ἐντός

From the study of Luke 17:21

Range of meaning

A spatial adverb or preposition meaning 'inside, within', set against ἐκτός, 'outside'. In ordinary Greek it most often marks the inside of something: a house, a wall, a body, the 'inside' of a cup. Two other senses are argued for in contexts like this one. (1) 'Among, in the midst of', with a plural group, roughly like ἐν μέσῳ. Whether this sense is well attested is disputed. (2) 'Within the reach, grasp or power of'. Papyri (everyday documents preserved in Egypt) use ἐντός for things within someone's reach or control, and C. H. Roberts (1948) and others pointed to these.

Against the English

KJV, WEB and YLT have 'within you', which modern English hears as 'inside your heart or soul'. BSB, NIV, ESV and NASB have 'in your midst', NRSV has 'among you', and NLT has 'already among you'. Several versions footnote the other options ('within you', 'within your reach').

How it drifted

'Within you' is a defensible gloss of the word taken alone. The drift came when it was read as a statement about an inner spiritual state, an idea shaped by inward-focused piety and later by modern spirituality. A famous 19th-century book used the phrase as its title, and the phrase became shorthand for 'the divine is inside every person'.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Greek Old Testament (LXX), entos means 'inside': 'my heart grew hot within me' (Ps 38:4 LXX [39:3]), 'all that is within me' (Ps 102:1 LXX [103:1]). In the only other New Testament use (Matt 23:26), it is 'the inside of the cup'. Xenophon and other classical writers sometimes use entos for being 'within' a group or region. Papyri give the 'within reach or control' sense. The Gospel of Thomas, saying 3 (Greek in P.Oxy. 654), reuses ἐντὸς ὑμῶν: 'the kingdom is within you and outside you.' That shows that by the 2nd century some readers took it inwardly.

From the study of Matthew 23:26

Range of meaning

Entos means within or inside. With the article (to entos) it means "the inside, the interior". Ektos means outside or outer, and also "except". With the article (to ektos) it means "the exterior".

Against the English

English "inside/outside" fits well. What readers miss is that "inside and outside of a vessel" was an actual category in Jewish purity law, which separately assessed a vessel's interior, exterior and handle.

Used elsewhere in the period

Mishnah Kelim 25:1–9 discusses vessels that have "outer parts and inner parts" and when impurity on one affects the other. Tosefta Berakhot 5:26 and Mishnah Berakhot 8:2 record disputes between the schools of Shammai and Hillel about cups at meals. These texts are later than Matthew but are generally thought to preserve first-century debates.