Greek word · G3970

πατροπαράδοτος

patroparadotos

from forefathers

Handed down from the fathers, inherited, ancestral. A compound of patēr ('father') and paradidōmi ('hand over', the root of 'tradition').

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

πατρο-παρά-δοτος, -ον

(πατήρ, παραδίδωμι),

handed down from one's fathers, inherited: 1 Peter 1:18 (Diod., al.).†

(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 1 Peter 1:18

Range of meaning

Handed down from the fathers, inherited, ancestral. A compound of patēr ('father') and paradidōmi ('hand over', the root of 'tradition').

Against the English

KJV 'received by tradition from your fathers' and NIV/WEB 'handed down' keep the picture of passing something on. BSB, NASB and ESV 'inherited' is close, though 'inherited' can suggest biology or property rather than learned custom.

Used elsewhere in the period

The word appears only here in the NT. Hellenistic historians (e.g., Diodorus Siculus) and inscriptions use it for ancestral customs, laws and cults. Paul uses the parallel phrase 'my ancestral traditions' (patrikai paradoseis) for his Jewish heritage in Gal 1:14. In Greco-Roman thought, ancestral custom (Greek ta patria, Latin mos maiorum) was close to sacred, and abandoning it looked like impiety and disloyalty.

Where it appears

1 Peter · 1

  1. 1 Peter 1:18 πατροπαραδότου, handed down from [your] fathers,

    For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life you inherited from your forefathers,

    Here: 'Inherited from your ancestors': the term for ancestral custom and religion. In that culture this was the most respected kind of tradition, which makes calling it 'futile' a shocking claim.

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