The Greek Alphabet (6): The Sign of the Fish

There are three letters for today. First, epsilon, written ε (capital Ε), which is a short "e" as in the English "met".

Second, tau, written τ (capital Τ), which is a "t" as in English.

Third, theta, written θ (capital Θ), which is a "th" as in the English "thin".

With these three letters, we can make five words:

1. We have already seen Ιησους.

2. "Christ" in Greek is Χριστος (Christos), which begins with chi-rho, of course.

3. The word Θεος (Theos) means "God" (from which we get the word "theology"). Greek changes the endings of words a lot, and Θεου means "of God" or "God's".

4. The word ‘Υιος means "Son". The thing which looks like an opening single quote in front of the first vowel sound (written on top of it in lower case) is a "rough breathing" which is pronounced like "h", thus "huios" for the word (there is also a "smooth breathing", written like a closing single quote, but it is not pronounced at all).

5. The word Σωτηρ (Soter) means "Saviour".

Together the five words make a one-sentence summary of the Gospel: Ιησους Χριστος Θεου Υιος Σωτηρ (Jesus Christ, God's Son, Saviour).

The initial letters of the five words spell out ΙΧΘΥΣ (or ιχθυς in lower case), which is the Greek word for "fish" (from which we get "ichthyology", the study of fish). This is why the fish has been a symbol of Christianity from the beginning:

Melbourne and Sydney

I've just had a very pleasant weekend in Melbourne, and am now off to Sydney for a conference:

... more Greek shortly.

The Greek Alphabet (5): Jesus is Lord

Today we learn to spell the name of Jesus, which we mentioned a few days ago. As I said, it is pronounced something like "yay-sous", and the first two letters are iota (ι / Ι) and eta (η / Η).

The third letter is sigma, the Greek "s", which is written like Σ as a capital, or as σ in lowercase. However, a lowercase sigma at the end of a word is written like ς.

The fourth letter is omikron ("little O"), pronounced as in the English "not", and written ο (or Ο as a capital).

The fifth letter is upsilon", pronounced as in the English "oo" in "book", and written υ (or Υ as a capital). In words borrowed from Greek (such as "mystery" or "psyche"), the upsilon usually turns into a "y", but it is in fact the Greek "u". The combination ου is a somewhat longer "oo" sound.

Finally, the name Jesus ends on another sigma, so that it is written ΙΗΣΟΥΣ (in all capitals) or as Ιησους (with the strange end-of-word lowercase sigma).

With these new letters we can make another Greek word: κυριος (kurios), which means "lord". This word has found its way into other languages as "Kyrie eleison", which means "Lord, have mercy". It is still used in traditional liturgy, and it's the refrain to one of my favourite Dutch hymns, of which I'll give only one verse:

Wysen uyt de Oosten, uyt so verre landt,
Sy sochten onse Heere met offerandt.
S'offerden ootmoedelyck myrh, wierook ende goudt,
t'Eeren van dat kinde, dat alle dingck behoudt.
Kyrieleis

In rough translation:

Wise men from the Orient, land of distant kings,
Sought for our Lord Jesus with offerings.
Humbly they presented gifts of myrrh, incense, and gold,
In honour of the Christ-child, whose hands the world do hold.
Kyrie eleis

The Greek Alphabet (4): Two Consonants

Today we introduce two Greek consonants. The first of these is gamma, which is written as γ (or Γ as a capital), and pronounced like a hard "g" in English (as in "get").

The second is pi, which is written as π (or Π as a capital), and pronounced like "p" in English. This letter is also used in mathematics to represent the number 3.14159....

With these two new letters, we can make yet another new Greek word: αγαπη (agape), which is used for the Christian ideal of love -- in contrast to the weaker loves "philia" and "eros". The word αγαπη occurs repeatedly in the New Testament, especially in 1 Corinthians 13.

For a detailed discussion of the diferent Greek words for "love", see The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis.

The Greek Alphabet: Update

Except where indicated, I have fixed the problem with Firefox substituting English characters for Greek ones.

