κρείττων
kreíttōn · G2909 · Greek · 14 occurrences
Meanings
-
better, superior
Pertaining to being superior to something else in characteristics or function
Examples1 Corinthians 7:9 But if they do not have self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
Hebrews 7:19 (for the Law made nothing perfect); on the other hand, there is the introduction of a better hope, through which we come near to God.
Hebrews 7:22 by the same extent Jesus also has become the guarantee of a better covenant.
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better, greater, superior to
Pertaining to having a higher status in comparison to something else
ExamplesHebrews 1:4 having become so much better than the angels, to the extent that He has inherited a more excellent name than they.
Hebrews 7:7 But without any dispute the lesser person is blessed by the greater.
Hebrews 9:23 Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these things, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
In the other Testament 1 word
- טוֹב ṭôwb · H2896 · good, nice, beautiful
- טוֹב (ṭôwb, H2896) טוֹב is the standard Hebrew term for 'good/better' that κρείττων (kreíttōn, G2909) κρείττων translates in comparative contexts, with κρείττων emphasizing superior quality or nobility while טוֹב covers the broader semantic range of goodness from which the comparative is derived.
Semantic domains 2 entries
- Better, greater, superior to87.28
- κρείττων describes what is better or superior. Hebrews 7:7 states, “without any dispute the lesser person is blessed by the greater,” the κρείττονος naming this greater party whose blessing carries superior standing.
- Better, superior65.21
- This entry carries no independent occurrence of its own beyond the honor/status-superiority sense already attested; its comparative-quality occurrences (e.g., 1 Corinthians 7:9's “it is better to marry than to burn with passion”) are shared with, and better represented by, the paired form καλός (kalós, G2570). The domain is inherited from the shared lemma-cluster row rather than describing an independent sense of this entry.
Word family 2 words
Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon and (1 Cor 7:38; Phm 1:23; in other places the reading varies between the two forms,…
a. more useful, more serviceable: 1 Cor 11:17; 1 Cor 12:31 R G; Heb 11:40; Heb 12:24; with πολλῷ μᾶλλον, added, Phm 1:23 (cf. μᾶλλον, 1 b.); κρεῖσσον (adverb) ποιεῖν, 1 Cor 7:38; κρεῖττον ἐστιν, it is more advantageous, followed by an infinitive, 1 Cor 7:9; 2 Pet 2:21 (cf. Buttmann, 217 (188); Winers Grammar, § 41 a. 2 a).
b. more excellent: Heb 1:4; Heb 6:9; Heb 7:7, Heb 7:19, Heb 7:22; Heb 8:6; Heb 9:23; Heb 10:34; Heb 11:16, Heb 11:35; κρεῖττον, followed by an infinitive, 1 Pet 3:17.
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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