χράω

From the study of Luke 11:5

Range of meaning

To lend something for use, with the expectation that it or its equivalent comes back. Thayer's lexicon contrasts it with δανείζω (daneizō), which he describes as lending at interest as a business. Κίχρημι, in his summary, is lending as a friendly act.

Against the English

'Lend' is accurate in all the major English versions. The NLT's 'wanting to borrow' looks at the same transaction from the other side and moves it out of the man's own speech. The English word can sound as neutral as a bank transaction, whereas this verb usually belongs to the world of neighbourly favours.

Used elsewhere in the period

This is the only New Testament use. In the Greek Old Testament it describes the kindly person who shows mercy and lends (Psalm 36:26 and 111:5 in the Greek numbering; English 37:26 and 112:5). The Mishnah, a Jewish legal collection compiled about AD 200, attributes to Hillel a rule that a woman should not lend a loaf to her neighbour without fixing its value, in case a rise in the price of wheat made the return count as interest (Bava Metzia 5:9). That shows lending bread between neighbours was ordinary life. Thayer's distinction is a tendency, not a fixed rule: Luke 6:34–35 uses the 'business' verb for lending with no expectation of return.