A toiler; figuratively, a teacher
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Ἐργάτης names a worker or laborer, someone identified by the work performed. Jesus sees harassed crowds and tells His disciples that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few, placing laborers under the sending authority of the Lord of the harvest.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἐργάτης (G2040) · Open the biblical lexicon
Ἐργάτης names a worker or laborer, someone identified by the work performed. Jesus sees harassed crowds and tells His disciples that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few, placing laborers under the sending authority of the Lord of the harvest.
The BSB source-word alignment has 16 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include workers (8), worker (3), workmen (2), [them] (1), evildoers (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 9:37. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (6), Luke (4), 1 Timothy (1), 2 Corinthians (1).
Ἐργάτης names a worker or laborer, someone identified by the work performed. Jesus sees harassed crowds and tells His disciples that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few, placing laborers under the sending authority of the Lord of the harvest. Acts can use the noun for ordinary craftsmen whose livelihood is threatened by the gospel. Paul uses it negatively for deceitful workers and workers of evil, proving that activity, sacrifice, and religious claims do not establish faithfulness.
A worker must be evaluated by master, task, message, method, and fruit. The term dignifies real labor but never allows busyness or ministerial title to substitute for truth and character.
Ἐργάτης identifies a person through work. Gospel laborers are prayed for and sent by the harvest Lord, while commercial, deceitful, and evil workers show that labor receives its worth from its allegiance and fruit.
Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
Jesus' compassion for the crowds leads to prayer for workers; mission begins with the Lord's sight, harvest, and sending rather than institutional ambition.
And He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest.
The repeated command places prospective workers under prayer and divine commission before the mission discourse sends disciples into vulnerable service.
Demetrius assembled the craftsmen, along with the workmen in related trades. “Men,” he said, “you know that this business is our source of prosperity.
Demetrius gathers workers around threatened profit, showing ordinary labor mobilized to defend an idolatrous economy.
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.
Paul calls false apostles deceitful workers because impressive ministry claims mask distortion and self-serving disguise.
Watch out for those dogs, those workers of evil, those mutilators of the flesh!
Workers of evil threaten gospel confidence by attaching religious identity to conduct and teaching opposed to Christ's sufficiency.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. One who labors physically or spiritually; applied to Christian teachers as active workers in God's field.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a field-laborer, workman
Read versea field-laborer, workman
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Read versea field-laborer, workman
Read versea field-laborer, workman
Read versea field-laborer, workman
Read versea field-laborer, workman
Read versea field-laborer, workman
Read versea field-laborer, workman
Read versea field-laborer, workman
Read versea field-laborer, workman
Read versea field-laborer, workman
Read versea field-laborer, workman
Read versea field-laborer, workman
Read versea field-laborer, workman
Read versea field-laborer, workman
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.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 6 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 16 lexical occurrence verses.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Workers do not own the harvest. Jesus commands prayer to its Lord, who sees the crowds, appoints the task, and sends laborers. This guards mission from both passivity and self-importance. Acts 19 shows workers organized around economic interest and false worship, while 2 Corinthians and Philippians show religious workers whose deception damages the church. The decisive question is not whether someone works hard but whether the work serves Christ's true gospel with faithful character.
Congregations should pray for laborers, recognize varied service, support trustworthy workers, and test teachers rather than rewarding charisma or relentless activity. Every Christian vocation belongs under God's lordship, but gospel ministry bears particular accountability for truth, motive, and treatment of the flock.
Matt.9.37
Ἐργάτης is an agent noun built from the word for work. A genitive or descriptive modifier may name the work or its moral quality, as in workers of evil; the noun alone is morally neutral.
God appoints labor in creation, commands just treatment of hired workers, and sends servants into His fields. Jesus gathers these themes around compassionate kingdom mission.