Greek word · G5475

χαλκός

chalkos

copper/bronze/coin

χαλκός: copper, bronze, things made of bronze, bronze money. ἠχέω: to sound, ring, resound, echo. Together: 'resounding bronze', some bronze object whose sound is its whole point.

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

What it means

χαλκός, -oῦ, ὁ

[in LXX chiefly for נְחֹשֶׁת ;]

copper: 1 Corinthians 13:1, Revelation 18:12; by meton., of copper coin, Matthew 10:9, Mark 6:8 12:41.†

(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 1 Corinthians 13:1

Range of meaning

χαλκός: copper, bronze, things made of bronze, bronze money. ἠχέω: to sound, ring, resound, echo. Together: 'resounding bronze', some bronze object whose sound is its whole point.

Against the English

KJV/WEB/YLT 'sounding brass' is literal ('brass' was the older English word for bronze). BSB 'ringing gong', and NIV/ESV/NASB/NLT with their 'gong', name a specific instrument. That is a reasonable guess, but the Greek does not say 'gong', and gongs are not clearly attested as a standard Greek instrument.

How it drifted

'Brass' in modern English suggests a band's brass section or a trumpet, which is not the picture. 'Gong' is an interpretive guess.

Used elsewhere in the period

Corinth was famous for its bronze ('Corinthian bronze', Pliny, Natural History 34). The proverbial 'Dodonaean bronze' (the bronze vessels at the oracle of Dodona that kept ringing when struck) was a byword for a chatterer who never stops. The Roman architect Vitruvius (De architectura 5.5) describes bronze sounding-vessels (ēcheia) placed in theatres to amplify the voice, which one scholar (W. Harris, 1982) proposed as Paul's image.

From the study of Mark 12:41

Range of meaning

Copper or bronze as a metal; objects made of it; copper coinage; by extension money in general, especially small change.

Against the English

YLT 'brass' is literal but sounds odd. Most versions say 'money', which is right in sense but loses the picture of ordinary copper coins.

Used elsewhere in the period

Matt 10:9 lists 'gold, silver, copper' as the three coin metals. Mark 6:8 uses chalkos alone for pocket money. Copper coins (prutot, and the Greek lepton mentioned in v. 42) were the everyday currency of the poor in Judea.

Similar words

Where it appears

Matthew · 1

  1. Matthew 10:9 χαλκὸν copper

    Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts.

Mark · 2

  1. Mark 6:8 χαλκόν, money,

    He instructed them to take nothing but a staff for the journey—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts—

  2. Mark 12:41 χαλκὸν money

    As Jesus was sitting opposite the treasury, He watched the crowd putting money into it. And many rich people put in large amounts.

    Here: Literally 'copper', standing for coins and especially small change. It is the everyday word for cash (compare Mark 6:8, 'no money in the belt'), so the crowd's giving is pictured as ordinary pocket money.

1 Corinthians · 1

  1. 1 Corinthians 13:1 χαλκὸς a brass

    If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal.

    Here: Literally 'bronze', a piece of bronze that makes noise. Exactly which bronze object Paul means (gong, struck plate, theatre sounding-jar) is debated; the point is a loud, hollow metal noise.

Revelation · 1

  1. Revelation 18:12 χαλκοῦ of bronze

    cargo of gold, silver, precious stones, and pearls; of fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet; of all kinds of citron wood and every article of ivory, precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble;

    Here: Bronze (copper alloy). Fine bronzes such as the famous 'Corinthian bronze' were collectors' pieces.

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