Maidservant
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Παιδίσκη refers to a female servant or slave woman. In Paul's selected uses the noun occurs within Galatians 4, where Hagar and Sarah are interpreted allegorically in an argument contrasting slavery under the present Jerusalem with freedom through the promise.
Reader summary
Full entry for παιδίσκη (G3814) · Open the biblical lexicon
Παιδίσκη refers to a female servant or slave woman. In Paul's selected uses the noun occurs within Galatians 4, where Hagar and Sarah are interpreted allegorically in an argument contrasting slavery under the present Jerusalem with freedom through the promise.
The BSB source-word alignment has 13 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include servant girl (4), slave woman (3), [and] a servant girl (1), maidservants (1), of [the] slave woman (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 26:69. Its strongest book concentrations include Galatians (5), Acts (2), Luke (2), Mark (2).
Παιδίσκη refers to a female servant or slave woman. In Paul's selected uses the noun occurs within Galatians 4, where Hagar and Sarah are interpreted allegorically in an argument contrasting slavery under the present Jerusalem with freedom through the promise. Paul cites Genesis, including the expulsion of the slave woman and her son, to insist that the inheritance comes through promise rather than human effort under law.
The lexical label identifies Hagar's social status in the argument; it does not make her personal suffering insignificant or turn enslaved women into abstract objects. Responsible teaching must read Genesis and Galatians together, honor the historical persons, and recognize that Paul's controlling concern is the believer's freedom and inheritance in Christ.
Paul uses παιδίσκη for Hagar as the slave woman in his law-promise allegory. Her status serves the contrast between slavery and the freedom of the promised children.
But what does the Scripture say? “Expel the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”
Paul's citation brings the allegory to its inheritance conclusion: the slave woman's son does not inherit with the free woman's son, so believers must not return to slavery.
For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.
The historical distinction between Hagar and Sarah introduces Paul's allegorical contrast while retaining the Genesis narrative as its scriptural foundation.
His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born through the promise.
Birth according to flesh and birth through promise identify two modes in Paul's argument; the noun παιδίσκη contributes social status but does not carry the whole theology.
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. Young female servant or slave, often in domestic roles; diminutive form emphasizing youth or lower social status.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
13 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a female slave, maidservant, maid.
Read versea female slave, maidservant, maid.
Read versea female slave, maidservant, maid.
Read versea female slave, maidservant, maid.
Read versea female slave, maidservant, maid.
Read versea female slave, maidservant, maid.
Read versea female slave, maidservant, maid.
Read versea female slave, maidservant, maid.
Read versea female slave, maidservant, maid.
Read versea female slave, maidservant, maid.
Read versea female slave, maidservant, maid.
Read versea female slave, maidservant, maid.
Read versea female slave, maidservant, maid.
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 5 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 13 lexical occurrence verses.
παιδίσκη 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.
Galatians 4 is not a free license for imaginative allegory. Paul tells readers that he is using the mothers and covenants allegorically within a specific argument about law, promise, slavery, and inheritance. Παιδίσκη identifies Hagar as the enslaved woman and heightens the contrast with the free woman, but the noun alone does not establish the theological mapping.
Genesis also presents Hagar as a real person seen and preserved by God amid mistreatment. Teachers should therefore refuse demeaning speech about her or modern applications that map ethnic peoples simplistically onto spiritual slavery. Paul's pastoral target is the Galatians' temptation to submit again to bondage as a basis for inheritance. Those who belong to Christ are children of promise and must stand in the freedom He gives, while honoring every person as made in God's image.
Gal.4.30
Παιδίσκη is the feminine form associated with a young female servant or slave. In Galatians 4 it functions as a social-status designation for Hagar. Translation choices such as servant, maidservant, or slave woman should reflect the historical condition without softening enslavement.
Hagar's Genesis story reveals both human exploitation and God's seeing care. Israel later experiences slavery and deliverance. Paul uses Hagar and Sarah within his inspired law-promise argument to proclaim freedom and inheritance through Christ rather than bondage under a misused law.
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