StrongerBible

cheir

χείρ

GreekG5495hand, power, ...

Appears 180 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 3:12Mat 4:6Mat 5:30Mat 8:3Mat 8:15Mat 9:18Mat 9:25Mat 12:10Mat 12:13Mat 12:49Mat 14:31Mat 15:2Mat 15:20Mat 17:22Mat 18:8 (2×)Mat 19:13Mat 19:15Mat 22:13Mat 26:23Mat 26:45Mat 26:50Mat 26:51Mat 27:24Mrk 1:31Mrk 1:41Mrk 3:1Mrk 3:3Mrk 3:5 (2×)Mrk 5:23Mrk 5:41Mrk 6:2Mrk 6:5Mrk 7:2Mrk 7:3Mrk 7:5Mrk 7:32Mrk 8:23Mrk 9:27Mrk 9:43Mrk 16:18Luk 1:66Luk 1:71Luk 1:74Luk 3:17Luk 4:11Luk 6:1Luk 6:6Luk 6:10 (2×)Luk 8:54Luk 22:21
Root family
Names & words formed with this
Word studyKHIREnoun

What cheir means

the hand: the body part, and by extension the power, agency, and ownership that a hand stands for

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

At its core this is the ordinary word for a hand, the body part Jesus stretches out to heal, the hands raised in prayer, the hands the risen Lord shows his disciples. Most of its uses are exactly that plain and physical.

The wider senses all grow naturally out of the literal one, because in the ancient world the hand was what a person acted, gripped, gave, and held with. So the same word that means a hand also stands for what a hand does (work and agency) and for what a hand holds (power, control, and possession). To do something "by the hand of" someone is to act through that person, and to fall "into the hands of" someone is to come under that person's power.

These are shades of one idea, not separate words. Whether the text means the literal hand or the power it pictures is usually clear from the setting, and the line between them is often deliberately soft: the hand is present precisely because it is the visible sign of someone's reach and strength.

The most charged use is "the hand of the Lord," a phrase carried straight over from the Hebrew Scriptures. It names God's active power at work, whether to save, to build, or to strike, and it keeps the vivid bodily image even though God has no body.

Nuances

1athe literal hand, the body part
TranslatabilityDirect
Mat 8:3Mat 12:10Mat 12:13Mrk 1:41Mrk 3:5 (2×)Luk 5:13Luk 6:6Luk 15:22Luk 24:39Luk 24:40Jhn 20:20Jhn 20:25
1bthe hand as the means of an act: doing, making, or writing something by hand
Act 2:23Act 5:12Act 7:25Act 11:30Act 14:3Act 15:23Act 19:111Co 16:21Gal 6:11Col 4:182Th 3:17Phm 1:19
1cthe hand as power, control, or possession: being in, falling into, or being rescued out of someone's hand
Mat 17:22Mat 26:45Mrk 9:31Mrk 14:41Luk 1:71Luk 1:74Luk 9:44Luk 24:7Jhn 10:28Jhn 10:29Jhn 10:39Jhn 13:3
1dthe hand of God or the Lord: a set phrase for God's active power
Luk 1:66Luk 23:46Jhn 3:35Act 4:28Act 4:30Act 7:50Act 11:21Act 13:11Heb 1:10Heb 8:91Pe 5:6
1ethe laying on of hands: a gesture of blessing, healing, commissioning, or imparting the Spirit
Mat 19:13Mat 19:15Mrk 5:23Mrk 6:5Mrk 10:16Mrk 16:18Luk 4:40Luk 13:13Act 6:6Act 8:17Act 8:18Act 8:19
1fmade or not made by human hands: idols and works of human making, contrasted with God
Act 7:41Act 17:25Act 19:26Rev 9:20

What scholars say about cheir

Standard lexica treat χείρ as a single word for the hand whose figurative range (instrument, power, possession) is inherited largely through the Septuagint from Hebrew יָד. BDAG lays out the literal sense alongside the established idioms of agency ("by the hand of") and power ("into / out of the hand of"), and notes the fixed phrase "the hand of the Lord" as a Septuagintism for divine activity. LSJ documents the same literal-to-figurative spread in classical and Koine Greek. TDNT and EDNT trace the theological weight of "the hand of God" and the New Testament practice of laying on hands.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. χείρlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. χείρlexicon
  • E. Lohse, "χείρ," TDNT 9:424-437theological-dictionary
  • EDNT 3:463-465, s.v. χείρtheological-dictionary

All attested forms of χείρ

accusative f p

χεῖρας, χεῖράς

Mat 15:2, Mat 17:22, Mat 18:8, Mat 19:13, Mat 19:15, Mat 22:13, Mat 26:45, Mat 26:50

accusative f s

χεῖρα, χεῖρά

Mat 8:3, Mat 12:10, Mat 12:13, Mat 12:49, Mat 14:31, Mat 26:23, Mat 26:51, Mrk 1:41

genitive f s

χειρὸς, χειρός

Mat 8:15, Mat 9:25, Mrk 5:41, Mrk 8:23, Mrk 9:27, Luk 1:71, Luk 1:74, Luk 8:54

dative f s

χειρὶ, χειρί

Mat 3:12, Luk 3:17, Jhn 3:35, Act 7:35, Act 12:17, Act 13:16, Act 21:40, 1Co 16:21

genitive f p

χειρῶν

Mat 4:6, Mrk 6:2, Luk 4:11, Act 5:12, Act 7:41, Act 8:18, Act 12:7, Act 14:3

nominative f s

χεὶρ, χείρ

Mat 5:30, Mrk 3:5, Luk 1:66, Luk 6:6, Luk 6:10, Luk 22:21, Act 11:21, Act 13:11

dative f p

χερσὶν, χερσίν

Mat 15:20, Mrk 7:5, Mrk 16:18, Jhn 20:25, Eph 4:28, 1Th 4:11, Rev 7:9, Mrk 7:2

nominative f p

χεῖρες

Act 20:34, 1Jn 1:1