Lemma
Ἰουδαῖος
Ioudaios
Jew. A Judean; one of the people of Judah, and by extension of Israel under that name.
Forms
- Ἰουδαῖος
- Ἰουδαῖοι
- Ἰουδαίων
- Ἰουδαίοις
Passages
- Romans 2:28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly.
- Romans 2:29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly.
- John 4:9 How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?
- Acts 13:5 they proclaimed God’s word in the Jewish synagogues.
- Acts 16:1 Timothy, the son of a Jewess who believed.
Ἰουδαῖος is the usual New Testament word for a Jew. It is formed from Ἰούδας, Judah, and first means a Judean, one of Judah. In the Greek period and in the New Testament it names the people who belong to that name, whether the setting is Judea, the diaspora, or a contrast with Greek or Gentile.
Thayer and Strong’s treat it as Jewish, belonging to the Jewish nation, and as a noun, a Jew. The feminine can mean a Jewish woman. The place name Ἰουδαία, Judea, is a different lemma. So are Ἰουδαϊσμός, Judaism, and Ἰουδαϊκός, Jewish as a separate adjective (Titus 1:14).
Romans 2:28 and Romans 2:29 turn on the word: not the one who is a Jew outwardly, but the one who is a Jew inwardly. The Greek is Ἰουδαῖος in both lines. John 4:9 has the Samaritan woman call Yahshua a Jew. Acts often speaks of Jewish synagogues where the Greek is still this word used attributively. Acts 16:1 prints Jewess for the feminine.
In the WOTA Bible, “Jew,” “Jews,” “Jewish,” and “Jewess” link here only in the verses where the Greek is Ἰουδαῖος. Other English uses of those words are left alone when a different Greek lemma stands behind them.
Strong’s
Strong’s dictionaries compiled by Open Scriptures, used under CC-BY-SA 4.0.
Ἰουδαῖος G2453
Ioudaîos
Judæan, i.e. belonging to Jehudah
Thayer’s
Joseph Henry Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (1889). Public-domain digital text.
Ἰουδαῖος G2453
Ioudaîos
Ἰουδαῖος, Ἰουδαία, Ἰουδαῖον (Ιουδα) (Aristotle (in Josephus, contra Apion 1, 22, 7 where see Müller), Polybius, Diodorus, Strabo, Plutarch, others; the Sept.; (cf. Sophocles Lexicon, under the word)), Jewish;
a. joined to nouns, belonging to the Jewish race: ἀνήρ, Act 10:28; Act 22:3 (1Ma 2:23); ἄνθρωπος, Act 21:39; ψευδοπροφήτης, Act 13:6; ἀρχιερεύς, Act 19:14; γυνή, Act 16:1; Act 24:24; γῆ, Joh 3:22; χώρα, Mar 1:5.
b. without a noun, substantively, Jewish as respects birth, race, religion; a Jew: Joh 4:9; Act 18:2; Act 18:24; Rom 2:23 f; plural, Rev 2:9; Rev 3:9; οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι (יְהוּדִים, before the exile citizens of the kingdom of Judah; after the exile all the Israelites (cf. Wright in B. D. under the word )), the Jews, the Jewish race: Mat 2:2; Mat 27:11; Mat 27:29; Mar 7:3; Mar 15:2; Joh 2:6; Joh 4:22; Joh 5:1; Joh 18:33, etc.; Ἰουδαῖοι τέ καί Ἕλληνες, Act 14:1; Act 18:4; Act 19:10; 1Co 1:24; Ἰουδαῖοι τέ καί προσήλυτοι, Act 2:11 (10); ἔθνη τέ καί Ἰουδαῖοι, Act 14:5; singular, Rom 1:16; Rom 2:9; οἱ κατά τά ἔθνη Ἰουδαῖοι, who live in foreign lands, among the Gentiles, Act 21:21; Ἰουδαῖοι is used of converts from Judaism, Jewish Christians (see ἔθνος, 5) in Gal 2:13. [SYNONYMS: Ἑβραῖος, Ἰουδαῖος, Ἰσραηλίτης: "restricting ourselves to the employment of these three words in the N. T. we may say that in the first is predominantly noted language; in the second, nationality; in the third (the augustest title of all), theocratic privileges and glorious vocation" (Trench, § xxxix.); cf. B. D. under the word,,.] The apostle John, inasmuch as agreeably to the state of things in his day he looked upon the Jews as a body of men hostile to Christianity, with whom he had come to see that both he and all true Christians had nothing in common as respects religious matters, even in his record of the life of Jesus not only himself makes a distinction between the Jews and Jesus, but ascribes to Jesus and his apostles language in which they distinguish themselves from the Jews, as though the latter sprang from an alien race: Joh 11:8; Joh 13:33. And those who (not only at Jerusalem, but also in Galilee, cf. Joh 6:41; Joh 6:52) opposed his divine Master and his Master's cause — especially the rulers, priests, members of the Sanhedrin, Pharisees — he does not hesitate to style οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι, since the hatred of these leaders exhibits the hatred of the whole nation toward Jesus: Joh 1:19; Joh 2:18; Joh 2:20; Joh 5:10; Joh 5:15 ff,;. (Cf. B. D. under the word; Franke, Stellung d. Johannes z. Volke d. alt. Bundes. (Halle, 1882).) Ἰουδαϊσμός, Ιουδαϊσμοῦ, ὁ, (Ἰουδαΐζω), the Jewish faith and worship, the religion of the Jews, Judaism: Gal 1:13 ff (2Ma 2:21, etc.; cf. Grimm, commentary on 2 Maccabees, p. 61. (B. D. American edition under the word ).)