λεῖμμα

From the study of Romans 11:5

Range of meaning

Literally 'what is left over', a remainder. In Jewish Greek it carries the prophets' theme of the remnant (Hebrew she'ar and she'erit): the people who survive a catastrophe or judgment and through whom God keeps his promises to the whole nation. A remnant is about continuity and the future, not leftovers.

Against the English

English 'remnant' now mostly means scraps, like fabric remnants on a sale table: small, leftover, of little worth. That catches the 'small' but loses the hope. Biblically the remnant is the proof that God has not given up on his people, and the seed from which the larger people grows again.

How it drifted

Ordinary English use (trade, fabric, 'remnants of a meal') has narrowed the word to leftover scraps. The prophetic sense survives only in church vocabulary.

Used elsewhere in the period

The LXX uses λεῖμμα in 2 Kings (4 Kingdoms) 19:4, where Hezekiah asks Isaiah to pray 'for the remnant that is left'. Related words (κατάλειμμα, ὑπόλειμμα) translate the remnant passage of Isaiah 10:22, which Paul quotes in Romans 9:27: 'only the remnant will be saved'. Remnant hope also appears in Micah 2:12, Zephaniah 3:12–13 and Isaiah 37:31–32. Among the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Damascus Document (CD 1:4–5) says God 'left a remnant to Israel' and the War Scroll (1QM 13:8) speaks of 'the remnant of your covenant'. Several groups of Paul's day saw themselves as that faithful remnant.