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readable now · the whole gospel · koine greek

The Gospel of John

"In the beginning was the Word" — John opens with the most famous sentence in Greek, written in language simple enough for a first-year student and deep enough for a lifetime.

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The whole Gospel — all 21 chapters, 879 verses. The original Koine Greek, a word-by-word gloss with transliteration, fluent English, and a clickable dictionary.

❦ Read the Gospel of John
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A taste — every book reads word beneath word
τὰ
the
μέγιστα
mégista
greatest
τῶν
tôn
of the
ἀγαθῶν
agathôn
goods
ἡμῖν
hēmîn
for us
“The greatest of goods come to be for us through madness.” — a line of the finished Phaedrus

A taste of the format — open the reader above to read all of The Gospel of John word by word.

Core vocabulary

The words that carry the book. Learn these and most of the text opens up; each links, in the reader, to its full entry. Counts are how often the word appears.

  1. λέγω to say476×
  2. εἰμί to be444×
  3. Ἰησοῦς Jesus243×
  4. ἔρχομαι to come157×
  5. πατήρ father135×
  6. ποιέω to make110×
  7. πιστεύω to trust98×
  8. ὁράω sees87×
  9. ἔχω to have87×
  10. οἶδα to know85×
  11. θεός God83×
  12. κόσμος world78×
  13. ἀποκρίνομαι I answer, reply78×
  14. μαθητής disciple78×
  15. δίδωμι to give75×
  16. Ἰουδαῖος Jewish71×
  17. πᾶς all65×
  18. ἄνθρωπος human being60×
  19. λαλέω I speak, say60×
  20. ἀκούω to hear59×
  21. γινώσκω to know56×
  22. τὶς any one, some one56×
  23. υἱός son55×
  24. κύριος lord, master, sir53×
  25. γίνομαι to come to be52×
  26. λαμβάνω to take46×
  27. πάλιν back45×
  28. πολύς much41×
  29. ἐμός my41×
  30. λόγος word40×
  31. μένω to remain40×
  32. εἷς one38×
  33. ἀγαπάω to love37×
  34. ζωή life36×
  35. δύναμαι to be able36×
  36. ζητέω to seek34×
  37. Πέτρος Peter34×
  38. μαρτυρέω to bear witness33×
  39. πέμπω I send32×
  40. ὑπάγω I go away, depart32×
Read from our finished collection ›

Why this book

John is the traditional first book for anyone learning New Testament Greek: short sentences, a small vocabulary, endless repetition of a few luminous words — light, life, truth, world, word. You can genuinely read it early, and it rewards you forever.

It is also the most intimate of the gospels — the wedding at Cana, the woman at the well, Lazarus called out of the tomb, the beloved disciple at the table. The interlinear lets those scenes unfold at the pace of the original breath.

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