Greek word · G3494

νεανίας

neanias

young man

A man in the vigor of youth, past boyhood and in early adulthood. Ancient age-schemes differ. BDAG notes that the word can describe a man up to about forty.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

νεανίας, -ου, ὁ

(νεάν = νέος) [in LXX for נַעַר, בָּחוּר ;]

a young man: Acts 7:58 20:9 23:17-18.†

(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 7:58

Range of meaning

A man in the vigor of youth, past boyhood and in early adulthood. Ancient age-schemes differ. BDAG notes that the word can describe a man up to about forty.

Against the English

'Young man' is accurate. The only risk is picturing a teenager or a boy running errands.

Used elsewhere in the period

The same word appears for Eutychus in Acts 20:9 and for Paul's nephew in Acts 23:17. Greek writers, including Philo, who quotes Hippocrates in On the Creation 105, divided life into stages, and the 'young man' stages fall in the twenties and thirties. About 25–30 years later Paul calls himself πρεσβύτης, 'an old man' or 'an elder' (Philemon 9).

Where it appears

Acts · 3

  1. Acts 7:58 νεανίου of a young man

    They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

    Here: 'A young man.' This means a grown man in the prime of life, probably in his twenties or early thirties. He is not a boy.

  2. Acts 20:9 νεανίας young man

    And a certain young man named Eutychus, seated in the window, was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell from the third story and was picked up dead.

  3. Acts 23:17 νεανίαν young man

    Then Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the commander; he has something to tell him.”

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