B-Greek FAQ

B-GREEK is a mailing list for scholars and students of Biblical Greek. Our main focus is upon understanding the Greek text of the Bible. Discussion topics include scholarly study of the Greek Bible and related Jewish and Christian Greek texts, tools for beginning and advanced students of Biblical Greek such as textbooks, reference works, bibliography and research tools, and linguistic topics such as morphology, lexicography, syntax, and discourse analysis. B-Greek was established in 1992 by David Marotta at the Center for Christian Study, an independent Christian ministry at the University of Virginia. In 1998 the list changed its venue to ibiblio.org at UNC-Chapel Hill after David asked to step down as list owner. We are grateful to David for his vision of a forum where the Greek text and language of the Bible are probed in ongoing conversation by an eclectic group of beginning students and veteran teachers, lay persons and clergy, conservatives and liberals, earnest inquirers and academic scholars -- equally committed to probing the Biblical text in the original Koiné, and jointly exploring the mysteries and probabilities of Biblical Greek morphology and syntax.

Anyone interested in New Testament Studies is invited to subscribe, but list-members will be assumed to have at least a working knowledge of Biblical Greek. While "lurkers" are welcome to receive and read list correspondence, posts to the list are expected to pose questions about Biblical Greek, not general questions or opinions about doctrine or the meaning of the English text. Even basic questions are welcome, provided they are really about the meaning of the Greek text. This is not a general discussion list for Biblical matters. While one need not be a Greek scholar to subscribe, one should at least be taking the first serious steps in the study of Biblical Greek.

-- The Greek language of the Bible and related texts such as the Greek OT (Septuagint/LXX), Koiné Greek texts illustrative of the practice of speakers and writers of Greek in the NT era, Patristic Greek texts, etc.;

-- Resources for teaching and learning (Biblical) Greek: lexica, grammars, morphological charts, web-sites, discussion-lists, etc.--including answers to questions raised by beginners, whether they are working their own way through a Greek textbook or studying Greek formally in schools;
-- Bibliography pertaining to Biblical Greek topics;

-- Specific Greek passages in the Biblical text about which one wishes to raise questions or suggest alternative approaches;

-- questions about Greek textual variants bearing on the interpretation of a particular passage may be appropriate (but not general discussion of textual criticism itself--for which there is a special list of its own; if you are interested, you can find more information at

B-Greek is not a forum for general Bible issues, except insofar as they may bear specifically upon interpretation of a particular Greek text, Neither is it a forum for general or specific hermeneutical or theological issues.

-- Comments should focus upon issues directly related to Biblical Greek or a biblical Greek text. If, in the judgment of list-moderators, discussion is moving beyond parameters deemed appropriate for the list, a thread may be closed; those who continue to post on a closed thread may lose list privileges.

-- Those who participate in the conference represent a wide range of theological and denominational perspectives, perhaps even including some whose interests are purely academic. Deep religious convictions surely characterize many, perhaps most, of the list-participants, and some of these convictions bear directly upon how the Biblical text is to be understood. At the core of our discussion, however, is not what our convictions are but what the Greek text may legitimately be understood to mean. If discussion of this nature is to succeed, proper respect and courtesy to other list members is important. While scholarly debate, including disagreement, is encouraged as a goal of this conference, attacks upon the character, intelligence, or faith of those participating are not acceptable. Criticism must focus upon the arguments of others; it may not be directed to the individual.

-- B-Greek must not be used either to attack or to defend any particular doctrine deemed "orthodox" by one or another individual or group; this is not the forum for apologetic controversy.

-- Those who violate these policies will be contacted politely by the B-Greek staff and requested to conform to these guidelines. Those who continue to violate the policies will no longer be welcome in the conference.

and filling out the form, which follows on the list-description. You will be sent email requesting confirmation, to prevent others from gratuitously subscribing you. This is a hidden list, which means that the list of members is available only to the list administrator. You will be asked to enter in the form:

-- Your name (While this is optional for registration, real-name signatures must be appended to all messages sent to the list):

-- Password: (Do not use a valuable password as it will occasionally be emailed back to you in clear text. If you choose not to enter a password, one will be automatically generated for you, and it will be sent to you once you've confirmed your subscription. You can always request a mail-back of your password when you edit your personal options):

Signatures: If your email address does not contain your real full name, please use a signature that provides at least your name. Signatures may also include your location, academic affiliation, or a web page. Signatures should not include comments that might be seen as provocative, sectarian, or political.

Citing off-list messages of others in posts to B-Greek: It is considered to be in very poor taste to post to the list items that have been sent off list. Before doing so always consult the author to see if this is acceptable. Complaints from authors of messages that have been posted to the list without their consent will be reviewed by the BG Staff and appropriate action will be taken, if necessary.

