Luke 1:2

καθὼς παρέδοσαν ἡμῖν οἱ ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς αὐτόπται καὶ ὑπηρέται γενόμενοι τοῦ λόγου,

RBT Greek Interlinear:

Strongs 2531; kathōs; καθὼς; just as; Adv

Strongs 3860; paredosan; παρέδοσαν; handed over [them]; V-AIA-3P

Strongs 1473; hēmin; ἡμῖν; ourselves; PPro-D1P

Strongs 3588; hoi; οἱ; the; Art-NMP

Strongs 575; ap’; ἀπ’; away from; Prep

Strongs 746; archēs; ἀρχῆς; origin; N-GFS

Strongs 845; autoptai; αὐτόπται; eyewitnesses; N-NMP

Strongs 2532; kai; καὶ; and; Conj

Strongs 5257; hypēretai; ὑπηρέται; officers; N-NMP

Strongs 1096; genomenoi; γενόμενοι; those who have become; V-APM-NMP

Strongs 3588; tou; τοῦ; the; Art-GMS

Strongs 3056; logou; λόγου; word; N-GMS

RBT Hebrew Literal:

ἀρχῆς - An Origin/Beginning

just as they handed over to ourselves, the ones who have become self-seeing ones and under-rowers of the Word away from an origin.¹

Julia Smith Literal 1876 Translation:
As they delivered to us, who from the beginning being eyewitnesses, and servants of the word;

LITV Translation:
as those from the beginning delivered to us, becoming eye-witnesses and ministers of the word,

ESV Translation:
just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us,

Footnotes

1

αὐτός The True Self

The pronoun αὐτός, used "inordinately" throughout the New Testament, is a word that fundamentally denotes one’s true self, often distinguishing the soul from the body (Od. 11.602) or, conversely, the body from the soul (Il. 1.4). It functions reflexively as “self” and, in oblique cases, as a personal pronoun (“him, her, it”).

It emphasizes individual identity in contrast to others, such as a king vs. his subjects (Il. 6.18), Zeus vs. the other gods (Il. 8.4), or a warrior vs. his weapons (Il. 1.47).

With the article (ὁ αὐτός, ἡ αὐτή, τὸ αὐτό), it signifies "the same" or "the very one."

In prose, αὐτός can appear without the article for proper names (αὐτὸς Μένων, X. An. 2.1.5) and is used impersonally in phrases like αὐτὸ δείξει ("the result will show," Cratin. 177). It also expresses volition (“of one’s own accord,” Il. 17.254) or personal presence (“in person,” D. 1.2).

The most frequent noun word used in the NT is not "God" (θεός), found 1,317 times, but rather αὐτός the self, found over 5,600 times. The only words more frequent are "and" (9,000 times) and "the" (20,000 times).