APPENDIX E

GREEK NUMBERS AND ARCHAIC LETTERS

E.1. Some alphabetic matters are not common in Koine texts related to the Bible but do crop up from time to time. For reference purposes, here is the information you may need someday to solve a puzzle involving an odd-looking letter or Greek numeral.

Greek Numbers

Greek numerals are alphabetic characters with a “hash” mark (ʹ). These are not used in modern printed Greek Testaments or LXX texts other than in the titles of paired books such as ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ Αʹ and Βʹ or ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩΝ Αʹ, Βʹ, Γʹ, and Δʹ and to number the Psalms,[1] but they do show up in some NT manuscripts as textual variants. You will also find them used elsewhere in various reference works.[2]

Trivia

In Rev. 13:18 the “number of the beast” is normally written out in Greek manuscripts: ἑξακόσιοι ἑξήκοντα ἕξ (six-hundred sixty-six). However, in 𝔓115 (P.Oxy. 4499; third/fourth cent.) and two minuscule manuscripts (5 and 11, no longer extant), it is written in Greek numerals: χιϛ—which is 616.a

a See the discussion in Metzger, Textual Commentary, 676, for an interesting explanation as to why this might be.

    10 ιʹ 20 κʹ
1 αʹ 11 ιαʹ 21 καʹ
2 βʹ 12 ιβʹ 22 κβʹ
3 γʹ 13 ιγʹ 23 κγʹ
4 δʹ 14 ιδʹ 24 κδʹ
5 εʹ 15 ιεʹ 25 κεʹ
6 ϛʹ 16 ιϛʹ 26 κϛʹ
7 ζʹ 17 ιζʹ 27 κζʹ
8 ηʹ 18 ιηʹ 28 κηʹ
9 θʹ 19 ιθʹ 29 κθʹ
10 ιʹ 100 ρʹ
20 κʹ 200 σʹ
30 λʹ 300 τʹ
40 μʹ 400 υʹ
50 νʹ 500 φʹ
60 ξʹ 600 χʹ
70 οʹ 700 ψʹ
80 πʹ 800 ωʹ
90 ϙʹ 900 ϡʹ
  1000 ͵α

Archaic Letters

E.2. There are several characters in Greek that you have not seen yet. The following characters are all obsolete in Koine Greek writing; they did exist in earlier stages of the language. They do not appear in the NT at all, though some were still used in Koine for numerals (see the preceding section). They occasionally appear as textual variants in some NT manuscripts, but they are not in our modern printed texts.

Vau (ϝαῦ), also known as digamma: ϝ. This character affects the forms and spelling of some NT words that still reflect changes that took place when the digamma was in use. It was last used about 200 BC in the Boethian dialect of Greek.[3]

Sampi: ϡ (= the obsolete letter san + π) This symbol was sometimes used for the number 900.

Koppa: ϙ was sometimes used for the number 90.

Stigma: ϛ (ctr. ς) is an abbreviation of στ. Watch the spelling. This is not sigma. Note that the top of the stigma projects further to the right than does the letter sigma, though this is more pronounced in some digital fonts than others. It is sometimes used for the numeral 6.

There is also a consonantal iota worth noting. This is not another letter but an older use of the letter iota as a consonant. In Koine texts it sometimes still acts that way, or more often affects the spelling of some words. If distinguished in printed form, it is written as an inverted breve below the letter iota: ι ̯.[4]