συμπολίτης

συγκοινωνός synkoinōnós · G4791 · partner, associate, one who joins in with

While συμπολίτης emphasizes shared citizenship or membership in the same community, συγκοινωνός emphasizes shared participation or fellowship. Both convey a sense of being joined together in a common status or experience, though the former is specifically civic/communal and the latter is more about partnership in activity or benefit.

σύσσωμος sýssōmos · G4954 · co-member

Both terms express shared membership in a corporate entity. Συμπολίτης uses the metaphor of citizenship in a city/commonwealth, while σύσσωμος uses the metaphor of belonging to the same body. In Ephesians 2-3, both terms appear in close proximity describing the unified status of Jews and Gentiles in Christ's community.

ξένος xénos · G3581 · unknown, unheard of, unfamiliar

A συμπολίτης is a fellow citizen, one who shares membership in the community; a ξένος is a foreigner or stranger, one who is outside the community and lacks citizenship rights. These are lexical opposites in terms of civic status and belonging.

ἀλλότριος allótrios · G245 · belonging to another, belonging to someone else, stranger

A συμπολίτης belongs to the same community; an ἀλλότριος is one who belongs to another community or is alien/foreign. These represent opposite statuses regarding membership and belonging.

אֶזְרָח ʼezrâch · H249 · native-born, citizen, native tree

Hebrew noun for a native-born citizen or inhabitant of a land, used to distinguish native Israelites from foreigners (גֵּר). This is the closest Hebrew equivalent for the concept of fellow citizenship expressed by συμπολίτης, particularly in its literal sense of sharing civic membership in a community.

Fellow citizen11.72

Paul writes that believers “are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household” (Ephesians 2:19).

Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.

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.