Bible Word Study
Ῥόδη
rodē · Rhoda
Ῥόδη
Rhoda
Definition
Ῥόδη (Rhoda) is a proper noun referring to a specific woman mentioned in the New Testament. It is the name of a maidservant (παιδίσκη) in the Jerusalem household of Mary, the mother of John Mark, as recorded in Acts 12:13. The name itself means 'rose' in Greek, but in the biblical context, it functions solely as a personal identifier for this individual. There are no other major senses or meanings for this word in the biblical text, as it appears only this one time.
Biblical Usage
This word is used only once in the New Testament, in Acts 12:13. It is used strictly as a personal name for the servant girl who answered the door when Peter, miraculously freed from prison, knocked at the house of Mary. The usage provides a specific, memorable detail in the narrative of Peter's escape and the believing community's reaction.
Etymology
Ῥόδη (Rhoda) is a Greek feminine name derived from the word ῥόδον (rhodon), meaning 'rose.' It was a common personal name in the Greco-Roman world, reflecting the cultural practice of using floral names. Its meaning as 'rose' carries no specific semantic weight in its single biblical occurrence, where it simply identifies a person.
Semantic Range
The name Rhoda was a typical Greek name for a servant or free person, indicating the Hellenistic cultural influence in Jerusalem. As a παιδίσκη (maidservant), her role involved domestic duties like answering the door. Her immediate recognition of Peter's voice and her joyful, yet initially disbelieving, reaction (Acts 12:14) provides a vivid, humanizing detail in the narrative, contrasting the miraculous event with a very ordinary household setting.
Word Details
How this works
Definitions are from the Dodson Greek-English Lexicon, supplemented by STEPBible TBESG data (CC BY 4.0). Concordance and morphology data are derived from the interlinear Bible.
Full methodology & sources →References
- Abbott-Smith, G. (1921) A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament. Edinburgh: T&T Clark. [Public Domain]
- Brown, F., Driver, S.R. and Briggs, C.A. (1906) A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Oxford: Clarendon Press. [Public Domain]
- Tyndale House, Cambridge (n.d.) Tyndale Brief lexicon of Extended Strongs for Greek (TBESG). STEPBible. Available at: https://www.stepbible.org. [CC BY 4.0]
- Tyndale House, Cambridge (n.d.) Translators Formatted full LSJ (TFLSJ). STEPBible. Available at: https://www.stepbible.org. [CC BY 4.0]
- Thayer, J.H. (1889) A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. [Public Domain]
- Gesenius, W. (1846) Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament. [Public Domain]
- Dodson, J. (2010) Greek Lexicon. Biblical Humanities. [CC0]