Tool Beta
Hebrew and Greek Without Learning Either
A walk through Genesis, the Psalms, and John, plus the key Hebrew and Greek words worth knowing. Each card is a place the English Bibles part company, and what in the Hebrew or Greek made them.
koinonia
Fellowship. A word for shared ownership and partnership, including in money.
Acts 2:42, in every translation this tool compares.
We went in on it together. That is a partnership with a stake, not a coffee morning. English has the idea and uses a phrase.
Because fellowship in English now means a social gathering with refreshments, and the Greek noun is about holding things in common, including property.
Versions read fellowship, sharing, participation or contribution.
κοινωνία koinonia · G2842
Koinonia is from koinos, common. It covers partnership in a business, sharing in something, and is used by Paul for a financial collection at Romans 15:26.
English fellowship lost its commercial and property senses and kept only the social one.
When a version renders one word as fellowship in one verse and contribution in another, both are in the word and English has lost the overlap.
Fellowship is the majority rendering; sharing and participation are increasingly common in newer versions.
- koinonia of the collection: Romans 15:26; 2 Corinthians 8:4
- koinonia at Acts 2:42; 1 John 1:3
- koinos, common: Acts 2:44; 4:32
