The Articles ὁ/τοῦ/τὸν in Classical Greek Names (Greek)

Question

Reading the Book of Mark, I come across these references to Jesus:

Mark 1:24 Ἰησοῦ Ναζαρηνέ

Mark 14:67 τοῦ Ναζαρηνοῦ

Mark 16:6 τὸν Ναζαρηνὸν

And elsewhere in the Bible the common:

Ἰησοῦς ὁ Ναζωραῖος

These geonyms are common also in Classical Greek, such as: Φίλιππος Β΄ ὁ Μακεδών (Philip II of Macedon), Ἀθηναγόρας ὁ Ἀθηναῖος (Athenagoras of Athens)

Can someone please explain to me in Classical Greek Grammar when to use the article ὁ and when to use the genitive τοῦ and when to use the accusative τὸν and when to exclude these articles altogether (eg. Ἰησοῦ Ναζαρηνέ, Maria Magdalene, Saulos Tarseus)? And how does this affect the case/suffix (eg. Ναζαρ-ηνέ, Ναζαρη-νοῦ, Ναζαρη-νὸν)?

As a hypothetical example to demonstrate please could you write the hypothetical name "Ἰωάννης τοῦ Ναζαρηνοῦ" in it's various mutations.

(Are the articles τοῦ & τὸν only used when the person in question is being referred to but their name isn't mentioned, so that "Ἰωάννης τοῦ Ναζαρηνοῦ" would be incorrect and should rightly be "Ἰωάννης ὁ Ναζαρηνοῦ"?)

Answer 1

In ancient Greek, there is no article in the vocative, such as Ἰησοῦ Ναζαρηνέ in Mark 1:24.

Mary Magdalene is written without article in English because it comes from the Latin Maria Magdalena. In Greek, her name does have an article in non-vocative cases: ἡ Μαγδαληνὴ Μαρία (Luke 24:10 - http://biblehub.com/text/luke/24-10.htm), Μαριὰμ ἡ Μαγδαληνὴ (Matthew 27:61 - http://biblehub.com/text/matthew/27-61.htm) or Μαρία ἡ Μαγδαληνὴ (Mark 16:1 - http://biblehub.com/text/mark/16-1.htm). If there were a vocative of her full name in the Bible, I would expect it to have no article.

'Saul of Tarsus' in Acts 9:11 (http://biblehub.com/text/acts/9-11.htm) qualifies 'Tarsean' with ὀνόματι, so maybe the article is not used then. I can't find another instance of ὀνόματι in the sense of 'by/with the name ...' combined with an adjective, to confirm this (http://biblehub.com/greek/onomati_3686.htm).

'John the Nazarene' would be:

• nom. Ἰωάννης ὁ Ναζαρηνός,
• gen. Ἰωάννου τοῦ Ναζαρηνοῦ,
• dat. Ἰωάννῃ τῷ Ναζαρηνῷ,
• acc. Ἰωάννην τὸν Ναζαρηνὸν,
• but voc. Ἰωάννη Ναζαρηνέ without article.

Answer 2

I'll offer a partial/praeliminary answer. I don't know about those Biblical names—that is, I don't know how they are declined, because they're from Hebrew.

There are two situations that spring to mind:

• Athenagoras the Athenian (using the adjective "Athenian")

• Athenagoras of Athens (using the noun "Athens")

In classical Greek, I believe the adjective is generally preferred, if one is available. So you would rather say Ἀθηναγόρας ὁ Ἀθηναῖος, "Athenagoras the Athenian".

In that case, the adjective needs to agree with the head of the noun group, the noun Ἀθηναγόρας. Since Ἀθηναγόρας is in the nominative case, it probably being subject or subject complement in the sentence, both the article ὁ and the adjective Ἀθηναῖος are also in the nominative. Had it been an object Ἀθηναγόραν, as in "she saw Athenagoras the Athenian", the whole would be in the accusative case: Ἀθηναγόραν τὸν Ἀθηναῖον. The same applies mutatis mutandis to a possible genitive or dative.

If no adjective is available, or the second construction is chosen for some other reason, of Athens is not adjectival, but it is its own noun with article. Then you would not use the adjective, but you would use whatever the relevant noun is of the town. By the translation of, you can see that both Athens and the article must then be in the genitive case. The head noun Athenagoras keeps whatever case is warranted by its function in the sentence: if it's subject, it is a nominative; if it is I gave a present to Athenagoras of Athens, then to Athenagoras would be a dative; while of Athens remains a genitive in both cases.

It is possible in either case to omit the article where there is some specific reason for brevity, or when it is used attributively, as in "the Athenian Platonists are rubbish", or for other reasons that I'd have to think about. An example is the beginning of the History of Thucydides, Θουκυδίδης Ἀθηναῖος.

When you translate any such phrase into Latin, like Athenagoras Atheniensis, of course the article disappears, since Latin has no articles.

A third option is perhaps Athenagoras, he of Athens, but then I would expect two articles between the nouns. I'm not sure whether this construction even exists.