Monitoring of messages sent to the list before distribution: The first messages posted by each new subscriber are monitored to assure due observance of list-protocol. Posters who violate list-protocol may be monitored or, if they persist, may be removed from the list-membership.

Replying to a message: The software used by the B-Greek list automatically formats replies to go to the original sender. If you wish your responses regularly to go to the list as well, you should set the settings preferences of your e-mail program to put <b-greek@lists.ibiblio.org> automatically in the cc: header, or you can copy <b-greek@lists.ibiblio.org> into the cc: line in your reply message header. Please be careful in this regard; an error may result in your general response going only to the original sender.

Private messages: Some inquiries will invite private ("off-list") responses; in that case, simply send a message directly to another member of the list, without copying your message to the entire list. Your message will be private. No one else will be able to read it. We ask that as many messages as possible
be posted to the entire list so everyone can benefit from the discussion, but when a private message is truly desired, you always have that option.

Promoting products, services or public causes on this list: We do not permit messages on this list which can be interpreted as being of a commercial or business nature, including sales messages from non-profit organizations. We especially do not permit messages which spam and/or cross-post religious discussion lists trying to get people to purchase products or visit various web sites. Advertisements or job-postings are not allowed without the approval of the list-owner, Jonathan Robie <bgreek.owner@gmail.com>. Please clear your requests before posting. Those directly related to the subject matter of B-Greek will probably be approved.

Greek citations in messages posted to B-Greek may be formulated in plain-text Unicode (UTF-8), but for the sake of list-members who have problems reading or typing Unicode, such citations should at the same time be formulated in BG-transliteration, in accordance with the following pattern:

John 1:1 ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.
John 1:1: EN ARCHi HN hO LOGOS, KAI hO LOGOS HN PROS TON QEON, KAI QEOS HN hO LOGOS.

B-Greek has from the beginning allowed every poster to use any scheme he/she found comfortable, since we all could usually figure out what text was meant. For those who wish some guidance, a generally accepted scheme has evolved on the List, with two or three matters still not fully settled.

(1) CAPITALS are used when transliterating Greek letters, on a one-to-one basis, reserving lower-case {i} to represent iota-subscript and lower-case {h} to represent rough breathing. No accents, no smooth breathings. And no distinction between medial and final Sigma.

(2) If accents are really necessary, to distinguish otherwise identical words, acute is represented by {/}, grave by {\}, and circumflex either by tilde {~ [preferable]} or {=} -- always AFTER the vowel over which it would be written.

(3) A few characters without Roman single-character form are usually done with almost-look-alike Roman characters otherwise unused:

(4) Digraphs (in the usual Roman transliteration) are handled in three different ways to avoid two-letter transliterations, all involving otherwise-unused Roman letters:

THeta uses Q ("look-alike", as above).
PSi uses Y ("look-alike", as above).
PHi uses F (sound equivalence).
CHi uses C (first letter of traditional digraph).

(5) Xi and Chi: There being no single Roman letter for "Xi" other than X, the "look-alike" use of X for "Chi" is confusing, though some use it. And some seem to like to use C for "Sigma." Since S is otherwise unused, and poses no confusion whatever, using C for "Sigma" makes for problems in decoding back to Greek, especially since it is the only letter available for "Chi" (unless X is used, thus posing a problem for "Xi"). And occasionally someone uses P for "Rho", making problems for how to represent "Pi".

Other resources about Biblical Greek: There are several Internet websites devoted to Biblical Greek, including:

Here may be found the correspondence accumulated from list-members since the inception of the list in 1992. There are gems here, and to assist you to discover them, the webmaster, Jonathan Robie, has provided a powerful search engine that will quickly enable you to find discussions on a topic of interest to you, if in fact, that topic has at some point in the history of the list also been of interest to others.

Greek character	name of character	Usual in B-Greek	Traditional (using macrons and digraphs)
Α α	alpha	A	a
Β β	beta	B	b
Γ γ	gamma	G	g
Δ δ	delta	D	d
Ε ε	epsilon	E	e
Ζ ζ	zeta	Z	z
Η η	eta	H	ē (e with macron)
Θ θ	theta	Q	th
Ι ι	iota	I	i
Κ κ	kappa	K	k
Λ λ	lambda	L	l
Μ μ	mu	M	m
Ν ν	nu	N	n
Ξ ξ	xi	X	x
Ο ο	omicron	O	o
Π π	pi	P	p
Ρ ρ	rho	R	r
Σ σ ς	sigma	S	s
Τ τ	tau	T	t
Υ υ	upsilon	U	u
Φ φ	phi	F	ph
Χ χ	chi	C	ch
Ψ ψ	psi	Y	ps
Ω ω	omega	W	ō (o with macron)

῾	rough breathing	h	h
ᾳ ῃ ῳ	iota subscript	Ai Hi Wi	(i)