What does χοῖρος (choîros) mean in the Bible?
χοῖρος (choîros): Unclean animal in Jewish law, symbolizing spiritual worthlessness or moral degradation in NT teaching.
Greek · G5519
χοῖρος
A hog
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χοῖρος G5519
Pronunciation choîros
What does χοῖρος (choîros) mean in the Bible?
χοῖρος (choîros): Unclean animal in Jewish law, symbolizing spiritual worthlessness or moral degradation in NT teaching.
Full entry for χοῖρος (G5519) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G5519?
The BSB source-word alignment has 12 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include pigs (6), of pigs (4), [the] pigs (1), swine (1).
Where does χοῖρος (choîros) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 7:6. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (4), Mark (4), Matthew (4).
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It pigs 6× Matthew 8:32, Mark 5:12, Mark 5:13, Mark 5:16
of pigs 4× Matthew 8:30, Matthew 8:31, Mark 5:11, Luke 8:32
[the] pigs 1× Luke 15:15
swine 1× Matthew 7:6
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 7:6 χοίρων to swine Noun - Genitive Masculine Plural Matthew 8:30 χοίρων to of pigs Noun - Genitive Masculine Plural Matthew 8:31 χοίρων to of pigs Noun - Genitive Masculine Plural Matthew 8:32 χοίρους to pigs Noun - Accusative Masculine Plural Mark 5:11 χοίρων to of pigs Noun - Genitive Masculine Plural Mark 5:12 χοίρους to pigs Noun - Accusative Masculine Plural Mark 5:13 χοίρους to pigs Noun - Accusative Masculine Plural Mark 5:16 χοίρων to pigs Noun - Genitive Masculine Plural Luke 8:32 χοίρων to of pigs Noun - Genitive Masculine Plural Luke 8:33 χοίρους to pigs Noun - Accusative Masculine Plural
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Matthew 7:6
Aligned rows 12
Books represented 3
Matthew 4 Mark 4 Luke 4
Source forms
χοίρων 6x choirōn Matthew 7:6, Matthew 8:30, Matthew 8:31, Mark 5:11
χοίρους 5x choirous Matthew 8:32, Mark 5:12, Mark 5:13, Luke 8:33
χοῖροι 1x choiroi Luke 15:16
Parsing patterns
Noun - Genitive Masculine Plural 6x Matthew 7:6, Matthew 8:30, Matthew 8:31, Mark 5:11
Noun - Accusative Masculine Plural 5x Matthew 8:32, Mark 5:12, Mark 5:13, Luke 8:33
Noun - Nominative Masculine Plural 1x Luke 15:16
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Unclean animal in Jewish law, symbolizing spiritual worthlessness or moral degradation in NT teaching.
Strong's G5519
Lexical occurrences 12 verses Greek text appearances 14 times Word forms 3 forms 12 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link Luke 15:11-32 Source Gloss
a hog
Extended definition Source: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
Unclean animal in Jewish law, symbolizing spiritual worthlessness or moral degradation in NT teaching.
[in Sm.: Isa.65:4 66:3 ;] a swine: pl., Mat.7:6 8:30-32, Mrk.5:11-13, 16, Luk.8:32-33 15:15-16
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
14 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Matthew 7:6 Noun Genitive Plural Masculine
χοίρων, coirwn
swine
Read verse Matthew 8:30 Noun Genitive Plural Masculine
χοίρων coirwn
swine
Read verse Matthew 8:31 Noun Genitive Plural Masculine
χοίρων. coirwn
swine
Read verse Matthew 8:32 Noun Genitive Plural Masculine
χοίρων· coirwn
swine
Read verse Matthew 8:32 Noun Genitive Plural Masculine
χοίρων coirwn
swine
Read verse Mark 5:11 Noun Genitive Plural Masculine
χοίρων coirwn
swine
Read verse Mark 5:12 Noun Accusative Plural Masculine
χοίρους, coirouv
swine
Read verse Mark 5:13 Noun Accusative Plural Masculine
χοίρους· coirouv
swine
Read verse Mark 5:14 Noun Accusative Plural Masculine
χοίρους coirouv
swine
Read verse Mark 5:16 Noun Genitive Plural Masculine
χοίρων. coirwn
swine
Read verse Luke 8:32 Noun Genitive Plural Masculine
χοίρων coirwn
swine
Read verse Luke 8:33 Noun Accusative Plural Masculine
χοίρους· coirouv
swine
Read verse Luke 15:15 Noun Accusative Plural Masculine
χοίρους. coirouv
swine
Read verse Luke 15:16 Noun Nominative Plural Masculine
χοῖροι· coiroi
swine
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 3 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.
Form patterns 3 Aligned forms 12 Case pattern Genitive (6) Number pattern Plural (12)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Plural · Masculine Luke 15:16 1×
Genitive · Plural · Masculine Matt 7:6 · Matt 8:30 · Matt 8:31 · Mark 5:11 · Mark 5:16 · Luke 8:32 6×
Accusative · Plural · Masculine Matt 8:32 · Mark 5:12 · Mark 5:13 · Luke 8:33 · Luke 15:15 5×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
Swine as symbol of degradation and uncleanness in parable of prodigal son
Herd of swine used as vessel for demons cast out by Jesus
Swine as metaphor for lack of discretion, comparing to jewel in pig's snout
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 12 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
χοῖρος is of uncertain origin - no further derivation.
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain