Bible word study

Stoicheion (Strong’s G4747): Meaning in the Bible

Stoicheion (στοιχεῖον) is the Greek word numbered G4747 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as something orderly in arrangement, i.e. (by implication) a serial (basal, fundamental, initial) constituent (literally), proposition (figuratively). In the King James Bible it is translated element, principle, rudiment..

• Original wordστοιχεῖον
• Transliterationstoicheîon
• Pronunciationstoy-khi'-on
• Strong’s numberG4747
• LanguageGreek

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. neuter of a presumed derivative of the base of G4748;

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Stoicheion appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Stoicheion (G4747) stands behind 8 English renderings in 7 verses across 4 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Galatians (2), Colossians (2), Hebrews (2).

How the King James Bible renders Stoicheion, by count

• elements4 of 8 (50 percent)
• rudiments2 of 8 (25 percent)
• principles1 of 8 (12 percent)
• the1 of 8 (12 percent)

Three places to read Stoicheion

• Galatians 4:3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
• Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
• Hebrews 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

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 Stoicheion 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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