Greek word · G3541

νόθος

nothos

illegitimate

'Illegitimate child', usually born outside a recognised marriage, typically to a slave, a concubine or (in Athens) a non-citizen mother. Used figuratively for anything counterfeit or 'spurious'. It is a status word first and an insult second.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

νόθος, -η, -ον

[in LXX: Wisdom of Solomon 4:3 * ;]

a bastard, base born, i.e. born of a slave or concubine: Hebrews 12:8.†

(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 Hebrews 12:8

Range of meaning

'Illegitimate child', usually born outside a recognised marriage, typically to a slave, a concubine or (in Athens) a non-citizen mother. Used figuratively for anything counterfeit or 'spurious'. It is a status word first and an insult second.

Against the English

KJV and YLT 'bastards' is accurate in its original legal sense, but today it sounds mainly like a coarse insult. 'Illegitimate children' (ESV, NASB, BSB) keeps the legal meaning but loses the social sting the word carried in the ancient world.

How it drifted

English 'bastard' has shifted from a legal category (concerning inheritance and status) to an expletive, so modern readers either flinch at the KJV or hear rudeness that was not the point.

Used elsewhere in the period

Used only here in the New Testament. In Athens, from Solon onward, a nothos was shut out of the close family's inheritance and, after Pericles' citizenship law of 451/450 BC, out of citizenship too; at most he might receive a capped gift. In Roman law a child born outside lawful marriage (spurius) was not under his father's legal authority, and the father had no legal duty toward him. Wisdom of Solomon 4:3 speaks of the offspring of the ungodly as 'illegitimate slips' (nothōn moscheumatōn) that will not take root. Philo (On the Migration of Abraham 94; cf. Genesis 25:5–6) contrasts Abraham's gifts to his concubines' sons with Isaac's inheritance.

Where it appears

Hebrews · 1

  1. Hebrews 12:8 νόθοι illegitimate children

    If you do not experience discipline like everyone else, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.

    Here: A legal and social status: a child the father does not recognise as his heir, usually born to a slave, concubine or foreign woman. Such a child had no full claim to the family name or inheritance, so the father had no reason to invest in raising him.

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