ἀλλογενής

allogenḗs

G241 substantive adjective

SILEX Entry

Definition

Of another race, nation, or people; foreigner, especially one who is not part of the local lineage, ethnic group, or community. In Hellenistic and early Roman contexts, often denotes someone not belonging to a specific people group or land, such as not a Judean or not of the descent or inheritance associated with the local population.

Semantic Range

belonging to another people, foreign, of a different ancestry, not native, non-local, not a member of the ethnic/civic community, outsider

Root / Etymology

From ἄλλος ('other, another') + γένος ('race, stock, kin, people'). The formation denotes 'belonging to another race/people.'

Historical & Contextual Notes

In classical Greek, ἀλλογενής occurs in reference to any person or group considered ethnically or nationally 'other.' In the Septuagint, it commonly translates Hebrew נָכְרִי (nokhrī), referring to someone outside the Israelite lineage or covenant, distinguished from 'sojourner' (προσήλυτος). In the New Testament and contemporaneous Jewish Greek literature, the term often appears in contrast to Ἰουδαῖος (Judean), marking someone as not of Judean descent or not an inheritor of the Judean ethnic, legal, or cultic identity. Its scope is not limited to religious exclusion but rather to an outsider status by ancestry, nationality, or civic belonging. English translations have often rendered it as 'stranger' or 'foreigner,' but this can obscure the distinction between civic/ethnic and transient/guest identities in antiquity. In certain contexts, the term could carry pejorative, neutral, or simply descriptive connotations, depending on the community and purpose. The usage should not be conflated with later, more rigid ethno-religious concepts; rather, it reflects a dynamic sense of difference or otherness vis-à-vis the in-group understood in any particular context.

Original Strong's Gloss (1890)

from ἄλλος and γένος; foreign, i.e. not a Jew:--stranger.

Root Family

ἀλλογενής (allogenēs) — other, different, race, descent, people

Root ἄλλος-γεν- other, different, race, descent, people

Word Forms

1 distinct form

SIDANCE Surface Transliteration Morphology Common SIBI-P1 SIBI-P2 Occurrences
G241-01 ἀλλογενὴς allogenes ADJ.S NOM M SG foreigner one of another people one of another people 1

Occurrences in Scripture

1 occurrence

SIDANCE Reference Word Transliteration Morphology Common SIBI-P1 SIBI-P2
G241-01 Luke 17:18 ἀλλογενὴς allogenes ADJ.S NOM M SG foreigner one of another people one of another people