Case nominative

Summary

In Koiné Greek, the nominative case ending usually indicates the subject of the sentence. However, the nominative case ending can also indicate a predicate nominative or predicate adjective.

Article

In Koiné Greek, the nominative case ending indicates the subject of a sentence. Any adjectives or participles that describe the subject of the sentence also take the nominative case ending. In a sentence with a linking verb, the nominative case ending can indicate the predicate nominative or predicate adjective.

The nominative case ending is the standard form used for dictionary entries in a Greek lexicon.

Form

The nominative case is formed by adding the nominative case ending to the stem of a word (often with a connecting vowel).

Nominative Case Ending
First and Second Declension Third Declencion
Masculine Feminine Neuter Masculine/Feminine Neuter
Singular
Nominative ς - ν ς -
Plural
Nominative ι ι α ες α

Note:

  • The hyphen (-) indicates there is no case ending for feminine singular first and second declension nouns.
  • There is no case ending for third declension neuter singular nouns, but the final stem letter may undergo changes.

See NounParadigm for a complete listing of the noun paradigms and AdjectiveParadigm for the adjective paradigms.

Indicates the subject of a sentence

The primary use of the nominative case ending is to identify the subject of the sentence. When the subject is paired with the definite article, the definite article will also take the nominative case ending.

John 11:35    
ἐδάκρυσεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς
edakrysen ho Iēsous
he wept the Jesus
Jesus wept.    
John 3:35        
ὁ Πατὴρ ἀγαπᾷ τὸν Υἱόν
ho Patēr agapa ton huion
the Father he loves the Son
The Father loves the Son.        

When an adjective or participle functions as the subject of the sentence, it will take the nominative case ending.

Romans 1:17          
ὁ δὲ δίκαιος ἐκ πίστεως ζήσεται.
ho de dikaios ek pisteōs zēsetai.
the indeed righteous by faith he will live.
*But the* righteous will live by faith.        

Any adjectives or participles that describe the subject of a sentence will also take the nominative case ending. This is because adjectives and participles must agree with the term that they describe in case as well as gender and number. In the example below, the adjective (καλός) and the noun (ποιμὴν) both take the nominative case ending.

John 10:11                    
ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλὸς τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ τίθησιν ὑπὲρ τῶν προβάτων
ho poimēn ho kalos tēn psychēn autou tithēsin hyper tōn probatōn
the shepherd the good the life of him he lays down in behalf of the sheep
The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.                    

In the example below, the participle (βλέπων) and the noun (Πατήρ) both take the nominative case ending.

Matthew 6:6                  
ὁ Πατήρ σου ὁ βλέπων ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ ἀποδώσει σοι.
ho patēr sou ho blepōn en tō kryptō apodōsei soi.
the Father of you who is seeing in the secret he will reward to you
your Father who sees in secret will reward you                  

Sometimes a writer may not intend to form a complete sentence. This may occur in titles, headings, the greeting of a letter, or when a writer wishes to express strong emotion. In cases like these, there is often a subject to the sentence fragment but no predicate and no verb. The subject of these kinds of sentence fragments will take the nominative case ending.

Jude 1            
Ἰούδας Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ δοῦλος ἀδελφὸς δὲ Ἰακώβου
Ioudas Iēsou Christou doulos adelphos de Iakōbou
Jude of Jesus of Christ a slave brother and of James
Jude *a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James*        
Romans 11:33              
ὦ βάθος πλούτου καὶ σοφίας καὶ γνώσεως Θεοῦ
ō bathos ploutou kai sophias kai gnōseōs theou
Oh depth of riches both of wisdom and of knowledge of God.
Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God!            

Indicates a predicate nominative or predicate adjective

Sentences with linking verbs (such as εἰμί, γίνομαι, and ὑπάρχω) do not take a typical predicate containing an active verb with a direct object, etc. When a linking verb requires a predicate, that predicate will contain some kind of predicate nominative (either a noun or a participle functioning as a noun) or predicate adjective (either an adjective or a participle functioning as an adjective). In these cases, the predicate nominative or predicate adjective will take the nominative case ending.

Unlike in English, a linking verb in Koiné Greek can be implied and not explicitly stated.

are completed with an object in nominative case. The Nominative-Predicate (also referred to as Predicate Nominative) construction can take different forms but consists of a subject + a linking verb + an object in the nominative case. [The linking verb may be implied and not actually present in the text.]

Note

Use caution when translating sentences with predicate nominatives. It is often difficult to tell which term is the subject and which term is the predicate nominative, but they are not the same thing. They must be distinguished from one another.Care must be used in the translation of a Nominative-Predicate because the object may not be in the last position and is often not an exact equivalent of the subject. Koiné Greek does not use position to distinguish between the subject and the predicate nominative. The predicate nominative may appear either before or after the subject. The predicate nNominative is generally the larger class of objects, while the subject is the smaller class.

