Word study
Citizen
3 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: citizen, citizens. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “citizen” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- בַּעַל baalowner, lordtranslated this way 2 times of its 76 uses · Strong’s H1167Noun · Translated: owner 15, leaders 15, husband 6, bound 2Full study and all 72 verses →
1 Samuel 23:11 Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as Your servant has heard? O LORD, God of Israel, please tell Your servant.” “He will,” said the LORD.
1 Samuel 23:12 So David asked, “Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?” “They will,” said the LORD.
- אֶזְרָח ezrâcha nativetranslated this way 1 time of its 17 uses · Strong’s H249Noun · Translated: native 8, native-born 6, like a native 1, citizens alike 1Full study and all 17 verses →
Joshua 8:33 All Israel, foreigners and citizens alike, with their elders, officers, and judges, stood on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the LORD facing the Levitical priests who carried it. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded earlier, to bless the people of Israel.
- יָשַׁב yâshabsit, remain, dwelltranslated this way 1 time of its 1,049 uses · Strong’s H3427Verb · Translated: lived 103, dwell 89, live 84, sit 70Full study and all 960 verses →
Greek words (New Testament)
- Ῥωμαῖος RhōmaîosRoman, a Roman citizentranslated this way 7 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s G4514Adjective · Translated: Roman citizen 5, Romans 3, Roman citizens 2, Rome 1Full study and all 11 verses →
Acts 16:37 But Paul said to the officers, “They beat us publicly without a trial and threw us into prison, even though we are Roman citizens. And now do they want to send us away secretly? Absolutely not! Let them come themselves and escort us out!”
Acts 16:38 So the officers relayed this message to the magistrates, who were alarmed to hear that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens.
- πολίτης polítēsa citizentranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G4177Noun · Translated: citizen 2, subjects 1, neighbor 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Luke 15:15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.
Acts 21:39 But Paul answered, “I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Now I beg you to allow me to speak to the people.”
- συμπολίτης sympolítēsa fellow citizentranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G4847Noun · Translated: fellow citizens 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Ephesians 2:19 Therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household,
- γεννάω gennáōI beget, bring forth, give birth totranslated this way 1 time of its 96 uses · Strong’s G1080Verb · Translated: father 39, born 37, become your father 3Full study and all 65 verses →
Acts 22:28 “I paid a high price for my citizenship,” said the commander. “But I was born a citizen,” Paul replied.
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.