Ἰορδάνης
Jordan
Thayer's lists 2 entries for ‘Jordan’ fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
From Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Where this word appears
See every Genitive-case word in the Greek New Testament →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Case
- Genitive
- The case of source, possession, or “of” — answers “whose / from what.”
- Accusative
- The case of the direct object and of extent.
- Dative
- The case of the indirect object, means, or location — “to / for / with / in.”
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
2 distinct verses where G2446 appears in the Accusative case, across 2 books. Filtered view — show all forms. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Greek form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Greek New Testament; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences of this word are not indexed here.
Matthew 1 verse
Mark 1 verse
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
Ιορδανης (Iordánēs) is a Greek name most often rendered “Jordan.” It first appears in Matthew 3:5. Spanning 15 verses in 4 books, it ranks among the uncommon words of the Greek New Testament. Matthew dominates its distribution — 6 of 15 verses. The sections below give every occurrence and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's G2446 catalogs a Greek word from the Greek New Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Greek New Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 15
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 15 distinct verses.
- 4 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 4 of 27 New Testament books.
- #768
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Greek words (rank 768 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 15 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the New Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Some books belong to more than one corpus (Luke is in both the Gospels and the Lukan corpus, and so on), so these shares overlap and need not total 100%. Each figure is a share of the word’s 15 distinct verses.
- Gospels 15 verses · 100%
- Johannine 3 verses · 20%
- Lukan (Luke–Acts) 2 verses · 13%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Jordan 15×
- American Standard Version: Jordan 14×
- Berean Standard Bible: Jordan 15×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Jordan 15×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G2446 across 15 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders G2446 across 15 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders G2446 across 15 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders G2446 across 15 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Senses in Thayer's
The 2 senses Thayer's distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- Jordan = "the descender"
- the one river of Palestine…
Word origin
Derived from ירדן (Yardên) (H3383) — Jordan.
Of hebrew origin [ H3383 ]; the Jordanes (that is Jarden ) a river of Palestine : - Jordan.
— Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (1890), public domain.
Forms in the corpus
The 3 distinct written forms G2446 takes in the Greek New Testament, most frequent first — each parse links to that case’s occurrences in the concordance.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ἰορδάνου Iordánou | Noun, Genitive, Singular, Masculine | Matthew 3:5 | 11 |
| Ἰορδάνην Iordánēn | Noun, Accusative, Singular, Masculine | Matthew 3:13 | 2 |
| Ἰορδάνῃ Iordánē | Noun, Dative, Singular, Masculine | Matthew 3:6 | 2 |
Bible dictionary
Public-domain dictionary articles matched to this entry by name (Jordan). A biblical name can be shared by more than one person or place, so an article may treat several.
Easton's Bible Dictionary · M. G. Easton, 1897
Heb. Yarden, "the descender;" Arab. Nahr-esh-Sheriah, "the watering-place" the chief river of Palestine. It flows from north to south down a deep valley in the centre of the country. The name descender is significant of the fact that there is along its whole course a descent to its banks; or it may simply denote the rapidity with which it "descends" to the Dead Sea.
It originates in the snows of Hermon, which feed its perennial fountains. Two sources are generally spoken of. (1.) From the western base of a hill on which once stood the city of Dan, the northern border-city of Palestine, there gushes forth a considerable fountain called the Leddan, which is the largest fountain in Syria and the principal source of the Jordan. (2.) Beside the ruins of Banias, the ancient Caesarea Philippi and the yet more ancient Panium, is a lofty cliff of limestone, at the base of which is a fountain. This is the other source of the Jordan, and has always been regarded by the Jews as its true source. It rushes down to the plain in a foaming torrent, and joins the Leddan about 5 miles south of Dan (Tell-el-Kady). (3.) But besides these two historical fountains there is a third, called the Hasbany, which rises in the bottom of a valley at the western base of Hermon, 12 miles north of Tell-el-Kady. It joins the main stream about a mile below the junction of the Leddan and the Banias. The river thus formed is at this point about 45 feet wide, and flows in a channel from 12 to 20 feet below the plain. After this it flows, "with a swift current and a much-twisted course," through a marshy plain for some 6 miles, when it falls into the Lake Huleh, "the waters of Merom" (q.v.).
