ξένος
xénos · G3581 · Greek · 14 occurrences
Meanings
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unknown, unheard of, unfamiliar, surprising
Pertaining to not being previously known and hence unheard of and unfamiliar
ExamplesMatthew 27:7 And they conferred together and with the money bought the Potter’s Field as a burial place for strangers.
Acts 17:18 And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers as well were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What could this scavenger of tidbits want to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
Hebrews 13:9 Do not be misled by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.
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stranger, foreigner
A person belonging to a socio-political group other than the reference group
ExamplesMatthew 25:35 ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;
Matthew 25:38 ‘And when did we see You as a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?
Matthew 25:43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’
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host
A person who shows hospitality to guests
ExamplesRomans 16:23 Gaius, host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, greets you, and Quartus, the brother.
How it’s used In 4 roles
Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.
the word studied the word it goes with
Whose, or of whatGenitive or possessive
1 occurrences in 2 groups
- ἐγώI, we 1
- ἐκκλησίαcongregation, church 1
Named alongside itApposition
2 occurrences in 3 groups
- ΓάϊοςGaius 1
- μαρτυρέωto testify, to witness 1
- ποιέωto do, to make 1
What it doesIt is the subject
1 occurrences in 1 groups
- συμβαίνωto happen 1
What is said to be itIt is the predicate
1 occurrences in 1 groups
- σύyou 1
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 1 word
- נׇכְרִי nokrîy · H5237 · foreign, strange, wild
- נׇכְרִי (nokrîy, H5237) and ξένος (xénos, G3581) both denote foreignness/alien status as their core semantic concept, functioning as direct translation equivalents across Hebrew and Greek for the concept of stranger, foreigner, or alien.
Semantic domains 3 entries
- Stranger, foreigner11.73
- Describing the final judgment, Matthew 25:35 states “‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in,’” where “a stranger” renders this noun for one who is a foreigner or outsider.
- Unknown, unheard of, unfamiliar, surprising28.34
- Describing the Athenians' reaction to Paul's message, Acts 17:18 states “And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers as well were conversing with him. Some were saying, ‘What could this scavenger of tidbits want to say?’ Others, ‘He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities—’ because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection,” where “strange” (deities) renders this same term, here in its sense of something unfamiliar and foreign.
- Host34.60
- Sending greetings from Corinth, Romans 16:23 states “Gaius, host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, greets you, and Quartus, the brother,” where “host” renders this same term, here in its sense of one who receives and provides for guests.
Word family 5 words
Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.
Also from the root ξένος
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon ξένῃ, ξένον, from Homer down, masculine a guest-friend (Latinhopes (of parties bound by…
1. a foreigner, stranger (opposed to ἐπιχώριος, Plato, Phaedo c. 2, p. 59 b.; Josephus, b. j. 5, 1, 3);
a. properly: Mt 25:35, Mt 25:38, Mt 25:43; Mt 27:7; 3 Jn 1:5; ξένοι καί παρεπίδημοί ἐπί τῆς γῆς, Heb 11:13; οἱ ἐπιδημοῦντες ξένοι, Acts 17:21; opposed to συμπολίτης, Eph 2:19; (the Sept. for אֹרֵחַ, a traveler, 2 Sam 12:4, Alex. manuscript; for נֵר, Job 31:32; several times for נָכְרִי). (as adjective with) δαιμόνια, Acts 17:18.
b. tropically, α. alien (from a person or thing); without knowledge of, without a share in: with a genitive of the thing, τῶν διαθηκῶν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας, Eph 2:12 (cf. Winer's Grammar, § 30, 4, 6) (τοῦ λόγου, Sophocles O. T. 219). β. new, unheard of: διδαχαι, Heb 13:9; ξένον τί a strange, wonderful thing, 1 Pet 4:12 (Aeschylus Prom. 688; Diodorus 3, 15 and 52; others).
2. one echo receives and entertains another hospitably; with whom he stays or lodges, a host: ὁ ξένος μου, Rom 16:23, where καί τῆς ἐκκλησίας ὅλης is added, i. e. either 'who receives hospitably all the members of the church who cross his threshold,' or 'who kindly permits the church to worship in his house' (Fritzsche).
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (1889), public domain
Topical studies with this word 3 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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