Greek word · G4433

πτωχεύω

ptōcheuō

be poor

To be or become a ptōchos, someone who is destitute and has to rely on others, often a beggar. Greek distinguished the ptōchos from the penēs, the working poor who had little but could live by their labor. The aorist form here ("became poor") presents the change as one completed act.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

πτωχεύω

(πτωχός), [in LXX: Judges 6:6, Psalms 79:8 (דָּלַל); Judges 14:15 A, Proverbs 23:21 (יָרַשׁ); Psalms 34:10 (רוּשׁ), Tobit 4:21 * ;]

1. to be a beggar, to beg (so chiefly in cl.).

2. to be poor as a beggar, to be destitute, poor: opposite to πλούσιος ὤν, 2 Corinthians 8:9.†

(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 2 Corinthians 8:9

Range of meaning

To be or become a ptōchos, someone who is destitute and has to rely on others, often a beggar. Greek distinguished the ptōchos from the penēs, the working poor who had little but could live by their labor. The aorist form here ("became poor") presents the change as one completed act. The related noun ptōcheia (G4432) means destitution or beggary.

Against the English

"Became poor" is accurate. English "poor" is broad, while the Greek family points to the bottom of the scale: real destitution and dependence. The Vulgate's egenus factus est ("became needy") captures this well.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Septuagint: Judges 6:6 (Israel "became very poor" because of Midian); Psalm 34:10 (LXX 33:11), "the rich have become poor and gone hungry", a close reversal of Paul's line; Proverbs 23:21; Tobit 4:21 ("do not be afraid that we have become poor"). In the New Testament the verb occurs only here. The noun ptōcheia appears just before, in 8:2, for the Macedonians' "deep poverty".

Similar words

Where it appears

2 Corinthians · 1

  1. 2 Corinthians 8:9 ἐπτώχευσεν He became poor

    For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

    Here: "He became poor": a single, decisive act viewed as a whole. It comes from the word for a destitute beggar (ptōchos), not just someone of modest means. The word appears only here in the New Testament.

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