Greek word · G5518

χοῖνιξ

choinix

quart

A Greek dry measure for grain of roughly 1.1 litres, a little under a quarter of a Roman modius. Greek writers repeatedly treat it as the standard daily grain allowance for one adult.

Appears 2 times in 1 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

χοῖνιξ, -ικος, ἡ

[in LXX: Ezekiel 45:10 (בַּת) * ;]

a chænix, a dry measure of rather less than a quart: Revelation 6:6 (EV, measure).†

(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 Revelation 6:6

Range of meaning

A Greek dry measure for grain of roughly 1.1 litres, a little under a quarter of a Roman modius. Greek writers repeatedly treat it as the standard daily grain allowance for one adult.

Against the English

KJV and YLT say "measure", which hides the size completely. BSB, ESV and NASB say "quart", which gets the volume about right but loses the idea of "one person's food for one day". NIV's "two pounds" converts it to a weight. WEB keeps the Greek word "choenix", which is accurate but unfamiliar.

How it drifted

English has no unit that means "a day's ration", so translators pick either a volume or a vague word. Either way the link with the daily ration is lost.

Used elsewhere in the period

Herodotus (7.187) works out the army's food supply at one choinix of wheat per man per day. Thucydides (4.16) has Spartans on Sphacteria allowed two choinikes of barley meal each. A saying attributed to Pythagoras (Diogenes Laertius 8.18) uses the choinix as the image of daily bread. Athenaeus also calls it a day's ration. In the LXX (the Greek Old Testament) it appears at Ezekiel 45:10–11 for the Hebrew dry measures.

Where it appears

Revelation · 2

  1. Revelation 6:6 χοῖνιξ χοίνικες A choenix, choenixes

    And I heard what sounded like a voice from among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine.”

    Here: A dry measure of about one litre (a little more than a US dry quart). Greek writers treat it as one person's daily ration of grain, so the unit itself says "one person, one day".

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