Today – erchomai

In the Greek: ερχομαι

Pronunciation (Erasmian): er – ch (like in the word loch) – oh – my

Definition/approximate English equivalent: “to come” or “I come”. It carries the idea of coming from somewhere or to make one’s appearance known.

Example of its use:

• John 1:7 (Tischendorf) – οὗτος ἦλθεν εἰς μαρτυρίαν, ἵνα μαρτυρήσῃ περὶ τοῦ φωτός, ἵνα πάντες πιστεύσωσιν διʼ αὐτοῦ.
  • ερχομαι is a word that has an alternative stem so it has been bolded in the above text to make it stand out to you since it is this alternative used here. This is rather common which is why it was chosen as an example.
• John 1:9 – Ἦν τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινόν, ὃ φωτίζει πάντα ἄνθρωπον, ἐρχόμενον εἰς τὸν κόσμον.
  • I bolded this one as well for contrast but you can more easily see the similarities here to the original word.

Note: Endings are often different because of the word’s place/use in the sentence. As you study Greek, you find nouns have to match with parts of the surrounding context of terms in gender, case, and plurality – among other things – and that’s what’s going on here. Verbs must do similarly – like in today’s example – having to follow a “tense”, plurality, and more.