John 20:28 says …ὁ θεός μου.
1 John 4:8 says …ὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν.
Why is the direction of the accent mark apparently context-dependent?
And which would be correct to refer to the phrase by itself embedded in English text? David Bentley Hart, who presumably knows how these things work, writes in the footnote to John 1:1 in his New Testament translation "…where the Greek speaks of ὁ θεός…", so that would seem to be proper, but confusion remains as to why the accent would ever be different.
What is the difference between ὁ θεὸς and ὁ θεός?
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Re: What is the difference between ὁ θεὸς and ὁ θεός?
The accent changes based on the sound of the surrounding words - the phonological context. The rules for this are in most grammars, they are kind of complicated. Wikipedia has a decent article on this - see "rules for the placement of the accent":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_G ... the_accent
James Tauber's diagrams are really helpful here:
https://jktauber.com/2016/11/07/diagram ... placement/
θεός
Did my answer help?schwartz wrote: ↑April 23rd, 2024, 5:37 pmDavid Bentley Hart, who presumably knows how these things work, writes in the footnote to John 1:1 in his New Testament translation "…where the Greek speaks of ὁ θεός…", so that would seem to be proper, but confusion remains as to why the accent would ever be different.
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
Re: What is the difference between ὁ θεὸς and ὁ θεός?
Yes, thank you. Is the basic idea just reproducing the pronunciation that comes naturally/instinctively to a native speaker, and it only seems needlessly complicated to someone who's trying to learn it from a language like English that doesn't bother with accent marks?
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Re: What is the difference between ὁ θεὸς and ὁ θεός?
Yes. And listening to it read out loud can help give you a feel for that, over time.schwartz wrote: ↑April 24th, 2024, 4:26 pmYes, thank you. Is the basic idea just reproducing the pronunciation that comes naturally/instinctively to a native speaker, and it only seems needlessly complicated to someone who's trying to learn it from a language like English that doesn't bother with accent marks?
YouVersion, for instance, can read the text to you out loud. Or FCBH.
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/