Leitourgos names a servant or minister, with the task and person identified by each passage. Its five New Testament witnesses include angels described as God's servants, governing authorities devoted to their work, Paul's gospel ministry to the Gentiles, Epaphroditus ministering to Paul's needs and Christ ministering in the true sanctuary.
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Full entry for λειτουργός (G3011) · Open the biblical lexicon
Leitourgos names a servant or minister, with the task and person identified by each passage. Its five New Testament witnesses include angels described as God's servants, governing authorities devoted to their work, Paul's gospel ministry to the Gentiles, Epaphroditus ministering to Paul's needs and Christ ministering in the true sanctuary.
The BSB source-word alignment has 5 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include servants (2), [and who] ministers (1), a minister (1), minister (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Romans 13:6. Its strongest book concentrations include Hebrews (2), Romans (2), Philippians (1).
Leitourgos names a servant or minister, with the task and person identified by each passage. Its five New Testament witnesses include angels described as God's servants, governing authorities devoted to their work, Paul's gospel ministry to the Gentiles, Epaphroditus ministering to Paul's needs and Christ ministering in the true sanctuary. Those uses do not establish one interchangeable office or authority level.
Hebrews distinguishes the Son from angels and centers His high-priestly ministry. Romans describes Paul's service through what Christ accomplishes and the Spirit's sanctification. Philippians honors a messenger whose practical help involved severe illness, while Paul eagerly sends him home for shared joy. The noun honors real service without making a title proof of trustworthy conduct.
It cannot give a human minister Christ's unique role, excuse wrongdoing by an authority or turn another person's costly service into a demand for preventable harm.
Five direct BSB noun witnesses identify angels, authorities, Paul, Epaphroditus and Christ in distinct services. The surrounding task and argument determine whether angelic, civic, gospel, practical or high-priestly ministry is being described.
Now about the angels He says: “He makes His angels winds, His servants flames of fire.”
The quoted servants are angels within an argument about the Son's superiority; their service does not erase the distinction between them and Him.
And who ministers in the sanctuary and true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.
The minister is the high priest seated at God's right hand and serving in the true sanctuary; the noun cannot transfer that unique role to a human leader.
This is also why you pay taxes. For the authorities are God’s servants, who devote themselves to their work.
Authorities are described as servants devoted to their work within Paul's argument about public order and obligations, not as a separate church office.
To be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Paul's gospel service aims at Gentiles becoming an acceptable offering sanctified by the Spirit, and his boast centers what Christ accomplishes.
But I thought it necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my needs.
Epaphroditus is the church's messenger and helper for Paul's needs; his illness, return and joyful welcome remain part of the account of service.
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. Public servant performing sacred or civic duty at personal expense; minister of God or state
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
5 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a minister, servant
Read versea minister, servant
Read versea minister, servant
Read versea minister, servant
Read versea minister, servant
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.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 5 lexical occurrence verses.
λειτουργός is built from these roots:
Describes Paul’s sacred service in gospel proclamation.Romans 15:14-21
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Philippians makes service concrete by naming Epaphroditus as the church's messenger and a minister to Paul's needs. Paul also calls him brother and fellow worker, describes his serious illness and wants his return to bring joy to the community. Honor belongs to the person and service actually described, without making near-fatal illness a standard that every volunteer must imitate.
Romans gives Paul's ministry another focus: the gospel reaches Gentiles through what Christ accomplishes, and the Spirit sanctifies the offering. Hebrews names a still different minister, the high priest who serves in the true sanctuary. A teacher should not merge those roles because the noun is shared. Faithful service remains attentive to its purpose and the people involved.
Titles deserve neither automatic distrust nor automatic immunity; conduct, task and the passage's stated authority must still be read carefully.
Php.2.25
Leitourgos is a masculine noun for a minister or servant, with singular and plural forms fitting its named participants. A lexical title does not identify a universal office, establish every person's authority or classify all service as identical.
Psalm 104:1-9 places messengers and servants within praise of the Lord's greatness and His ordering of creation. Hebrews 1 quotes that language in its comparison of angels and the Son. The Hebrew psalm supports the identified quotation without adding to the five Greek noun witnesses.