Lexicon :: Strong's G3816 - pais

παῖς, genitive παιδός, ὁ, ἡ, from Homer down; in the N. T. only in the Gospels and Acts;
1. a child, boy or girl; the Sept. for נַעַר and נַעֲרָה (Genesis 24:28; Deuteronomy 22:15, etc.): ὁ παῖς, Matthew 17:18; Luke 2:43; Luke 9:42; Acts 20:12; ἡ παῖς, Luke 8:51, 54; plural infants, children, Matthew 2:16; Matthew 21:15; ὁ παῖς τίνος, the son of one, John 4:51.
2. (Like the Latin puer, equivalent to) servant, slave (Aeschylus choëph. 652; Aristophanes nub. 18, 132; Xenophon, mem. 3, 13, 6; symp. 1, 11; 2, 23; Plato, Charm., p. 155 a.; Protag., p. 310^c. and often; Diodorus 17, 76; others; so the Sept. times without number for עֶבֶד (cf. Winers Grammar, p. 30, no. 3); cf. the similar use of German Bursch (French garcon, English boy)): Matthew 8:6, 8, 13; Luke 7:7 cf. Luke 7:10; Luke 12:45; Luke 15:26. an attendant, servant, specifically, a king's attendant, minister: Matthew 14:2 (Diodorus 17:36; hardly so in the earlier Greek writings; Genesis 41:37; 1 Samuel 16:15-17; 1 Samuel 18:22, 26; Daniel 2:7; 1 Macc. 1:6, 8; 1 Esdr. 2:16 1 Esdr. 5:33, 35); hence, in imitation of the Hebrew יְהוָה עֶבֶד, παῖς τοῦ Θεοῦ is used of a devout worshipper of God, one who fulfils God's will (Psalm 68:18 (Ps. 69:18); Psalm 112:1 (Ps. 113:1); Wis. 2:13, etc.) thus, the people of Israel, Luke 1:54 (Isaiah 41:8; Isaiah 42:19; Isaiah 44:1f, 21, etc.); David, Luke 1:69; Acts 4:25 (Psalm 17:1 (Ps. 18:1); Ps 35:1 (Ps. 36:1) (Ald., Complutensian), etc.); likewise any upright and godly man whose agency God employs in executing his purposes; thus in the N. T. Jesus the Messiah: Matthew 12:18 (from Isaiah 42:1); Acts 3:13, 26; Acts 4:27, 30 (cf. Harnack on the Epistle of Barnabas 6, 1 and Clement of Rome, 1 Cor. 59, 2 ); in the O. T. also Moses, Nehemiah 1:7f; the prophets, 1 Esdr. 8:79(81); Baruch 2:20, 24; and others. [Synonym: παῖς, παιδάριον, παιδίον, παιδίσκη, τέκνον: The grammarian Aristophanes is quoted by Ammonius (s.v. γέρων) as defining thus: παιδίον, τὸ τρεφόμενον ὑπὸ τιθηνοῦ· παιδάριον δέ, τὸ ἤδη περιπατοῦν καὶ τῆς λέξεως ἀντεχόμενον· παιδίσκος δʹ͵ ὁ ἐν τῂ ἐχομένῃ ἡλικίᾳ· παῖς δʹ διὰ τῶν ἐγκυκλίων μαθημάτων δυνάμενος ἰέναι· Philo (de mund. opif. §36) quotes the physician Hippocrates as follows; ἐν ἀνθρώπου ϕύσει ἑπτά έἰσιν ὧραι κ.τ.λ.· παιδίον μέν ἐστιν ἄχρις ἑπτὰ ἐτῶν͵ ὀδόντων ἐκβολῆς· ταῖς δὲ ἄχρι γονῆς ἐκϕύσεως͵ εἰς τὰ δὶς ἑπτά· μειράκιον δὲ ἄχρι γενείου λαχνώσεως͵ ἐς τὰ τρὶς ἑπτά͵ etc., According to Schmidt, παιδίον denotes a child up to its first school years; παῖς is a child of any age; (παιδίσκος and παιδίσκη, in which reference to descent quite disappears, cover the years of late childhood and early youth. But usage is untrammelled; from a child is expressed either by ἐκ παιδός (most frequently). or ἐκ παιδίου, or ἐκ (ὰπό) παιδαρίου. παῖς and τέκνον denote a child alike as respects descent and age, reference to the latter being more prominent in the former word, to descent in τέκνον; but the period παῖς covers is not sharply defined; and, in classic usage as in modern, youthful designations cleave to the female sex longer than to the male. See Schmidt ch. 69; Höhne in Luthardt's Zeitschrift u. s. w. for 1882, p. 57 sqq.] On the elasticity of the term παῖς as respects age, see Bp. Lghtft. Apostolic Fathers, Pt. II. vol. i. p. 432 note.

BLB Scripture Index of Thayer's

BLB Scripture Index of Thayer's