One of my readers has posted some lovely pictures of the IHS symbol found in her local graveyard:

A beautiful reminder that when we die, we go to be with the Lord. As a lovely old hymn says:

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord.
When disappointment, grief and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past
All safe and blessèd we shall meet at last.

The Greek Alphabet (3): Two Long Vowels

Today we introduce two long Greek vowels. The first is eta, which is written as η (or Η as a capital), and pronounced like "e" in "fete".

In Greek, an iota (ι / Ι) at the start of a word is pronounced like "y", and the first two letters of the name "Jesus" in Greek are iota (ι / Ι) and eta (η / Η). The Greek pronunciation is something like "yay-sous". Early christians used the first three letters of the name as an abbreviation, and this was (confusingly) transferred into Latin as "IHS", which is still used in churches as a symbol of Jesus:

The other new letter for today is omega, written ω (or Ω as a capital), and pronounced like "o" in "tone". The name of the letter just means "big O" (O-mega, geddit?). Because it is the last letter of the Greek alphabet (and alpha is the first) it is also used as a symbol of divine power:

Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. (Rev 22:12-13).

The letters Alpha (Α) and Omega (ω / Ω) are often added to the chi-rho to show Christ's divinity:

With these two new letters, we can make another new Greek word: αρχη, which means "beginning", and has been borrowed in English words like "archeology". The word αρχη is the first word of Mark's gospel:

Ἀρχὴ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ

The Greek Alphabet (2): The Chi-Rho

As in English, Greek letters have names as well as sounds. Just as "w" is called "double-you", α / Α is called alpha, ι / Ι is called iota, and κ / Κ is called kappa.

The first new letter for today is chi (usually said "kye"), which is written as χ (or Χ as a capital), and pronounced like "ch" in the Scottish "loch".

The other new letter for today is rho, written ρ (or Ρ as a capital), and pronounced like "r" in English -- not like "p", in spite of what the capital looks like!

The letters Χ and Ρ are the first two letters of the name "Christ" in Greek, and the combination of the two is an ancient Christian symbol, called the "chi-rho":

With these two letters, we can also make a new Greek word: χαρα, which means "joy", and is one of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23:

ὁ δὲ καρπὸς τοῦ πνεύματός ἐστιν ἀγάπη, χαρά, εἰρήνη, μακροθυμία, χρηστότης, ἀγαθωσύνη, πίστις, πραΰτης, ἐγκράτεια· κατὰ τῶν τοιούτων οὐκ ἔστιν νόμος.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

The Greek alphabet in 10 easy steps (1)

Thought I'd try this as a series of blog posts.

The easiest letters in the Greek alphabet are κ, α, ι or, in capitals, Κ, Α, Ι, which sound just like they look.

They also spell the most common word in the Bible: και, which means "and". In the Gospel of John, for example, it appears 6 times in the first 5 verses:

1. Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.
2. οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν.
3. πάντα δι’ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν ὃ γέγονεν
4. ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἐστιν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων.
5. καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.

Global warming?

It's early summer in Canberra.

We had snow yesterday -- not much, but snow nonetheless.

Must be this global warming I keep hearing about.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Christmas is fast approaching, and it's time to sing this hymn with special emphasis:

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

Or in my not entirely satisfactory Greek translation:

Elqe, elqe, Emmanouhl,
poiei lutrwsin tw Israhl,
¢oV klaiei monoV en skotei
¢ewV ¢o ¢UioV Qeou fainhtai.
caire, caire, Emmanouhl
eleusetai w Israhl.

Boubas and Kikis

One of these shapes is a bouba, the other is a kiki. Which is which?

Click on the image to see the most common answer. Now this definitely means something, but I'm not quite sure what.

On the other hand

Technorati's 360 day list also points us at a more positive witness:

Visibility

Jesus said In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16).

Now I see from Technorati's 90 day list, that there has been a spike in mentions of Evangelical:

Sadly, it's not because any evangelicals did anything particularly shining.