Greek word · G5066

τεταρταῖος

tetartaios

fourth

Of or on the fourth day. Applied to a person, it means "a fourth-day one", someone in the fourth day of a condition. In medical writing it describes a fever that recurs every fourth day.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

τεταρταῖος, -α, -ον

(τέταρτος), [in LXX: 2 Samuel 3:4 A (רְבִיעִי) * ;]

of or on the fourth day: τ. εἶναι (Hdt., τ. γενέσθαι), to be four days dead, John 11:39.†

(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 John 11:39

Range of meaning

Of or on the fourth day. Applied to a person, it means "a fourth-day one", someone in the fourth day of a condition. In medical writing it describes a fever that recurs every fourth day.

Against the English

English has no matching adjective, so translations expand it to "four days" or "dead four days". That is fine as far as it goes, but it hides the idiom and can suggest a precise 96 hours (see the drift note on inclusive counting).

How it drifted

Ancient reckoning counted inclusively: the day of death and burial was day one. "Fourth day" may therefore mean about three full days. Modern readers tend to assume four full twenty-four-hour periods.

Used elsewhere in the period

Greek writers from Herodotus on use the -aios adjectives for time (e.g. "he arrived on the fourth day"). Hippocratic medical writers use τεταρταῖος for quartan fever, and the Latin equivalent is quartana. The Vulgate renders this verse with the matching Latin adjective: quatriduanus enim est.

Similar words

Where it appears

John · 1

  1. John 11:39 τεταρταῖος four days

    “Take away the stone,” Jesus said. “Lord, by now he stinks,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man. “It has already been four days.”

    Here: A Greek idiom in which an adjective of time describes the person: literally "he is a fourth-dayer." The same word was used of a fever that recurs on the fourth day. It echoes verse 17, where Lazarus "had been four days in the tomb."

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