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Lesson 2.5 · Nouns

The genitive

The case that says “of”: possession, source, belonging.

A word ending in -u means of that thing. It is how the language links one noun to another:

tem fōtem tou kosmou
the light of the world (Matthew 5:14)

kosmworld omasculine uof

It also does possession

There is no separate word for "my", "his" or "the church's". You say "of" and put the owner in this form, after the thing owned:

tos logos tou theouthe word of God — God's word
tos huios tou anthrōpouthe son of the person
tem fōtem tau zōauthe light of the life (John 8:12)

Notice tou theou: both the word for "the" and the noun take the -u, because they belong together. You will meet that agreement properly in Lesson 3.1.

It covers more than ownership: of, from, belonging to, about. When a phrase resists you, try plain "of" first — it fits most of the time.
In the Greek — the range of this ending

Greek writes it -ου, -ης, -ος and several other ways, all collapsed here to a single -u. Its range in Greek is genuinely wide: possession (τοῦ θεοῦ), source ("from"), material ("made of"), time within which, and comparison ("greater than"). Biblang does not narrow that range — the same one ending covers the same spread of senses, and context decides, exactly as it does in Greek.

Practice

  1. What is tos logos tou theou?
  2. What is tos theos tou logou?
  3. How would you say "the son of the Lord"? (Lord = kuri-, masculine.)
Show the answers
  1. "The word of God." logos ends in -s so it is the main thing; theou ends in -u, so God is what it is "of".
  2. "The God of the word" — the two have swapped roles. Endings, not order.
  3. tos huios tou kuriou.
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