Greek word · G5533

χρεωφειλέτης

chreōpheiletēs

debtor

Someone who owes on a loan or credit account: a debtor in the strict financial sense. It is a compound of chreos ('loan, debt owed') and opheiletēs ('one who owes').

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

What it means

χρεοφειλέτης (Rec. χρεω-, WH, χρεοφιλ-; see WH, App., 152, 154), -ου, ὁ,

(χρέος, a debt, + ὀφειλέτης) [in LXX: Job 31:37, Proverbs 29:13 * ;]

a debtor: Luke 7:41 16:5.†

(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 Luke 7:41

Range of meaning

Someone who owes on a loan or credit account: a debtor in the strict financial sense. It is a compound of chreos ('loan, debt owed') and opheiletēs ('one who owes'). Unlike opheiletēs, which can carry moral or religious senses ('under obligation', and in Jewish usage 'sinner', as in Luke 13:4), this word stays in the world of business.

Against the English

'Debtor' is accurate. The English does not show that Luke picked a technical word for a loan debtor. It appears in the New Testament only here and in Luke 16:5, the parable of the dishonest manager, where it again refers to people on a master's account books.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint) uses it in Job 31:37 and Proverbs 29:13 ('when the creditor and the debtor meet together'). The latter pairs it with danistēs, the same pair of words as in this verse. It also appears in later Greek prose and in documents about money. Spelling varies between chreo- and chreō- in manuscripts and papyri.

Where it appears

Luke · 2

  1. Luke 7:41 χρεοφειλέται debtors

    “Two men were debtors to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.

    Here: A business word for people who owe on a loan, built from chreos ('loan, debt') and opheiletēs ('one who owes'). It sounds like a ledger, not a sermon.

  2. Luke 16:5 χρεοφειλετῶν debtors

    And he called in each one of his master’s debtors. ‘How much do you owe my master?’ he asked the first.

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