ἤ
ḗ · G2228 · Greek · 343 occurrences
Meanings
-
or
A marker of an alternative
ExamplesMatthew 5:17 “Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.
Matthew 5:18 “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter shall pass from the Law, until all is accomplished!
Matthew 5:36 “Nor shall you take an oath by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black.
-
than
A marker of comparison
ExamplesMatthew 10:15 “Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment, than for that city.
Matthew 11:22 “Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.
Matthew 11:24 “Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment, than for you.”
-
either … or
A marker of double alternatives
ExamplesMatthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
Matthew 12:33 “Either assume the tree to be good as well as its fruit good, or assume the tree to be bad as well as its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.
Mark 13:35 “Therefore, stay alert—for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning—
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.
In the other Testament 2 words
- אוֹ ʼôw · H176 · (either X) or (Y), (be it X) or (Y)
- Both ἤ (ḗ, G2228) and אוֹ (ʼôw, H176) are the primary disjunctive particle in their respective languages, introducing alternatives and expressing "or." The Greek ἤ additionally functions in comparative constructions ("than"), while the Hebrew אוֹ covers a slightly broader range including conditional nuances ("if").
- אִם ʼim · H518 · if, whether
- Hebrew אִם (ʼim, H518) functions as the primary disjunctive/conditional particle in Biblical Hebrew, overlapping with Greek ἤ (ḗ, G2228) in its disjunctive sense ('or') and occasionally in comparative constructions, though Hebrew more typically uses מִן for pure comparative 'than' where Greek consistently uses ἤ.
Semantic domains 3 entries
- Than64.18
- In Acts 5:29, Peter and the apostles answered the council, “We must obey God rather than men,” using this word to introduce the standard of comparison.
- Or89.139
- In Matthew 5:18, Jesus says that “not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter shall pass from the Law, until all is accomplished,” using this word to join two alternative items.
- Either … or89.140
- In Matthew 6:24, Jesus teaches, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other,” using this word in its paired, correlative form to set out two mutually exclusive alternatives.
Word family 3 words
Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon a disjunctive conjunction (cf. Winer's Grammar, § 53, 6). Used 1. to distinguish things…
1. to distinguish things or thoughts which either mutually exclude each other, or one of which can take the place of the other: or (Latinaut,vel);
a. to distinguish one thing from another in words of the same construction: Mt 5:17 (τόν νόμον ἤ τούς προφήτας), Mt 5:36 (λευκήν ἤ μέλαιναν); Mt 6:31; Mt 7:16; Mk 6:56; Mk 7:11; Lk 2:24; Lk 9:25; Jn 7:48; Jn 13:29; Acts 1:7; Acts 3:12; Acts 4:7; Rom 1:21; Rom 3:1; 1 Cor 4:3; 1 Cor 5:10; 1 Cor 10:19; Gal 1:10, etc.
b. after an interrogative or a declarative sentence, before a question designed to prove the same thing in another way: Mt 7:4, Mt 7:9; Mt 12:29; Mt 16:26; Mt 26:53; Mk 8:37; Lk 13:4; Lk 14:31; Lk 15:8; Rom 9:21; Rom 14:10; 1 Cor 6:16.
c. before a sentence contrary to the one just preceding, to indicate that if one be denied or refuted the other must stand: Mt 20:15 (i. e. or, if thou wilt not grant this, is thine eye etc.); Rom 3:29; 1 Cor 9:6; 1 Cor 10:22; 1 Cor 11:14 (Rec.); ; 2 Cor 11:7; ἤ ἀγνοεῖτε etc., Rom 6:3; Rom 7:1 (cf. Rom 6:14); ἤ οὐκ ὀικατε etc., Rom 11:2; 1 Cor 6:9, 1 Cor 6:16, 1 Cor 6:19.
d. ἤ... ἤ, either... or, Mt 6:24; Mt 12:33; Lk 16:13; Acts 24:20; 1 Cor 14:6.
