StrongerBible

xenizō

ξενίζω

GreekG3579entertain, lodge, ...

Appears 10 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Act 10:6Act 10:18Act 10:23Act 10:32Act 17:20Act 21:16Act 28:7Heb 13:21Pe 4:41Pe 4:12
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradekseh-NEE-zohverb

What xenizō means

1

to give or receive hospitality: to host and care for a guest, or to be taken in and lodged as one.

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

The word comes from the Greek word for a stranger or guest (ξένος), and it names the whole exchange of hospitality that word set in motion. In the ancient world, taking in a traveler was a sacred duty, not a small courtesy: a household was bound to shelter, feed, and protect the guest, and such a bond could even be passed down for generations. So the word carries more weight than the English "to put someone up for the night."

Which side of the exchange it describes depends on the sentence. Sometimes it describes the host who welcomes and provides for a visitor; sometimes it describes the guest who is taken in and lodged. Either way the relationship is the same one of hospitality.

In Acts, Luke uses the word to trace how the good news crossed from Jew to Gentile: Peter, at first a guest lodging in one house, becomes a host to Gentile messengers, and much later a pagan official on Malta shelters Paul's shipwrecked party. Hebrews turns the same word toward every reader, recalling how some who took in strangers were unknowingly hosting angels.

Nuances

1ato be taken in as a guest; to lodge or stay in someone's home.
Act 10:6Act 10:18Act 10:32Act 21:16
1bto receive and provide for a guest; to act as host.
Act 10:23Act 28:7Heb 13:2
2

to strike someone as strange or startling; or, of a person, to be taken aback by something unfamiliar.

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

The same word has a second life. Because a ξένος is a stranger, something foreign, this verb also came to mean striking the mind the way an unfamiliar face strikes the eye: it sounds odd, it startles, it does not fit. This use grew common in the centuries just before the New Testament.

It works both ways again. Something can strike people as strange, as when the Athenians complained that Paul was bringing startling ideas to their ears. Or a person can be the one caught off guard, unsettled by what feels foreign.

In 1 Peter this sense carries a sharp edge. When outsiders find the believers' changed lives strange, their reaction is not mild curiosity but offense that spills over into slander. Peter then turns the same word back on his readers: do not be thrown when suffering comes, as though something foreign were happening to you. He is playing on the root, reminding people who are themselves strangers in the world not to treat hardship as a stranger.

Nuances

2ato strike others as strange or startling; to sound novel and foreign.
Act 17:20
2bto be taken aback or unsettled by something felt as strange.
1Pe 4:41Pe 4:12

What scholars say about xenizō

ξενίζω is a denominative verb from ξένος ("stranger, guest, guest-friend"), and the standard lexica record two senses that have drifted far apart in usage: (1) "to receive as a guest, entertain" (active) or "to be lodged, stay as a guest" (middle/passive), attested from Homer onward; and (2) "to astonish by novelty, strike as strange," sparsely classical (Sophocles) but securely attested from Polybius and other Hellenistic authors (Diodorus, Josephus, Ant. 1.35; Marcus Aurelius) and the papyri. BDAG splits the two definitions; LSJ keeps the visual "astonish by some strange sight"; Louw-Nida is notable for assigning the word to two different semantic domains (34, hospitality; 25, surprise), recognizing how far the senses have separated even within one lexical entry. Stählin (TDNT) derives the range from the polarity of ξένος itself: the stranger may be domesticated by hospitality or remain jarring to the perceiver. Both senses are already present in Hellenistic Jewish Greek (2 Macc 9:6; 3 Macc 7:3; Sir 29:25). In Acts the hospitality sense clusters in ch. 10 (Peter lodging with Simon the tanner, then hosting Gentile messengers) and forms a Lukan inclusio via the aorist ἐξένισεν at 10:23 (a Jew hosting Gentiles) and 28:7 (the Maltese magistrate Publius hosting Paul), framing the Gentile mission; Acts 21:16 (Mnason) belongs here too, with a Western-text variant relocating Mnason's house to a village en route. Acts 17:20 is Luke's only use of the cognitive sense, part of a deliberate ξεν-/καιν- wordplay (17:18-21) that also echoes the charge against Socrates (εἰσφέρειν καινὰ δαιμόνια). Hebrews 13:2 uses the hospitality sense within a paronomasia (φιλοξενία ... ἔλαθόν ... ξενίσαντες), alluding chiefly to Abraham at Mamre (Gen 18). 1 Peter 4:4 and 4:12 use only the surprise sense in a coordinated pair and a figura etymologica (μὴ ξενίζεσθε ... ὡς ξένου ... συμβαίνοντος); Achtemeier, Elliott, and Feldmeier argue the passive here means not neutral astonishment but hostile offense and alienation, cohering with the letter's "resident alien" identity language (παρεπίδημοι, πάροικοι) and with φιλόξενοι at 4:9.

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDAG (Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 3rd ed. (2000), s.v. ξενίζωlexicon
  • LSJ (Liddell-Scott-Jones), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. with Revised Supplement, s.v. ξενίζωlexicon
  • J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains (1988), 34.60 and 25.217lexicon
  • G. Stählin, "ξένος κτλ.," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 5:1-36dictionary
  • C. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (1994), 2:552ff.dictionary
  • Craig S. Keener, Acts: An Exegetical Commentary (2013), vols. 2-4commentary
  • C. K. Barrett, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles (ICC, 1994-1998)commentary
  • Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Acts of the Apostles (AB 31, 1998)commentary
  • Richard I. Pervo, Acts (Hermeneia, 2009)commentary
  • Bruce W. Winter, "On Introducing Gods to Athens: An Alternative Reading of Acts 17:18-20," Tyndale Bulletin 47.1 (1996): 71-90article
  • Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Hermeneia, 1989)commentary
  • Craig R. Koester, Hebrews (AB 36, 2001)commentary
  • Paul J. Achtemeier, 1 Peter (Hermeneia, 1996)commentary
  • John H. Elliott, 1 Peter (AB 37B, 2000)commentary
  • J. Ramsey Michaels, 1 Peter (WBC 49, 1988)commentary
  • Reinhard Feldmeier, The First Letter of Peter (2008); Die Christen als Fremde (WUNT 64, 1992)monograph

All attested forms of ξενίζω

present passive indicative 3s

ξενίζεται

Act 10:6, Act 10:18, Act 10:32

aorist active indicative 3s

ἐξένισεν

Act 10:23, Act 28:7

aorist active participle nominative m p

ξενίσαντες

Heb 13:2

aorist passive subjunctive 1p

ξενισθῶμεν

Act 21:16

present active participle accusative n p

ξενίζοντα

Act 17:20

present passive imperative 2p

ξενίζεσθε

1Pe 4:12

present passive indicative 3p

ξενίζονται

1Pe 4:4