Most of the names used in this novel have been taken straight from the Greek New Testament and transliterated into English. Note that there is no character for a word-initial “Y” in New Testament Greek. Consequently, a “Y” sound is approximated by using the letter “I”. Also note that in the following pronunciations ‘oo’ is pronounced as in the word ‘book’.
Ioanneis [yoe-AH-nace]
Iēsus Christos [YAY-soos KRIS-toss]
Loukas [LOO-kuss] (2 Tim. 4:11)
Iounia [YOO-nee-ah] (Rom. 16:7)
Stephanos [stef-AH-noss] (Acts 6:5)
Tychicus [TAICH-i-kuss] (2 Tim 4:12)
Markos [MAR-koss] (Acts 15:37)
Tertios [TER-ti-oss] (Rom. 16:22)
Paulos [pa-OO-loss] (Acts 8:1)
The Russian names and places should be fairly self-explanatory. However, the letters “ZH” represent the sound in the middle of the word ‘leisure’.