Greek word · G3052

λόγιος

logios

learned

From logos ('word, account, reason'). In older Greek it meant learned, especially someone versed in history, tradition and stories (Herodotus calls the Persian and Egyptian chroniclers logioi). In Hellenistic and Roman times it also came to mean eloquent, a skilled speaker.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. · Updated October 31, 2026

What it means

λόγιος, -ον

(λόγος),

1. in cl., learned (Ac, l.with, R, txt.).

2. In late Gk., eloquent: Acts 18:24 (see Page, in l; Field, Notes, 129).†

(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 Acts 18:24

Range of meaning: From logos ('word, account, reason'). In older Greek it meant learned, especially someone versed in history, tradition and stories (Herodotus calls the Persian and Egyptian chroniclers logioi). In Hellenistic and Roman times it also came to mean eloquent, a skilled speaker. A cultured man was expected to be both, so the two senses run together.
Against the English: KJV, ESV, BSB, WEB and NLT say 'eloquent' (NLT: 'eloquent speaker'). NIV says 'learned'. YLT has 'a man of eloquence'. Neither choice is wrong. Each picks one side of a word that held both.
How it drifted: 'Eloquent' in modern English points to stage presence and smooth delivery. That can push the learning side of logios out of view, and the next clause is about learning (skill in the Scriptures).
Used elsewhere in the period: Herodotus 1.1 and 2.3 use it for learned keepers of tradition. Philo uses it of Moses and of learned or articulate men. Josephus and Plutarch use it of educated, articulate people. The Atticist grammarian Phrynichus, a writer who policed 'proper' classical Greek, objected that ordinary speakers misused logios to mean 'eloquent' when it properly meant 'learned in history'. His complaint shows that the 'eloquent' sense was common in everyday Greek of the period (noted in Moulton & Milligan).

Where it appears

Acts · 1

Acts 18:24 λόγιος, eloquent,

Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, well versed in the Scriptures.

Here: This word appears only here in the New Testament. It can mean 'learned, cultured' or 'eloquent, skilled with words', and in this period the two senses overlap. Either way he is presented as an educated man with a command of words.

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