Κῶς
Cos
Definition
Κῶς (Cos) is the name of an island in the Aegean Sea, located southwest of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). In the New Testament, it is mentioned only in Acts 21:1 as a stopping point on the Apostle Paul's return voyage to Jerusalem during his third missionary journey. The island was part of the ancient region known as the Dodecanese. Biblically, it serves solely as a geographical location with no additional symbolic or metaphorical meanings attached to the name itself.
Biblical Usage
This word is used exactly once in the New Testament, in Acts 21:1. It functions strictly as a proper noun identifying a specific island. The context is a travel narrative detailing Paul's sea voyage from Miletus to Rhodes and then to Cos, before continuing on to other ports. Its usage is purely descriptive of a location on an itinerary.
Etymology
The word Κῶς is the native Greek name for the island, borrowed directly into the New Testament text. It is not derived from a more primitive root within biblical Greek. The name is of ancient origin and was used in classical Greek literature and historical texts long before the New Testament period.
Semantic Range
In the 1st century, Cos was a significant island known for its prosperity, a famous school of medicine (associated with Hippocrates), and its production of fine silk and wine. For readers of Acts, mentioning Cos would have immediately conveyed a sense of a well-known, civilized stop on a common maritime trade route in the eastern Mediterranean. Its inclusion grounds Paul's journey in real, familiar geography.
νῆσος (nēsos, G3520) — The general Greek word for 'island'; Κῶς is a specific instance of a νῆσος.
Word Details
How this works
Definitions are from the Dodson Greek-English Lexicon, a concise public-domain resource suitable for introductory word study. Brief glosses are supplemented by STEPBible TBESG data (CC BY 4.0). For advanced research, standard scholarly references include BDAG (Danker, 3rd ed.) and LSJ.
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