Bible word study

Eleutheros (Strong’s G1658): Meaning in the Bible

Eleutheros (ἐλεύθερος) is the Greek word numbered G1658 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as unrestrained (to go at pleasure), i.e. (as a citizen) not a slave (whether freeborn or manumitted), or (genitive case) exempt (from obligation or liability). In the King James Bible it is translated free (man, woman), at liberty..

• Original wordἐλεύθερος
• Transliterationeleútheros
• Pronunciationel-yoo'-ther-os
• Strong’s numberG1658
• LanguageGreek

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. probably from the alternate of G2064;

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Eleutheros appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Eleutheros (G1658) stands behind 23 English renderings in 23 verses across 9 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in 1 Corinthians (6), Galatians (6), Revelation (3).

How the King James Bible renders Eleutheros, by count

• free18 of 23 (78 percent)
• freewoman3 of 23 (13 percent)
• liberty1 of 23 (4 percent)
• man1 of 23 (4 percent)

Three places to read Eleutheros

• Matthew 17:26 Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.
• 1 Corinthians 7:39 The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.
• Galatians 4:30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.

Counts are made at build time from the King James text tagged with Strong’s numbers (eBible.org, public domain). Verses are read from the stored King James text, never typed.

Why the word matters

Every word the biblical writers chose carries weight. Studying Eleutheros in the original Greek lets you read the passages where it appears more carefully, closer to what the first hearers understood, so the meaning is drawn from the text itself rather than from the English alone.

The lexical data on this page comes from the public-domain Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890), a Hebrew and Greek dictionary keyed to the King James Bible. It is a reference tool, not a settled verdict: no single word decides a doctrine, and meaning is finally shaped by how a word is used in its sentences. Read the passages themselves, prayerfully, and in full.

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