What does ἔχθρα (échthra) mean in the Bible?
ἔχθρα (échthra): Active hostility or enmity as deep opposition, not merely disagreement or dislike
Greek · G2189
ἔχθρα
Hostility; by implication, a reason for opposition
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ἔχθρα G2189
Pronunciation échthra
What does ἔχθρα (échthra) mean in the Bible?
ἔχθρα (échthra): Active hostility or enmity as deep opposition, not merely disagreement or dislike
Full entry for ἔχθρα (G2189) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G2189?
The BSB source-word alignment has 6 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include hostility (2), [is] hostile (1), enemies (1), hatred (1), of hostility (1).
Where does ἔχθρα (échthra) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Luke 23:12. Its strongest book concentrations include Ephesians (2), Galatians (1), James (1), Luke (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 hostility 2× Ephesians 2:16, James 4:4
[is] hostile 1× Romans 8:7
enemies 1× Luke 23:12
hatred 1× Galatians 5:20
of hostility 1× Ephesians 2:14
Show sample aligned rows
Luke 23:12 ἔχθρᾳ to enemies Noun - Dative Feminine Singular Romans 8:7 ἔχθρα to [is] hostile Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular Galatians 5:20 ἔχθραι to hatred Noun - Nominative Feminine Plural Ephesians 2:14 ἔχθραν to of hostility Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Ephesians 2:16 ἔχθραν to hostility Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular James 4:4 ἔχθρα to hostility Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Luke 23:12
Aligned rows 6
Books represented 5
Luke 1 Romans 1 Galatians 1 Ephesians 2 James 1
Source forms
ἔχθρα 2x echthra Romans 8:7, James 4:4
ἔχθραν 2x echthran Ephesians 2:14, Ephesians 2:16
ἔχθρᾳ 1x echthra Luke 23:12
ἔχθραι 1x echthrai Galatians 5:20
Parsing patterns
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 2x Ephesians 2:14, Ephesians 2:16
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular 2x Romans 8:7, James 4:4
Noun - Dative Feminine Singular 1x Luke 23:12
Noun - Nominative Feminine Plural 1x Galatians 5:20
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Active hostility or enmity as deep opposition, not merely disagreement or dislike
Strong's G2189
Lexical occurrences 6 verses Greek text appearances 6 times Word forms 4 forms 6 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link Luke 23:12 Source Gloss
hostility; by implication, a reason for opposition
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
6 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Luke 23:12 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
ἔχθρᾳ ecqra
enmity, hostility
Read verse Romans 8:7 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
ἔχθρα ecqra
enmity, hostility
Read verse Galatians 5:20 Noun Nominative Plural Feminine
ἔχθραι, ecqrai
enmity, hostility
Read verse Ephesians 2:15 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ἔχθραν ecqran
enmity, hostility
Read verse Ephesians 2:16 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ἔχθραν ecqran
enmity, hostility
Read verse James 4:4 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
ἔχθρα ecqra
enmity, hostility
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 4 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.
Form patterns 4 Aligned forms 6 Case pattern Nominative (3) Number pattern Singular (5)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · Feminine Rom 8:7 · Jas 4:4 2×
Nominative · Plural · Feminine Gal 5:20 1×
Dative · Singular · Feminine Luke 23:12 1×
Accusative · Singular · Feminine Eph 2:14 · Eph 2:16 2×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
hostility between persons, resolved through a common cause
opposition and hostility of the flesh toward God's law
works of the flesh, representing hostile divisions among believers
hostility between Jews and Gentiles abolished through Christ's cross
hostility toward God resulting from worldly friendship and unfaithfulness
Showing 5 selected witnesses from 6 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
ἔχθρα is built from this root:
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
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