Learn Latin By Reading Scripture

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Mark 1:1-8

1 The beginning of the gospel Iesu Christi, the Son of God. 2 Sicut it written est in Isaiah the prophet, Ecce, I send messenger meum before face tuam, Who shall prepare way tuam. 3 Vox of one crying in deserto, Make ye ready the way Domini, Make his paths straight; 4 Ioannes Baptista came, who baptized in deserto and preached the baptism of repentance in remission of sins.5 Et there went out ad him all the country of Judaea, et all they of Jerusalem; et they were baptized ab him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Et erat Ioannes clothed with camel's hair, et had a leathern girdle circa loins eius, et did eat locusts et wild honey.  7 Et he preached, saying, There cometh after me he that is mightier than me, the latchet shoes eius non sum worthy to stoop down and unloose. 8 Ego baptized vos in water; But he shall baptize vos in Spiritu Sancto.
Words
  1. ad = to
  2. ab = by
  3. Baptista (Bap-tees-ta) = Baptist, Baptizer
  4. Christus (Kriss-toos) = Christ
  5. circa (sir-kah) = about, around
  6. desertum (dess-air-toom) = desert, wilderness
  7. dominus (doh-min-oos) = lord
  8. ecce (etch-chay) = behold!
  9. ego (ay-goh) = I
  10. eius (ay-yoos) = his, of whose
  11. erat (air-at) = was
  12. est = is
  13. et = and
  14. Iesus (Yay-soos) = Jesus
  15. in = in, for
  16. Ioannes (Yoh-ann-nace) = John
  17. me (meh) = me
  18. meum (mee-um) = my
  19. non = not
  20. sanctus (sahnk-toos) = holy
  21. sicut (see-kut) = as
  22. spiritus (spir-ih-toos) = spirit
  23. sum (soom) = (I) am
  24. tuam (tu-ahm) = your
  25. vos (voss) = you (all, y'all)
  26. vox (voks) = voice








 Rules

The Genitive Case
  • In Latin the ends of words often change depending on the function they play in a sentence.
  • One function is possession, which we often express in English with the word "of," as in "the gospel of Jesus Christ."
  • When nouns ending in -us are in the possessive, their ending often changes from -us to -i. This is why in v. 1 Christus becomes Christi.
  • Not all nouns change this way. For example, foreign names (like Iesus, which is a Latin attempt to capture an Aramaic name) often don't change their form in a regular way. This is why Iesus becomes Iesu instead of Iesi.
  • When one word becomes possessive, all of the words that directly modify it have to agree with it, and so they also become possessive. Thus if the word "Jesus" in "Jesus Christ" becomes possessive then "Christ" has to become possessive also.
  • When words are functioning possessively, they are said to be "in the genitive case."
Word Order
  • Latin word order often differs from English word order. If the words you encounter seem backwards, try flipping them around and see if they make sense.
  • In English we would say "John was," but Latin has the flexibility to say "was John."
  • In Latin you would not say "is written" but "written is."
  • In Latin possessive pronouns (my, your, his) usually follow the word they modify rather than preceding it.
  • In Latin word order, adjectives tend to follow the nouns they modify. This is why we read Spiritu Sancto instead of Sancto Spiritu.
Articles
  • Latin does not have articles (i.e., the words for "a," "an," and "the").
  • This means that if you wanted to say "voice," "a voice," or "the voice," in Latin you would just say vox.
  • When you translate from Latin into English, you will have to guess based on the context whether you should add "a," "an," "the" or nothing at all to the word you are translating.
Prepositions
  • Prepositions in one language often only roughly correspond to prepositions in another language. For example, the Latin preposition in often means the same thing as the English preposition "in" (i.e., it indicates location within something), but sometimes it does not mean this.
  • This sentence contains two uses of in. The first time it occurs, it means "in," but the second time it occurs, it means "for."
Verbs
  • In Latin, the subject of a verb (I, you, he, she, we, y'all, they) is often expressed by the verb itself and so it unnecessary. As a result, it is often dropped.
  • Thus one often would say only sum when one means "I am."
  • Placing non before a verb negates it. Thus non sum = "not I am" or "I am not."

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