Greek word · G202

ἀκροατής

akroatēs

hearer

A listener, someone in an audience. It is used of people hearing a speech, a recitation or a reading, and of students attending a philosopher's lectures (an 'auditor').

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

ἀκροατής, οῦ, ὁ (see supr.)

[in LXX: Isaiah 3:3 (לַחַשׁ), Sirach 3:29 ;]

a hearer: Romans 2:13, James 1:22, 23, 25.†

(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 James 1:22

Range of meaning

A listener, someone in an audience. It is used of people hearing a speech, a recitation or a reading, and of students attending a philosopher's lectures (an 'auditor').

Against the English

'Hearer' is accurate. The modern picture of a passive sermon-goer is actually close to the original setting. The listener is not condemned. The one who listens only is.

Used elsewhere in the period

Romans 2:13: 'hearers of the law' contrasted with 'doers.' Sirach 3:29: 'an attentive ear (ous akroatou) is the desire of the wise.' Greek moralists such as Plutarch, in his essay On Listening to Lectures, warned students who listened to philosophy as entertainment and never changed their lives. Jesus' parable of the two builders (Matthew 7:24–27) makes the same contrast between hearing and doing.

From the study of James 1:23

Range of meaning

A listener or member of an audience. In Greek usage it can also mean a pupil who attends a teacher's lectures: philosophers' students were called their 'hearers'.

Against the English

English 'hearer' is accurate. What it can lose is the setting. James's hearer is not someone reading a text alone. He is sitting in the assembly while God's message is read aloud and explained, which is how nearly everyone in the first century took in scripture and teaching.

Used elsewhere in the period

Rare in the NT outside James (1:22, 23, 25) and Romans 2:13 ('not the hearers of the law are righteous before God, but the doers'). In the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) Isaiah 3:3 uses it of a 'skilled listener'. In Hebrew thought, 'hear' (shama') normally included obeying: Israel said 'all that the LORD has spoken we will do and hear' (Exod 24:7), and Ezekiel 33:31–32 describes people who 'hear your words but do not do them'. The Mishnah keeps the same concern: 'not study but doing is the main thing' (m. Avot 1:17).

From the study of Romans 2:13

Range of meaning

A listener or member of an audience: a pupil hearing a teacher, a crowd hearing a speech, a congregation hearing a reading. In the New Testament it appears only here and in James 1:22, 23, 25.

Against the English

"Hearers" is accurate. What English readers miss is the setting: Paul is not talking about random listeners but about the community where the Torah was read aloud every week.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isa 3:3 LXX ("an intelligent hearer"). Sirach 3:29: "an attentive ear (literally, ear of a hearer) is the wise man's desire". James 1:22: "be doers of the word and not hearers only". Acts 15:21: "Moses has been read in the synagogues every Sabbath". Josephus (Against Apion 2.175) praises Moses for having the people gather each week to hear the law.

Similar words

Where it appears

Romans · 1

  1. Romans 2:13 ἀκροαταὶ hearers

    For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but it is the doers of the law who will be declared righteous.

    Here: An audience, people who listen to something read or spoken. Here it means those who hear the Torah read aloud every Sabbath, which marked Jewish identity and privilege.

James · 3

  1. James 1:22 ἀκροαταὶ hearers

    Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.

    Here: A member of an audience. The word was used for people listening to a reading, a speech or a teacher's lecture. Here it means the congregation listening to the word read and taught aloud.

  2. James 1:23 ἀκροατὴς a hearer

    For anyone who hears the word but does not carry it out is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror,

    Here: A listener, the kind of person who sits in an audience. Here it means someone in the assembly who hears God's message read and taught.

  3. James 1:25 ἀκροατὴς a hearer

    But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom, and continues to do so—not being a forgetful hearer, but an effective doer—he will be blessed in what he does.

    Here: Someone in an audience, like a synagogue listener hearing Scripture read aloud. It picks up "hearers only" from v. 22.

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