μονή

From the study of John 14:2

Range of meaning

Formed from menō, 'to remain, stay, abide'. Its meanings are (1) the act of staying or remaining, a stay or continuance; (2) a place where one stays: a lodging, dwelling, or in some sources a halting-station on a road where travellers rested overnight. BDAG gives 'state of remaining in an area, staying, tarrying' and 'place in which one stays, dwelling(-place), room, abode'.

Against the English

KJV/YLT 'mansions'; BSB/ESV/NIV/RSV 'rooms'; NASB 'dwelling places'; WEB 'homes'; NLT turns it into 'more than enough room'. 'Mansions' is the only rendering that now suggests something it never meant: a large, separate, luxurious house.

How it drifted

The Latin Vulgate translated monai as mansiones, from manere, 'to remain'. A mansio was a stay or a stopping-place, and Roman road-stations were called mansiones. Tyndale (1526) took over 'mansions', and the KJV (1611) kept it, at a time when 'mansion' could still simply mean a dwelling or abode. Since then the 'stately residence' sense has crowded out the older one, so the KJV wording now sounds like a promise of private luxury homes.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the NT it occurs only in John 14:2 and 14:23 ('we will come to him and make our dwelling [monē] with him'). In the Septuagint, 1 Maccabees 7:38 asks God to 'give them no continuance' (monē = staying, remaining). In classical and later Greek it means a stay, or a stopping-place on a journey (LSJ). Jewish texts of the period speak of 'dwelling places' prepared for the righteous with God: 1 Enoch 39:4–8 and 41:2, 2 Enoch 61:2 ('many dwellings prepared for people'), and 4 Ezra 7:80, 101 ('habitations').

From the study of John 14:23

Range of meaning

A staying, a stay, or the place where one stays: a lodging, a residence, a dwelling. It comes from μένω ('remain, stay, abide'). In ordinary Greek it can mean a stop or way-station on a journey, or more lastingly a place to live. The phrase μονὴν ποιεῖσθαι, 'make a stay,' is an established idiom for taking up residence.

Against the English

'Home' (BSB, WEB, ESV, NIV, NLT) and 'abode' (KJV, NASB, YLT) are both accurate. 'Home' sounds a little warmer and more domestic than the Greek. 'Abode' keeps the sense of a dwelling-place without the feeling of 'my own house.'

How it drifted

The drift belongs to this word's partner in 14:2, where the Latin mansiones ('stopping-places,' from manere, 'to stay') passed into the KJV as 'mansions.' Over time the English word came to mean a grand house. Here in 14:23 the Latin Vulgate reads mansionem, but English versions have not used 'mansion,' so the drift does not reach this verse directly. It does shape how readers picture the link between the two verses.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the New Testament it occurs only at John 14:2 and 14:23. BDAG cites the idiom μονὴν ποιεῖσθαι from classical and Jewish Greek, including Thucydides and Josephus, meaning 'to take up quarters / reside.' It is closely related to the Johannine key word μένω ('abide'), used about forty times in John: 'abide in me' (15:4), 'the Spirit... abides with you' (14:17).