Here’s a Greek word that you might know already without knowing it. Pente is the Greek word for five. You would know it from pentagon, a five-sided polygon. A pentapolis is a grouping of five cities. In music, a diapente was the interval of a perfect fifth. (from dictionary.com) A pentagram is a star drawn with five points.
According to Strong’s Concordance, pente is found 38 times in the New Testament. The passages with the five loaves of bread are well-known.
Verses:
Matthew 25:1-2 NIV At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise.
Matthew 25:20 KJV And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
Mark 6:38 NASB And He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” And when they found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.”
Mark 6:41 ESV And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all.
Luke 1:24 NIV After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion.
Luke 12:6 ESV Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God.
Luke 12:52 KJV For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.
Luke 16:27-28 NASB And he said, “Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house–for I have five brothers–in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.”
John 4:18 NIV The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.
John 5:2 ESV Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.
John 6:19 KJV So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid. (The NIV, ESV, NASB, as well others translate this to about three or four miles. I’m sure this is so we can understand the verse better, because how many of us know what a furlong is, but you do lose the five.)
Act 4:4 ESV But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.
Acts 20:6 NASB We sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and came to them at Troas within five days; and there we stayed seven days.
Acts 24:1 NIV Five days later the high priest Ananias went down to Caesarea with some of the elders and a lawyer named Tertullus, and they brought their charges against Paul before the governor.
1 Corinthians 14:19 KJV Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.
Revelation 9:5 NASB And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man.
Revelation 17:10 NIV They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for only a little while.
The G/K number for pente is 4297.
The Strong’s number for pente is 4002.
