ἀχειροποίητος

From the study of 2 Corinthians 5:1

Range of meaning

'Not made by hands': not of human manufacture, produced directly by God. It appears only three times in the NT: Mark 14:58; 2 Cor 5:1; Col 2:11 (a 'circumcision not made with hands'). Its opposite, cheiropoiētos ('hand-made'), is used of shrines and temples (Acts 7:48; 17:24; Heb 9:11, 24).

Against the English

Most versions say 'not made with hands' or 'not built by human hands', which is accurate. What English cannot carry is the charged history of the opposite word.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Greek Old Testament (LXX), cheiropoiēta ('things made by hands') is a standard term for idols (Lev 26:1; Isa 2:18; 46:6). In Jewish speech, 'not made with hands' therefore meant 'God's own work, of the new order', as opposed to human religious construction. Compare Daniel 2:34, 45, where a stone is cut out 'not by hands' and becomes the everlasting kingdom.

From the study of Mark 14:58

Range of meaning

'Not made by hands': produced by God, not by human craft. The word is rare. It is not found in the Greek Old Testament and may be a coinage of Greek-speaking Jews or early Christians to state the positive opposite of the idol word.

Against the English

'Made without hands' is accurate. Readers may take it to mean 'immaterial' or 'spiritual' in a vague sense. The point is who made it, God rather than humans, not that it has no substance.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the New Testament only here, at 2 Cor 5:1 (a 'house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens', the resurrection body) and at Col 2:11 (a 'circumcision not made with hands'). The idea has a close background in Dan 2:34, 45, where a stone 'cut out without hands' smashes the statue of human empires and becomes a great mountain, and in Exod 15:17, 'the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established.' Second Temple texts expected God to provide a new house at the end of the age: 1 Enoch 90:28–29, where the old house is folded up and the Lord of the sheep brings a new, greater one; Tobit 14:5; Jubilees 1:17, 27–29; and the Qumran Florilegium (4Q174), which speaks of a sanctuary God will build and of a 'sanctuary of men' made up of the community.

From the study of Colossians 2:11

Range of meaning

"Not made by hands": not of human making, and so God's own work, belonging to the new order he brings in.

Against the English

"Without hands" (KJV) can sound like a merely invisible or mental act. In Jewish speech the contrast was with things humans manufacture, above all idols and the physical temple.

Used elsewhere in the period

The opposite word cheiropoiētos ("hand-made") is used in the Greek Old Testament for idols (Lev 26:1; Isa 2:18; 46:6). In the NT: Mark 14:58, the temple "not made with hands" set against the one "made with hands"; 2 Cor 5:1, the resurrection body; Heb 9:11, 24; Acts 7:48; 17:24. The closest parallel is Eph 2:11, which mocks "the so-called circumcision, made in the flesh by hands".