During this part of its course the Jordan has descended about 1,100 feet. At Banias it is 1,080 feet above sea-level. Flowing from the southern extremity of Lake Huleh, here almost on a level with the sea, it flows for 2 miles "through a waste of islets and papyrus," and then for 9 miles through a narrow gorge in a foaming torrent onward to the Sea of Galilee (q.v.).
"In the whole valley of the Jordan from the Lake Huleh to the Sea of Galilee there is not a single settled inhabitant. Along the whole eastern bank of the river and the lakes, from the base of Hermon to the ravine of Hieromax, a region of great fertility, 30 miles long by 7 or 8 wide, there are only some three inhabited villages. The western bank is almost as desolate. Ruins are numerous enough. Every mile or two is an old site of town or village, now well nigh hid beneath a dense jungle of thorns and thistles. The words of Scripture here recur to us with peculiar force: I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation...And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it...And your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate' (Lev. 26:31-34).", Dr. Porter's Handbook.
From the Sea of Galilee, at the level of 682 feet below the Mediterranean, the river flows through a long, low plain called "the region of Jordan" (Matt. 3:5), and by the modern Arabs the Ghor, or "sunken plain." This section is properly the Jordan of Scripture. Down through the midst of the "plain of Jordan" there winds a ravine varying in breadth from 200 yards to half a mile, and in depth from 40 to 150 feet. Through it the Jordan flows in a rapid, rugged, tortuous course down to the Dead Sea. The whole distance from the southern extremity of the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea is in a straight line about 65 miles, but following the windings of the river about 200 miles, during which it falls 618 feet. The total length of the Jordan from Banias is about 104 miles in a straight line, during which it falls 2,380 feet.
There are two considerable affluents which enter the river between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, both from the east. (1.) The Wady Mandhur, called the Yarmuk by the Rabbins and the Hieromax by the Greeks. It formed the boundary between Bashan and Gilead. It drains the plateau of the Hauran. (2.) The Jabbok or Wady Zerka, formerly the northern boundary of Ammon. It enters the Jordan about 20 miles north of Jericho.
The first historical notice of the Jordan is in the account of the separation of Abraham and Lot (Gen. 13:10). "Lot beheld the plain of Jordan as the garden of the Lord." Jacob crossed and recrossed "this Jordan" (32:10). The Israelites passed over it as "on dry ground" (Josh. 3:17; Ps. 114:3). Twice afterwards its waters were miraculously divided at the same spot by Elijah and Elisha (2 Kings 2:8, 14).
The Jordan is mentioned in the Old Testament about one hundred and eighty times, and in the New Testament fifteen times. The chief events in gospel history connected with it are (1) John the Baptist's ministry, when "there went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and were baptized of him in Jordan" (Matt. 3:6). (2.) Jesus also "was baptized of John in Jordan" (Mark 1:9).
Smith's Bible Dictionary · William Smith, 1863
(the descender), the one river of Palestine, has a course of little more than 200 miles, from the roots of Anti-Lebanon to the head of the Dead Sea. (136 miles in a straight line.--Schaff.) It is the river of the "great plain" of Palestine--the "descender," if not "the river of God" in the book of Psalms, at least that of his chosen people throughout their history. There were fords over against Jericho, to which point the men of Jericho pursued the spies. (Joshua 2:7) comp. Judg 3:28 Higher up where the fords or passages of Bethbarah, where Gideon lay in wait for the Midianites, (Judges 7:24) and where the men of Gilead slew the Ephraimites. ch. (Judges 12:6) These fords undoubtedly witnessed the first recorded passage of the Jordan in the Old Testament. (Genesis 32:10) Jordan was next crossed, over against Jericho, by Joshua. (Joshua 4:12,13) From their vicinity to Jerusalem the lower fords were much used. David, it is probable, passed over them in one instance to fight the Syrians. (2 Samuel 10:17; 17:22) Thus there were two customary places at which the Jordan was fordable; and it must have been at one of these, if not at both, that baptism was afterward administered by St. John and by the disciples of our Lord. Where our Lord was baptized is not stated expressly, but it was probably at the upper ford. These fords were rendered so much more precious in those days from two circumstances. First, it does not appear that there were then any bridges thrown over or boats regularly established on the Jordan; and secondly, because "Jordan overflowed all his banks all the time of harvest." (Joshua 3:15) The channel or bed of the river became brimful, so that the level of the water and of the banks was then the same. (Dr. Selah Merrill, in his book "Galilee in the Time of Christ" (1881), says, "Near Tarichaea, just below the point where the Jordan leaves the lake (of Galilee), there was (in Christ's time) a splendid bridge across the river, supported by ten piers."