Chapter 1: Learning the name of Jesus in Greek

 

In order to learn Greek you have to first learn the 24 letters in the Greek alphabet. Instead of memorizing the alphabet in order, we will have a little fun in the first two weeks by learning Jesus Christ in Greek. In the first two weeks you will learn Jesus Christ, with Jesus this week and Christ next week.

We will not have any exercises in the first week. Also, you will see everything you have learned up to that point at the bottom of the page for many lessons. Eventually we will switch over to a master dictionary and appendix with all the verb endings once the list grows too long.

Lesson 1: The letter iota (i-o-ta): vowel

• This is a good start to learning Greek because both the lowercase and uppercase (or capital) iota in Greek looks similar to the English "i."
• Two differences: when in the lowercase, it will not have the dot over the eye and it will have a little hook at the bottom of the letter (see the example below).
• Sometimes it is a short "i" sound like in "pit" and sometimes it is a long "ee" sound like in "beet." I will let you know how to pronounce it as you learn the words.
• This is a vowel.

Greek	Small	Capital
Iota	ι	Ι

Lesson 2: The letter eta: vowel

• This is the long "a" sound, like in "may."
• One note: if you were writing on a line, the second line on the η would go beneath the line.
• The capital letter for eta looks like a capital H.
• This is a vowel.

Greek	Small	Capital
Eta	η	Η

Lesson 3: The letter sigma, part one

• This is the "s" in Greek.
• It is a consonant.

Greek	Small	Capital
Sigma	σ	Σ

Lesson 4: The letter sigma, part two

• This is also the "s" in Greek, but with a difference. Whenever the sigma is at the end of a word, it takes on a different form: ς
• This is called the "final sigma."
• Note: just like the eta, the final sigma will go a little below the line, like a "g" does.
• At the end of this week's lesson you will see both of these because the Greek form of Jesus has two "s's" just like the English form: one is in the middle and one is at the end.

Sigma not at the end of a word	Sigma at the end of a word
σ	ς

Lesson 5: The letter omicron: vowel

• This is another easy letter because it acts just like the "o" in English.
• It is always a short "o" sound like the "o" in "sock" or "not."
• It is a vowel.

Greek	Small	Capital
Omicron	ο	Ο

Lesson 6: The letter upsilon: vowel

• This is the "u" sound in English.
• It is a vowel.

Greek	Small	Capital
Upsilon	υ	Υ

Using what you have learned

Now you can recognize and pronounce the name of Jesus in Greek:

Ιησους

You will pronounce it this way:

Ι	η	σους
i	ay	suus
short "i" like in "bit"		like the "oo" in "choose"

So "Jesus" in Greek is pronounced "i-ay-suus."

Well done! Interesting note, this is what people would have called Jesus when He was alive. No one would have called him "Jesus" because that is the English version and people didn't use English when Jesus was alive, plus the Greek does not have the "j" sound.

What you have learned so far

Greek small	Greek capital	English name	Sound
η	Η	eta	ay
ι	Ι	iota	i/ee
ο	Ο	omicron	o
σ ς	Σ	sigma	s
υ	Υ	upsilon	u