What does ῥακά (rhaká) mean in the Bible?
ῥακά (rhaká) is a Greek word meaning "fool".
Greek · G4469
ῥακά
Fool
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ῥακάG4469
Pronunciationrhaká
What does ῥακά (rhaká) mean in the Bible?
ῥακά (rhaká) is a Greek word meaning "fool".
Full entry for ῥακά (G4469) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G4469?
The BSB source-word alignment has 1 aligned row for this entry. Common renderings include Raca (1).
Where does ῥακά (rhaká) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 5:22. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (1).
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItRaca1×Matthew 5:22
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowMatthew 5:22
Aligned rows1
Books represented1
Matthew1
Source forms
Ῥακά1xRhakaMatthew 5:22
Parsing patterns
Noun - Vocative Masculine Singular1xMatthew 5:22
Evidence Summary
Greek word. fool
Strong'sG4469
Lexical occurrences1 verseGreek text appearances1 timeWord forms1 form1 referenceVerse guides0 guides
Source Gloss
fool
Extended definitionSource: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
usually taken to represent the Aram. רֵיקָא, a shortened form of H7386, " empty," as vocalized in the Galilæan dialect; an expression of contempt, raca: Mat.5:22 (cf. DB, iv, 191 f.; and for other explanations, see Zorell, see word).
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
1 Greek text appearance shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Matthew 5:22Aramaic
Ῥακά,raka
empty, foolish
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.
Grammatical Forms
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.
Form patterns1Aligned forms1Case patternVocative (1)Number patternSingular (1)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Vocative · Singular · MasculineMatt 5:221×
Cross-Language Connections
Hebrew roots and equivalents that share conceptual or etymological ground with this Greek word.