StrongerBible

uhios

υἱός

GreekG5207son, child

Appears 382 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 1:1 (2×)Mat 1:20Mat 1:21Mat 1:23Mat 1:25Mat 2:15Mat 3:17Mat 4:3Mat 4:6Mat 5:9Mat 5:45Mat 7:9Mat 8:12Mat 8:20Mat 8:29Mat 9:6Mat 9:15Mat 9:27Mat 10:23Mat 10:37Mat 11:19Mat 11:27 (3×)Mat 12:8Mat 12:27Mat 12:32Mat 13:38 (2×)Mat 13:55Mat 16:13Mat 16:28Mat 17:5Mat 17:15Mat 17:25Mat 17:26Mat 20:20 (2×)Mat 20:21Mat 21:5Mat 21:9Mat 21:15Mat 21:37 (2×)Mat 21:38Mat 22:2Mat 22:42Mat 23:15Mat 23:31Mat 23:35Mat 24:27Mat 24:30 (2×)Mat 24:36Mat 24:37Mat 24:39
Names & words formed with this
Word studyhwee-OSSnoun

What uhios means

son: a male child or descendant; and, by extension, anyone who belongs to or shares the character of a person, group, or thing.

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

At its core this is the ordinary word for a son, a male child of his parents. From there it reaches naturally to any male descendant, so that a person can be called the son of an ancestor many generations back (Jesus is the son of David and son of Abraham). Most of its uses are this plain family sense.

Greek inherited a Hebrew way of speaking in which "son of" marks belonging or character rather than birth. A "son of peace" is a person open to peace, "sons of light" are people who belong to the light, a "son of destruction" is someone bound for ruin. The phrase names what a person is made of or headed for, not who fathered him. The New Testament uses this idiom constantly, which is why the word ranges so far beyond the nursery.

Two uses carry the heaviest weight. Jesus calls himself "the Son of Man," a title drawn from Daniel that sounds humble but claims authority and a coming role in judgment. And he is confessed as "the Son of God," or simply "the Son," naming a unique relationship to the Father that the New Testament writers guard carefully. Believers are also called sons of God, but as those brought into the family, adopted rather than the Son in that one unique sense.

All of these grow from the one idea of sonship: a relationship that defines who you are. The word does not split into unrelated meanings; it stretches the single notion of being someone's son across family, character, destiny, and the deepest claims the New Testament makes about Jesus.

Nuances

1aa male child in relation to his parents
TranslatabilityDirect
Mat 1:21Mat 1:23Mat 1:25Mat 7:9Mat 10:37Mat 21:37 (2×)Mrk 12:6Luk 1:13Luk 1:31Luk 1:57Luk 2:7Luk 15:11
1ba descendant in a line, including the messianic address Son of David
Mat 1:1 (2×)Mat 1:20Mat 9:27Mat 12:23Mat 20:30Mat 20:31Mat 22:42Mat 22:45Mrk 10:47Mrk 10:48Luk 18:38Luk 18:39
1cthe title Son of God, Jesus' unique relationship to the Father
Mat 4:3Mat 4:6Mat 8:29Mat 14:33Mat 16:16Mat 26:63Mat 27:40Mat 27:43Mat 27:54Mrk 1:1Mrk 1:11Mrk 3:11
1dthe title Son of Man, Jesus' characteristic self-designation
Mat 8:20Mat 9:6Mat 11:19Mat 12:8Mat 12:32Mat 12:40Mat 13:37Mat 13:41Mat 16:13Mat 16:27Mat 17:9Mat 17:22
1ethe Hebrew style figure son of X, marking belonging, character, or destiny rather than birth
TranslatabilityUntranslatable
Mat 5:9Mat 5:45Mat 8:12Mat 9:15Mat 13:38 (2×)Mat 23:15Mat 23:31Mrk 3:17Luk 16:8Luk 20:34Luk 20:36Jhn 12:36

What scholars say about uhios

The standard lexicons (BDAG, LSJ) treat this as a single word for "son" whose senses fan out from the literal male child: to descendant generally, to the Hebrew-derived "son of" idiom marking belonging, character, or destiny, and to the theological titles. The major theological dictionaries (TDNT, EDNT) emphasize that the figurative "son of" usage is a Semitism carried over from Hebrew and Aramaic into New Testament Greek. The two title uses dominate the scholarly discussion: "the Son of Man" (with its background in Daniel 7) and "the Son of God" / "the Son." Most scholars hold that the New Testament distinguishes Jesus's unique sonship from the derived sonship of believers, often noting that John tends to reserve this word for the Son and uses a different word for believers as God's children; the precise force and origin of "Son of Man" on Jesus's own lips remains debated, but that debate concerns the title's reference, not the meaning of this word.

Sources

  • BDAG (Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich), s.v. υἱόςlexicon
  • LSJ (Liddell-Scott-Jones), s.v. υἱόςlexicon
  • Eduard Schweizer, "υἱός, υἱοθεσία," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 8:334-399dictionary
  • E. Schweizer and W. von Martitz, υἱός entry, in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 8dictionary
  • Eduard Lohse, "υἱός κτλ.," in Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (EDNT) 3:381-392dictionary
  • Martin Hengel, The Son of God (1976)monograph
  • Larry W. Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity (2003)monograph

All attested forms of υἱός

nominative m s

υἱὸς, υἱός

Mat 1:20, Mat 4:3, Mat 4:6, Mat 7:9, Mat 8:20, Mat 9:6, Mat 9:27, Mat 10:23

accusative m s

υἱὸν, υἱόν

Mat 10:37, Mat 11:27, Mat 16:13, Mat 16:28, Mat 21:5, Mat 21:37, Mat 21:38, Mat 23:15

genitive m s

υἱοῦ

Mat 1:1, Mat 1:1, Mat 12:32, Mat 23:35, Mat 24:27, Mat 24:30, Mat 24:37, Mat 24:39

nominative m p

υἱοὶ, υἱοί

Mat 5:9, Mat 5:45, Mat 8:12, Mat 9:15, Mat 12:27, Mat 13:38, Mat 13:38, Mrk 2:19

genitive m p

υἱῶν

Mat 17:25, Mat 20:20, Mat 20:20, Mat 27:9, Mat 27:56, Luk 1:16, Act 5:21, Act 7:16

dative m s

υἱῷ

Mat 21:9, Mat 21:15, Mat 22:2, Luk 12:53, Luk 18:31, Jhn 3:36, Jhn 4:5, Jhn 5:22

accusative m p

υἱοὺς, υἱούς

Mat 26:37, Luk 5:10, Luk 5:34, Luk 16:8, Act 7:23, Act 7:29, 2Co 3:7, 2Co 3:13

vocative m s

υἱὲ, υἱέ

Mat 8:29, Mrk 5:7, Mrk 10:47, Mrk 10:48, Luk 8:28, Luk 18:38, Luk 18:39, Act 13:10

dative m p

υἱοῖς

Mrk 3:28, Act 7:37, Act 10:36, Eph 2:2, Eph 3:5, Heb 12:5, Heb 12:7

vocative m p

υἱοὶ

Act 13:26