artos (ἄρτος)
- Language: Greek
- Romanized: artos
- Original script: ἄρτος
- Gloss: bread, loaf
The ordinary Greek word for bread in the New Testament. It is the noun behind the petition of the Lord’s Prayer, the loaves of the feeding miracles, and the bread taken at the Last Supper.
Concordance Aid
Reading Note
Example passages: Matthew 6:11; Mark 6:41; Acts 2:42; 1 Corinthians 11:23-24.
In the prayer, in the feeding stories, in Acts’ table fellowship, and at the Supper, artos keeps moving. Sometimes it is an ordinary loaf. Sometimes it is a meal shared by a community. Sometimes it is bread received as gift. The word helps the reader see bread before it becomes a modern industrial category.
Translation Range
Bread, loaf, food, bread for a meal. Nearby Greek words include sitos for grain, wheat, or food supply, and trophē for nourishment or food more generally.
Not To Be Confused With
Artos is not the same as sitos. Artos points to bread or loaves as eaten and shared; sitos points more toward grain, wheat, or food stores. That distinction matters when the book separates bread as symbolic provision from grain as agricultural supply.
Modern Caution
Do not map artos straight onto modern packaged bread or refined flour. The word names bread as ancient readers met it: loaf, meal, provision, and shared table.
Related entries
- Lehem — Hebrew equivalent
- Panis — Latin equivalent
- Ton Arton Hemon Ton Epiousion — the Matthean petition phrase
- Artous Ek Tou Ouranou — breads from heaven (LXX)
- Prosphora — Greek offering loaves