StrongerBible

parthenos

παρθένος

GreekG3933“virgin, young woman”

Appears 15 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 1:23Mat 25:1Mat 25:7Mat 25:11Luk 1:27 (2×)Act 21:91Co 7:251Co 7:281Co 7:341Co 7:361Co 7:371Co 7:382Co 11:2Rev 14:4
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradepar-THEH-nossnoun

What parthenos means

a young unmarried woman of marriageable age, expected by custom to be sexually untouched

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyContested

At its core this word names a stage of life more than a physical fact: a young woman old enough to marry but not yet married. In the world of the Bible such a woman was assumed to be a virgin, so the two ideas traveled together, but the word itself carried the social status, with the sexual purity riding along as a cultural expectation rather than as something locked inside the word. This is why the same word can be used of Mary, of ten girls serving at a wedding, of Philip's grown daughters, and of an engaged woman in Corinth.

Because the expectation of purity was so strong, writers could lean on the word in either direction. In some places the context pins it down to actual, bodily virginity, most clearly with Mary, where the surrounding verses insist that no man had been with her. In other places the context asks nothing of the kind, and the word simply marks the women as young and unmarried.

The same word also stretches into a picture. A whole community can be called a pure bride being kept faithful for one husband, and a group of people who have refused to defile themselves can be called undefiled ones. In these figurative uses the word is doing covenant and loyalty work, not making a claim about anyone's sexual history.

Nuances

1aa young unmarried woman, virginity assumed by custom rather than asserted
Mat 25:1Mat 25:7Mat 25:11Act 21:91Co 7:251Co 7:281Co 7:341Co 7:361Co 7:371Co 7:38
1ba woman the context affirms to be a sexual virgin
Mat 1:23Luk 1:27 (2×)
1cfiguratively, a person or community kept pure and undefiled, devoted to one Lord
2Co 11:2Rev 14:4

Disputed

What the masculine use in Revelation 14:4, where the word is applied to the 144,000 men, actually pictures.

  • majorityA metaphor for refusing idolatry: the "women" evoke Jezebel and Babylon the harlot, defilement is moral throughout Revelation, and the 144,000 stand for the whole faithful church, so literal male celibacy is not in view.; G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (NIGTC, 1999) 738-41; Robert H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation (NICNT, rev. 1998) 268-71
  • minorityThe ritual chastity of an eschatological army on campaign, drawing on the holy-war purity rules of the Old Testament and Qumran; a temporary cultic state, not a permanent ascetic one.; Richard Bauckham, The Climax of Prophecy (T&T Clark, 1993) 215-32; David E. Aune, Revelation 6-16 (WBC 52B, 1998) 803-22
  • minorityA special class of literally celibate men, read straightforwardly and supported by a long patristic tradition of ascetic interpretation.; Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 8-22 (Moody, 1995) 195

What scholars say about parthenos

Standard reference works agree that the classical Greek word named an unmarried young woman with virginity normatively presumed rather than lexicalized, a breadth visible already in Homer (Iliad 2.513-515, where the word is used of a woman who has borne children) and catalogued by LSJ in a distinct sub-sense for unmarried women who are not virgins. Louw-Nida puts it most carefully: a female past puberty but not yet married and a virgin, though in some contexts virginity is not the focal component. The Greek Old Testament inherited this slack (it twice calls Dinah this word after her rape, Genesis 34:2-3) and passed it to the New Testament, where Matthew 1:23 quotes the Greek of Isaiah 7:14 through a virginal-conception tradition his community already held. Within the New Testament the word is sharpened to strict virginity in some places (Matthew 1:23; Luke 1:27 read with 1:34), left loose in others (Matthew 25; Acts 21:9), pressed into bridal metaphor (2 Corinthians 11:2), and stretched across genders in Revelation 14:4. Delling's TDNT article remains the standard diachronic treatment; BDAG and Spicq weight the word more strongly toward strict virginity in the Hellenistic-Jewish setting, while LSJ, Louw-Nida, and Silva's NIDNTTE foreground the older breadth.

Where scholars disagree about parthenos

Whether the Greek Old Testament's choice of this word at Isaiah 7:14 (which Matthew 1:23 quotes) already asserted a virgin birth, or merely rendered the Hebrew "young woman" with its ordinary Greek counterpart.

  • majorityThe Hebrew word means "young woman of marriageable age" and the sign lies in the child's name and timetable, not in a miraculous conception; the Greek translator simply used this word for such a woman, with no virgin-birth claim intended.; Hans Wildberger, Isaiah 1-12 (Continental Commentary); Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1-39 (Anchor Bible) 232-34; Rodrigo F. de Sousa, "Is the Choice of Parthenos in LXX Isa. 7:14 Theologically Motivated?" Journal of Semitic Studies 53 (2008) 211-32
  • minorityThe word here carries genuine virginity, whether because the Hebrew word in fact describes a virgin in every biblical occurrence or because the sign demands something more than an ordinary birth.; Edward J. Young, The Book of Isaiah (NICOT, 1965); J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah (IVP, 1993)
  • minorityThe Greek translator deliberately swapped in this word to echo Hellenistic myths of a virgin-born savior figure.; Martin Rösel, "Die Jungfrauengeburt des endzeitlichen Immanuel," Jahrbuch für Biblische Theologie 6 (1991) 135-51
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

  • Gerhard Delling, "παρθένος," Theological Dictionary of the New Testament V (1967) 826-37dictionary
  • BDAG (3rd ed., 2000), s.v. παρθένοςlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. παρθένοςlexicon
  • Louw-Nida, Greek-English Lexicon Based on Semantic Domains, domain 9.39lexicon
  • Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament III, s.v. παρθένοςdictionary
  • Moisés Silva, ed., New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis (2014), s.v. παρθένοςdictionary
  • Giulia Sissa, Greek Virginity (Harvard, 1990)monograph
  • W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, Matthew (ICC) I, 211-17commentary
  • Raymond E. Brown, The Birth of the Messiah (rev. ed., 1993) 145-49, 298-309monograph
  • Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT, 1987) 325-55commentary
  • Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC, 2000) 583-98commentary
  • Richard Bauckham, The Climax of Prophecy (T&T Clark, 1993) 215-32monograph
  • G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (NIGTC, 1999) 738-41commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of παρθένος

accusative f s

παρθένον

Luk 1:27, 1Co 7:36, 1Co 7:37, 1Co 7:38, 2Co 11:2

nominative f p

παρθένοι

Mat 25:7, Mat 25:11, Act 21:9

nominative f s

παρθένος

Mat 1:23, 1Co 7:28, 1Co 7:34

dative f p

παρθένοις

Mat 25:1

genitive f p

παρθένων

1Co 7:25

genitive f s

παρθένου

Luk 1:27

nominative m p

παρθένοι

Rev 14:4