Greek word · G5070

τετρακισχίλιοι

tetrakischilioi

four thousand

Four thousand. It is a compound of tetrakis ("four times") and chilioi ("thousand").

Appears 5 times in 5 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

τετρακισ-χίλιοι, -αι, -α

four thousand: Matthew 15:38 16:10, Mark 8:9, 20, Acts 21:38.†

(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 15:38

Range of meaning

Four thousand. It is a compound of tetrakis ("four times") and chilioi ("thousand").

Against the English

Every English version renders it the same way. The real difference lies in the source: Mark says "about four thousand" and does not specify men.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the New Testament the word occurs only in the feeding accounts (Matt 15:38; 16:10; Mark 8:9, 20) and in Acts 21:38. Ancient writers routinely gave crowd sizes in round thousands.

Where it appears

Matthew · 2

  1. Matthew 15:38 τετρακισχίλιοι four thousand

    A total of four thousand men were fed, besides women and children.

    Here: Four thousand. Matthew gives the figure without Mark's "about" and ties it to "men." It is the counted part of the crowd, not all of it.

  2. Matthew 16:10 τετρακισχιλίων four thousand

    Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?

    Here: Stands for the whole crowd, already named in 15:38 as 4,000 men 'besides women and children'. Set against 'seven', it stresses how few loaves fed how many people.

Mark · 2

  1. Mark 8:9 τετρακισχίλιοι· four thousand;

    And about four thousand men were present. And when Jesus had dismissed the crowd,

  2. Mark 8:20 τετρακισχιλίους four thousand

    “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of broken pieces did you collect?” “Seven,” they said.

Acts · 1

  1. Acts 21:38 τετρακισχιλίους four thousand

    “Aren’t you the Egyptian who incited a rebellion some time ago and led four thousand members of the Assassins into the wilderness?”

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