Bible word study

Ptochos (Strong’s G4434): Meaning in the Bible

Ptochos (πτωχός) is the Greek word numbered G4434 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as akin to G4422 and the alternate of G4098); a beggar (as cringing), i.e. pauper (strictly denoting absolute or public mendicancy, although also used in a qualified or relative sense; whereas G3993 properly means only straitened circumstances in private), literally (often as noun) or figuratively (distressed). In the King James Bible it is translated beggar(-ly), poor..

• Original wordπτωχός
• Transliterationptōchós
• Pronunciationpto-khos'
• Strong’s numberG4434
• LanguageGreek

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. from (to crouch);

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Ptochos appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Ptochos (G4434) stands behind 34 English renderings in 34 verses across 9 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Luke (10), Matthew (5), Mark (5).

How the King James Bible renders Ptochos, by count

• poor18 of 34 (53 percent)
• the poor7 of 34 (21 percent)
• to the poor4 of 34 (12 percent)
• beggar1 of 34 (3 percent)
• beggarly1 of 34 (3 percent)
• man1 of 34 (3 percent)

Three places to read Ptochos

• Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
• Luke 6:20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.
• John 12:8 For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.

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 Ptochos 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.

Related words