What does ἔκδικος (ékdikos) mean in the Bible?
ἔκδικος (ékdikos): An avenger who executes legal penalty; God's instrument for justice against wrongdoing.
Greek · G1558
ἔκδικος
Avenging
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ἔκδικος G1558
Pronunciation ékdikos
What does ἔκδικος (ékdikos) mean in the Bible?
ἔκδικος (ékdikos): An avenger who executes legal penalty; God's instrument for justice against wrongdoing.
Full entry for ἔκδικος (G1558) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G1558?
The BSB source-word alignment has 2 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include an agent (1), will avenge (1).
Where does ἔκδικος (ékdikos) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Romans 13:4. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Thessalonians (1), Romans (1).
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It an agent 1× Romans 13:4
will avenge 1× 1 Thessalonians 4:6
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Romans 13:4
Aligned rows 2
Books represented 2
Romans 1 1 Thessalonians 1
Source forms
ἔκδικος 2x ekdikos Romans 13:4, 1 Thessalonians 4:6
Parsing patterns
Adjective - Nominative Masculine Singular 2x Romans 13:4, 1 Thessalonians 4:6
Evidence Summary
Greek word. An avenger who executes legal penalty; God's instrument for justice against wrongdoing.
Strong's G1558
Lexical occurrences 2 verses Greek text appearances 2 times Word forms 1 form 2 references Verse guides 0 guides
Source Gloss
avenging
Extended definition Source: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
An avenger who executes legal penalty; God's instrument for justice against wrongdoing.
(δίκη), [in LXX: Wis.12:12, Sir.30:6, 4Ma.15:29 * ;]
1without law, unjust.
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
2 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Romans 13:4 Adjective Nominative Singular Masculine
ἔκδικος ekdikov
avenging, an avenger
Read verse 1 Thessalonians 4:6 Adjective Nominative Singular Masculine
ἔκδικος ekdikov
avenging, an avenger
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 1 case and number pattern. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Form patterns 1 Aligned forms 2 Case pattern Nominative (2) Number pattern Singular (2)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · Masculine Rom 13:4 · 1 Thess 4:6 2×
Word Origins
ἔκδικος is built from these roots:
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain