left: on the left-hand side, named by a polite word that avoids calling it the unlucky side
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
The word is built from the Greek for "well" and the Greek for "name", so it literally says "of good name". That is not a description of the left side but a way of dodging it. Greek custom read a sign that appeared on the left as bad luck, and naming the unlucky side outright felt like inviting the bad luck in, so speakers reached for a flattering stand-in. The polite substitute stuck, and by New Testament times it was simply one of the ordinary words for "left".
Seven of its nine appearances sit inside a fixed pairing with the word for right (δεξιός): one on the right, one on the left. The pairing is what gives the left side its weight, because the right is the place of favor and the left is defined as whatever the right is not.
Two brothers ask for the seats on either side of Jesus in his kingdom (Matthew 20:21).
The king sets the sheep on his right and the goats on his left (Matthew 25:33).
Two rebels are crucified on either side of Jesus, one right and one left (Matthew 27:38).
The last two uses carry none of that weight. In Revelation 10:2 it is simply the left foot of a figure whose right foot is planted elsewhere. In Acts 21:3 a ship bound for Syria keeps Cyprus on the left, which is nothing more than a bearing taken from the deck. The other Greek word for the left side (ἀριστερός) grew up the same way, as a compliment used in place of a blunter term, so Greek ended up with two courteous words for a side nobody wanted to name plainly.
Nuances
1aon the left: the position at someone's left side, set against the place of honor at their right
Mat 20:21Mat 20:23Mat 25:33Mat 25:41Mat 27:38Mrk 10:40Mrk 15:27
1bthe left one of a matching pair of limbs: the left foot as against the right
Rev 10:2
1coff to the left: where a place lies in relation to a traveler's course
The Greek word is a courteous substitute, chosen so that a speaker did not have to name a side Greek custom treated as unlucky.Mat 25:33
It nearly always arrives inside a set pairing with the word for right, so the left is constantly being measured against the place of honor.Mat 20:21Mrk 15:27
Both
Both name the side of the body opposite the right, and the space on that side.Rev 10:2Mat 27:38
Only left
English "left" is a flat direction word that carries no politeness and no hint of superstition.
In modern English "left" also names a political position, a sense the Greek word never had.
“left hand”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“left side”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How euōnumos differs from similar Greek words
ἀριστερόςthe everyday Greek word for the left hand or left side, used for a plain body part or direction where this word keeps a more formal, roundabout tone
This is the word that shows up when the left side itself carries the verdict. In the scene of final judgment the goats are set on the left, and the ones on the left are the ones told to go away. Its parts literally mean "of good name", a polite way of naming a side people preferred not to name outright, and that softened word is the one used where the left is the losing place.Mat 25:33Mat 25:41
It reaches past the hands to the wider world: a coastline left on the left as a ship sails past it, and a giant figure planting one foot on the sea and the other on the land. It can point out any left side, not only a person's left hand.Act 21:3Rev 10:2
Both
Both fill the same slot in the fixed pairing with the right side, marking where two people sit or stand around a central figure. Mark uses one word for the request of the two brothers to sit at Jesus' right and left, then the other word a few lines later in the answer, with no change of sense.Mrk 10:37Mrk 10:40Mat 20:21
Both name the place of the criminal crucified beside Jesus, one on the right and one on the left. The Gospels tell the same scene with either word.Luk 23:33Mat 27:38Mrk 15:27
This is the plain, direct word for the left hand as a hand that acts, set beside the right hand in a picture of what a person is doing. Jesus tells the giver not to let the left hand know what the right hand is doing, and Paul pictures a life armed for righteousness on the right and on the left. Nothing shameful attaches to the side here; it is simply the other hand.Mat 6:32Co 6:7
δεξιόςthe right side, the favored counterpart this word is paired with in seven of its nine New Testament appearances
It can carry the verdict of rejection all by itself. When the king turns to the ones on his left, no right side is mentioned in that sentence at all, and what follows is a command to go away under a curse.Mat 25:41
It can also be a flat travel bearing with nothing good or bad attached to it: the ship comes in sight of Cyprus, leaves it on the left, and keeps sailing for Syria.Act 21:3
Both
Both name the two seats beside a king. The request that two brothers sit one at his right and one at his left in his kingdom uses the pair for the places closest to the throne, and the answer keeps the same pairing.Mat 20:21Mat 20:23Mrk 10:40
Both work together to set two people on either side of a central figure. The two robbers crucified with Jesus are placed one on each side, and here the words do nothing but mark position.Mat 27:38Mrk 15:27
Both split a crowd into two outcomes. The sheep are put on the right and the goats on the left, and the side a person lands on is the whole verdict.Mat 25:33
Both can describe the two sides of one body in a single gesture. The mighty angel plants his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and the two words simply cover the whole span.Rev 10:2
Only this word names the place of highest honor and power. The risen Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, and the phrase carries the whole weight of that authority rather than a mere position in a room. The other word never marks a seat of honor.Mrk 16:19Act 2:33Rom 8:34Eph 1:20Heb 1:3
It can single out one right side body part on its own, with no left side anywhere in view, because the right one is assumed to be the valuable one: the right eye and right hand better lost than kept, a right hand shriveled up, a right ear cut off, a right hand stamped with a mark.Mat 5:29Mat 5:30Luk 6:6Luk 22:50Rev 13:16