--ED.) The last feature which remains to be noticed in the scriptural account of the Jordan is its frequent mention as a boundary: "over Jordan," "this" and "the other side," or "beyond Jordan," were expressions as familiar to the Israelites as "across the water," "this" and "the other side of the Channel" are to English ears. In one sense indeed, that is, in so far as it was the eastern boundary of the land of Canaan, it was the eastern boundary of the promised land. (Numbers 34:12) The Jordan rises from several sources near Panium (Banias), and passes through the lakes of Merom (Huleh) and Gennesaret. The two principal features in its course are its descent and its windings. From its fountain heads to the Dead Sea it rushes down one continuous inclined plane, only broken by a series of rapids or precipitous falls. Between the Lake of Gennesaret and the Dead Sea there are 27 rapids. The depression of the Lake of Gennesaret below the level of the Mediterranean is 653 feet, and that of the Dead Sea 1316 feet. (The whole descent from its source to the Dead Sea is 3000 feet. Its width varies form 45 to 180 feet, and it is from 3 to 12 feet deep. -Schaff.) Its sinuosity is not so remarkable in the upper part of its course. The only tributaries to the Jordan below Gennesaret are the Yarmuk (Hieromax) and the Zerka (Jabbok). Not a single city ever crowned the banks of the Jordan. Still Bethshan and Jericho to the west, Gerasa, Pella and Gadara to the east of it were important cities, and caused a good deal of traffic between the two opposite banks. The physical features of the Ghor, through which the Jordan flows, are treated of under Palestina And Palestine.
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary · Roswell D. Hitchcock, 1869
the river of judgment
Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.
Septuagint usage
The same Greek word Ιορδανης appears 193 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 175 verses in 17 books.
- 193
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 175
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 17 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 17 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Genesis 13:10 ἰορδάνης
- Numbers 22:1 ἰορδάνης
- Deuteronomy 1:1 ἰορδάνης
- Joshua 1:2 ἰορδάνης
- Judges 3:28 ἰορδάνης
- 1 Samuel 13:7 ἰορδάνης
- 2 Samuel 2:29 ἰορδάνης
- 1 Kings 2:8 ἰορδάνης
- 2 Kings 2:6 ἰορδάνης
- 1 Chronicles 6:63 ἰορδάνης
- 2 Chronicles 4:17 ἰορδάνης
- Job 40:23 ιορδάνης
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G2446) appears in the Greek Septuagint — showing the first 50 of 175. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context; the Greek form is the matched word — the English is not keyword-highlighted.
- Genesis 13:10 ἰορδάνης Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar.
- Genesis 13:11 ἰορδάνης So Lot chose the Plain of the Jordan for himself. Lot traveled east, and they separated themselves the one from the other.
- Genesis 32:11 ἰορδάνης Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he come and strike me, and the mothers with the children.
- Genesis 50:10 ἰορδάνης They came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and sore lamentation. He mourned for his father seven days.
- Genesis 50:11 ἰορδάνης When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, "This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians." Therefore, the name of it was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.
- Numbers 22:1 ἰορδάνης The children of Israel traveled, and encamped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho.
- Numbers 26:3 ἰορδάνης Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,
- Numbers 26:63 ἰορδάνης These are those who were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
- Numbers 31:12 ἰορδάνης They brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the children of Israel, to the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by the Jordan at Jericho.
- Numbers 32:5 ἰορδάνης They said, If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession; don't bring us over the Jordan.
- Numbers 32:19 ἰορδάνης For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan, and forward; because our inheritance is fallen to us on this side of the Jordan eastward.
- Numbers 32:21 ἰορδάνης and every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before Yahweh, until he has driven out his enemies from before him,
- Numbers 32:29 ἰορδάνης Moses said to them, If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben will pass with you over the Jordan, every man who is armed to battle, before Yahweh, and the land shall be subdued before you; then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession:
- Numbers 32:32 ἰορδάνης We will pass over armed before Yahweh into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance [shall remain] with us beyond the Jordan.
- Numbers 33:48 ἰορδάνης They traveled from the mountains of Abarim, and encamped in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
- Numbers 33:49 ἰορδάνης They encamped by the Jordan, from Beth-jeshimoth even to Abel Shittim in the plains of Moab.
