Ἰουδαῖος

Forms

Ῐ̓ουδαῖος (Ioudaîos) m (genitive Ῐ̓ουδαίου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek Ἰουδά (Ioudá) + -ιος (-ios), from the name of Judah, from Biblical Hebrew יְהוּדָה (Yəhūḏā, “Judah”).^[1] The New Testament lexicons derive it from Ἰουδαία (Ioudaía, “Judaea”) and Ἰούδας (Ioúdas, “Judah”).^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest records are of the 3rd century BC, in letters of King Antiochus, the Letter of Aristeas and the Septuagint, where it denotes the Judaeans, the people of Judaea.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Polybius and the Hellenistic historians use the plural οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι for the Judaean people, and the word is frequent in the Septuagint, Josephus and the New Testament.^[6][5] Thayer notes that before the exile it named the citizens of the kingdom of Judah, and after it all Israelites.^[7] In the New Testament it is both an adjective, “Jewish”, with words for man, woman, prophet or land, and a noun, “a Jew”, often set beside “Greeks” to name the two halves of mankind.^[7][4][6] The feminine Ἰουδαία meant a Jewish woman, and, with “land” understood, Judaea.^[8][2]

The word passed into Latin Iūdaeus, into Gothic 𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰𐌹𐌿𐍃 (iudaius) and into Coptic, where it is recorded from about AD 200 in several dialects.^[1][9] Medieval vernacular Greek kept it, for an inhabitant of Judaea and for a follower of the Jewish religion.^[10] Modern Greek Ιουδαίος (Ioudaíos) continues it.^[1]

Timeline

• 3rd century BC – Letters of King Antiochus, the Letter of Aristeas and the Septuagint use it of the Judaeans.^[5]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses the plural for the Judaean people.^[6][5]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it as an adjective, “Jewish”, and as a noun, “a Jew”.^[7][6][5]
• About AD 200 – Coptic has borrowed it.^[9]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular Greek uses it of an inhabitant of Judaea and of a follower of the Jewish religion.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Jewish, Judaean: belonging to the Judaean people, especially as keeping their rites and traditions.^[6][7]
2. Of or from Judaea.^[2]

Noun

1. A Jew, a Judaean.^[6][2] In the feminine, a Jewish woman.^[6][8][2]
2. (plural) The Judaeans, the Jews.^[6][7]

Related words

• Ἰουδαία (Ioudaía)
• Latin Iūdaeus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.
3. ^ Strong, James (1890), A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament, in The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, New York: Hunt & Eaton
4. ^ a b Abbott-Smith, G. (1922), A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark
5. ^ a b c d e Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Thayer, Joseph Henry (1889), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, New York: American Book Company
8. ^ a b Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
10. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr