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.
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