Last updated October 23, 2026

Chapter 29 · Lesson 29.1 · Pronoun

Pronoun – αὐτός uses

ObjectivesLearning objectives

The syntax and semantics of the adverb μᾶλλον and the phrase τῇ ἑτέρᾳ
Two further uses of the pronoun αὐτός as an intensifier and with the meaning ‘same’

VocabularyVocabulary

Greek	Gloss	Part of speech	Paradigm
τὸ δῶρον, -ου	the gift	noun	B.a.β.ii
τὸ κοράσιον, -ου	the young woman	noun	B.a.β.ii
ἀναγινώσκω ὅτι	(I) read that	verb	C.a.στ
μᾶλλον	more	adverb
πάρειμι	(I) am present	verb	28.3.3.1
τῇ ἑτέρᾳ	the next day	phrase

Noteμᾶλλον

The adverb μᾶλλον ‘more’ has two basic uses. First, it can be used to compare two things where the group being compared to is represented by ἤ or the genitive and is either explicitly given or left implicit:

Example 262Comparing two things

χαίρει ἐπ’ αὐτῷ μᾶλλον ἢ ἐπὶ τοῖς ἐνενήκοντα ἐννέα (Matt 18:13)

He rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine

Example 263Comparing to something implicit

μᾶλλον ἐζήτουν αὐτὸν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι ἀποκτεῖναι (John 5:18)

The Judeans sought more to kill him

The seeking of the Judeans seems to increase compared to a previous time, although this is not explicitly said. The second use of μᾶλλον is to draw contrast between two situations, meaning ‘rather’:

Example 264Contrasting two situations

εἰς πόλιν Σαμαριτῶν μὴ εἰσέλθητε· πορεύεσθε δὲ μᾶλλον πρὸς τὰ πρόβατα…οἴκου Ἰσραήλ (Matt 10:5–6)

Do not go to a city of the Samaritans; but go rather to the sheep … of the house of Israel

This is a contrast between two commands, and it is not simply a matter of degree, as we might expect with ‘more.’ Jesus does not tell his disciples to go more to Israel and less to the Samaritans, but to go to Israel rather than Samaria.

Noteτῇ ἑτέρᾳ

Although the phrase τῇ ἑτέρᾳ literally translates as ‘the other,’ in narrative contexts in the dative case, it means ‘the next day.’ We find this in Acts 27:3 where it says ‘and on the next day (τῇ…ἑτέρᾳ) we put in at Sidon.’

SyntaxSyntax-Semantics: Pronoun – αὐτός uses (Intensifier and ‘same’)

While αὐτός is commonly used as an ordinary third-person pronoun, it has two other main uses as well, and these are normally indicated by special syntactic environments. The first is its use as an intensifier, and the second is when it means ‘the same.’ The basic idea behind an intensifier is that someone is said to participate in the eventuality and not someone else. In King David himself came to my house, the word himself is an intensifier, and it is used to convey the idea that the speaker is surprised that it is King David, and not someone else, who would come to his house. In Greek, this kind of construction is indicated by αὐτός occurring before another noun and its article, and it agrees with it in case, gender, and number. The pronoun use, on the other hand, takes the place of another noun and is not used with the noun or pronoun itself:

Example 265Before proper noun (intensifier)

αὐτὸς Δαυὶδ εἶπεν… (Mark 12:36)

David himself said …

By using the intensifier αὐτός before the name Δαυίδ, Jesus implies that we would not expect David to have been the one who said the following quote. This is exactly Jesus’s point–we would not expect David to call his son ‘lord,’ which is what the subsequent quote from Psalm 110 suggests.

The intensifier use is most obvious when αὐτός is used with another pronoun, so that it disagrees in person with the pronoun. It normally precedes the pronoun, but it occasionally follows it; when a common noun is found with the article, it precedes the article:

Example 266Before pronoun (intensifier)

αὐτὸς ἐγώ (Rom 15:14)

I, myself

Example 267After pronoun (intensifier)

ἐν ὑμῖν αὐτοῖς (1 Cor 11:13)

Among you yourselves

Example 268Before noun and article (intensifier)

αὐτὸς ὁ θεός (Rev 21:3)

God himself

The other use of αὐτός is with the meaning ‘same.’ In this use, αὐτός is found with the article, but it comes between the article and noun:

Example 269Between article and noun (‘same’)

He prayed τὸν αὐτὸν λόγον [the same word] for a third time (Matt 26:44)

While αὐτός follows the article with this meaning, the noun may also be absent. The phrase τὸ αὐτό means ‘the same thing.’ One notable syntactic characteristic of this phrase is that it is normally found in object-verb order rather than verb-object when it is used in object position, e.g., we normally see ἐγὼ τὸ αὐτὸ ποιῶ and not ἐγὼ ποιῶ τὸ αὐτό.

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