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John W. Wenham The Elements of NT Greek uses the order N A G D.
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It’s mostly arbitrary. Various advantages have been proposed for one or the other, depending mostly on whether the textbook author wants to differentiate himself from the Germans or not. I don’t know what the ancient textbooks use. In reading or writing, the cases do not come in order, and native speakers would not have imagined an order.
Better to use more general grammars for reference, as Ancient Greek is much more than just the New Testament. (As for the use of the article in Greek and English and the comparison between the two languages, this kind of thread isn’t a place for blowing one’s own trumpet with bagatelles, as the only aim is to be helpful.)
Traditionally genitive is second so that it would be next to the nominative: genitive is generally still used to show the declension (and stem) of the word. After that comes dative and then accusative, and in Latin we have in addition the ablative in the last place. Of the German grammars e.g. Kaegi follows the ancient order, Bornemann & Risch the more modern one.
The major point of difference, then, as noted above, is the place of the accusative. More recently it has quite often been placed second, as it often has resemblance with the nominative. Also genitive and dative often have something in common, e.g. the same accent (most notably in the 1st and 2nd declensions).
Let’s suppose for the sake of discussion that John William Wenham (1913 – 13 February 1996) shared ideas with early proponents transformational grammar. This is highly improbable, but it give us an opportunity to theorize about the order of N A G D used in The Elements of NT Greek. Wait! Don’t bail out yet, you don’t need to know anything about transformational grammar to follow the argument.
The minimal length for a Greek clause/sentence is a single word.
John 19:30 ὅτε οὖν ἔλαβεν τὸ ὄξος [ὁ] Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν· τετέλεσται, καὶ κλίνας τὴν κεφαλὴν παρέδωκεν τὸ πνεῦμα.
John 19:30 (NRSV) When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
However, this is not a prototypical Greek clause/sentence. The prototypical clause/sentence has three elements but not necessarily three words.
Clause Prototype: finite-verb [nominative] accusative … in any order.
The verb ending is inflected for person and number. This inflection functions like a nominative.
This provides a rationale for the order N A G D. [nominative] accusative are basic components of prototypical Greek clause/sentence. Genitive and dative are optional elements listed in order of probability. E.V.N. Goetchius[1] uses this kind of logic in his presentation.
[1]Language of the New Testament, Charles Scribners 1965.
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Mindy, are you asking about case order in a sentence, or case order in the tables in Crosby?
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There is no rule about accusative going before dative, nor dative going before accusative. Greek word order is free compared to other languages. You’ll learn more as you read it.
N A G D does not represent clause order. It may[1] be used to represent a case hierarchy moving from left to right. The nominative/verb-ending & accusative make up the core clause. The nominative function can be supplied by the finite verb person-number inflection. Nominative is at the top of the case hierarchy. Accusative is the prototypical object of the verb. The Genitive is ubiquitous but not essential. Dative is less common.
The case hierarchy moves from left to right: most essential → less essential. This is a useful way of thinking about building sentences in a language. You start up with the core structure and work outward from the core adding nonessential elements.
[1] Don’t look for this in traditional grammar, it isn’t there.
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Very good.
Mindy, all of those orders are possible in Greek. Look at the first few sentences of John 1:
ΕΝ ΑΡΧΗ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. Οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν. πάντα δι’ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν. ὃ γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων· καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.
D Verb N. N Verb (preposition) A. N Verb N. N Verb D (preposition) A. A (preposition) G Verb. N G Verb N. N Verb D N Verb. N Verb N G. N G Verb. N A Verb.
Greek word order is free, compared to English or Chinese. But let’s save word order discussions until a later date, once you have read more.
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At this level, you should probably translate the article when you see it, “the good stones.”
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Your second option. Greek would express the former with somewhat different syntax.
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