Now that you have learned the building blocks of Greek, you should have a little fun (as if paradigms and vocabulary aren’t fun enough!). You need to see how much you have learned, so I am including two optional chapters. The first is 2 John. When you are done, you have read an entire New Testament book in Greek.
The format is somewhat the same as my Graded Reader. Footnotes explain words that occur less than ten times in the New Testament (which means you will have to use the lexicon in the Grammar to look up the words occurring between 10 and 49 times) as well as grammatical constructions that are too difficult for you right now. I only tell you the meaning of a word once; if the word occurs again in the passage, you should remember it. In the Graded Reader there is a bottom section that helps you apply the meaning of the text and introduces you inductively to intermediate Greek grammar. I am putting some of that type of information in the footnotes as well.
I encourage you to do these two optional chapters and then pick up a copy of the Graded Reader and start working through it, even if you do it between now and when your next Greek class begins. If summer stands between now and your next class, you will be amazed at how much you can forget if you do not start using Greek regularly.
Salutation
1:1 Ὁ πρεσβύτερος ἐκλεκτῇ κυρίᾳ1 καὶ τοῖς τέκνοις αὐτῆς, οὓς ἐγὼ ἀγαπῶ ἐν ἀληθείᾳ, καὶ οὐκ ἐγὼ μόνος ἀλλὰ καὶ πάντες οἱ ἐγνωκότες2 τὴν ἀλήθειαν, 1:2 διὰ τὴν ἀλήθειαν τὴν μένουσαν ἐν ἡμῖν καὶ μεθ᾽ ἡμῶν ἔσται εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα. 1:3 ἔσται μεθ᾽ ἡμῶν χάρις ἔλεος εἰρήνη παρὰ θεοῦ πατρὸς καὶ παρὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐν ἀληθείᾳ καὶ ἀγάπῃ.
Truth and Love
1:4 Ἐχάρην3 λίαν ὅτι εὕρηκα ἐκ τῶν τέκνων4 σου περιπατοῦντας5 ἐν ἀληθείᾳ, καθὼς ἐντολὴν ἐλάβομεν παρὰ τοῦ πατρός. 1:5 καὶ νῦν ἐρωτῶ σε, κυρία, οὐχ ὡς ἐντολὴν καινὴν γράφων σοι ἀλλὰ ἣν εἴχομεν ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς, ἳνα ἀγαπῶμεν ἀλλήλους. 1:6 καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ ἀγάπη, ἳνα περιπατῶμεν κατὰ τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ· αὕτη ἡ ἐντολή ἐστιν, καθὼς ἠκούσατε ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς, ἳνα ἐν αὐτῇ6 περιπατῆτε.
1:7 Ὅτι πολλοὶ πλάνοι ἐξῆλθον εἰς τὸν κόσμον, οἱ μὴ ὁμολογοῦντες Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί· οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ πλάνος καὶ ὁ ἀντίχριστος. 1:8 βλέπετε7 ἑαυτούς, ἳνα μὴ ἀπολέσητε8 ἃ εἰργασάμεθα ἀλλὰ μισθὸν πλήρη ἀπολάβητε.
1:9 Πᾶς ὁ προάγων καὶ μὴ μένων ἐν τῇ διδαχῇ τοῦ Χριστοῦ θεὸν οὐκ ἔχει· ὁ μένων ἐν τῇ διδαχῇ, οὗτος καὶ τὸν πατέρα καὶ τὸν υἱὸν ἔχει. 1:10 εἴ τις ἔρχεται πρὸς ὑμᾶς καὶ ταύτην τὴν διδαχὴν οὐ φέρει, μὴ λαμβάνετε αὐτὸν εἰς οἰκίαν καὶ χαίρειν9 αὐτῷ μὴ λέγετε· 1:11 ὁ λέγων γὰρ αὐτῷ χαίρειν κοινωνεῖ τοῖς ἔργοις αὐτοῦ τοῖς πονηροῖς.
Final Greetings
1:12 Πολλὰ ἔχων ὑμῖν γράφειν οὐκ ἐβουλήθην διὰ χάρτου10 καὶ μέλανος,11 ἀλλὰ ἐλπίζω γενέσθαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς καὶ στόμα πρὸς στόμα12 λαλῆσαι, ἳνα ἡ χαρὰ ἡμῶν πεπληρωμένη ᾖ.13
1:13 Ἀσπάζεταί σε14 τὰ τέκνα τῆς ἀδελφῆς σου τῆς ἐκλεκτῆς.
1. κυρία, -ας, ἡ, lady (2). You could probably guess this from its masculine form that you do know.
2. Hint: I see an οτ and what appears to be an augment, so what is it?
3. Hint: Look carefully at the stem vowel and the eta. Ok, this is pretty hard. Another hint: the final eta is a tense formative, and one of the stem vowels has dropped out.
4. What word does ἐκ τῶν τέκνων modify? There is no word! This is a “partitive genitive”; the word (or in this case, phrase) indicates the larger group, and the word it modifies is a smaller group. Sometimes the word for the smaller group is omitted, and you have to supply it from context. Here you would supply some (τίνας).
5. This word modifies the omitted word referenced in the previous footnote.
6. What is the antecedent of αὐτῇ? ἐντολή or ἀγαπή?
7. Hint: This is not an indicative.
8. Hint: This is a compound verb whose tense stems are difficult to identify. Think of verbal roots.
9. This is one of the ways of greeting somebody. It is used here as an interjection.
10. χάρτης, -ου, ὁ, paper (1).
11. μέλας, μέλαινα, μέλαν, black (6). The neuter form can mean ink.
12. Is this the “holy kiss” of 1 Cor 16:20? ;-)
13. Hint: You normally see these last two words in reverse order.
14. Hint: Why is this in the case it is?