ἀρχηγός
leader
‘leader’ is one of 3 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
From Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Case
- Accusative
- The case of the direct object and of extent.
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where G747 appears in the Book of Acts — 2 distinct verses. 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.
Acts
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.
At its core, αρχηγος (archēgós) means “leader.” With only 4 verses it sits in the long tail of Greek New Testament vocabulary. Its uses cluster heavily in Acts (50% of all occurrences). Scripture first uses it in Acts 3:15. Ranging over 3 senses, it is not a single-sense word. Dig into 4-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's G747 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 →
- 4
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 4 distinct verses.
- 2 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 2 of 27 New Testament books.
- #1,877
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Greek words (rank 1,877 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 4 occurrences in the concordance →
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 4 distinct verses.
- Lukan (Luke–Acts) 2 verses · 50%
- Hebrews 2 verses · 50%
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: Author 1×, Be a prince 1×, Captain 1×
- American Standard Version: Author 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Author 3×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Founder 1×, Founding leader 1×, Originator 1×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G747 across 4 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders G747 across 4 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders G747 across 4 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.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders G747 across 4 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Senses in Thayer's
The 3 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.
- of Christ
- one that takes the lead in any thing and thus affords an example, a predecessor in a matter, pioneer
- the author
Word origin
Derived from αρχη (archḗ) (G746) — beginning.
Same root — word family
Other Thayer's entries built from the same root as G747, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
- αρχαιος archaîos G744 original
- αρχιερατικος archieratikós G748 high priestly
- αρχιερευς archiereús G749 high priest
- αρχιποιμην archipoímēn G750 chief shepherd
- αρχισυναγωγος archisynágōgos G752 synagogue ruler
- αρχιτεκτων architéktōn G753 architect
- αρχιτελωνης architelṓnēs G754 chief tax collector
- αρχιτρικλινος architríklinos G755 table master
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 11 — not the complete family. 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint usage
The same Greek word αρχηγος appears 27 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 26 verses in 11 books.
- 27
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 26
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 11 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 11 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Exodus 6:14 ἀρχηγός
- Numbers 10:4 ἀρχηγός
- Deuteronomy 33:21 ἀρχηγός
- Judges 5:15 ἀρχηγός
- 1 Chronicles 5:24 ἀρχηγός
- 2 Chronicles 23:14 ἀρχηγός
- Ezra 12:9 ἀρχηγός
- Isaiah 3:6 ἀρχηγός
- Jeremiah 3:4 ἀρχηγός
- Lamentations 2:10 ἀρχηγός
- Micah 1:13 ἀρχηγός
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G747) appears in the Greek Septuagint. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context; the Greek form is the matched word — the English is not keyword-highlighted.
- Exodus 6:14 ἀρχηγός These are the heads of their fathers' houses. The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel: Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi; these are the families of Reuben.
- Numbers 10:4 ἀρχηγός If they blow but one, then the princes, the heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves to you.
- Numbers 13:2 ἀρχηγός Send you men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall you send a man, everyone a prince among them.
- Numbers 13:3 ἀρχηγός Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to the commandment of Yahweh: all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel.
- Numbers 14:4 ἀρχηγός They said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
- Numbers 16:2 ἀρχηγός and they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred fifty princes of the congregation, called to the assembly, men of renown;
- Numbers 24:17 ἀρχηγός I see him, but not now; I see him, but not near: There shall come forth a star out of Jacob, A scepter shall rise out of Israel, Shall strike through the corners of Moab, Break down all the sons of tumult.
- Numbers 25:4 ἀρχηγός Yahweh said to Moses, Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them up to Yahweh before the sun, that the fierce anger of Yahweh may turn away from Israel.
- Deuteronomy 33:21 ἀρχηγός He provided the first part for himself, For there was the lawgiver's portion reserved; He came [with] the heads of the people; He executed the righteousness of Yahweh, His ordinances with Israel.
- Judges 5:15 ἀρχηγός The princes of Issachar were with Deborah; As was Issachar, so was Barak; Into the valley they rushed forth at his feet. By the watercourses of Reuben There were great resolves of heart.
- Judges 9:44 ἀρχηγός Abimelech, and the companies that were with him, rushed forward, and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city: and the two companies rushed on all who were in the field, and struck them.
- Judges 11:6 ἀρχηγός and they said to Jephthah, Come and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.
- Judges 11:11 ἀρχηγός Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them: and Jephthah spoke all his words before Yahweh in Mizpah.
- 1 Chronicles 5:24 ἀρχηγός These were the heads of their fathers' houses: even Epher, and Ishi, and Eliel, and Azriel, and Jeremiah, and Hodaviah, and Jahdiel, mighty men of valor, famous men, heads of their fathers' houses.
- 1 Chronicles 12:21 ἀρχηγός They helped David against the band of rovers: for they were all mighty men of valor, and were captains in the host.
- 1 Chronicles 26:26 ἀρχηγός This Shelomoth and his brothers were over all the treasures of the dedicated things, which David the king, and the heads of the fathers' [houses], the captains over thousands and hundreds, and the captains of the host, had dedicated.
- 2 Chronicles 23:14 ἀρχηγός Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of hundreds who were set over the host, and said to them, Have her forth between the ranks; and whoever follows her, let him be slain with the sword: for the priest said, Don't kill her in the house of Yahweh.
- Ezra 12:9 ἀρχηγός
- Ezra 17:70 ἀρχηγός
- Ezra 17:71 ἀρχηγός
- Isaiah 3:6 ἀρχηγός Indeed a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying, "You have clothing, you be our ruler, And let this ruin be under your hand."
- Isaiah 3:7 ἀρχηγός In that day he will cry out, saying, I will not be a healer; For in my house is neither bread nor clothing. You shall not make me ruler of the people.
- Isaiah 30:4 ἀρχηγός For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors are come to Hanes.
- Jeremiah 3:4 ἀρχηγός Will you not from this time cry to me, My Father, you are the guide of my youth?
- Lamentations 2:10 ἀρχηγός The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground, they keep silence; They have cast up dust on their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.
- Micah 1:13 ἀρχηγός Harness the chariot to the swift steed, inhabitant of Lachish. She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; For the transgressions of Israel were found in you.
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G747) 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.
