Greek word · G1763
ἐνιαυτός
eniautos
year
"For three years and six months", a length of time.
Appears 14 times in 14 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
ἐνιαυτός, -oῦ, ὁ
[in LXX for שָׁנֶה ;]
1. prop., a cycle of time.
2. = ἔτος, a year: John 11:49, 51 18:13, Acts 11:26 18:11, James 5:17, Revelation 9:15; pl., of sabbatical years, Galatians 4:10; ποιεῖν ἐ., to spend a year, James 4:13;ἅπαξ τοῦ ἐ., Hebrews 9:7; κατ᾽ ἐ., Hebrews 9:25 10:1, 3; ἐ. δεκτόν, Luke 4:19 (LXX).†
(AS)
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
"For three years and six months", a length of time.
- Against the English
BSB and NIV say "three and a half years". KJV, WEB and ESV keep "three years and six months". The meaning is the same, but keeping the wording shows that it matches Luke 4:25 exactly.
- Used elsewhere in the period
1 Kings 18:1 says the word of the Lord came "in the third year", which gives no exact total. Jesus in Luke 4:25 uses the same figure, "three years and six months", so it was probably an established Jewish way of telling the story before either writer. Three and a half (half of seven) is also the standard length of a time of distress and judgment: Daniel 7:25 and 12:7 ("a time, times, and half a time"), and Revelation 11:2–3 and 12:6, 14 (42 months, 1,260 days). Revelation 11:6 ties that period to shutting the sky as Elijah did.
From the study of Galatians 4:10
- Range of meaning
A year, often with the sense of a cycle or anniversary. It can mean a yearly occurrence or a special year.
- Against the English
'Years' is accurate. It does not tell the reader which yearly or special-year observances are meant. The Greek does not say either.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Gen 1:14 Greek Old Testament ('days and years'). Lev 25 (sabbatical year and Jubilee, though the Greek there mostly uses ἔτος). Elsewhere it means a yearly cycle, as in Heb 9:7 ('once a year'). In the Roman province of Asia, the calendar was reformed (9 BC, Priene inscription) so that the year began on Augustus' birthday. Civic and imperial years were religiously marked too.
- Range of meaning
Eniautos means a year, a cycle of the seasons. The genitive "of that year" tells when something was true: "in that year".
- Against the English
"High priest that year" (BSB, WEB, ESV, NIV) can sound to modern ears like a one-year term. KJV's "that same year" and YLT's "of that year" stay closer to the Greek but leave the same question open.
- How it drifted
In English, "the president that year" naturally suggests a fixed annual office. The Greek phrase does not have to mean that, and the history rules out an annual office for Caiaphas.
- Used elsewhere in the period
John uses the phrase three times (11:49, 11:51, 18:13). Josephus shows high priests serving for several years and being replaced whenever the ruling power chose. Some Hellenistic priesthoods (for example in Syria and Asia Minor) did rotate yearly, which is why some critics think John was confused.
Where it appears
Luke · 1
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Luke 4:19 ἐνιαυτὸν [the] year
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Here: 'A year': a period of time set by God. Coming after 'release' (aphesis) in verse 18, it calls up Israel's sabbatical and Jubilee years, when debts were cancelled and land and people were set free. This is the content of the announcement, not a measure of how long Jesus' ministry would last.
John · 3
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John 11:49 ἐνιαυτοῦ year
But one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all!
Here: "Of the year". The genitive case here marks the time something is true: he was high priest in that year. Most likely John means the decisive year of Jesus' death, not that the office lasted only one year.
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John 11:51 ἐνιαυτοῦ year
Caiaphas did not say this on his own. Instead, as high priest that year, he was prophesying that Jesus would die for the nation,
Here: "Of that year." The genitive case marks time: high priest in that year. It does not say the office lasted one year.
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John 18:13 ἐνιαυτοῦ year
They brought Him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year.
Acts · 2
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Acts 11:26 ἐνιαυτὸν a year
and when he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. So for a full year they met together with the church and taught large numbers of people. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.
Here: A year as a unit of time. The Greek case (accusative) expresses how long something lasted.
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Acts 18:11 ἐνιαυτὸν a year
So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching the word of God among the Corinthians.
Galatians · 1
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Galatians 4:10 ἐνιαυτούς. years.
You are observing special days and months and seasons and years!
Here: Observances on a yearly or multi-year cycle. Candidates include New Year, the sabbatical year and the Jubilee, but Paul leaves it general. It completes the sweep of the whole calendar, from day to year.
Hebrews · 4
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Hebrews 9:7 ἐνιαυτοῦ year
But only the high priest entered the second room, and then only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.
Here: The annual cycle. The rite comes back every year, which Hebrews later reads as a sign that it never finished its work (10:1–3).
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Hebrews 9:25 ἐνιαυτὸν year
Nor did He enter heaven to offer Himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own.
Here: Points to the Day of Atonement, the 10th of the seventh month (Lev 16:29, 34), which came round every year and so was never finished for good (compare 10:1–3).
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Hebrews 10:1 ἐνιαυτὸν year
For the law is only a shadow of the good things to come, not the realities themselves. It can never, by the same sacrifices offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.
Here: Points to the annual Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16), when the high priest entered the inner sanctuary once a year (9:7, 25).
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Hebrews 10:3 ἐνιαυτόν· year;
Instead, those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins,
James · 2
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James 4:13 ἐνιαυτὸν a year
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit.”
Here: A whole year, which plausibly matches a trading cycle (sailing and caravan seasons). The merchants commit a year of a life that verse 14 calls a passing mist.
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James 5:17 ἐνιαυτοὺς years
Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.
Here: "Years". The case shows how long something lasted: "for years".
Revelation · 1
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Revelation 9:15 ἐνιαυτὸν year
So the four angels who had been prepared for this hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind.
Here: The year that completes the date. Read together, the four terms work like a full calendar date stamp, not four lengths of time added together.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.