Notes On Koine Greek: Part 33

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1. The Koine Greek Adjectival Quantifier: While in the previous installation

of these “Notes” we looked at the Attributive, Substantive & Predicate uses of the
adjective, here, we shall look at the role of the adjective as a Quantifier.
2. Quantifiers: To say that an adjective is being used as a quantitatively is simply
to say this: It is making an assertion about the quantity (amount) of something
(e.g. “How much / many?”). Here’s a list of some quantifiers, followed by an
example of quantification in English and a couple of Greek examples:

Some Quantifiers
All (pa/s) Whole (o[lh) Small (mikro,j)
Enough (avrke,w) Each Greater
Every (e[kastoj) Larger (me,gaj / mei,zwn)
Few Many (polu,j) More
Fewer Much (polu,j)
Little (ovli,goj)
Only (mo,noj)

Trust God only.

To begin, take note of a few things about this phrase. 1) The adjective “alone” here acts quantitatively as it
refers back to the noun that precedes it. 2) To get a better understanding of the quantitative use, we might
ask: How many gods can I trust? This phrase seems to be explicitly stating: Trust one God only.

p,isteij
isteij mo,
monoj
,noj o` qeo,j.
If we were to translate this phrase wooden-literally, we would have: You trust alone the God. Smoothing it
out in English, we get: “Trust God alone.” or “Trust God only.” Again, we ask our helping questions. How
many gods can we trust? The sentences seem to assume, trust God alone or trust one God only. Thus, the
adjective makes a quantitative remark about the noun.

Here’s another example:

ton. ko,
kosmon
,smon o[olon.
[lon
lon
Here, we see another example of a Greek adjective acting quantitatively. The translation is not “the world is
whole” but rather, “The whole world.” How much of the world? The whole world, all of it!