- Numbers 33:50 ἰορδάνης Yahweh spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,
- Numbers 33:51 ἰορδάνης Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
- Numbers 34:12 ἰορδάνης and the border shall go down to the Jordan, and the goings out of it shall be at the Salt Sea. This shall be your land according to the borders of it round about.
- Numbers 34:15 ἰορδάνης the two tribes and the half-tribe have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, toward the sunrise.
- Numbers 35:1 ἰορδάνης Yahweh spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,
- Numbers 35:10 ἰορδάνης Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
- Numbers 35:14 ἰορδάνης You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and three cities shall you give in the land of Canaan; they shall be cities of refuge.
- Numbers 36:13 ἰορδάνης These are the commandments and the ordinances which Yahweh commanded by Moses to the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
- Deuteronomy 1:1 ἰορδάνης These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah over against Suph, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab.
- Deuteronomy 1:5 ἰορδάνης Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying,
- Deuteronomy 2:29 ἰορδάνης as the children of Esau who dwell in Seir, and the Moabites who dwell in Ar, did to me; until I shall pass over the Jordan into the land which Yahweh our God gives us.
- Deuteronomy 3:8 ἰορδάνης We took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon;
- Deuteronomy 3:17 ἰορδάνης the Arabah also, and the Jordan and the border [of it], from Chinnereth even to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah eastward.
- Deuteronomy 3:20 ἰορδάνης until Yahweh give rest to your brothers, as to you, and they also possess the land which Yahweh your God gives them beyond the Jordan: then shall you return every man to his possession, which I have given you.
- Deuteronomy 3:25 ἰορδάνης Please let me go over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.
- Deuteronomy 3:27 ἰορδάνης Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift up your eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and see with your eyes: for you shall not go over this Jordan.
- Deuteronomy 4:21 ἰορδάνης Furthermore Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go over the Jordan, and that I should not go in to that good land, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance:
- Deuteronomy 4:22 ἰορδάνης but I must die in this land, I must not go over the Jordan; but you shall go over, and possess that good land.
- Deuteronomy 4:26 ἰορδάνης I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto you go over the Jordan to possess it; you shall not prolong your days on it, but shall utterly be destroyed.
- Deuteronomy 4:41 ἰορδάνης Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise;
- Deuteronomy 4:46 ἰορδάνης beyond the Jordan, in the valley over against Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel struck, when they came forth out of Egypt.
- Deuteronomy 4:47 ἰορδάνης They took his land in possession, and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise;
- Deuteronomy 4:49 ἰορδάνης and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.
- Deuteronomy 9:1 ἰορδάνης Hear, Israel: you are to pass over the Jordan this day, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to the sky,
- Deuteronomy 11:8 ἰορδάνης Therefore shall you keep all the commandment which I command you this day, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land, where you go over to possess it;
- Deuteronomy 11:30 ἰορδάνης Aren't they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah, over against Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?
- Deuteronomy 11:31 ἰορδάνης For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and you shall possess it, and dwell therein.
- Deuteronomy 12:10 ἰορδάνης But when you go over the Jordan, and dwell in the land which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety;
- Deuteronomy 27:2 ἰορδάνης It shall be on the day when you shall pass over the Jordan to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, that you shall set yourself up great stones, and plaster them with plaster:
- Deuteronomy 27:3 ἰορδάνης and you shall write on them all the words of this law, when you are passed over; that you may go in to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you.
- Deuteronomy 27:4 ἰορδάνης It shall be, when you are passed over the Jordan, that you shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, in Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster.
- Deuteronomy 27:12 ἰορδάνης These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you are passed over the Jordan: Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin.
- Deuteronomy 28:1 ἰορδάνης It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe to do all his commandments which I command you this day, who Yahweh your God will set you on high above all the nations of the earth:
- Deuteronomy 30:18 ἰορδάνης I denounce to you this day, that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land, where you pass over the Jordan to go in to possess it.
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G2446) in the Septuagint — not a translation of any one Hebrew word. The store carries no word-level Hebrew↔Greek alignment, so no Hebrew original is asserted here. Counts come from the recovered LXX Strong's tagging — high-frequency vocabulary is well covered, while rare or late forms may be untagged — so they reflect tagged occurrences and may slightly undercount.
