Participant
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Κοινωνός names one who shares in something, a participant, companion, or partner. Paul uses the noun to describe bonds that are real because people share in an altar, in suffering and comfort, or in gospel fellowship.
Reader summary
Full entry for κοινωνός (G2844) · Open the biblical lexicon
Κοινωνός names one who shares in something, a participant, companion, or partner. Paul uses the noun to describe bonds that are real because people share in an altar, in suffering and comfort, or in gospel fellowship.
The BSB source-word alignment has 10 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include partners (3), a partaker (1), a partner (1), fellow partakers (1), partakers (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 23:30. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Corinthians (2), 2 Corinthians (2), 1 Peter (1), 2 Peter (1).
Κοινωνός names one who shares in something, a participant, companion, or partner. Paul uses the noun to describe bonds that are real because people share in an altar, in suffering and comfort, or in gospel fellowship. First Corinthians 10 warns that participation is morally and spiritually meaningful: those who eat Israel's sacrifices are participants in the altar, a comparison that supports Paul's prohibition of idolatrous fellowship.
Second Corinthians 1 comforts believers who share both affliction and consolation. Philemon 17 turns partnership into costly reception as Paul asks Philemon to welcome Onesimus as he would welcome Paul. The word is warmer and weightier than casual association. It does not erase personal identity or accountability, but it does show that shared allegiance creates obligations of holiness, endurance, welcome, and mutual care.
Paul uses κοινωνός for a person bound to others through meaningful participation. Shared worship, suffering, comfort, and gospel partnership carry real responsibilities.
Consider the people of Israel: Are not those who eat the sacrifices fellow partakers in the altar?
Participation in the altar illustrates that acts of worship express genuine fellowship, supporting Paul's warning against joining the Lord's table with idolatrous tables.
And our hope for you is sure, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you will share in our comfort.
The Corinthians' participation in suffering grounds Paul's sure hope that they will also participate in God's comfort.
So if you consider me a partner, receive him as you would receive me.
Paul makes partnership concrete by asking Philemon to receive Onesimus with the welcome he would extend to Paul himself.
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. participant
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
10 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a sharer, partner
Read versea sharer, partner
Read versea sharer, partner
Read versea sharer, partner
Read versea sharer, partner
Read versea sharer, partner
Read versea sharer, partner
Read versea sharer, partner
Read versea sharer, partner
Read versea sharer, partner
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 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.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
κοινωνός is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Biblical participation is never empty togetherness. At the altar, shared eating signifies fellowship with the worship represented there, which is why Paul treats idolatrous participation as incompatible with the Lord's table. In affliction, shared suffering is joined to shared comfort from God, creating hope and mutual endurance. In Philemon, partnership in the gospel demands a changed reception of Onesimus, no longer merely as a slave but as a beloved brother.
These contexts keep κοινωνός from becoming a sentimental label. To call someone a partner is to acknowledge a common object, allegiance, burden, or mission that reshapes conduct. Teachers should name that shared reality precisely. Christian fellowship does not dissolve distinctions or excuse sin, but it does bind believers to holiness, consolation, hospitality, reconciliation, and truthful responsibility before the Lord they share.
1Cor.10.18
Κοινωνός is related to the κοινός and κοινωνία word family, carrying the idea of sharing or holding something in common. The genitive or surrounding construction identifies what is shared. The noun refers to the participant, while related terms can name the act of sharing or partnership itself.
Covenant meals and shared worship in the Old Testament show that table fellowship expresses allegiance. In Christ, believers share one Lord, one gospel hope, sufferings, comfort, and mission. That communion is enacted through holiness, mutual care, reconciliation, and the Lord's table.