It stands in for the hand itself as the hand that acts: a hand taken hold of to pull a lame man up, hands given to seal a partnership, a hand lifted to swear an oath. The other word is never used for a gesture like this.Act 3:7Gal 2:9Rev 10:5
It marks the favorable spot in an ordinary scene, the side where help or a messenger shows up: an angel standing at the right of the altar, a young man seated on the right inside the empty tomb, the net thrown over the right side of the boat and coming up full.Luk 1:11Mrk 16:5Jhn 21:6
euōnumos in the other biblical languages
שְׂמֹאלHebrew“left”the main Hebrew word for the left hand or left side, which can also mean north for a speaker facing the sunrise, and which carries no built-in politeness
It never says "left" outright. The Greek word literally means "of good name," a polite substitute for a side people treated as unlucky, so the plain sense has to be read off the scene rather than the word.Mat 25:33Act 21:3
In the New Testament the left is where the losing side ends up: the goats separated from the sheep, the condemned hearing their sentence, the criminals hung beside Jesus. It delivers a verdict, not just a position.Mat 25:33Mat 25:41Mat 27:38Mrk 15:27
It names the seat beside a king that people bargain for and are refused, which puts the word at the heart of an argument about rank.Mat 20:21Mat 20:23Mrk 10:40
Both
Both are the ordinary way their language names the left in contrast to the right, so a scene can set one figure at the right hand of a throne and another at the left, and the Greek word does that job in the New Testament exactly where the Hebrew word does it in the Old.1Ki 22:19Mrk 10:40
Both label a left body part or the left side of an object: a hand under a head, a face on the left side of a living creature, a foot planted on the land.Sng 2:6Ezk 1:10Rev 10:2
It doubles as a compass direction. Someone facing the sunrise has the north on the left, so this word can name the north country or the land north of a city with no body in view at all.Gen 14:15Jos 19:27Job 23:9Ezk 16:46
It sits inside a settled phrase for staying on course, not turning aside to the right or to the left. Loyalty to God gets pictured as a road with no room to drift either way.Deu 5:32Jos 1:7Jos 23:62Ki 22:2Pro 4:27
It names the working hand, the one that grips and strikes and holds: a dagger drawn, torches carried, a temple pillar seized, a bow knocked loose.Jdg 3:21Jdg 7:20Jdg 16:29Ezk 39:3
It marks one of two open options when people part ways and either direction is equally allowed.Gen 13:9
שְׂמָאלִיHebrew“left”the Hebrew adjective for left, used of the left one of a pair such as a hand, a shoulder, or a gatepost, the closest Hebrew match in form
It marks a place of rank beside a ruler. Two brothers ask for the seats at Jesus' right and left in his kingdom, and he answers that those places are not his to hand out, so the left side here is a position of standing at a king's side rather than a spot in a room.Mat 20:21Mat 20:23Mrk 10:40
It can mark the losing side of a verdict. The king sets the sheep at his right and the goats at his left, and then speaks to those on the left as the condemned, so the word ends up naming where the rejected are standing when judgment falls.Mat 25:33Mat 25:41
It is used for a bearing taken while traveling, with no person and no pairing in view: a ship bound for Syria sights Cyprus and keeps it off to the left.Act 21:3
The Greek word is a roundabout, flattering substitute, literally "of good name", used because naming the left side outright was thought to invite bad luck. That polite tone stays on even in the grimmest scenes, such as the two men crucified on either side of Jesus.Mat 27:38Mrk 15:27
Both
Both can mark one side of a human body, purely as a matter of which side it is: the prophet is told to lie on his left side, and the figure in the vision plants his left foot on the land.Ezk 4:4Rev 10:2
Neither word says anything about left-handedness or skill. Each one only tells you which of two matching things is meant, and each is understood against its partner on the right: the right finger dips into the oil in the left palm, and one man is crucified at the right and one at the left.Lev 14:16Mat 27:38
They are the counterpart words English Bibles both render "left", so a reader moving between the two Testaments meets no difference on the page, even though the Hebrew is blunt and the Greek is a polite substitute for a word people preferred not to say.Lev 14:15Mat 25:33
It labels the left one of a matched pair of fixed structures, which the Greek word never does: the left pillar standing at the entrance of the temple, and the left end of the temple building where the guards were posted.1Ki 7:212Ch 3:172Ki 11:112Ch 23:10
In the cleansing ritual it names the hand that holds while the right hand works: the priest pours the oil into his own left palm and then dips his right finger into it. The Greek word never names a hand doing a job.Lev 14:15Lev 14:16Lev 14:26Lev 14:27
What scholars say about euōnumos
Standard lexica treat εὐώνυμος as a single adjective meaning "left" (opposite δεξιός), and agree that the sense is euphemistic in origin: the compound is εὖ plus ὄνομα, "of good name, well-omened", pressed into service as a substitute for the ill-omened left of divination and everyday speech (BDAG, s.v. εὐώνυμος; LSJ, s.v. εὐώνυμος, which records the older senses "honoured" and "of good omen" alongside the derived "on the left hand"). All nine New Testament occurrences carry the derived sense. Seven are the substantival genitive plural ἐξ εὐωνύμων, "on the left (side)", always in explicit correlation with ἐκ δεξιῶν, and Grundmann's TDNT treatment of δεξιός sets out the ancient valuation of right over left that gives that correlation its force. Revelation 10:2 uses the adjective attributively of the left foot against the right, and Acts 21:3 uses it of a landmark's bearing from a ship's course, a nautical usage at home in Greek geographic writing.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. εὐώνυμοςlexicon
LSJ, s.v. εὐώνυμοςlexicon
W. Grundmann, "δεξιός", TDNT 2:37-40theological-dictionary