Greek word · G4795

συγκυρία

synkyria

coincidence

Literally a "coming together" (syn-, "together" + a root meaning "to meet, happen"): a concurrence of events, a coincidence, a chance meeting. In the phrase kata synkyrian it means "by coincidence, as it happened."

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

συγκυρία, -ας, ἡ

(συγκυρέω, to happen), [in Sm.: 1 Samuel 6:9 (מִקְרֶה) * ;] (more frequently in late writers, συγκύρησις, -ημα),

chance, coincidence: κατὰ σ. (see MM, xxiii), Luke 10:31 (Hippocr., Eccl.).†

(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 Luke 10:31

Range of meaning

Literally a "coming together" (syn-, "together" + a root meaning "to meet, happen"): a concurrence of events, a coincidence, a chance meeting. In the phrase kata synkyrian it means "by coincidence, as it happened."

Against the English

KJV, BSB, WEB and ESV have "by chance"; YLT and NASB have "by (a) coincidence"; NIV puts it as "happened to be." They all get the sense. "Coincidence" keeps the idea of two things meeting slightly better than "chance" does.

Used elsewhere in the period

Very rare. It appears only here in the New Testament and is not in the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament). Lexicons such as BDAG and LSJ record a few examples in other Greek prose, including medical writing, with the same meaning. The more common Greek for the same idea was kata syntychian.

Where it appears

Luke · 1

  1. Luke 10:31 συγκυρίαν chance

    Now by chance a priest was going down the same road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

    Here: Two things "happening together": the priest turns up on the very road, at the very time, where a dying man lies. It appears only here in the New Testament. It describes how the story unfolds and says nothing about luck or fate as ideas.

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