ἄνθρωπος

Three Latin words in the standard church-Latin vocabulary mark the great moment of John 19:5: Ecce homo. Pilate brings Jesus out — crowned with thorns, robed in purple, scourged — and presents Him to the crowd with the words John records in Greek: Idou ho anthrōpos. “Behold the man.”

Pilate meant it as theater. Look at what this man has been reduced to. Look at the figure of fun your “king” has become. Look at this beaten, blood-streaked anthrōpos and tell me whether He is worth the trouble.

The crowd answered Pilate’s question by demanding crucifixion.

But Pilate had said more than he knew. The figure he showed was not just a man but the man — the second anthrōpos of 1 Corinthians 15, the Adam-Christ pair’s true human, the one anthrōpos in whom all humanity is constituted before God. Pilate intended a sarcastic display. He delivered an unintended Christology. The man being shown was the Man — fully human in nature, the new head of a new humanity, the Mediator between God and all anthrōpoi.

The Greek word here is the New Testament’s ordinary word for human being. It runs through the gospels, the epistles, the Apocalypse. It names humanity in its dignity (made in God’s image) and in its fallenness (sold under sin). It names Christ in His incarnation (the anthrōpos Christ Jesus). It names the believer’s old self (the palaios anthrōpos) and new self (the kainos anthrōpos).

This chapter is about that word.

The Word

The Greek word is ἄνθρωπος (anthrōpos), pronounced in the Erasmian convention as AN-thro-pos, with the accent on the first syllable. The word is a third-declension masculine noun; its feminine form, when needed, can be supplied by gunē (woman) in compound or contrast, though in most New Testament usage anthrōpos itself functions as the generic term for human being regardless of gender.

The word family is substantial:

Anthrōpinos (ἀνθρώπινος) — human, befitting human beings. Used at Romans 6:19 (“I am speaking in human terms”) and at 1 Corinthians 10:13 (“no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man”).

Anthrōpoktonos (ἀνθρωποκτόνος) — manslayer, murderer. Literally “human-killer.” Used at John 8:44 of the devil (“he was a murderer from the beginning”) and at 1 John 3:15.

Philanthrōpia (φιλανθρωπία) — love for humanity, kindness. Used at Titus 3:4 in one of the great formulations of the gospel: “when the goodness and philanthrōpia of God our Savior appeared, he saved us.” The English philanthropy comes from this word. The Greek emphasis is on God’s love for humans, not human philanthropy toward each other.

Philanthrōpōs (φιλανθρώπως) — the adverbial form, “kindly” or “in a friendly manner.” Used at Acts 27:3.

The etymology of anthrōpos is debated. The folk etymology runs anthrōpos = anēr + ōps (face or appearance), giving “the one with a human face.” This is almost certainly wrong as a linguistic derivation but persists because it preserves a poetic intuition: the anthrōpos is the creature with the face — capable of being seen, capable of seeing back, capable of being addressed. Whatever the deep etymology, by the New Testament period anthrōpos was simply the standard Greek word for human being in all its senses.

One distinction in Greek vocabulary is critical for reading the New Testament carefully: anthrōpos versus anēr.

Anthrōpos (ἄνθρωπος) means human being — the generic word, applicable to any human regardless of sex or age or status. When the New Testament wants to say “people,” “humanity,” “humans in general,” it uses anthrōpos.

Anēr (ἀνήρ) means man in the male-specific sense — also husband, also adult man (as opposed to a child). When the New Testament wants to say “men” specifically (in contrast to women, or with reference to husbands), it uses anēr.

The distinction matters for translation and for theological reading. Older English translations rendered both anthrōpos and anēr as “man” or “men,” which sometimes obscured the underlying Greek precision. Modern English translations more often distinguish: anthrōpos tends to be rendered “human being,” “person,” or sometimes “man” in the older inclusive sense; anēr tends to be rendered “man” (male) or “husband” depending on context.

This is one place where the contemporary discussion of inclusive translation has a legitimate philological basis — distinct from the question (treated in Chapter 2) of revising the divine name. When the New Testament uses anthrōpos to mean “human beings generally,” rendering it as “people” or “human beings” can be a faithful translation. When the New Testament uses anēr specifically for males, translating it as “people” is unfaithful. Careful translation respects which Greek word the original uses.

The Septuagint background: anthrōpos renders several Hebrew words. Most commonly adam (אדם), the generic word for humanity (and the proper name of the first man, the two senses being inseparable in Genesis). Also enōsh (אנוש), the poetic word for mortal human, often emphasizing weakness or finitude. Also ish (איש) in some contexts, though ish is more often rendered anēr.

Genesis 1:26-27 is the foundational text: “Let us make anthrōpos in our image, after our likeness… So God created anthrōpos in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” The anthrōpos of Genesis 1 is humanity collectively — male and female together — made in God’s image. The biblical doctrine of humanity is grounded here: the anthrōpos is the image-bearing creature, made for God, made male and female, made to rule the earth as God’s regent. Genesis 2:7 then narrates the formation of this anthrōpos: “the Lord God formed the man (anthrōpos) of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man (anthrōpos) became a living creature.”

