Journey Words

Road, path, way: hodon

Journey nouns appear in Three Books by the English translated words “road, path, way.”

For instance, searching online in the NET Bible for the word “road” we find (for our three books) only the following verses, and only in Acts.

Acts 8:26 [ Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch ] Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.)
Acts 8:36 Now as they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look, there is water! What is to stop me from being baptized?”
Acts 9:17 So Ananias departed and entered the house, placed his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came
Acts 9:27 But Barnabas took Saul, brought him to the apostles, and related to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus.
Acts 26:13 about noon along the road, Your Majesty, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining everywhere around me and those traveling with me.

The original (Greek) word in these texts is, as transliterated into English: hodon –probably the root that forms our English word “road.” Hodon, also occurs in other texts in Three Books, but the translation committee (apparently) choose other English words to better fit the context:

John 1:23 John said, “I am the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”
John 14:5, 6, 7 Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you have known me, you will know my Father too. And from now on you do know him and have seen him.”

There are additional occurrences of hodon in Acts (combined with the five above citations, for 20 total occurrences)”

Acts 1:12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called the Mount of Olives (which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away).
Acts 2:28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of joy with your presence.’
Acts 8:39 Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him any more, but went on his way rejoicing.
Acts 9:2 and requested letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, either men or women, he could bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
Acts 13:10 and said, “You who are full of all deceit and all wrongdoing, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness—will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?
Acts 14:16 In past generations he allowed all the nations to go their own ways,
Acts 16:17 She followed behind Paul and us and kept crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.”
Acts 18:25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and with great enthusiasm he spoke and taught accurately the facts about Jesus, although he knew only the baptism of John.
Acts 18:26 He began to speak out fearlessly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained the way of God to him more accurately.
Acts 19:9 But when some were stubborn and refused to believe, reviling the Way before the congregation, he left them and took the disciples with him, addressing them every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.
Acts 19:23 At that time a great disturbance took place concerning the Way.
Acts 22:4 I persecuted this Way even to the point of death, tying up both men and women and putting them in prison,
Acts 24:14 But I confess this to you, that I worship the God of our ancestors according to the Way (which they call a sect), believing everything that is according to the law and that is written in the prophets.
Acts 24:22 Then Felix, who understood the facts concerning the Way more accurately, adjourned their hearing, saying, “When Lysias the commanding officer comes down, I will decide your case.”
Acts 25:3 Requesting him to do them a favor against Paul, they urged Festus to summon him to Jerusalem, planning an ambush to kill him along the way.

Finally, in Romans, there are three occurrences of hodon.

Romans 3:16 ruin and misery are in their paths,
Romans 3:17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
Romans 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how fathomless his ways!

In total, hodon occurs more than 100 times in the New Testament, 25 times in our three books of John, Romans, and Acts.

Clearly the above 25 citations of hodon, reveal different contexts, meanings, of the word. On particular interest to us, is the use of hodon, as a term describing the Christian faith (i.e., the Gospel). Such use of hodon for the Gospel occurs at:

John 1:23 John said, “I am the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”
John 14:5, 6, 7 Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you have known me, you will know my Father too. And from now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Acts 2:28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of joy with your presence.’
Acts 9:2 and requested letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, either men or women, he could bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
Acts 13:10 and said, “You who are full of all deceit and all wrongdoing, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness—will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?
Acts 16:17 She followed behind Paul and us and kept crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.”
Acts 18:25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and with great enthusiasm he spoke and taught accurately the facts about Jesus, although he knew only the baptism of John.
Acts 18:26 He began to speak out fearlessly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained the way of God to him more accurately.
Acts 19:9 But when some were stubborn and refused to believe, reviling the Way before the congregation, he left them and took the disciples with him, addressing them every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.
Acts 19:23 At that time a great disturbance took place concerning the Way.
Acts 22:4 I persecuted this Way even to the point of death, tying up both men and women and putting them in prison,
Acts 24:14 But I confess this to you, that I worship the God of our ancestors according to the Way (which they call a sect), believing everything that is according to the law and that is written in the prophets.
Acts 24:22 Then Felix, who understood the facts concerning the Way more accurately, adjourned their hearing, saying, “When Lysias the commanding officer comes down, I will decide your case.”
Romans 3:17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
Romans 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how fathomless his ways!

