γέρων
gérōn · G1088 · Greek · 1 occurrence
Meanings
-
grown man, old man
An adult male, with emphasis upon relatively advanced age
ExamplesJohn 3:4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a person be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?”
How it’s used
Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.
When two words share a role, as in “Paul and Barnabas said”, the verse appears under each, so a section’s counts can add up to more than the number of occurrences.
MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
Near synonyms 2 words
- πρεσβύτης presbýtēs · G4246 · old man
- More common NT Greek word for an elderly man, semantically overlapping with γέρων but from a different root (πρεσβυ- vs. γερ-)
- πρεσβύτερος presbýteros · G4245 · older, of ancient times
- Comparative adjective meaning 'older/elder' that can function substantively for an elderly person; often carries connotations of authority or official office in addition to age, whereas γέρων focuses solely on advanced age
Contrasting words 2 words
- νέος néos · G3501 · new, recent
- Standard Greek antonym for 'old/aged' when referring to persons by age, contrasting youth with advanced age
- νεανίας neanías · G3494 · young man
- Substantive denoting a young man, the opposite life-stage from γέρων as aged man
In the other Testament 2 words
- זָקֵן zâqên · H2205 · old, elder
- Primary Hebrew translation equivalent for 'aged/old man' in the LXX, used both as adjective and substantive for elderly persons
- יָשִׁישׁ yâshîysh · H3453 · aged
- Hebrew term specifically denoting a very old or aged person, often rendered with γέρων-type vocabulary in Greek translations
Semantic domains 1 entry
- Grown man, old man9.30
- Used of a person advanced in age, as of Nicodemus's question how a person can be born when he is old in John 3:4.
Word family 2 words
Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon γεροντος, ὁ (from Homer down), an old man: Jn 3:4. (Synonym: cf. Augustine in Trench, §…
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (1889), public domain
Topical studies with this word 1 entry
Meanings adapted from the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament, © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0 and the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (from the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew), © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0; MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
Sources
eRhema lexical overview, based on the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (© United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Macula Hebrew and Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0); released under CC BY-SA 4.0
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