Indicates apposition

In Koiné Greek, the nominative case ending can be used to indicate a term that is in apposition to another word (usually a noun). It functions very much like an adjective, except it is usually not an adjective, but a noun instead. “Apposition” is the term used when a noun describes (or gives more information about) another noun. Appositions can be translated into English a variety of different ways, depending on the specific context. Some common ways of translating an apposition into English include “who is,” “which is,” “namely,” a simple comma, or sometimes not translated at all. In the example below, the terms ὁ μάρτυς and ὁ προτότοκος both take the nominative case ending and are in apposition to Ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ (even though Ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ takes the genitive case ending). The apposition indicates that Jesus Christ is the person whom the writer indicates is the faithful witness and the firstborn from the dead.

Revelation 1:5                      
καὶ ἀπὸ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ὁ μάρτυς ὁ πιστός ὁ πρωτότοκος τῶν νεκρῶν…
kai apo Iēsou Christou ho martys ho pistos ho prōtotokos tōn nekrōn…
and from Jesus Christ the witness the faithful the firstborn from the dead…
*and from Jesus Christ the faithful* witness the firstborn from the dead…                  
Consider the sentence, “Paul is a man.”
“Paul” is the subject and “man” is the Nominative-Predicate. The translator must be careful to first understand the passage and then take equal care in the translation to make sure the reader understands that Paul is the subject and man is the Nominative-Predicate. English uses word order to indicate which word is the subject and which word is the Predicate Nominative. Therefore reversing the word order in English to say “a man is Paul” would lead the reader to think that all men are “Paul” which is not true. The more definite of the two words (or clauses) in the nominative case will be the subject of the sentence.

The following basic rules will help to clarify which word (or clause) is the subject of the sentence and which word (or clause) is the predicate nominative for the sentence in Koine Greek.

NOTE: In Koine Greek, the linking verb may be omitted entirely, and may have to be supplied by the reader (or translator) to complete the sentence. (an example of this will be given below.)

As stated above, the more definite of the two nominatives will be the subject of the sentence. Therefore…

  1. if only one of the words in the nominative case is a pronoun, then the pronoun will be the subject. The pronoun may be included as a part of the verb.
Matthew 5:14          
ὑμεῖς ἐστε τὸ φῶς τοῦ κόσμου.
hymeis este to phōs tou kosmou.
you you are the light of the world.

You are the light of the world.

When Jesus spoke to the crowd and said “you”, they had a clear understanding of who the “you” was referring to. It was referring to them. “You” is the subject. “The light” is the predicate nominative.

Matthew 14:33      
ἀληθῶς Θεοῦ Υἱὸς εἶ
alēthōs theou huios ei
truly of God Son you are

Truly you are the Son of God.

In this sentence, the subject “you” is included in the verb εἶ. Υἱὸς is the predicate nominative.

  1. If only one of the words in the nominative case is preceded with the article, the word with the article is the subject.
John 1:1        
καὶ Θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος
kai theos ēn ho logos
and God was the word

and the Word was God

John 1:14        
καὶ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο
kai ho logos sarx egeneto
and the word flesh it became

The Word became flesh

  1. If only one of the words in the nominative case is a proper name, the proper name will be the subject.
James 5:17        
Ἠλείας ἄνθρωπος ἦν ὁμοιοπαθὴς ἡμῖν
Ēleias anthrōpos ēn homoiopathēs hemin
Elijah a man he was like/or with a nature like us

Elijah was a man just like us.

Notice that in this example both the subject (Ἠλείας) and the predicate nominative (ἂνθρςπος) come before the verb.

4) If one of the nouns in the nominative case is a pronoun and one is a proper name, the pronoun will be the subject and the proper name will be the predicate nominative.

Matthew 16:20      
αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ Χριστός
autos estin ho Christos
he he is the Christ

He is the Christ.

Matthew 11:14    
αὐτός ἐστιν Ἠλείας
autos estin Ēleias
he he is Elijah

He is Elijah

  1. If…
  1. both have the article or
  2. both are proper names or
  3. one has the article and the other is a proper name,
…then the one that comes first is the subject.
John 15:1          
ὁ Πατήρ μου ὁ γεωργός ἐστιν.
ho Patēr mou ho geōrgos estin
the Father my the farmer/gardener he is

My Father is the gardener

6) Some times εις + accusative is used for the predicate nominative. This may occur with γίνομαι, εἰμί, or λογίζομαι. This portrays a process of something “changing into” something else. In English, it is translated with a predicate nominative and the εἰς is not translated. [D R A F T]

Mark 10:8            
καὶ ἔσονται οἱ δύο **εἰς σάρκα** μίαν
kai esontai hoi dyo **eis sarka** mian
and they will become the two   flesh one

and the two will become one flesh