Ancient Mask of Thrace found

Yahoo news reports that an ancient mask of Thrace, among other finds, has been discovered over the weekend. The finds come from Bulgaria.  Here’s the scoop:

SOFIA, Bulgaria – A 2,400-year-old golden mask that once belonged to a Thracian king was unearthed in a timber-lined tomb in southeastern Bulgaria, archaeologists said Monday.

The mask, discovered over the weekend, was found in the tomb along with a solid gold ring engraved with a Greek inscription and the portrait of a bearded man.

“These finds confirm the assumption that they are part of the lavish burial of a Thracian king,” said Margarita Tacheva, a professor who was on the dig near the village of Topolchane, 180 miles east of the capital, Sofia.

Georgi Kitov, the team leader, said that they also found a silver rhyton, silver and bronze vessels, pottery and funerary gifts.

“The artifacts belonged to a Thracian ruler from the end of the 4th century B.C. who was buried here,” Kitov added.

According to Kitov, the Thracian civilization was at least equal in terms of development to the ancient Greek one.

The Thracians lived in what is now Bulgaria and parts of modern Greece, Romania, Macedonia, and Turkey between 4,000 B.C. and the 8th century A.D., when they were assimilated by the invading Slavs.

In 2004, another 2,400-year-old golden mask was unearthed from a Thracian tomb in the same area.

Dozens of Thracian mounds are spread throughout central Bulgaria, which archaeologists have dubbed “the Bulgarian valley of kings” in reference to the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, Egypt, home to the tombs of Egyptian Pharaohs.

Greek verbs – imperfect active indicative

Imperfect active indicative of Greek verb παιδεύω, “teach.” 1s-3pl order:

ἐπαίδευον
ἐπαίδευες
ἐπαίδευε(ν)
ἐπαιδεύομεν
ἐπαιδεύετε
ἐπαίδευον

Grief is the sister of joy

Working through an introduction grammar for Classical Greek, I recently was translating an excerpt (adapted) from Aesop’s Fable 13, in which I translated:

οἱ θεοὶ τοῖς ἀνθρωποις χαρὰς πέμπουσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ λύπας. ἡ λύπη ἀδελφὴ τῆς χαρᾶς ἐστιν.

The gods send delights (or, joy) for the men, but also grief. Grief is the sister of joy.

Greek verbs – future active indicative (fai)

Future active indicative of Greek verb παιδεύω, “teach.” Notice the sigma (σ)* as the mark of the future tense. 1s-3pl order:

παιδεύσω
παιδεύσεις
παιδεύσει
παιδεύσομεν
παιδεύσετε
παιδεύσουσι(ν)

* N.B.: this is dependent upon the stem ending, in which instance, instead of σ, it may be ψ or ξ.

Upcoming Greek New Testament Publication(s)

Over at Evangelical Textual Criticism there is mention of the upcoming publication of the Greek New Testament by the United Bible Societies — the UBS5.  I’m not sure of their source material, but it will certainly be a welcome:

Preparations for the fifth edition of the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament are underway. These involve revising the choice of variants from the fourth edition, again with the purpose of focusing on those that are most significant. UBS5 will also be informed by work on the ECM. They have written to a number of scholars asking for suggestions as to changes in the variants registered. Although they haven’t thrown the net wide open for comments from anyone, I’m sure that unsolicited but reasoned feedback on this issue would be gratefully received by the German Bible Society, who appear to be coordinating this project. Since they are also planning to have an Additional Meeting at SBL in San Diego, that would be another opportunity to present the editors with constructive suggestions.

Metzger’s Textual Commentary on Accordance

Accordance announces that one of the new modules is Bruce M. Metzger’s Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament. As a Mac user, Accordance is basically the best Bible software available. This module will make a great addition for fast access to textual issues. Here is the Accordance link (or find the book form at Amazon). Here is a blurb from the site:

The second edition of this companion to the Greek New Testament discusses textual variations based on the critical apparatus. It contains a thorough explanation of each textual decision that appears in UBS4. “Most commentaries on the Bible seek to explain the meaning of words, phrases, and ideas of the scriptural text in their nearer and wider context; a textual commentary, however, is concerned with the prior question, What is the original text of the passage? That such a question must be asked – and answered! – before one explains the meaning of the text arises from two circumstances: (a) none of the original documents of the Bible is extant today, and (b) the existing copies differ from one another.”

Update: from ETC.

Greek verbs – present active indicative (pai)

Present active indicative of Greek verb παιδεύω, “teach.”  In order: 1st singular, 2nd s, 3rd s; 1st plural, 2nd pl, 3rd pl (i.e., I, you, he/she/it; we, you, they).*

παιδεύω
παιδεύεις
παιδεύει
παιδεύομεν
παιδεύετε
παιδεύουσι(ν)

*When this is given later, I’ll abbreviate as 1s, 2s, 3s; 1pl, 2pl, 3pl (or as 1s-3pl).

Greek verb paradigm (one following NT Greek grammars)

A couple of months ago I created a page with Google docs, regarding the Greek verb paradigm. This is usually what most grammars use (the pony verb λύω) relating to New Testament (Koine) Greek. Feel free to use it for your own benefit. I have more to add on there, such as participles. The link is here.*

• Update I: for a more complete verb chart, see Institute of Biblical Greek.
• *Update II: for the latest click on the Greek Page in the side menu.

Greek unicode

All Greek used on this blog will be unicode. For a great site that offers unicode typefaces, visit the Greek Font Society (see typefaces here).