Adam in Hebrew is the same word as humanity in Hebrew. The first man IS humanity, in the corporate sense the New Testament will exploit theologically: Adam is not just an ancestor but the head of the race, the anthrōpos in whom all subsequent anthrōpoi are summed.

Range of Meaning

Anthrōpos in the New Testament covers a meaningful range:

Human being, generic. The dominant usage. “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world…” (Mark 8:36) — anthrōpos, any human being. “There was a man sent from God whose name was John” (John 1:6) — anthrōpos. Most of the New Testament’s anthrōpoi are simply people.

A particular person. “There was a man named Joseph” (Luke 23:50). The word for “person” or “individual” when no specifier is needed.

Humanity collectively. “Man does not live by bread alone” (Matthew 4:4, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3). Not “a man” but “humanity.” The Hebrew adam’s corporate sense carries into the Greek anthrōpos.

A man as opposed to God. “What is exalted among men (anthrōpois) is an abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15). The anthrōpos-side of the human-divine contrast.

A man as opposed to angels. 1 Corinthians 13:1 — “If I speak in the tongues of men (anthrōpōn) and of angels…” Anthrōpos names the human in distinction from other rational creatures.

Christ as the human being. The Christological usage. 1 Timothy 2:5 — “the anthrōpos Christ Jesus.” Romans 5:15 — “the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one anthrōpos Jesus Christ.” Christ in His incarnate humanity, named with the same word that names every other human.

Christ as the second Adam, the new human. 1 Corinthians 15:45-47 — “the first anthrōpos Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. The first anthrōpos was from the earth, a man of dust; the second anthrōpos is from heaven.” The typological framework treated more fully below.

The old self / new self. Ephesians 4:22-24 and Colossians 3:9-10. The palaios anthrōpos (old self) belongs to the former life before Christ; the kainos anthrōpos (new self) is created after God’s likeness in Christ. The believer is in transition from one to the other — though the transition is decisive, not gradual, in baptism.

The inner / outer person. 2 Corinthians 4:16 and Romans 7:22 — the esō anthrōpos (inner man) versus the exō anthrōpos (outer man). Paul’s anthropology distinguishes the renewed inner self from the perishing outer body. Both are real; both are anthrōpos; both are involved in the Christian life.

A negative spiritual identification. “The man of lawlessness” (2 Thessalonians 2:3 — ho anthrōpos tēs anomias). The eschatological figure of opposition to God. Anthrōpos is not in itself a positive theological term; it names humanity in all its conditions, including hostile ones.

Where You’ll Meet It

John 19:5. “So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, ‘Behold the man!’” In Greek: Idou ho anthrōpos. The chapter’s opening hook. Pilate’s words, intended as cruel theater, become an unintended confession of the Christological truth. The anthrōpos he shows is the second anthrōpos of 1 Corinthians 15, the true man under whose headship all humanity is now to be reconstituted. The crown of thorns is the ironic coronation; the purple robe is the ironic royal vesture; the words are the ironic confession. The whole scene runs on irony that Pilate cannot see but the reader of the gospel can.

1 Timothy 2:5. “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and anthrōpoi, the anthrōpos Christ Jesus.” Two uses of the word in one verse. The Mediator stands between God and human beings (anthrōpōn, all of them), and the Mediator Himself is anthrōpos (Christ Jesus, the true human). Note: not anēr. The Greek uses anthrōpos in both halves — the human race in its totality, and the Mediator in His true humanity. The mediation is between God and all anthrōpoi, accomplished by one who is fully anthrōpos. The incarnation is not optional to the work of mediation; it is constitutive of it.

1 Corinthians 15:45-47. “Thus it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being’; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.” The Pauline Adam-Christ typology. The first anthrōpos is Adam — from the earth, of dust, the head of the race who fell. The second anthrōpos is Christ — from heaven, life-giving, the head of the new race. The two anthrōpoi constitute the two humanities. The believer is in one or the other, by nature in Adam, by faith in Christ.

This text gives the structural framework for the entire Pauline doctrine of salvation. Romans 5:12-21 elaborates: “as one trespass led to condemnation for all anthrōpoi, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all anthrōpoi” (Romans 5:18). The parallel is exact. As Adam’s act involves all who are in him, so Christ’s act involves all who are in Him. The work of the gospel is to transfer the anthrōpos from one head to the other.

Romans 5:12. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man (anthrōpos), and death through sin, and so death spread to all men (anthrōpous) because all sinned.” The foundational text for Lutheran (and broader Augustinian) doctrine of original sin. Death entered the human race through one anthrōpos (Adam) and spread to all anthrōpoi. The corporate solidarity of the race in its first head is the framework against which the corporate solidarity of the redeemed in their second head will be developed (Romans 5:15-19).

Ephesians 4:22-24. “To put off your old self (palaion anthrōpon), which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self (kainon anthrōpon), created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” The anthropological side of the anthrōpos word. The believer has an old self (the unregenerate humanity inherited from Adam) and a new self (the regenerate humanity received in Christ). Both are anthrōpos; one is being put off, the other put on. The decisive transition is baptismal; the lived working-out is the Christian life.