A manslayer
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ἀνθρωποκτόνος is a compound word joining anthropos (human being) and a killing root, naming one who takes human life: a murderer, a killer of people. The local evidence records three tokens in two direct verse settings.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἀνθρωποκτόνος (G443) · Open the biblical lexicon
ἀνθρωποκτόνος is a compound word joining anthropos (human being) and a killing root, naming one who takes human life: a murderer, a killer of people. The local evidence records three tokens in two direct verse settings.
The BSB source-word alignment has 3 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include a murderer (2), murderer (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at John 8:44. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 John (2), John (1).
ἀνθρωποκτόνος is a compound word joining anthropos (human being) and a killing root, naming one who takes human life: a murderer, a killer of people. The local evidence records three tokens in two direct verse settings. In John 8:44, Jesus applies the term to the devil as "a murderer from the beginning." In 1 John 3:15, the same noun occurs twice as John warns that the person who hates a brother is a murderer and does not have eternal life abiding in him.
John 8:44 remains the sole direct application of the term to the devil. Jesus does not apply it directly to each human opponent in that verse, so the accusation must not become a loose label for every liar, doubter, or sinner. Teachers should keep both direct verse settings in view: one exposes the devil's murderous character, and the other brings the moral seriousness of hatred into the church's self-examination.
The local evidence records three G443 tokens across John 8:44 and 1 John 3:15. John 8:44 applies the noun directly to the devil and remains the primary anchor. First John 3:15 uses the noun twice in a direct warning about hatred within the community. John 8:59 supplies book context for the hostility surrounding Jesus but is not another occurrence.
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
John 8:44 records Jesus' identification of the devil as 'a murderer from the beginning,' the New Testament's defining use of ἀνθρωποκτόνος.
At this, they picked up stones to throw at Him. But Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple area.
The charge sits inside John 8's escalating conflict between Jesus and religious leaders who, by the chapter's end, pick up stones to kill him, showing the murderous pattern the word names still at work.
Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that eternal life does not reside in a murderer.
1 John 3:15 uses ἀνθρωποκτόνος twice in a direct warning: the person who hates a brother is a murderer, and eternal life does not abide in a murderer. This direct verse setting brings the word into the church's self-examination without transferring John 8:44's phrase 'from the beginning' to every person who hates.
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. One who actively kills humans; emphasizes the perpetrator's violent action rather than guilt or legal status.
One who actively kills humans; emphasizes the perpetrator's violent action rather than guilt or legal status.
(κτείνω, to kill) a murderer, manslayer (Eur.; see MM, VGT, see word): Jhn.8:44, 1Jn.3:16.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
3 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a murderer
Read versea murderer
Read versea murderer
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 1 case and number pattern. 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 3 lexical occurrence verses.
ἀνθρωποκτόνος is built from this root:
Expands the seriousness of hatred, linking it to spiritual death.
John 8:44 is the Gospel's sharpest character statement about the devil, and ἀνθρωποκτόνος anchors it. Jesus is not trading insults with the religious leaders in front of him; he is diagnosing the spiritual parentage behind their hostility. The devil murders and lies together, because truth and life stand or fall together in John's Gospel. The same leaders who claim Abraham as father will, within the same chapter, take up stones against Jesus.
John 8:44 therefore gives preachers a way to name the seriousness of hostility to Christ without reducing every doubter to the devil's agent. First John 3:15 must also remain direct evidence. Its two uses of the noun warn the church that hatred shares murder's moral direction and is incompatible with eternal life abiding in a person. The two settings work together without becoming identical: John 8:44 is the sole direct application to the devil, while 1 John 3:15 addresses human hatred.
Frame the word as a severe text-bound diagnosis in each passage, never as a repeatable insult for an individual sinner.
John.8.44
The local evidence records three tokens of ἀνθρωποκτόνος in two verses. John 8:44 applies the noun to the devil once, and 1 John 3:15 uses it twice concerning the person who hates a brother. Linguistically, the noun names a murderer or killer of a human being. The lexical meaning does not by itself transfer every contextual claim from one verse to the other.