The Alphabet — from alpha to omega
The alphabet the New Testament is written in
Koine Greek — the common Greek of the first century — is written with twenty-four letters, left to right like English. Unlike Hebrew, Greek writes its vowels as full letters, so the text you see is the complete ancient text. When the risen Jesus says in Revelation "I am the Alpha and the Omega," he is naming the first and last letters of this alphabet — the A to Z of it.
The twenty-four letters
Α α alpha (a), Β β beta (b), Γ γ gamma (g), Δ δ delta (d), Ε ε epsilon (short e), Ζ ζ zeta (z), Η η eta (long e), Θ θ theta (th), Ι ι iota (i), Κ κ kappa (k), Λ λ lambda (l), Μ μ mu (m), Ν ν nu (n), Ξ ξ xi (x), Ο ο omicron (short o), Π π pi (p), Ρ ρ rho (r), Σ σ/ς sigma (s — ς at the end of a word, like Hebrew's final forms), Τ τ tau (t), Υ υ upsilon (u/y), Φ φ phi (ph), Χ χ chi (ch), Ψ ψ psi (ps), Ω ω omega (long o).
Breathing marks
A word that begins with a vowel carries a small hook above it: a rough breathing (ἁ) means say an h first; a smooth breathing (ἀ) means don't. So ὁ ("the") is pronounced ho, while ἀρχή ("beginning") starts with a plain a. English words like "holy" and "hour" show the same h that Greek writes as a mark instead of a letter.
Your first verse
John 1:1 — Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. Word by word: en archē (in the beginning — the same opening as Genesis 1:1 in Greek), ēn (was), ho logos (the Word), kai (and), pros ton theon (with God), kai theos ēn ho logos (and the Word was God). Logos — word, reason, account — is the term the whole prologue turns on, and now you can read it in the original.
Why it matters on this site
The Lantern's New Testament carries every Greek word with its transliteration, gloss, and parsing. The standing questions the site argues — which Greek text the Lantern Direct will translate when it reaches the New Testament, why 1 John 5:7 differs between editions — are Greek questions, and a reader who knows the alphabet can watch the argument instead of taking anyone's word for it.