood •
Aorist Tense • 3rd Person Singular)!” fourteen times (Romans 3:4,6,31 et al).

Participle

The participle is a verbal adjective having voice and tense.  As the adjective must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun it modifies, so also the participle.  In English the participle may be indicated by the –ing termination.

Consider the question asked by John the Baptist , “Are You the (ὁDefinite Article • the one) Coming (ἐρχόμενοςVerb:  ἔρχομαι - to come •
Middle Voice • Participle •
Present Tense • Nom. Masc. Sing.) One, or do we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3 NKJV).  The Greek word ἐρχόμενος is a verbal adjective.  The addition of the definite article ὀ makes this a noun phrase.

Greek is a participle-loving language and nearly a third of the verbs in Greek literature are participles.

Infinitive

The infinitive is considered a verbal noun which acts like a noun in a sentence.  It has voice and tense but does not have person or number.

The infinitive in the present tense indicates a process either continual or repeated.  Jesus said, “I have many more things to say (λέγεινActive Voice • Infinitive •
Present Tense) to you, but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12).  This is a process that continues to this day.

The infinitive in the aorist does not indicate continual action, but completed action without reference to time.  Take for example Paul’s voyage to Rome.  His ship was caught in a violent storm becoming so hazardous that the ship’s crew “decided to run (ἐξῶσαιActive Voice • Infinitive •
Aorist Tense) the ship aground if they could” (Acts 27:39 NIV).  This was a one-time attempt to save those on the ship.

In the table below the regular Greek verb to keep shows the voice, mood and tense changes that can occur.  This verb is also a contract verb.

Regular Verbs

In the regular verb the stem remains the same.  The stem for the regular verb to believe is πιστευ, and similarly the stem for the verb to save is σω.  Consider the table below which illustrates a few regular verbs.  The blank spaces in the table indicate tenses that do not occur in the New Testament.

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Regular verbs follow simple rules.  A termination is added to the end of the stem.  An augment or reduplication may be placed at the beginning of the stem depending on the tense.  Consider the examples below:

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The subjunctive, imperative, and optative moods do not use the augment, and neither does the infinitive or the participle.

It is now necessary to consider the consonants and how they are classified.  The 17 consonants are broken down as follows:

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Now it is necessary to further break down the 9 mutes as found in the gutturals, labials, and dentals classes.

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If you look closely at the some of the regular verb you can see that some of the stems change as you go across the table, even though by definition the regular stem does not change.  This must mean that there there are rules for how the consonant on a stem can be linked to a consonant on a termination.  The order of the consonant on the stem must agree with the order of the consonant on the termination.  Therefore the consonant on the stem will change to reserve the order.

Considering the verb to pursue whose stem is διωκ.  In order to add the termination –θην to the stem, the order of Greek letter κ must be considered.  The order of dental theta θ is an aspirate and the order of the guttural on the stem must also be an aspirate.  According to the table the guttural chi χ is also an aspirate, so therefore ἐδιώχθην.

Similarly the future of the verb to pursue seems to change.  The Greek letter xi (ξ) is actually composed of two letters k and s.  Therefore the future verb διώξω would transliterate into diōksō, the stem remaining unchanged.

This should give the reader some idea of how the stems may change.  This is only meant as an introduction.

Irregular Verbs

In irregular verbs the stems may change significantly so that more explanation is needed.  Some stem changes are derived from obsolete verbs such as the future tense of to say.  The student of the Greek language will become aware of these irregularities.

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The aorist may have one of two forms.  In the New Testament the aorist of the Greek verb to sinPresent Tense:  ἁμαρτάνω may be either ἡμάρτησα (1) or ἥμαρτον (2).  The latter being declined according to the imperfect tense shown in the next section.  This verb is unique since most verbs are declined either one way or the other, but not both.

There are also some aorist verbs in the middle voice which also have two forms.  One such verb is to becomePresent:  γίνομαι •
Future:  γενήσομαι •
Middle 2 Aorist:  ἐγενόμην •
Passive Aorist:  ἐγενήθην •
Middle Perfect:  γέγονα, which is declined using the imperfect terminations shown below.

Terminations

The termination is added to the verb stem.  For example the stem πιστεύ plus the termination ει becomes πιστεύει which means he believes. The tables below show the terminations for the various indicative tenses.

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Alternate Perfect Tense:  The verb ‘to be’ joined with the perfect participle functions much like the present-perfect and past-perfect indicative moods shown above, giving the Greek writer more freedom in expressing a thought.  In the table below, phrase 3 uses the feminine gender.  In phrase 5, the verb ‘to be’ is in the subjunctive, and the participle is in the neuter gender, agreeing with the word nothing earlier in the sentence.

