Thursday, November 14, 2013

How to Transliterate Greek Words

Learning how to work with transliterations of Greek and Hebrew words will elevate your level of Bible study skills tremendously. In our November 8, 2013 Bible Study Blog we have learned how to use the first BHC Bible Study Tool -- the BHC Hebrew Transliterator. If you haven’t completed that lesson, we recommend that you do it first and then return.

In this blog, we will learn how to us the second BHC Bible Study Tool – the BHC Greek Transliterator -- click here to download / print.   Print the BHC Greek Translator so you can use it for this exercise.


Your BHC Greek Transliterator is divided into two sections of columns:

Section 1 – Columns A, B, C & D
Section 2 – Columns E, F, G & H

Now let’s learn about the Columns:

1. Columns A & H contain the lower case Greek letters.
2. Columns B & G contain the English letters that are the equivalent of the Greek letters.
3. Columns C & F contain the upper case Greek letters.
4. Columns D & E contain the names of the Greek letters.

Information about the first letter of the Greek alphabet is found in Columns A-D on Row 1.



1. The first letter is found in Column A on Row 1. It is the lower case letter.
2. The second letter is found in Column C on Row 1. It is the upper case letter.
3. The English equivalent of the Greek letter is found in Column B on Row 1 – “A.”
4. The name of this Greek letter is found in Column D on Row 1 – “Alpha.”

Now let’s transliterate a Greek word into English.

Greek, like English, is read from left to right   →     →    → .

Use your BHC Greek-English Transliterator as you look at the example below.


Follow the sequence below. The number of the letter or symbol is indicated by “#.”

(1) #1 3C
#1 = the first letter or symbol
3C = the Row & Column of the letter – upper case Beta
Column B indicates that the English transliteration of Beta is “B.”

(2) #2 11A
#2 = the second letter or symbol
11A = the Row & Column of the letter – lower case Iota
Column B indicates that the English transliteration of Iota is “i.”

(3) #3 13H
#3 = the third letter or symbol
11H = the Row & Column of the letter or symbol – smooth breathing mark
Column G indicates that there is no English transliteration.

(4) #4 3A
#4 = the fourth letter or symbol
3A = the Row & Column of the letter or symbol – lower case Beta
Column B indicates that the English transliteration is “b.”

(5) #5 13A
#5 = the fifth letter or symbol
13A = the Row & Column of the letter or symbol – lower case Lambda
Column B indicates that the English transliteration is “l.”

(6) #6 17A
#6 = the sixth letter or symbol
13A = the Row & Column of the letter or symbol – lower case Omicron
Column B indicates that the English transliteration is “o.”

(7) #7 3H
#7 = the seventh letter or symbol
3H = the Row & Column of the letter or symbol – lower case Sigma
Column G indicates that the English transliteration is “s.”

Let’s put all of the letters together and create the English transliteration of the Greek word –

B+i+b+l+o+s = Biblos

Translators drop the Greek case ending “-os” and replace it with an “e” to create the very familiar word “Bible.” Our word Bible is a transliteration – not the translation – of a Greek word.

OK, now it’s your turn to transliterate the word below:

Check your answer by clicking here.

If you would like to practice your transliterating skills click here to go to Matthew 1 in the Greek Bible. It is a genealogy, and since names are usually transliterations, they are easy to check.

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Shalom & Be Empowered!




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