Greek word · G3967
πατρικός
patrikos
paternal
"Of one's father, paternal, hereditary, ancestral." It was used for inherited property, family friendships, and the customs of one's forebears. Its near-synonyms patrios and patrōos were common in Jewish Greek for "ancestral laws/customs" (hoi patrioi nomoi, 2 Maccabees 6:1; 7:2, 24, 37).
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
πατρικίς, -ή, -όν
(πατήρ), [in LXX for אָב, Genesis 50:8, al. ;]
paternal, ancestral: Galatians 1:14.†
(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 Galatians 1:14
- Range of meaning
"Of one's father, paternal, hereditary, ancestral." It was used for inherited property, family friendships, and the customs of one's forebears. Its near-synonyms patrios and patrōos were common in Jewish Greek for "ancestral laws/customs" (hoi patrioi nomoi, 2 Maccabees 6:1; 7:2, 24, 37).
- Against the English
"Of my fathers" (BSB, KJV, WEB) is accurate, as is NASB's "ancestral." English readers may take "fathers" only as the distant patriarchs (Abraham, Moses), but the word can also take in Paul's own family line.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Used only here in the New Testament. The phrase "ancestral customs/laws" runs through 2 and 4 Maccabees and Josephus as the rallying point of Judean loyalty under foreign pressure. In Acts 22:3 Paul is "educated strictly according to the ancestral (patrōos) law," and in Acts 23:6 he is "a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees."
Where it appears
Galatians · 1
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Galatians 1:14 πατρικῶν fathers
I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
Here: An adjective: "ancestral, inherited from the fathers." It describes the traditions as an inheritance received from one's forebears. With "my" it may also point to Paul's own family line (compare Acts 23:6, "a son of Pharisees").
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.