Greek word · G1626

ἔκτρωμα

ektrōma

untimely birth

From ektitrōskō, 'to miscarry, to cause to miscarry'. The noun means the product of a birth that comes too soon: a miscarried or aborted fetus, a stillborn child, a premature birth. In most uses the child is dead or not able to live. It does not mean a child born late or after its time.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. · Updated October 25, 2026

What it means

ἔκ-τρωμα, -τος, τό

(ἐκτιτρώσκω, to miscarry), [in LXX: Job 3:16, Ecclesiastes 6:3 (; also in Aq., Psalms 58:9, Numbers 12:12 (נָפַל) * ;]

an abortion, an untimely birth (see Field, Notes, 179): 1 Corinthians 15:8.†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of 1 Corinthians 15:8

Range of meaning: From ektitrōskō, 'to miscarry, to cause to miscarry'. The noun means the product of a birth that comes too soon: a miscarried or aborted fetus, a stillborn child, a premature birth. In most uses the child is dead or not able to live. The word often carries shame, horror or pity: something formless and not quite human, a birth that failed. It does not mean a child born late or after its time.
Against the English: KJV 'born out of due time' and WEB 'born at the wrong time' leave the direction of the mistiming open. Many readers hear it as 'born late', a latecomer. ESV/NASB/NRSV 'untimely born' and BSB 'of untimely birth' are accurate but polite. NIV 'abnormally born' points at something being wrong but loses the idea of miscarriage. YLT 'the untimely birth' at least keeps the article. The Vulgate's abortivo ('to an aborted one') comes closest to the force of the Greek.
How it drifted: Tyndale's and the KJV's 'born out of due time' was a decent periphrasis in its day. Over time 'out of due time' came to be read as 'after the proper time'. Paul's position at the end of the list ('last of all') then made 'born late' sound natural. Translators also seem to have softened a word that, said plainly ('abortion', 'miscarriage'), is jarring in a church reading.
Used elsewhere in the period: Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament that Paul quotes): Num 12:12, where Aaron pleads that leprous Miriam not be 'like one dead, like an ektrōma coming out of its mother's womb with half its flesh eaten away'. Job 3:16, where Job wishes he had been 'like an ektrōma… like infants who never saw light'. Eccl 6:3: 'the ektrōma is better off than he'. In all three it is a dead or non-viable birth, a byword for the most pitiable state. Medical and other Greek writers (e.g. Aristotle, Generation of Animals; the Hippocratic writings; papyri) use it of miscarriage. Early Christian echo: Ignatius of Antioch (c. AD 110), clearly drawing on this verse, calls himself unworthy, 'being the last of them and an ektrōma' (Romans 9.2). Irenaeus (Against Heresies 1.4.1; 1.8.2) reports that Valentinian teachers used the word for the formless offspring of Sophia and appealed to this verse. That shows readers in the 2nd century heard it as 'formless, aborted birth'.

Where it appears

1 Corinthians · 1

1 Corinthians 15:8 ἐκτρώματι untimely birth

And last of all He appeared to me also, as to one of untimely birth.

Here: The startling word of the verse. In Greek usage it means a fetus expelled before its time: a miscarriage, an abortion, a stillbirth. It usually suggests something dead, unformed or not able to live. Paul uses it of himself, so the picture is of something unfit and pitiful, not merely 'late'.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.