The stems of contract verbs end in –αω, –εω, or –οω.  Contraction occurs between the final stem vowel and the first vowel of the termination as shown in the table to the right.  

Contractions also occurs when the augment ἐ is added to a verb which has an initial vowel or initial diphthong, a vowel pair whose sounds combine.

Contractions are shown in the table to the right.

In a lexicon the stems of compact verbs are shown as a teaching aid, but in the actual Greek text only the contraction is seen.  This can be seen in the table below.  The diacritical mark the circumflex ( ῀ ), although not in the original Greek, is useful in determining where contraction has occurred.

If required by the tense the augment is added to the beginning of the verb.  If the verb begins with a vowel or vowel pair, contraction occurs as outlined in the table of contractions above.  This is clarified in the following examples:

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Deponent Verbs

The epic poem The Iliad, written by HomerHomer (700-800 BCE) is the presumed author
of the epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey.
He is credited with establishing the Western tradition of written verse, as opposed to old oral tradition of verse., is the oldest surviving Greek literature.  Eight hundred years later, the New Testament was written.  In that interval, the Greek language matured, and the active, passive, and middle voices became established through common usage.  Some verbs which do not fit nicely into the active-passive mold are called deponentFrom the Latin words de ‘down’ and ponere ‘place,’ meaning to put down or lay aside..  In the past, these verbs were considered “defective.”

The textbook definition of a deponent verb is a verb which is middle or passive in form (morphologically) but active in meaning (lexically).

If a verb in a lexicon has the middle-passive termination –ομαι without an active termination –ω, it may be deponent.  The deponent verbs below function similarly to their active counterparts but without an active form.

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Some deponent verbs have irregular forms of declension.  For example, the verb to comePresent:  ἔρχομαι • Future:  ἐλεύσομαι •
2 Aorist:  ἦλθον • Perfect:  ἐλήλυθα declines the present and future tenses according to the middle voice, while the aorist and perfect tenses decline according to the active voice.  Similarly, the verb to fallPresent:  πίπτω • Future:  πεσοῦμαι •
2 Aorist:  ἔπεσον • Perfect:  πέπτωκα declines according to the active voice except for the future, which is declined like the middle.  Therefore many such verbs are deponent.

Some verbs have a meaning in the middle, which deviates from what might be expected.  Consider the following deponent verbs:

The sense of a verb is concerned with whether a verb is active, passive, or middle, and is also concerned with whether a middle verb is reflexive or reciprocal.  All verbs have sense in one way or another.

As the translator interprets a text, he is concerned with what the author is trying to say.  So the meaning of a text can be more subjective than objective, as determined by the translator.  It is the translator’s desire for his translation to be both accurate and fluent.  To achieve this, some leeway from the intent may be necessary.

The main reason for this section is the Greek word ἡγήσατοMiddle Voice • Indicative Mood •
Aorist Tense • 3rd Person Singular which appears in Philippians 2:6.  This verb declines like a middle verb, but its meaning is active.  Sometimes a word study helps determine the meaning of a word, as shown below:

Paul said, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered (ἡγήσατο) me faithful, putting me into service” (1 Timothy 1:12).  And similarly, “By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered (ἡγήσατο) Him faithful who had promised” (Hebrews 11:11).  There is nothing unusual about this particular verb as it relates to Jesus.

In conclusion, it is best to consult a lexicon for the meaning of a particular verb and not worry about whether it is a deponent.  Many common deponent verbs which occur twenty times or more in the New Testament are shown in the table below:

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Vocative

The vocative case is used when addressing someone.  The table below shows the way the termination of the person addressed can change.  When addressing several people, the vocative is the same as the nominative plural.

The word Jesus in the New Testament is the same word used for Joshua in the SeptuagintThe Septuagint, also called the Greek Old
Testament, was translated from the Hebrew
Bible in the third and second centuries BC., whose noteworthy declension is as follows:  Ἰησοῦς, gen. -οῦ, dat. -οῦ, acc. -οῦν, voc. -οῦ, ὁ.

Hebrew words in the New Testament have different treatment than words originating in Greek.  When Jesus spoke to Paul on the road to Damascus, He probably spoke in Hebrew, saying, “Saul (ΣαούλThis word Saul is the same word used for King Saul in the Septuagint.), Saul, why are you persecuting Me” (Acts 9:4)?  The same holds when Jesus spoke to Mary Magdalene at the tomb (John 20:16).  In these cases the vocative differs from the Greek usage.

When a phrase in the Septuagint comes into the New Testament, such as in Psalm 22:1 → Mark 15:34 and Psalm 45:6-7 → Hebrews 1:8-9, they used the phrase ὁ θεός, but in Matthew 27:46, Matthew used Θεέ.  Furthermore, an adjective or a participle will agree with the person addressed, such as in examples 6 and 8.