Abarim Publications' online Biblical Greek Dictionary
πολις
The familiar Greek noun πολις (polis) means city and survives in English words such as politics, policy, police, but most importantly: polite, which is a word like civilized, which shares its root with the noun city. A city is not about its buildings but about the unusual density of people who have found a way to live together without acting on their natural urges to be aggressive and territorial. That means that a city, in essence, describes a code of conduct that governs city life and makes city life possible. That means that a πολις (polis) is defined as a society held together by a common law.
Greek philosophers who contemplated these things, and particularly the democratic ideal, came up with the idea of ελευθερια (eleutheria), or freedom-by-law: the idea that one attains freedom via rules — the freedom to say anything when mastering the laws of language, the freedom to play anything when mastering the rules of music, the freedom to go anywhere when mastering the laws of traffic. Paul even summed up the purpose of the gospel by means of this word: "It was for ελευθερια (eleutheria), freedom-by-law, that Christ has set us free" (Galatians 5:1), which in turn explains why the New Jerusalem is indeed a πολις (polis), not after its buildings but the freedom of its people (Hebrews 11:10, Revelation 3:12, 22:14).
In the classics, the noun πολις (polis) described a large urban center, usually walled, and usually with well-defined lands and even satellite villages (Matthew 2:23, Acts 19:29, Revelation 16:19). A wall-less village or hamlet was called κωμη (kome), and an intermediately sized settlement, but without a wall, was known as a κωμοπολις (komopolis).
Our noun πολις (polis), meaning city, is not technically related but obviously reminds of the familiar adjective πολυς (polus), meaning many, and where in English the word city brings to mind a series of buildings intersected by streets, in Greek it brings to mind an interlinked collective of people. This is additionally shown by the use of this noun πολις (polis) in statements like: "The whole city came out to meet Jesus" (Matthew 8:34), and "the whole city was stirred ..." (Matthew 21:10, also see Mark 1:33, Acts 13:44 and 21:30), which are not figurative statements but statements that make use of the literal core definition of our word πολις (polis).
Our noun πολις (polis) is used 163 times in the New Testament; see full concordance. Other derivations and compounds that contain the noun πολις (polis) and which are used in the Bible are:
- Together with the verb αρχω (archo), meaning to rule: the noun πολιταρχης (politarches), meaning city ruler or magistrate (Acts 17:6 and 17:8 only).
- The noun πολιτης (polites), meaning a citizen, which may either mean someone who lives in a city (Luke 15:15) or it specifically denotes a freeman with citizen's rights (Acts 21:39). This word is used 4 times, see full concordance, and in turn yields:
- The verb πολιτευω (politeuo), literally meaning to live as a citizen but used to mean to behave well; to be civilized. It's used only in Acts 23:1 and Philippians 1:27: "Worthy of the gospel of Christ be citizen-like," which obviously ties into the meaning of πολις (polis) as interlinked collective of humans rather than of buildings and streets. To that same effect, Paul said to the Sanhedrin not merely that he had behaved himself, but rather that he had behaved himself in a manner worthy of citizenship of the City of God. This verb in turn yields:
- The noun πολιτεια (politeia), denoting either the citizenship of the individual (Acts 22:28) or of the state as a whole (Ephesians 2:12). This word occurs only these two times in the New Testament.
- The noun πολιευμα (politeuma), which denotes whatever act can be associated with the verb πολιτευω (politeuo); whatever doings keep the city together, ranging from administration to a good deed: citizenhood. In the Bible it's used only once, in the sense of our collective citizenship in heaven (Philippians 3:20).
- Together with the preposition συν (sun), meaning together or with: the noun συμπολιτης (sumpolites), meaning fellow-citizen. In the Bible it's used only once, in Ephesians 2:19, where Paul states that there are no more strangers and passersby; there are only fellow-citizens.
- The verb πολιτευω (politeuo), literally meaning to live as a citizen but used to mean to behave well; to be civilized. It's used only in Acts 23:1 and Philippians 1:27: "Worthy of the gospel of Christ be citizen-like," which obviously ties into the meaning of πολις (polis) as interlinked collective of humans rather than of buildings and streets. To that same effect, Paul said to the Sanhedrin not merely that he had behaved himself, but rather that he had behaved himself in a manner worthy of citizenship of the City of God. This verb in turn yields:
- As mentioned above, together with κωμη (kome), meaning hamlet, the noun κωμοπολις (komopolis), denoting a medium-sized but not-walled urban center (Mark 1:38 only).
- Together with the noun μητηρ (meter), meaning mother: the noun μητροπολις (metropolis), literally meaning mother-city, which denotes the principle city of an area. This noun is not used in the majority Textus Receptus (the one we use for our interlinear New Testament) but does occur in certain minority texts of 1 Timothy 6:21 (for instance Stephanus' Textus Receptus). No modern translation incorporates it.