2. in a disjunctive question it corresponds to the Latinan afterutrum;
a. preceded by πότερον, Jn 7:17; cf. Klotz ad Dev. 2:2, p. 574f; preceded by the interrogative μή, 1 Cor 9:8; preceded by μήτι, 2 Cor 1:17.
b. without an intertog. particle in the first member of the interrogation: τί ἐστι εὐκοπώτερον, εἰπεῖν... ἤ εἰπεῖν, Mt 9:5; Mk 2:9; Lk 5:23; add, Mt 21:25; Mt 23:17, Mt 23:19; Mt 27:17; Mk 3:4; Lk 7:19; Acts 8:34.
c. ἤ... ἤ... ἤ, Mk 13:35.
3. as a comparative conjunction, than;
a. after comparatives: Mt 10:15; Mt 11:22; Lk 9:13; Lk 16:17; Jn 3:19; Jn 4:1 (Tr marginal reading omits; WH brackets ἤ); Acts 4:19; Rom 13:11, and often. ἤ is lacking after πλείους followed by a noun of Mt 26:53 T Tr WH; Acts 4:22; Acts 23:13, Acts 23:21; Acts 24:11 (where Rec. adds ἤ); cf. Matthiae, § 455 note 4; Kühner, ii., p. 847; (Jelf, § 780 Obs. 1); Winers Grammar, 595 (554); (Buttmann, 168 (146)); Lob. ad Phryn., p. 410f.
b. after ἕτερον: Acts 17:21.
c. πρίν ἤ, before that, before, followed by accusative with an infinitive (cf. Buttmann, § 139, 35; Winer's Grammar, § 44, 6, also, p. 297 (279)): Mt 1:18; Mk 14:30; Acts 2:20 R G WH marginal reading; Acts 7:2; followed by the aorist subjunc, Lk 2:26 Tr text omits; WH brackets ἤ; R G (others ἕως); followed by present optative, Acts 25:16.
d. after θέλω equivalent to to prefer: 1 Cor 14:19 (followed by ἤπερ, 2 Macc. 14:42); examples from Greek authors are given in Klotz ad Devar. 2:2, p. 589f; Winers Grammar, § 35, 2 c.; (Buttmann, § 149, 7); Kühner, ii., p. 841; (Jelf, § 779 Obs. 3).
e. after οὐ: Jn 13:10 R G, where after οὐ χρείαν ἔχει the sentence goes on as though the writer had said οὐκ ἄλλου τίνος χρείαν ἔχει, (cf. Winers Grammar, 508 (478)).
f. after positive notions, to which in this way a comparative force is given: after καλόν ἐστι (it is good... rather than) equivalent to it is better, Mt 18:8; Mk 9:43, Mk 9:45, Mk 9:47; cf. Menander's saying καλόν τό μή ζῆν, ἤ ζῆν ἀθλιως, and Plautus rud. 4, 4, 70 tacita mulier est bona semper, quam loquens; similar examples in the O. T. are Gen 49:12; Psalm 117:8; Jon 4:3, Jon 4:8; Tobit 6:13 Tobit 12:8; Sir. 20:25 Sir. 22:15; 4 Macc. 9:1; also after λυσιτελεῖ (it is gain... rather than) equivalent to it is better (Tobit 3:6), Lk 17:2; after χαρά ἐστι (there will be joy... more than), Lk 15:7; see examples from Greek authors in Alexander Buttmann (1873) Gram. § 149, 7; (Buttmann, p. 360 (309)); Winer, Kühner, others, as above.
4. with other particles;
a. ἀλλ' ἤ, see ἀλλά, I. 10, p. 28a.
b. ἤ γάρ, see γάρ, I. at the end c. ἤ καί (cf. Winer's Grammar, § 53, 6 note), α. or even, or also (Latinautetiam,veletiam): (Mt 7:10 L T Tr WH); Lk 11:11 G L T Tr WH; Lk 11:12; Lk 18:11; Rom 2:15; 1 Cor 16:6; 2 Cor 1:13. β. or also (Latinanetiam) (in a disjunctive question): Lk 12:41; Rom 4:9.
d. ἤπερ, than at all (Latinquamforte; German alsetwa), after a comparitive (cf. Jelf, § 779 Obs. 5): Jn 12:43 (L ἤ περ, WH marginal reading ὑπέρ) (2 Macc. 14:42; Homer, Hesiod).
e. ἤτοι... ἤ, either indeed (cf. Kühner, § 540, 5)... or: Rom 6:16 (Wis. 11:19; Herodotus and following).
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (1889), public domain
Topical studies with this word 2 entries
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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