A man (properly as an individual male)
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ἀνήρ names a man or husband, with context deciding whether the emphasis is adult male identity, marital relation, public address, or household credibility. In the Pastoral Epistles, the word appears in settings that require sober interpretation: men praying without anger, the man named in the teaching restriction of 1 Timothy 2, husbands evaluated in overseer and deacon qualifications, the deceased husband of an.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἀνήρ (G435) · Open the biblical lexicon
ἀνήρ names a man or husband, with context deciding whether the emphasis is adult male identity, marital relation, public address, or household credibility. In the Pastoral Epistles, the word appears in settings that require sober interpretation: men praying without anger, the man named in the teaching restriction of 1 Timothy 2, husbands evaluated in.
The BSB source-word alignment has 216 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include men (60), man (36), husband (28), vvv (19), a man (14).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 1:16. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (100), 1 Corinthians (32), Luke (27), Romans (9).
This entry includes 4 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
ἀνήρ names a man or husband, with context deciding whether the emphasis is adult male identity, marital relation, public address, or household credibility. In the Pastoral Epistles, the word appears in settings that require sober interpretation: men praying without anger, the man named in the teaching restriction of 1 Timothy 2, husbands evaluated in overseer and deacon qualifications, the deceased husband of an enrolled widow, and husbands in Titus 2 household instruction.
The word does not create a free-standing theology of masculinity by itself. It helps readers follow how ordered worship, marriage faithfulness, household management, and public credibility serve the church's witness.
ἀνήρ appears in the Pastoral Epistles as man and husband language. It names men who must pray with holy hands, the man in the 1 Timothy 2 teaching restriction, husbands whose marital faithfulness is considered in overseer and deacon qualifications, the husband to whom an enrolled widow had been faithful, and husbands whose households should not discredit the word of God.
Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or dissension.
Paul calls men to prayer marked by holiness and peace. Male presence in worship is judged by godly posture, not by anger, rivalry, or public dominance.
I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; she is to remain quiet.
The word names the man in a contested church-order instruction. The verse requires careful teaching within Paul's argument, not broad claims detached from context.
An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
An overseer must be a one-wife husband. The phrase tests covenant faithfulness and public credibility among the larger qualification list.
A deacon must be the husband of but one wife, a good manager of his children and of his own household.
Deacon qualification also includes husband and household language. Church service is connected to tested faithfulness in ordinary family life.
A widow should be enrolled if she is at least sixty years old, faithful to her husband,
The widow's former husband is named in assessing her faithful life. Husband language can appear indirectly as part of honoring a woman in need.
An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, having children who are believers and who are not open to accusation of indiscretion or insubordination.
Titus repeats the husband-of-one-wife qualification for elders. Marital fidelity and household order matter because public leadership must be credible.
To be self-controlled, pure, managers of their households, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be discredited.
Husbands appear within household instruction aimed at protecting the word of God from discredit. Marriage language is tied to public witness.
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. Emphasizes individual male identity; distinguished from woman, boy, or humanity generally; often marks adult male status
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 215 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a male human being, a man
Read versea male human being, a man
Read versea male human being, a man
Read versea male human being, a man
Read versea male human being, a man
Read versea male human being, a man
Read versea male human being, a man
Read versea male human being, a man
Read versea male human being, a man
Read versea male human being, a man
Read versea male human being, a man
Read versea male human being, a man
Read versea male human being, a man
Read versea male human being, a man
Read versea male human being, a man
Read versea male human being, a man
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 10 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 5 selected witnesses from 216 lexical occurrence verses.
ἀνήρ 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.
ἀνήρ helps readers see that the Pastoral Epistles do not treat men or husbands as an abstract status class. The letters place men under holy prayer, peaceable conduct, marital faithfulness, household management, teaching accountability, and public credibility. In 1 Timothy 2, men must lift holy hands without anger or dissension before Paul addresses women. In 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, a man considered for oversight or deacon service must be tested in marriage and household life.
Titus 2 places husbands inside a household witness that can honor or discredit God's word. The word therefore opens responsibility before it opens privilege.
1Tim.2.8
ἀνήρ can mean man or husband. The phrase 'husband of one wife' and household settings clearly require the marital sense, while 1 Timothy 2:8 speaks of men in worship. Context and syntax must decide the English rendering.
Scripture often addresses men as accountable before God in family, worship, and public life. The Pastoral Epistles continue that concern by testing male conduct through prayer, fidelity, household credibility, and the church's witness.