Additionally, hodon is also used to describe an inner, meaning of life journey, though not “the way” of the Gospel:

Acts 14:16 In past generations he allowed all the nations to go their own ways,
Romans 3:16 ruin and misery are in their paths,

So, the primary meaning of hodon is to designate that inner, spiritual journey that leads to faith in Christ. The ordinary Greek word for “road” (or “path” or “way”) is thereby freighted with a far deeper meaning, connecting a journey spiritually with a parallel idea that all of us clearly experience, namely the physical journeys we undertake in space-time, making tracks as we do so, and following the tracks made my countless others who proceeded us on whatever physical “road” we may be taking. In exactly the same way, coming to faith in Christ follows another kind of “road,” making tracks of one’s own following the tracks of countless others over thousands of years, on a journey of far greater importance than any we could undertake in space-time, even journeys to the farthest reaches of the earth, into outer space, to the moon, to the planets, and even beyond our solar system, as we have presently all accomplished. The inner, spiritual journey is greater than all of these, but it crosses out of space-time into ultimate reality, led by God’s Word creating within us, through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Word for the Journeying: poreúomai

The discussion above re “hodon” is about the road, or way, itself. Another journey idea is that of the traveler and the traveling on the hodon.

The Greek word poros means passageway, probably the source of out English word “porous” meaning permitting leakage (passage). From poros comes the derived verb for traveling: poreúomai. Poreúomai is used of going somewhere, usually purposefully, conveying also the idea of a destination or aim. (Sometimes we just go for a walk, with no particular intention other than the walk itself, and of course returning home; but mostly, we go, by foot or by vehicle in our time and culture, for the purpose of getting to some particular place).

Poreúomai occurs more than 150 times in the New Testament, so it is an important concept. In our Three Books corpus it occurs very frequently in John (16x) and Acts (37x) and only twice in Romans. So about one-third of all the New Testament poreúomai occurs in John and Acts.

John 4:50 said to him, Go; your son (NAS)
John 4:50 spoke to him and started off.
John 7:35 intend to go that we will not find
John 7:35 Him? He is not intending to go to the Dispersion
John 7:53 [Everyone went to his home.
John 8:1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
John 8:11 you, either. Go. From now
John 10:4 his own, he goes ahead
John 11:11 has fallen asleep; but I go, so
John 14:2 it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare
John 14:3 If I go and prepare a place
John 14:12 because I go to the Father.
John 14:28 because I go to the Father,
John 16:7 to you; but if I go, I will send
John 16:28 again and going to the Father.
John 20:17 to the Father; but go to My brethren
Acts 1:10 into the sky while He was going, behold,
Acts 1:11 as you have watched Him go into heaven.
Acts 1:25 turned aside to go to his own
Acts 5:20 Go, stand and speak
Acts 5:41 So they went on their way from the presence
Acts 8:26 Get up and go south
Acts 8:27 he got up and went; and there was an Ethiopian
Acts 8:36 As they went along the road
Acts 8:39 saw him, but went on his way
Acts 9:3 As he was traveling, it happened
Acts 9:11 [said] to him, Get up and go to the street
Acts 9:15 said to him, Go, for he is a chosen
Acts 9:31 being built up; and going on in the fear
Acts 10:20 up, go downstairs and accompany them without
Acts 12:17 he left and went to another
Acts 14:16 all the nations to go their own ways;
Acts 16:7 they were trying to go into Bithynia,
Acts 16:16 It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer,
Acts 16:36 come out now and go in peace.
Acts 17:14 sent Paul out to go as far as the sea;
Acts 18:6 From now on I will go to the Gentiles.
Acts 19:21 in the spirit to go to Jerusalem
Acts 20:1 of them, he left to go to Macedonia.
Acts 20:22 in spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem,
Acts 21:5 we left and started on our journey,
Acts 22:5 to the brethren, and started off for Damascus
Acts 22:6 But it happened that as I was on my way, approaching
Acts 22:10 to me, ‘Get up and go on into Damascus,
Acts 22:21 And He said to me, ‘Go! For I will send
Acts 23:23 of the night to proceed to Caesarea,
Acts 24:25 and said, Go away for the present,
Acts 25:12 to Caesar, to Caesar you shall go.
Acts 25:20 he was willing to go to Jerusalem
Acts 26:12 so engaged as I was journeying to Damascus
Acts 26:13 me and those who were journeying with me.
Acts 27:3 and allowed him to go to his friends
Acts 28:26 saying, GO TO THIS PEOPLE
Romans 15:24 whenever I go to Spain– for I hope
Roman 15:25 but now, I am going to Jerusalem

Words for Journeying Persons: Pilgrim, Alien, Stranger, Traveler

parepidémos: a stranger in the sense of a foreigner, i.e. a non-citizen, one who does not belong to the country of travel. This only occurs in the New Testament at:
Hebrews 11:3; 1 Peter 1:1; and 1 Peter 2:11.

paroikos: a person–in the literal sense–of not belonging to a household, or more broadly, to the local economy or organization. This occurs twice in Acts, and twice elsewhere in the New Testament:

