Greek word · G4118

πλεῖστος

pleistos

most

The superlative of polys ('much, many'). It has two common uses. One means 'most' or 'the greatest part'. The other is intensive and means 'very great, very large'. In Koine Greek, the everyday Greek of the New Testament period, the intensive use is very common.

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

πλεῖστος, πλείων, see: πολύς.

πολύς, πολλή, πολύ,

[in LXX chiefly for רַב and cognate forms ;]

1. as adj., much, many, great, of number, space, degree, value, time, etc.: ἀριθμός, Acts 11:21; ὄχλος, Mark 5:24; θερισμός, Matthew 9:37; χόρτος, John 6:10; χρόνος, Matthew 25:19; γογγυσμός, John 7:12; πόνος, Colossians 4:13; δόξα, Matthew 24:30; σιγή, Acts 21:40; pl., προφῆται, Matthew 13:17; ὄχλοι, Matthew 4:25; δαιμόνια, Mark 1:34; δυνάμεις, Matthew 7:22,

2. As subst., pl. masc, πολλοί, many (persons): Matthew 7:22, Mark 2:2, al.; with genitive partit., Matthew 3:7, Luke 1:16, al.; before ἐκ, John 7:31, Acts 17:12; with art., οἱ π., the many, Matthew 24:12, Romans 12:5, 1 Corinthians 10:17, 33 2 Corinthians 2:17; opposite to ὁ εἶς (Lft., Notes, 291), Romans 5:15, 19; neut. pl., πολλά: Matthew 13:3, Mark 5:26, al.; accusative with adverbial force, Mark 1:45, Romans 16:6 (Deiss., LAE, 317), 1 Corinthians 16:12, James 3:2, al.; neut. sing., πολύ: Luke 12:48; adverbially, Mark 12:27, al.; πολλοῦ (genitive pret.), Matthew 26:9; with compar. (Bl., §44, 5), π. σπουδαιότερον, 2 Corinthians 8:22; πολλῷ πλείους, John 4:41.

Compar., πλείων

, neut., πλεῖον and πλέον (see WH, App., 151), pl., πλείονες, -ας, -α, contr., πλείους, -ω (cf. Mayser, 69), more, greater;

1. as adj.: John 15:2, Acts 18:2o, Hebrews 3:3; before παρά, Hebrews 11:4 (cf. Westc, in l. Was ΠΛΙΟΝΑ here a primitive error for ΗΔΙΟΝΑ ?); pi., Acts 13:31, al.; with genitive compar., Matthew 21:36; with num. (ἤ of comp. omitted), Acts 4:22 24:11, al.

2. As subst., οἱ π., the greater number: Acts 10:32 27:12, 1 Corinthians 10:5 15:6; also (Bl., §44, 3) others, more, the more: 2 Corinthians 2:6 4:15, Philippians 1:14; πλείονα, Luke 11:53; πλειον, πλέον, Matthew 20:10, 2 Timothy 3:9; with genitive comp., Mark 12:43, Luke 21:3; π. Ἰωνᾶ ὧδε, Matthew 12:41; adverbially, Acts 4:17 20:9 24:4.

3. As adv., πλεῖον: before ἤ, Luke 9:13; with genitive comp., Matthew 5:20; πλείω: with num., Matthew 26:53.

Superl., πλεῖστος, -η, -ον

, __(a) prop., most: Matthew 11:20 21:8; adverbially, τὸ π., 1 Corinthians 14:27;

(b) elative (M, Pr., 79), very great: ὄχλος π., Mark 4:1.

(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 Matthew 21:8

Range of meaning

The superlative of polys ('much, many'). It has two common uses. One means 'most' or 'the greatest part'. The other is intensive and means 'very great, very large'. In Koine Greek, the everyday Greek of the New Testament period, the intensive use is very common.

Against the English

KJV 'a very great multitude', NIV 'a very large crowd' and BSB 'a massive crowd' take it as intensive. ESV and NASB take it as 'most of the crowd'. The two readings give a different picture: one stresses size, the other says how the crowd divided its actions.

Used elsewhere in the period

Mark 4:1 has ochlos pleistos without the article, clearly meaning 'a very large crowd'. In Matthew 21:8 the article (ho pleistos ochlos) and the following alloi de ('but others') make a partitive sense ('the majority of the crowd') very natural. BDAG lists both uses of the superlative.

Where it appears

Matthew · 2

  1. Matthew 11:20 πλεῖσται most

    Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles had been performed, because they did not repent.

    Here: The highest degree of 'many'. With the article it most naturally means 'most (of his deeds)': these towns saw more of his acts than anywhere else. It can also mean simply 'very many' (see debates).

  2. Matthew 21:8 πλεῖστος very great

    A massive crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

    Here: The superlative form of 'much/many'. Here it means either 'very large' (the crowd was huge) or 'most of' (the greater part of the crowd did this). The article and the contrast with 'others' later in the verse favour 'most of the crowd'.

Mark · 1

  1. Mark 4:1 πλεῖστος greatest

    Once again Jesus began to teach beside the sea, and such a large crowd gathered around Him that He got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people crowded along the shore.

1 Corinthians · 1

  1. 1 Corinthians 14:27 πλεῖστον most

    If anyone speaks in a tongue, two, or at most three, should speak in turn, and someone must interpret.

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