Anthropology is the science of man. Anthropic means of or pertaining to mankind. Philanthropy is the love of mankind. Misanthropy is the hatred of mankind. Anthropocentric is viewing man as being the center of the universe. These words all have the root anthrop in them, from the Greek word anthropos. Anthropos can mean man or mankind.
This word for man, anthropos, does cause some confusion. When I first looked at it, I started to think that it only meant man in the sense of mankind. That is, that it included men and women in the meaning. Some claim that it always has this gender neutral meaning. This is in contrast to another word, aner, which seems to mean man or husband and not woman. I’ll probably look at this word aner next week.
But it only takes looking at a few verses to see that many times anthropos really does mean man, a male and is not the gender neutral word that some claim it to be. Let’s take Ephesians 5:31 as an example. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” (NIV) Clearly anthropos means man here.
So, sometimes anthropos means mankind and sometimes it means man. Anthropos occurs over 500 times in the New Testament. More than half of these are in the four Gospels. Approximately 85 times it is in the phrase “Son of man”.
Verses:
Matthew 4:19 ESV And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Matthew 5:16 NASB Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. (The NIV and ESV translate to others instead of men. Some versions change it to people.)
Matthew 8:9 NIV For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.
Matthew 10:32-33 NASB Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 15:11 ESV It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person. (The NASB, KJV, and others use man, not person. The NLT changes it from 3rd person to 2nd person, to your mouth.)
Matthew 16:26 KJV For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. (I did not underline the fourth man here, because it is translated from the word for ‘to each’ not anthropos.)
Matthew 26:72 NASB And again he denied it with an oath, “I do not know the man.” (Peter denying Jesus.)
Mark 8:31 NIV He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.
Mark 14:21 ESV For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by who the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.
Luke 6:22 NIV Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
Luke 12:40 KJV Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.
Luke 18:27 NASB But He said, “The things that are impossible with people are possible with God.”
Luke 19:10 NIV For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
John 3:27 NASB John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.”
Acts 4:12 NIV Salvation is found in no on else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.
Acts 17:29 KJV Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man‘s device.
Romans 2:3 ESV Do you suppose, O man–you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself–that you will escape the judgment of God?
Romans 3:28 NASB For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law.
1 Corinthians 2:11 NASB For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.
1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
1 Corinthians 15:47 ESV The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.
2 Corinthians 4:16 NASB Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. (The second man is not from anthropos. In some versions it is translated self or inner self.)
Galatians 6:7 KJV Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Colossians 1:28 NASB We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.
James 3:8-9 ESV But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
Revelation 9:15 NIV And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind.
Revelation 21:3 NASB And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them. (This people is from the Greek word laos.)
The G/K number for anthropos is 476.
The Strong’s number for anthropos is 444.
