Preacher
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Kēryx means a herald, a publicly commissioned proclaimer who announces another's message. Paul calls himself a herald, apostle, and teacher in connection with the one Mediator and Christ's ransom for all, and he repeats the appointment while describing suffering for the gospel.
Reader summary
Full entry for κῆρυξ (G2783) · Open the biblical lexicon
Kēryx means a herald, a publicly commissioned proclaimer who announces another's message. Paul calls himself a herald, apostle, and teacher in connection with the one Mediator and Christ's ransom for all, and he repeats the appointment while describing suffering for the gospel.
The BSB source-word alignment has 3 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include a preacher (2), [as] a preacher (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at 1 Timothy 2:7. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Timothy (1), 2 Peter (1), 2 Timothy (1).
Kēryx means a herald, a publicly commissioned proclaimer who announces another's message. Paul calls himself a herald, apostle, and teacher in connection with the one Mediator and Christ's ransom for all, and he repeats the appointment while describing suffering for the gospel. Second Peter calls Noah a herald of righteousness amid judgment and rescue. The noun emphasizes commission and proclamation rather than originality, celebrity, or control over hearers.
A herald does not own the news and may not revise it to gain approval. Because the New Testament uses the title for specially appointed witnesses, later preachers should imitate its faithful public service without casually claiming Paul's apostolic authority or placing themselves beyond doctrinal and moral accountability.
Kēryx is a commissioned public herald. Paul heralds the gospel of the one Mediator at personal cost, while Noah heralds righteousness in a generation facing judgment.
For this reason I was appointed as a preacher, an apostle, and a faithful and true teacher of the Gentiles. I am telling the truth; I am not lying about anything.
First Timothy 2:7 identifies Paul as appointed herald, apostle, and teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. The office serves the preceding testimony about one God, one Mediator, and Christ's ransom.
To which I was appointed as a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher.
Second Timothy 1:11 says Paul was appointed a herald, apostle, and teacher of the gospel. His suffering follows from guarding and announcing an entrusted deposit.
If He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight;
Second Peter 2:5 calls Noah a herald of righteousness when God preserved him with seven others through the flood. His witness stands within an argument about certain judgment and divine rescue.
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. Official public announcer of divine message with authority, not private teacher or philosopher
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
3 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a herald, preacher
Read versea herald, preacher
Read versea herald, preacher
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 2 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 1 selected witness from 3 lexical occurrence verses.
κῆρυξ is built from this root:
Kēryx turns attention away from the herald's originality and toward the authority and content of the announcement. In 1 Timothy, Paul's appointment serves the truth that there is one God, one Mediator, and a ransom sufficient for all kinds of people; his Gentile mission embodies the message's reach. In 2 Timothy, heralding belongs to an entrusted gospel worth suffering for, not a platform designed to protect the speaker.
Noah's description places proclamation beside righteousness, judgment, and preserving mercy. Christian preaching should therefore be public, intelligible, text-governed, and centered on Christ. Preachers are accountable messengers, not owners of the news, and the title cannot excuse manipulation, doctrinal novelty, or moral exemption.
1Tim.2.7
Kēryx denotes a herald or public crier authorized to announce a message. It is related to kēryssō, to proclaim, but names the commissioned messenger rather than the act or message.
Prophets publicly announced the word entrusted to them, watchmen warned of danger, and royal messengers carried decrees they did not author. Their accountability lay in faithful delivery.
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