Ὃ ἦν ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς, ὃ ἀκηκόαμεν, ὃ ἑωράκαμεν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἡμῶν (I John 1:1)

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Title:  What Was From the Beginning, What We Have Heard, What We Beheld With Our Eyes

The text is, “Ὃ ἦν ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς, ὃ ἀκηκόαμεν, ὃ ἑωράκαμεν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἡμῶν, ὃ ἐθεασάμεθα καὶ αἱ χεῖρες ἡμῶν ἐψηλάφησαν περὶ τοῦ λόγου τῆς ζωῆς”.

Ὃ ->   neuter, singular,nominative, definite, relative, pronoun-> what

ἦν ->  third person, singular, imperfect, indicative verb -> was

ἀπ’ ->  preposition taking the genitive for its object word -> from

ἀρχῆς ->  feminine, singular, genitive noun -> beginning

ὃ ->  masculine, singular, nominative article -> the

ἀκηκόαμεν ->  first person, plural, perfect, active, indicative verb -> we have heard

ὃ ->  neuter, singular, nominative, definite, relative pronoun -> what

ἑωράκαμεν ->  first person, plural, perfect, active, indicative verb -> we have seen

τοῖς ->  masculine, plural, dative article -> which INRIEH*

ὀφθαλμοῖς -> masculine, plural, dative noun – with eyes

ἡμῶν -> irst person, personal, plural, genitive pronoun – our

ὃ ->  neuter, singular, nominative, definite, relative pronoun -> which

ἐθεασάμεθα -> first person, plural, aorist, middle, indicative verb -> we beheld

καὶ ->  coordinating conjunction -> and

αἱ -> feminine, plural, nominative article -> which

χεῖρες -> feminine, plural, nominative noun -> hands

ἡμῶν -> first person, personal, plural, genitive pronoun -> our

ἐψηλάφησαν ->  third person, plural, aorist, active, indicative verb -> felt | touched

περὶ -> preposition taking the genitive for its object word ->  concerning

τοῦ ->  masculine, singular, genitive article -> the

λόγου -> masculine, singular, genitive noun -> word

τῆς -> feminine, singular, genitive article -> the INRIEH

ζωῆς -> feminine, singular, genitive noun -> of life

The meaning of this verse is,

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we beheld with our eyes, and which our hands have touched concerning the word of life,

*NRIEH: For the sake of clarity the word is translated into English, but to avoid such odd constructions as applying a definite article (“the”) to a substantive sufficiently determined by its being a proper noun, or by the use of a qualifier other than the definite article. An example would be the basic translation “Peter said to the Jesus”; the word “the” is completely unnecessary. There are many examples of this in the New Testament. The designation NRIEH is equivalent to “Not Rendered Into English Here”.

Ὃ ἦν ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς, ὃ ἀκηκόαμεν, ὃ ἑωράκαμεν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἡμῶν (I John 1:1) by Dennis Glover is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.