Acts 7:6 Adj-NNS
GRK: σπέρμα αὐτοῦ πάροικον ἐν γῇ
NAS: that his DESCENDANTS WOULD BE ALIENS IN A FOREIGN
KJV: seed should sojourn in a strange
INT: descendants of him a sojourner in a land

Acts 7:29 Adj-NMS
GRK: καὶ ἐγένετο πάροικος ἐν γῇ
NAS: AND BECAME AN ALIEN IN THE LAND
KJV: and was a stranger in the land
INT: and became exiled in [the] land

Ephesians 2:19 Adj-NMP
GRK: ξένοι καὶ πάροικοι ἀλλὰ ἐστὲ
NAS: strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens
KJV: and foreigners, but
INT: strangers and aliens but are

1 Peter 2:11 Adj-AMP
GRK: παρακαλῶ ὡς παροίκους καὶ παρεπιδήμους
NAS: I urge you as aliens and strangers
KJV: [you] as strangers and
INT: I exhort [you] as strangers and exiles

allotrios: a person who does not belong, a stranger. This word occurs 14 times in the New Testament, including five times in our three book corpus:

John 10:5 Adj-DMS
GRK: ἀλλοτρίῳ δὲ οὐ
NAS: A stranger they simply will not follow,
KJV: And a stranger will they not
INT: of another moreover in no way

John 10:5 Adj-GMP
GRK: οἴδασιν τῶν ἀλλοτρίων τὴν φωνήν
NAS: the voice of strangers.
KJV: not the voice of strangers.
INT: they recognize of strangers the voice

Acts 7:6 Adj-DFS
GRK: ἐν γῇ ἀλλοτρίᾳ καὶ δουλώσουσιν
NAS: WOULD BE ALIENS IN A FOREIGN LAND,
KJV: sojourn in a strange land; and
INT: in a land strange and they will enslave

Romans 14:4 Adj-AMS
GRK: ὁ κρίνων ἀλλότριον οἰκέτην τῷ
NAS: the servant of another? To his own
KJV: that judgest another man’s servant?
INT: judging another’s servant to the

Romans 15:20 Adj-AMS
GRK: μὴ ἐπ’ ἀλλότριον θεμέλιον οἰκοδομῶ
NAS: that I would not build on another man’s foundation;
KJV: upon another man’s foundation:
INT: not upon another’s foundation I might build

sunagó: another kind of journey, namely of bringing together. This word occurs nearly 60 times in the New Testament, and frequently in our corpus. Sunagó is the root of the word “synagogue,” which means literally “to come together.” (“Sun” in Greek is a word for together, perhaps something like the English word “sum,”and “ago” is likely the root of the English word “go.”). Sunagó is used in John 6:12-13 to describe the gathering up of the left over pieces of bread and fish after Jesus had miraculously fed the 5,000. Likewise, sunagó is used (John 15:6) in a somber metaphor by Jesus to describe the death and gathering up for destruction “the branches” that do not remain in Him, Who is “the true vine.” Such uses of sunagó help us understand better how it is used in the sense of people undertaking a journey, from being in some way dispersed to being gathered together for a particular purpose. Such sunagó journeys are of two types: those that undertake the physical gathering journey to oppose the spiritual journey to faith in Jesus Christ, and those who make such journey to consider whether / how to undertake that necessary spiritual journey:

The sunagó journeys of spiritual unbelief occur at John 11:47 and Acts 4:26-27.
The sunagó journeys that resulted in an initial or deeper journey to faith occur at:
1. After the arrest and trial Peter and John, Christ’s disciples gathered together to pray for faith: Acts 4:31 When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God courageously.
2. Barnabus and Paul arrive at the important Gentile city of (Syrian) Antioch to teach those who were first called Christians: Acts11:25-26 Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught a significant number of people. Now it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.
3. Acts 13:44
4. Acts 14:27
5. Acts 15:6
6. Acts 15:30
7. Acts 20:7-8

The above seven uses of the 2nd category of sunagó that leads to spiritual faith are especially important. They show us that the “road” to spiritual faith is not (normally) a solitary one. God commonly uses a body of fellow travelers coming together to come to faith. That is the essence of a “church,” namely a group of God-called people on an ever deepening journey to every deepening faith. (At the time of the New Testament there was no such thing as a church building; the first known examples of a specially designated structure for a gathering of believers is in the 4th century, some 350 years after the above texts).

epidémeó: is a temporary resident, similar to the concept of a “stranger,” but conveying the idea of staying someplace not one’s home country for just a while. It occurs only twice in the New Testament, both times in Acts, 2:10 and 17:21.

Other Words Embodying Travel: Emporos, Hodoiporia, Tropos, Dromos, Xenos

Acts 5:20, 41; 16:36

John 10:4; 14:2