A town (properly, with walls, of greater or less size)
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Polis means a city or town, an organized place where people live together under shared structures. New Testament uses range from ordinary locations to morally charged communities and the promised city built by God.
Reader summary
Full entry for πόλις (G4172) · Open the biblical lexicon
Polis means a city or town, an organized place where people live together under shared structures. New Testament uses range from ordinary locations to morally charged communities and the promised city built by God.
The BSB source-word alignment has 164 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include city (76), town (35), a town (9), towns (9), cities (8).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 2:23. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (43), Luke (39), Matthew (27), Revelation (27).
This entry includes 4 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
Polis means a city or town, an organized place where people live together under shared structures. New Testament uses range from ordinary locations to morally charged communities and the promised city built by God. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem as a city that does not recognize the things that make for peace. Paul is distressed when Athens is filled with idols.
Jesus also calls His disciples a visible city on a hill, while Hebrews directs pilgrims toward the lasting city to come. Revelation gathers the communal hope into the holy city, new Jerusalem, descending from God. The noun does not make every city virtuous or turn the church into a civic government. It helps readers attend to public, communal, and located life, and to the contrast between cities shaped by idolatry or unbelief and the ordered fellowship God finally provides.
Polis names a populated, organized city. The selected passages move from visible earthly communities, with their griefs and idols, to pilgrim hope for the lasting city and Revelation’s holy city from God.
I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
The holy city descends from God and is also portrayed as a bride. The imagery joins place and people, emphasizing prepared communal life with God rather than a merely private afterlife.
For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
Abraham lives as a pilgrim while looking for the city whose architect and builder is God. His hope rests in God’s construction and promise, not in the security of the settlements around him.
For here we do not have a permanent city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
Believers have no permanent city here and seek the city to come. The statement relativizes earthly permanence while the surrounding chapter still requires hospitality, compassion, generosity, and faithful public conduct.
You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.
Jesus compares His disciples to a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. The image stresses the visible, corporate witness of a people whose good works direct glory to the Father.
As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it
Jesus weeps over Jerusalem when He approaches and sees the city. His lament shows neither civic indifference nor sentimental approval; it names missed peace and approaching judgment.
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply disturbed in his spirit to see that the city was full of idols.
Paul is provoked when he sees Athens full of idols. The city’s cultural and religious life becomes the setting for reasoned gospel witness rather than contempt for its residents.
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.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. A fortified urban center distinct from villages and countryside, often metonymously representing its inhabitants.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 164 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a city
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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 8 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.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 162 lexical occurrence verses.
πόλις is built from these roots:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Polis keeps biblical faith from becoming merely private. Cities gather worship, commerce, authority, family life, injustice, beauty, memory, and shared responsibility into visible communities. Jesus’ city on a hill illustrates corporate witness, while His tears over Jerusalem reveal holy grief for a community that resists peace. Paul’s response to idolatrous Athens combines spiritual disturbance with intelligible proclamation.
Hebrews then denies permanence to every present city and teaches God’s people to seek the one He builds. Revelation does not end with isolated souls but with a holy city described as a bride, ordered for God’s dwelling with His people. These texts do not authorize the church to seize civic rule or baptize a nation as new Jerusalem. They call believers to visible faithfulness where they live, compassionate truth-telling about communal sin, and hope fixed on the city whose holiness and endurance come from God.
Rev.21.2
Polis is a feminine noun for a city or town as a populated community, not merely its buildings. Its uses can identify a location, characterize communal life, or carry eschatological imagery. The local Greek index records about 162 occurrences for exact G4172.
Jerusalem and Babylon provide major Old Testament city patterns: one is called to bear God’s name yet comes under judgment, while the other embodies proud opposition. Hebrews receives the pilgrim story, and Revelation contrasts Babylon’s fall with new Jerusalem’s descent.