Greek word · G1857

ἐξώτερος

exōteros

outer

Σκότος means darkness, both literal and as a picture of ignorance, evil, death and judgment. Ἐξώτερος is a comparative of ἔξω, "outside", so "more outside" or "farther out". In everyday Greek a comparative like this often just means "outer" or "outermost".

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

ἐξώτερος, -α, -ον

(compar., from ἔξω; opposite to ἐσώτερος) [in LXX chiefly for חִיצוֹן ;]

outer: σκότος, Matthew 8:12 Matthew 22:13 Matthew 25:30.†

(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 Matthew 8:12

Range of meaning

Σκότος means darkness, both literal and as a picture of ignorance, evil, death and judgment. Ἐξώτερος is a comparative of ἔξω, "outside", so "more outside" or "farther out". In everyday Greek a comparative like this often just means "outer" or "outermost".

Against the English

Most versions have "outer darkness". NIV, "outside, into the darkness", brings out the spatial picture more clearly. "Outer darkness" can sound like the name of a cosmic place, like "outer space".

How it drifted

Later pictures of the afterlife, along with popular fiction and some modern theological systems, turned "outer darkness" into a mapped region of the next world. The Greek is a spatial picture: the dark outside the lit room.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek Old Testament uses ἐξώτερος for the "outer" court of Ezekiel's temple (e.g. Ezek 10:5). In Jewish writings, darkness is where the condemned end up: in 1 Enoch 10:4 the fallen angel Azazel is thrown into darkness. 1 Enoch 103:8 and Psalms of Solomon 14:9 and 15:10 give sinners darkness as their inheritance, and Tobit 14:10 says a traitor "went down into the darkness". The phrase "outer darkness" itself appears only in Matthew (8:12; 22:13; 25:30), each time in a scene of expulsion from a household or feast.

Where it appears

Matthew · 3

  1. Matthew 8:12 ἐξώτερον· outer;

    But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

    Here: A comparative form of "outside", meaning "more outside" or "farther out". It marks the dark beyond the feast's light, as far from the table as one can get. It is not the name of a cosmic region.

  2. Matthew 22:13 ἐξώτερον· outer;

    Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

    Here: A comparative of “outside”: the darkness farther out, beyond the bright hall. The stress is on being outside, shut out of the feast.

  3. Matthew 25:30 ἐξώτερον· outer;

    And throw that worthless servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

    Here: Formed from exō, "outside": the darkness out there, beyond the doors. It describes where he is, outside the household and its celebration. It does not mean a further or deepest level.

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