μισθαποδότης

From the study of Hebrews 11:6

Range of meaning

Wage-payer, one who pays back what is due, rewarder. It combines misthos ('wage, pay, recompense') with apodidōmi ('give back, pay what is owed'). Its relative misthapodosia ('payment of wages, recompense') can mean reward (Heb 10:35; 11:26) or just penalty (Heb 2:2).

Against the English

'Rewarder' is accurate but can suggest prizes or bonuses. The Greek picture is a reliable employer who keeps his word and pays what he promised, the way a landowner paid labourers at the end of the day (compare Matt 20:8).

How it drifted

In the 20th century, popular teaching linked this verse to material success in the present: seek God and he will bless you with prosperity. The word itself says only that God pays what he has promised. Hebrews defines what the payment is.

Used elsewhere in the period

No surviving Greek text uses the noun before Hebrews (BDAG lists it only from Hebrews and later Christian writers). It may be the author's own coinage. For the word family, see Hebrews 2:2; 10:35 ('do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward'); 11:26 (Moses 'was looking ahead to the reward'). Hellenistic Jewish writers paired belief in God's existence with belief in his providential care (Philo, On the Creation 170–172).