Greek word · G2712
κατείδωλος
kateidōlos
idolatrous
'Full of idols, covered with idols.' It is formed like other Greek adjectives that use kata- + a noun to describe a place densely covered with something: katadendros 'thickly wooded', katampelos 'full of vines'. So the picture is a city 'overgrown' with idols, a forest of images.
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
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
'Full of idols, covered with idols.' It is formed like other Greek adjectives that use kata- + a noun to describe a place densely covered with something: katadendros 'thickly wooded', katampelos 'full of vines'. So the picture is a city 'overgrown' with idols, a forest of images.
- Against the English
BSB, WEB, NIV, ESV and NASB all have 'full of idols' (NASB 'the city full of idols'), which is accurate. KJV and YLT 'wholly given to idolatry' turn a description of what the city looked like into a statement about the people's devotion. NLT 'all the idols he saw everywhere' catches the visual sense well.
- How it drifted
The KJV phrasing comes through the Latin Vulgate, idololatriae deditam civitatem ('a city devoted to idolatry'). The Latin rendered the rare Greek word by its implication rather than its picture.
- Used elsewhere in the period
No earlier use is known. It may be Luke's own coinage or a rare word. Ancient writers back up the picture. Pausanias (2nd century AD) needs most of Book 1 of his Description of Greece to list the statues, altars and shrines of Athens, and remarks that the Athenians were more devoted to religion than other people (1.17.1; 1.24.3). Josephus calls the Athenians 'the most pious of the Greeks' (Against Apion 2.130). Livy (45.27) reports a Roman general admiring the city's images of gods and men. Stone 'herms' (pillars topped with the head of Hermes) stood at doorways and crossroads all over the city (compare Thucydides 6.27).
Where it appears
Acts · 1
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Acts 17:16 κατείδωλον utterly idolatrous
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply disturbed in his spirit to see that the city was full of idols.
Here: 'Thick with idols', 'smothered in images'. It describes how the city looked, like a forest of statues and shrines. This is its first known use anywhere in Greek.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.