StrongerBible

oikos

οἶκος

GreekG3624house, household, ...

Appears 115 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 9:6Mat 9:7Mat 10:6Mat 11:8Mat 12:4Mat 12:44Mat 15:24Mat 21:13 (2×)Mat 23:38Mrk 2:1Mrk 2:11Mrk 2:26Mrk 3:20(19)Mrk 5:19Mrk 5:38Mrk 7:17Mrk 7:30Mrk 8:3Mrk 8:26Mrk 9:28Mrk 11:17 (2×)Luk 1:23Luk 1:27Luk 1:33Luk 1:69Luk 2:4Luk 5:24Luk 8:39Luk 9:61Luk 10:5Luk 11:17Luk 11:24Luk 11:51Luk 12:52Luk 13:35Luk 14:1Luk 14:23Luk 16:4Luk 19:5Luk 19:9Luk 19:46 (2×)Jhn 2:17Jhn 11:20Act 2:36Act 7:20Act 7:42Act 7:46Act 8:3Act 10:2Act 10:30
Root family
Names & words formed with this
Word studyOY-kosnoun

What oikos means

a house: the building a family lives in, and by extension the people who belong to it, from a single household to a whole family line

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

At its core this word names a house, the place where a family lives. But the Bible rarely stops at the bricks. The same word slides easily from the building to the people inside it, so "his house" can mean Peter's home or Peter's whole family, and the reader has to feel which one the writer means.

From there the word stretches in two directions. Upward, the most important house in Israel is God's house, the temple, and Jesus calls it "my Father's house." Outward, a household is not just one generation but a line that runs through time, so "the house of David" means David's royal descendants and "the house of Israel" means the whole nation seen as one family.

These are not separate words but one word doing connected work. A house holds a family; a family becomes a lineage; the gathered people of God are themselves called his house. The thread running through every use is belonging: a house is defined by who lives in it and who comes from it.

This is why translators have to choose. Greek lets one word carry the building, the family, and the dynasty at once; English usually cannot, and the choice between "house," "household," and "family" is an interpretation, not a given.

Nuances

1aa physical house or dwelling: the building people live in or go home to
Mat 9:6Mat 9:7Mat 12:44Mrk 2:1Mrk 2:11Mrk 5:19Mrk 5:38Mrk 7:17Mrk 7:30Mrk 8:3Mrk 8:26Mrk 9:28
1bthe temple, called the house of God
Mat 12:4Mat 21:13 (2×)Mrk 2:26Mrk 11:17 (2×)Luk 6:4Luk 11:51Luk 19:46 (2×)Jhn 2:16Jhn 2:17Act 7:46Act 7:47Act 7:49
1ca household: all the people who make up a family or live under one roof, sometimes the people of God pictured as his household
Luk 19:9Act 7:10Act 10:2Act 11:14Act 16:15 (2×)Act 16:31Act 18:81Co 1:161Ti 3:41Ti 3:51Ti 3:121Ti 5:4
1da family line or people: descendants and dynasty, as in the house of David or the house of Israel
Mat 10:6Mat 15:24Luk 1:27Luk 1:33Luk 1:69Luk 2:4Act 2:36Act 7:42Heb 8:8Heb 8:10

What scholars say about oikos

Standard lexica treat this as a single word with a connected range rather than separate homonyms. It denotes a house as a building, and by a natural metonymy the household that lives there and the family line that descends from it; it is also a regular New Testament word for the temple as the house of God, and is applied to the church as God's household. The word overlaps with its near-synonym for a house-as-building, but carries the household, temple, and dynasty senses more strongly. Its usage follows the Hebrew word it commonly translates, which spans the same range from building to dynasty.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. οἶκοςlexicon
  • O. Michel, "οἶκος, οἰκία," in TDNT 5:119-159theological-dictionary
  • J. Goetzmann, "House," in NIDNTT 2:247-251theological-dictionary
  • P. Weigandt, "οἶκος," in EDNT 2:500-503theological-dictionary

All attested forms of οἶκος

accusative m s

οἶκον, οἶκόν

Mat 9:7, Mat 12:4, Mrk 2:26, Mrk 3:20, Mrk 5:38, Mrk 7:17, Mrk 7:30, Mrk 8:3

dative m s

οἴκῳ

Mrk 2:1, Luk 1:69, Luk 10:5, Luk 12:52, Luk 19:5, Luk 19:9, Jhn 11:20, Act 7:20

nominative m s

οἶκος, οἶκός

Mat 21:13, Mat 23:38, Mrk 11:17, Luk 11:17, Luk 13:35, Luk 14:23, Luk 19:46, Act 2:36

genitive m s

οἴκου

Mat 10:6, Mat 15:24, Luk 1:27, Luk 2:4, Luk 11:51, Jhn 2:17, Act 19:16, 1Ti 3:4

accusative m p

οἴκους

Luk 16:4, Act 8:3, Act 20:20, Tit 1:11

dative m p

οἴκοις

Mat 11:8

genitive m p

οἴκων

1Ti 3:12

vocative m s

οἶκος

Act 7:42