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Cremer, in his Biblico-Theological Lexicon does not treat of xenos except to place it as
a synonym with paroikos. Paroikeo, in Biblical Greek means, according to Cremer:
"Strangers who dwell anywhere, without citizen rights or home title." Paroikia only
in Biblical and patristic Greek.
"(a) Dwelling as a sojourner in a foreign land without home or citizen rights; (b) a
foreign country as the dwelling place of him who has no home rights here."
Paroikos expresses a conception capable of many applications. Guest of God
(Lev. 25: 35), earthly homelessness (Psa. 119: 19), etc.
The LXX uses xenos to translate the following Hebrew words:
(1)
Traveller, helek (II Sam. 12: 4). This word means primarily to go, or to walk, and so
by an easy transition it becomes a tax, custom or duty, laid on ports of ways.
Should the reading arach be preferred here, there is no essential difference, arach
meaning `to go in a track' and as a noun, `a common road, highway, a traveller'.
(2)
Stranger gur (Job 31: 32). To sojourn, to dwell anywhere for a time, to live as not at
home. Translated `alien' in Exod. 18: 3, associated with the name Gershom.
(3)
Stranger nokri (Ruth 2: 10). A foreigner, outlandish. As a verb the word means `to
alienate'.
Nekar is used of `the stranger' and `the alien' as contrasted with Israel in
Exod. 12: 43; Isa. 60: and 61: In Lamentations the word is used in a sense very
suggestive of Eph. 2: 12.
"Behold our reproach, our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to alien"
(Lam. 5: 1, 2).
(4)
Those bidden qara (I Sam. 9: 13).
This passage indicates that xenos is once used in the LXX in the sense of `guest'.
The reader can see for himself that `stranger', `alien', `foreigner', is the primary
significance of the word xenos and that `guest' and `host' is a derived or secondary
meaning.
We now come to Eph. 2: 12 to see what the context demands. The scale is already
dipped by the weight of Scripture usage in favour of the translation `stranger', and there
will have to be very strong reason to justify any alteration. The phrase under
consideration is in correspondence with another of like import.
"Being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel" (Eph. 2: 12). This alienation finds its
dreadful echo in the practical section of the same epistle where we read:
"That ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God" (Eph. 4: 17,
18).
The reader may have seen in his newspaper some sort of `Quiz' in which general
knowledge and intelligence tests are a feature. One such test is that which is known as