Children
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τεκνίον is an affectionate diminutive of child, little children, dear children. John 13:33 records Jesus using it as he opens the farewell discourse, addressing his disciples with tenderness just after predicting his betrayal and just before predicting Peter's denial.
Reader summary
Full entry for τεκνίον (G5040) · Open the biblical lexicon
τεκνίον is an affectionate diminutive of child, little children, dear children. John 13:33 records Jesus using it as he opens the farewell discourse, addressing his disciples with tenderness just after predicting his betrayal and just before predicting Peter's denial.
The BSB source-word alignment has 8 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Little children (8).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at John 13:33. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 John (7), John (1).
τεκνίον is an affectionate diminutive of child, little children, dear children. John 13:33 records Jesus using it as he opens the farewell discourse, addressing his disciples with tenderness just after predicting his betrayal and just before predicting Peter's denial. The word signals a shift in tone: Jesus has been teaching, correcting, and warning; now he speaks as one who loves those he is about to leave.
The same term reappears repeatedly in 1 John, where the elderly apostle addresses his congregation the same way, suggesting the address carried lasting pastoral significance for the Johannine community. Teachers should notice that this tender address surrounds some of Jesus' hardest words in the discourse, his coming departure, Peter's coming failure, and a new commandment to love.
The affection is not separate from the difficulty; it frames it.
John 13:33 marks a turn in the Upper Room. Jesus has just identified his betrayer and dismissed Judas into the night; now he turns to the remaining eleven with an address of open affection. Scripture consistently pictures God's people addressed with parental tenderness even amid warning and instruction (Deut 1:31; Hos 11:1), and Jesus' use of τεκνίον in John 13:33 carries that same pastoral tenderness into the farewell discourse, just before his hardest predictions to the Twelve.
Little children, I am with you only a little while longer. You will look for Me, and as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you: ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’
John 13:33 records Jesus addressing his disciples as 'little children' at the start of the farewell discourse: 'I am with you only a little while longer.'
A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another.
The address immediately precedes Jesus' new commandment to love one another (John 13:34-35) and his prediction of Peter's denial (John 13:38), framing both the command and the coming failure with tenderness rather than only correction.
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
1 John uses the same term repeatedly to address the apostle's congregation (1 John 2:1, 12, 28), suggesting this same affectionate pastoral address became characteristic of the wider Johannine community's teaching style.
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. Diminutive form expressing affectionate address, used by teachers or spiritual fathers toward their disciples.
Diminutive form expressing affectionate address, used by teachers or spiritual fathers toward their disciples.
(dimin. of τέκνον), a little child: as a term of endearment, in voc. pl., Jhn.13:33, Gal.4:19, 1Jn.2:1 Jn 2:12 Jn 2:28 Jn 3:7 Jn 3:13 Jn 4:4 Jn 5:21.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
9 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a little child
Read versea little child
Read versea little child
Read versea little child
Read versea little child
Read versea little child
Read versea little child
Read versea little child
Read versea little child
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.
τεκνίον is built from this root:
John 13:33 marks a turn in the Upper Room. Jesus has just identified his betrayer and dismissed Judas into the night; now he turns to the remaining eleven with an address of open affection. The tenderness does not soften what follows: an announcement of his departure and a prediction that Peter, for all his confidence, will deny him three times before the night is over.
Preachers can use this word to show that pastoral love and hard truth are not opposites in Jesus' teaching; the discourse that begins with 'little children' also contains the plainest predictions of failure and loss in the Gospel. This word opens a teaching doorway on pastoral tenderness alongside hard truth: Jesus addresses his disciples as 'little children' in the very discourse where he predicts his own departure and Peter's denial, modeling love that does not withhold difficult words.
It gives teachers a pattern for delivering hard truths without losing warmth. It corrects the assumption that tender address and hard warning cannot coexist in faithful teaching; John 13:33-38 places both side by side without contradiction. Frame τεκνίον as Jesus' deliberate, affectionate address opening a discourse that also contains his hardest predictions to the Twelve, not as evidence that the coming instruction will be gentle in content.
John.13.33
All eight governed tokens are neuter plural vocatives, direct addresses rather than descriptions of age or legal status. Jesus uses the form once in John 13:33; First John uses it seven times across exhortation, assurance, warning, love, truth, and the closing command against idols.
Scripture consistently pictures God's people addressed with parental tenderness even amid warning and instruction (Deut 1:31; Hos 11:1), and Jesus' use of τεκνίον in John 13:33 carries that same pastoral tenderness into the farewell discourse, just before his hardest predictions to the Twelve.