Road
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Hodos is the Greek noun for a road, path, journey, or way of life. It can name an ordinary route traveled by foot, the direction and conduct of a person, the early Christian movement called the Way, or access opened into God’s presence.
Reader summary
Full entry for ὁδός (G3598) · Open the biblical lexicon
Hodos is the Greek noun for a road, path, journey, or way of life. It can name an ordinary route traveled by foot, the direction and conduct of a person, the early Christian movement called the Way, or access opened into God’s presence.
The BSB source-word alignment has 101 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include way (43), road (19), path (7), ways (6), [the] Way (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 2:12. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (22), Acts (20), Luke (20), Mark (16).
This entry includes 4 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
Hodos is the Greek noun for a road, path, journey, or way of life. It can name an ordinary route traveled by foot, the direction and conduct of a person, the early Christian movement called the Way, or access opened into God’s presence. The New Testament does not make every road reference symbolic, yet its larger use draws on the Old Testament contrast between the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked.
John the Baptist prepares the Lord’s way, Jesus identifies Himself as the way to the Father, and Acts describes believers as people belonging to the Way. Hebrews also uses the word for sanctuary access. Context therefore decides whether hodos marks geography, conduct, a community identified with Christ, or saving access through Him. These senses meet in discipleship because the One who opens the way also calls His people to walk in it.
Hodos moves from literal roads to moral course, Christian identity, and access to God. Each passage must be read at its own level before the canonical connections are drawn. The word does not make roads sacred or turn discipleship into self-directed spirituality. Its strongest theological uses identify Jesus as the exclusive way to the Father and describe His followers as a people whose teaching and life are ordered by Him.
This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.’”
Matthew applies Isaiah’s road-preparation language to John’s ministry. The prepared way serves the arrival of the Lord; it is not a technique for personal progress.
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Jesus answers Thomas by identifying Himself, not a method, as the way to the Father. The final clause governs the claim’s exclusive and relational force.
And requested letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any men or women belonging to the Way, he could bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
The Way names the persecuted community centered on Jesus. The title joins confessed truth with a publicly recognizable manner of life.
They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us as He spoke with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
Here hodos is first a literal road. Its narrative importance comes from the risen Jesus opening Scripture while accompanying confused disciples.
By this arrangement the Holy Spirit was showing that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing.
The tabernacle arrangement testified that access was not yet openly available. Hebrews later locates the new and living way in Christ’s priestly work.
He had been instructed in the way of the Lord and was fervent in spirit. He spoke and taught accurately about Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John.
The way of the Lord includes teachable, accurate instruction about Jesus. Apollos’s later correction shows that zeal and partial knowledge still require faithful clarification.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Metaphorically denotes a course of conduct or way of life, especially God's approved pathway or the Christian faith itself.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 102 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a way, road, journey
Read versea way, road, journey
Read versea way, road, journey
Read versea way, road, journey
Read versea way, road, journey
Read versea way, road, journey
Read versea way, road, journey
Read versea way, road, journey
Read versea way, road, journey
Read versea way, road, journey
Read versea way, road, journey
Read versea way, road, journey
Read versea way, road, journey
Read versea way, road, journey
Read versea way, road, journey
Read versea way, road, journey
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 8 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 7 selected witnesses from 101 lexical occurrence verses.
ὁδός is a primary word - no further derivation.
Identifies Jesus as the covenant Lord foretold by Isaiah. Acts 19:8-10
Exclusive mediatorial access. Acts 22:1-5
Establishes Christ's exclusive mediatorship. Mounce and Wuest help explain the exclusivity claim with lexical precision and pastoral clarity. Acts 24:10-21
Identifies early Christianity as a distinct way centered on Christ. John 14:1-14
Identifies early Christianity as a distinct movement within Judaism. Luke 3:1–6
Describes Christianity within Jewish context.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
The New Testament’s way-language is personal before it is procedural. John 14 does not present Jesus as one guide among many or as a teacher who merely points beyond Himself. He is the way by whom sinners come to the Father. That saving claim also gives Christian walking its shape. Acts can call the community the Way because its members confess Jesus, receive instruction about Him, and live under His lordship.
Luke’s Emmaus road keeps the image grounded: disciples may travel in confusion, but the risen Christ meets them, opens Scripture, and redirects their understanding. Hebrews adds priestly depth by describing access into God’s presence as a way that the former arrangement had not yet disclosed. Hodos therefore joins access, truth, and conduct without confusing them.
Believers do not create the road, earn entry by walking well, or treat movement itself as faithfulness. Christ opens the way, brings them to the Father, and then orders the path they walk.
John.14.6
Hodos can denote a physical road, a journey, a direction, or a characteristic manner of life. The Greek Old Testament often uses it for Hebrew derek, whose ethical contrasts help explain New Testament moral-course language. Capitalization of “the Way” is an English editorial signal for the Acts community designation, not a different Greek noun.
The Old Testament repeatedly presents life before God as a way that may be straight or crooked, righteous or wicked. Isaiah 40 announces a prepared wilderness way for the Lord, and the Gospels identify John as that herald. Jesus then fulfills the access theme personally: He is the way to the Father. Acts extends the language to His people, while Hebrews shows that His sacrifice opens the sanctuary way that the earlier arrangement anticipated.
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