Footstool
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Hypopodion is a Greek noun for a footstool or a place beneath the feet. James uses the concrete image to expose favoritism: a wealthy visitor receives an honored seat while a poor person is told to stand or sit below.
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Full entry for ὑποπόδιον (G5286) · Open the biblical lexicon
Hypopodion is a Greek noun for a footstool or a place beneath the feet. James uses the concrete image to expose favoritism: a wealthy visitor receives an honored seat while a poor person is told to stand or sit below.
The BSB source-word alignment has 7 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include a footstool (4), feet (1), footstool (1), His footstool (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 5:35. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (2), Hebrews (2), James (1), Luke (1).
Hypopodion is a Greek noun for a footstool or a place beneath the feet. James uses the concrete image to expose favoritism: a wealthy visitor receives an honored seat while a poor person is told to stand or sit below. Matthew names the earth as God's footstool, emphasizing that human oath-making cannot turn creation into private collateral. Acts and Hebrews quote Psalm 110, where the Messiah's enemies are placed beneath His feet as a footstool, an image of God's decisive royal victory.
The noun itself does not make another person inferior, authorize humiliation, or tell believers to enact violence against opponents. Its contexts contrast God's universal sovereignty with human status games and locate final subjection under the risen Christ. Churches should therefore reject seating, attention, access, and honor practices that demean poor or socially marginal people.
Messianic triumph should produce confidence in Christ and patient faithfulness, not contempt, domination, or fantasies of treating neighbors as enemies to be crushed.
Hypopodion names a literal footstool and supports images of low social placement, God's sovereignty over creation, and the Messiah's final victory over enemies.
If you lavish attention on the man in fine clothes and say, “Here is a seat of honor,” but say to the poor man, “You must stand” or “Sit at my feet,”
James uses unequal seating instructions to expose partiality that converts visible wealth into honor and poverty into humiliation.
Or by the earth, for it is His footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
Jesus places earth and Jerusalem under God's ownership, dismantling attempts to control truthfulness through impressive created objects in oaths.
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”’
Peter quotes Psalm 110 within his proclamation of Jesus' resurrection and exaltation, assigning final victory to God's enthroned Messiah.
Since that time, He waits for His enemies to be made a footstool for His feet,
Hebrews contrasts Christ's completed priestly offering and seated reign with His waiting for God to bring every enemy into final subjection.
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.
Greek word. Literal seat for feet; metaphorically signifies complete subjugation or humiliation of enemies under divine authority.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
9 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a footstool
Read versea footstool
Read versea footstool
Read versea footstool
Read versea footstool
Read versea footstool
Read versea footstool
Read versea footstool
Read versea footstool
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 2 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.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 7 lexical occurrence verses.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
A footstool is low in relation to a seat, and Scripture uses that spatial relation in sharply different ways. James condemns an assembly that turns wealth into elevation and tells the poor person to occupy the low place. Jesus calls the earth God's footstool, reminding hearers that creation belongs to the great King and cannot guarantee a manipulative oath. Peter and Hebrews receive Psalm 110 as a promise that God will bring the Messiah's enemies into final subjection.
Together, these texts humble human ranking and exalt Christ. The church must not reproduce the world's seating chart by privileging donors, appearance, influence, education, race, disability, or social usefulness. Nor may Christians claim the Messiah's place and treat present neighbors as objects beneath their feet. Christ's reign gives courage to endure, proclaim, pray, welcome, and pursue justice while leaving final conquest in God's hands.
Worship of the enthroned Lord should make communities more truthful and hospitable, not more contemptuous.
Jas.2.3
The noun combines the idea of under with foot and denotes a footstool or low place beneath the feet. Figurative force comes from royal and social contexts, not from a separate hidden lexical meaning.
Psalm 110:1 and Isaiah 66:1 supply the major Old Testament backgrounds for New Testament footstool language. Their reception identifies God's sovereign reign and the Messiah's victory, while James applies low-place imagery to the church's present temptation toward favoritism.