Lexicon
παῖς
pais
G3816
G:N-M/F Greek

child

24
Occurrences
4
Books
Greek
Language

pais denotes a young person in narrative scenes and can also identify a servant or a person designated as God's servant.

The attested uses most often concern young persons in family, healing, and public scenes; they also identify servants and figures described as God's servant, including Israel, David, and Jesus.

Senses in use

  1. Young person in narrative settings · dominant

    The nominative, accusative, genitive, and plural forms occur for young persons in scenes of illness, healing, family life, and public action. In Acts 20:12 the APB renders the person taken home alive as “the boy,” while in Luke 8:54 the feminine nominative form is the one addressed, “Child, arise”; Matthew 2:16 places the plural among those Herod killed in Bethlehem.

  2. Servant or designated servant · common

    In several clauses, the term identifies someone in a relation of service or designation rather than a young person in a narrative scene. In Luke 1:54 the genitive singular occurs in the clause the APB renders “his servant Israel,” and in Acts 4:30 another genitive singular appears in the phrase rendered “your holy servant Jesus”; Luke 15:26 uses the genitive plural where the APB speaks of “one of the servants.”

In the Anselm Project Bible: Across these verses, the APB uses “boy,” “child,” and “children” for young-person contexts, but also “servant” and “servants” in other clauses. These renderings confirm the verse-level presentation rather than assigning a precise English equivalent in every occurrence.

Passages featuring this word

Across Scripture