Reading Koine Greek

APPENDIX D

VOCATIVES: THE FIFTH CASE

D.1. There are actually five cases, not just four.[1] The textbook chapters have focused on the four major cases that account for the vast majority of case forms in the NT and LXX (and in any other Greek literature of the Classical and Koine periods). But you do need to know the vocative as well. The five cases are nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and vocative. There are 878 vocatives in the NT and 1,587 in the LXX. That sounds like a lot, but it is only a small fraction of the total noun forms: 3 percent of the 27,958 nouns in the NT and only 1 percent of the 153,739 nouns in the LXX are vocatives.

Vocative is the case of direct address, as in the English (yes, we have them here as well): “Dave, wake up!” English does not use any special form; that is, the word is spelled the same as the subjective (nominative) or objective (accusative) case. English (and Greek) usually sets the vocative off from the rest of the sentence with a comma. Greek sometimes has a special case ending for the vocative; other times it is the same as the nominative. Here is a simple example.

Matt. 7:21, Οὐ πᾶς ὁ λέγων μοι, Κύριε κύριε, εἰσελεύσεται εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν.

Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven.

As shown in this example, κύριος is one of the words that use a special case ending for the vocative: the epsilon (ε) at the end of κύριε.

Forms of the Vocative

D.2. Plural vocatives always have the same form as the nominative plural, as do all neuter nouns (singular or plural). Thus ἄνθρωποι and τέκνον could be nominative or vocative. For the singular, the forms are as follows. First-declension words usually have a vocative with the same form as the nominative; first-declension feminine nouns are always the same, while masculine words sometimes have just an alpha.

Nominative	Vocative
ἀδελφή	ἀδελφή
σατανᾶς	σατανᾶ
τέκνον	τέκνον

The second-declension vocative ending is usually epsilon. Note that the connecting vowel drops out.

Nominative	Vocative
ἄνθρωπος	ἄνθρωπε
θεός	θεέ
κύριος	κύριε

In the third declension either there is no ending (the vocative consists of just the stem) or the vocative form is the same as the nominative. Sometimes the stem vowel undergoes ablaut.

Nominative	Vocative
πόλις	πόλι
πατήρ	πάτερ
γραμματεύς	γραμματεύς

There is no vocative article, so if a word has an article, the form is not a vocative. The vocative is usually set off from the rest of the sentence by commas (see the Matt. 7:21 example above).

D.3. There are other vocative forms (that is, different case endings other than epsilon) that are best identified by context and learned through reading rather than by trying to memorize more forms. For example: δέσποτα ► δεσπότης; γύναι ► γυνή. The following table lists all vocative forms occurring more than three times in the NT, arranged according to frequency.[2] As you can tell, they do not account for a large portion of the vocabulary of the NT—and just two words account for a very large share of them. Knowing the five most common will account for about 40 percent of all the vocatives in the NT.

Nominative	Vocative	Gloss	NT Frequency
κύριος	κύριε	lord	124
ἀδελφός	ἀδελφέ	brother	112
πατήρ	πάτερ	father	35
ἀνήρ	ἄνερ	man	33
διδάσκαλος	διδάσκαλε	teacher	31
γυνή	γύναι (sg.)	woman	13
θεός	θεέ	God	13
ῥαββί	ῥαββί	Rabbi	13
τέκνον	τέκνον	child	12
ὑποκριτής	ὑποκριτά	hypocrite	12
βασιλεύς	βασιλεῦ	king	11
υἱός	υἱέ	son	11
Ἰησοῦς	Ἰησοῦ	Jesus	10
ἄνθρωπος	ἄνθρωπε	man	9
δοῦλος	δοῦλε	slave	9
Σίμων	Σίμων	Simon	9
Σαούλ	Σαούλ	Saul	8
τεκνίον	τεκνία (pl.)	little child	8
ἐπιστάτης	ἐπιστάτα	master	7
Φαρισαῖος	Φαρισαῖε	Pharisee	7
γραμματεύς	γραμματεῖς (pl.)	scribes	6
Ἀγρίππας	Ἀγρίππα	Agrippa	5
θυγάτηρ	θύγατερ	daughter	5
Ἰσραηλίτης	Ἰσραηλῖται (pl.)	Israelites	5
γέννημα	γεννήματα (pl.)	brood	4
Ἰερουσαλήμ	Ἰερουσαλήμ	Jerusalem	4
παιδίον	παιδίον	child	4
ἀββᾶ	ἀββᾶ	father	3
γενεά	γενεά	generation	3
δεσπότης	δέσποτα	master	3
ἑταῖρος	ἑταῖρε	friend	3
νεανίσκος	νεανίσκε	young man	3
Πέτρος	Πέτρε	Peter	3
σατανᾶς	σατανᾶ	Satan	3

Note: Words in bold have the same form in both nominative and vocative. The notation “pl.” indicates that the vocative singular of that word does not occur in Koine texts related to the Bible.

The vocative functions the same in the LXX as it does in the NT. The following table lists all the vocatives that occur more than twenty times in the LXX.

Nominative	Vocative	Gloss	LXX Frequency
κύριος	κύριε	lord	695
υἱός	υἱέ	son	148
βασιλεύς	βασιλεῦ	king	77
τέκνον	τέκνον	child	57
θυγάτηρ	θύγατερ	daughter	47
Ἰσραήλ	Ἰσραήλ	Israel	37
ἀδελφός	ἀδελφέ	brother	32
δεσπότης	δέσποτα	master	31
πατήρ	πάτερ	father	21