Greek word · G4042
περιοχή
periochē
passage
From περιέχω, "to contain, to surround". Its meanings ran from "an enclosure" or "a circuit" to, in literary use, "what a text contains" and then "a section or passage of a text".
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
περι-οχή, -ῆς, ἡ
(περιέχω), [in LXX for מָצוּד, מָצוֹר, etc. ;]
1. compass, circumference.
2. a portion circumscribed, a section: Acts 8:32.†
(AS)
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
From περιέχω, "to contain, to surround". Its meanings ran from "an enclosure" or "a circuit" to, in literary use, "what a text contains" and then "a section or passage of a text".
- Against the English
BSB, WEB and ESV have "passage". KJV has "place", which in older English meant a spot in a book. YLT has "contents", which is closer to the root but less natural.
- How it drifted
The KJV's "place of the scripture" is old usage that modern readers may not follow. Otherwise there is no real drift.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Greek writers of the period use the word for a section of a written work (e.g. Dionysius of Halicarnassus). Cicero, writing in Latin, borrows periochē for a passage of a book. This is its only use in the New Testament (BDAG).
Where it appears
Acts · 1
-
Acts 8:32 περιοχὴ the passage
The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so He did not open His mouth.
Here: A defined portion of a written text, the stretch of Isaiah the official was working through. It appears only here in the New Testament.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.