StrongerBible

teknion

τεκνίον

GreekG5040“little children, children, ...”

Appears 8 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Jhn 13:331Jn 2:11Jn 2:121Jn 2:281Jn 3:71Jn 3:181Jn 4:41Jn 5:21
Word studyResearch-gradetek-NEE-onnoun

What teknion means

a tender way of saying "my dear children," used by a teacher or leader to address the people he loves and cares for as his own family.

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This word is the smaller, softer form of the ordinary word for a child, τέκνον. By the time of the New Testament, though, the "little" in such words had mostly worn away. It does not describe anyone's age or size. It is simply a warm word of affection, closer to "my dear ones."

In the New Testament it turns up only as a form of address, always spoken to a group and never as a plain description. Jesus uses it a single time, at the opening of his farewell to the disciples, as a parent speaks to children he is about to leave behind (John 13:33). Every other occurrence is in the first letter of John, where the elder reaches for it again and again to address the community he leads and loves.

The warmth of the word rests on something deeper than the speaker's own feeling. In that same letter, believers are called children of God, born of God. The elder can call them his dear children only because they are first God's children. He speaks as a senior member of the family, not in place of God's fatherhood but within its shelter.

Jhn 13:331Jn 2:11Jn 2:121Jn 2:281Jn 3:71Jn 3:181Jn 4:41Jn 5:21

What scholars say about teknion

The standard lexicons agree that in the New Testament this diminutive of τέκνον functions as an affectionate vocative of address, not as a reference to small children (BDAG; LSJ; EDNT, Balz-Schneider; Louw-Nida; Oepke, TDNT 5:636-654). The consensus is that by the Koine period the diminutive force of many such -ίον forms had faded, leaving an affective coloring of warmth and intimacy rather than a note of size (Watt, Biblical and Ancient Greek Linguistics 2 [2013]; BDF §111). The word is nearly absent outside the New Testament (a scattering of papyri, epigrams, and novel fragments, all later than the NT) and does not occur in the Septuagint at all, so it is ordinary Hellenistic family speech pressed into pastoral use rather than an inherited technical term. Seven of the eight occurrences are in 1 John, where commentators read the address as the elder speaking to his whole community with both warmth and pastoral seniority, resting on the letter's larger claim that believers are children of God (Brown, Anchor Bible 30; Yarbrough, BECNT; Marshall, NICNT; Lieu). The alternation between this term and παιδία in 1 John 2:14, 18 is now generally taken as a stylistic variation addressing the same audience rather than as marking distinct spiritual-age subgroups. The one Gospel occurrence, in Jesus's farewell (John 13:33), is widely read against the pattern of a patriarch addressing his heirs. Galatians 4:19 is sometimes cited as a Pauline use, but that turns on a textual variant (τεκνία versus τέκνα): the critical editions (NA28, UBS5) print τέκνα, so the diminutive is not part of the text tagged here.

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), s.v. τεκνίονlexicon
  • LSJ (Liddell-Scott-Jones), s.v. τεκνίονlexicon
  • Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (EDNT), ed. Balz and Schneider, s.v. τεκνίονdictionary
  • Louw-Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, s.v. τεκνίονlexicon
  • Albrecht Oepke, "τέκνον κτλ.," Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 5:636-654dictionary
  • Jonathan M. Watt, "The Semantics and Pragmatics of Diminutives," Biblical and Ancient Greek Linguistics 2 (2013)article
  • F. Blass, A. Debrunner, R. Funk, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, §111grammar
  • Raymond E. Brown, The Epistles of John, Anchor Bible 30 (1982)commentary
  • Robert W. Yarbrough, 1-3 John, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (2008)commentary
  • I. Howard Marshall, The Epistles of John, NICNT (1978)commentary
  • Judith M. Lieu, The Theology of the Johannine Epistles (1991)monograph
  • Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John, Anchor Bible 29A (1970)commentary

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

All attested forms of τεκνίον

vocative n p

τεκνία, Τεκνία

Jhn 13:33, 1Jn 2:12, 1Jn 2:28, 1Jn 4:4, 1Jn 5:21, 1Jn 2:1, 1Jn 3:7, 1Jn 3:18