Biblical Greek Word Order
English has a standard word order. The sentence below is normal:
| Mark | eats | bread. |
| Subject | Verb | Object |
The action (the verb) is eat. Mark (the subject) is doing the action. Bread (the object) is receiving the action. The subject usually appears first, and the object usually appears last. In English we generally cannot change the word order. Consider what happens if mix up the word order:
- Bread eats Mark.
- Bread, Mark eats.
- Eats bread, Mark.
In summary, the default word order for English is Subject-Verb-Object (SVO).
Biblical Greek Word Order
Biblical Greek has a more flexible word order. When you read the Greek New Testament you will find sentences that do not use the English word order. However, Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) ordering is still the most common ordering in the Greek New Testament: 1
The SVO ordering is even more common in the narrative sections of the Greek New Testament.
Tips for Writing Practice
Techincally it is possible to use any word order in Koine Greek, but some word orders are more natural than other languages. Sometimes a speaker, or writer, will move the main topic of a sentence to the start of the sentence. If the speaker wishes to focus on the object of the sentence, they mave move the object to the front of the sentence.
Importantly, if the a speaker is asking a question, the question word should generally be the first word in the sentence. When answering this question, you may find that the key word that answers the question is moved into the front of the sentence.
Scripturial and Word Order
Scripturial begins by using the natural English word order, which also happens to be the most common word order found in the Greek New Testament. The intention is to minimise the number of obstacles set out in front you when you begin practicing Biblical Greek. Alternate word orders are slowly and carefully introduced as you progress through the app.
This data is from research by N Lavadas. For more information about the word order statistics, See "How Does a Basic Word Order Become Ungrammatical? SOV from Classical to Koine Greek" by "N. Lavadas"
