Exploring the Meaning of Cholos in Greek

χωλός describes a person who is physically impaired in walking, and it appears in Gospel scenes of healing and teaching as well as in Acts where a disabled man becomes the focus of public attention at the temple. Across these passages, the term marks bodily limitation that is either relieved by healing or used as a vivid comparison in instruction.

Occurrences

“the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” (Matthew 11:5)

Here χωλός belongs to a compact list of changed conditions: those once unable to see now see, and the lame now walk. The word contributes a concrete, observable reversal—walking—set alongside other visible restorations, so that the transformation is public and verifiable within the scene’s report.

“Great multitudes came to him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others, and they put them down at his feet. He healed them,” (Matthew 15:30)

In this crowd scene, the lame are grouped with other kinds of physical impairment and dependence. The wording “having with them the lame” and “they put them down at his feet” portrays movement and placement: those who cannot readily come on their own are brought and set before him, and χωλός names one of the conditions prompting that act of carrying and laying down.

“so that the multitude wondered when they saw the mute speaking, the injured healed, the lame walking, and the blind seeing—and they glorified the God of Israel.” (Matthew 15:31)

χωλός is paired with the visible outcome “walking.” The scene emphasizes reaction—“the multitude wondered”—and the lame walking functions as one of the signs that sparks amazement and leads the crowd to glorify God. The term thus helps frame the event as a public display of restored bodily function.

“If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the eternal fire.” (Matthew 18:8)

Within a warning built on bodily imagery, χωλός (rendered “crippled” here) is not presented as an ailment to be healed but as a comparative condition: entering life with bodily loss or impairment is set against the alternative of being “cast into the eternal fire.” The word draws on the starkness of impaired mobility to sharpen the seriousness of the choice described in the verse.

“The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.” (Matthew 21:14)

In the temple setting, χωλός names a group alongside “the blind,” and both groups are said to “came to him.” The statement “he healed them” gives the term an immediate narrative function: it identifies those who receive healing in that place, and it highlights that such restoration happens within the temple precincts.

“If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life lame, rather than having your two feet to be cast into Gehenna, into the fire that will never be quenched—” (Mark 9:45)

This parallel warning uses χωλός (“lame”) directly as the contrasting state to “having your two feet.” The emphasis on the foot makes the imagery especially pointed: impaired walking is invoked as preferable to a worse fate, so the term functions rhetorically, not medically, by appealing to a condition that would normally be feared or pitied.

“Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John the things which you have seen and heard: that the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” (Luke 7:22)

As in Matthew 11:5, χωλός is tied to the straightforward outcome “walk.” The verse frames the list as eyewitness testimony—“seen and heard”—so the lame walking becomes part of what can be reported as experienced reality, not mere claim, and it sits among other concrete changes.

“But when you make a feast, ask the poor, the maimed, the lame, or the blind;” (Luke 14:13)

Here χωλός appears in instruction about whom to invite to a feast. The term helps define a category of people likely to be overlooked or excluded, and the verse’s simple imperative (“ask… the lame”) treats this condition as a social identifier within the host’s deliberate choice of guests.

““That servant came, and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor, maimed, blind, and lame.’” (Luke 14:21)

In this scene, χωλός is one of the groups to be “bring in” from “the streets and lanes of the city.” The command is urgent (“Go out quickly”) and expansive, and the inclusion of the lame underscores the master’s intent to fill the house with those on the margins of ordinary invitation patterns.

“In these lay a great multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, or paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water;” (John 5:3)

χωλός is part of a description of a “great multitude” lying in a place of waiting. The word contributes to the picture of incapacity and dependence: people are not depicted as moving about but as lying there, hoping for change connected to “the moving of the water,” with lameness one of the conditions defining that crowd.

“A certain man who was lame from his mother’s womb was being carried, whom they laid daily at the door of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask gifts for the needy of those who entered into the temple.” (Acts 3:2)

This occurrence is highly specific: the man’s lameness is lifelong (“from his mother’s womb”), and it shapes his daily routine. He is “being carried” and “laid daily” at the temple door to beg, so χωλός explains why he depends on others for transport and why his location—where worshipers pass—matters for his survival.

“As the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.” (Acts 3:11)

Here χωλός identifies the same man after healing and highlights the public response. The phrase “the lame man who was healed” keeps his former condition in view even as he now acts—“held on to Peter and John”—and the crowd’s movement (“all the people ran together”) and amazement are triggered by the evident change in someone known for lameness.

Sense and Usage

Across these passages, χωλός functions as a plain descriptor of impaired walking, often paired with an explicit counterpart: “the lame walk” (Matthew 11:5; Luke 7:22) and “the lame walking” (Matthew 15:31). In those lists, the term works like a before-and-after marker: it names a limitation, and the accompanying verb (“walk”) supplies the visible proof of reversal.

In narrative settings of approach and healing, χωλός helps specify who is brought and who receives restoration. Matthew 15:30 pictures people arriving “having with them the lame” and placing them at Jesus’ feet, which implies dependence and assistance without elaboration; Matthew 21:14 compresses the same idea into a temple scene where “The blind and the lame came to him… and he healed them.” John 5:3 shifts the focus from a healer to a location of waiting: the lame are among those who “lay” there, portrayed as stuck in a posture of expectancy.

In Luke 14, χωλός operates in social instruction rather than a healing report. The lame are named among those to be invited and brought in (“ask… the lame,” “bring in… the… lame”), so the word becomes a label for people a host must intentionally include. The term’s presence in both healing lists and invitation lists links physical limitation with social vulnerability inside these scenes, without making the word itself mean anything beyond impaired walking.

Finally, Matthew 18:8 and Mark 9:45 use χωλός as a rhetorical extreme in a warning. The imagery is not about curing lameness but about choosing a lesser loss to avoid a greater catastrophe. Because the verses explicitly mention hands, feet, stumbling, and the prospect of being “cast” into fire, “lame” serves as a vivid, concrete condition that makes the warning feel weighty and bodily real.

Imagery

The word’s imagery is strongly physical: feet, walking, being carried, lying in a crowd, and holding on after healing (Mark 9:45; Matthew 15:31; Acts 3:2; John 5:3; Acts 3:11). In several scenes, the lame are seen in motion only after intervention—“the lame walk”—so the contrast between immobility or dependence and restored movement becomes a recurring visual anchor for wonder and public reaction (Matthew 15:31; Acts 3:11).

Sources: Lexical data from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and the Translators Brief Lexicon of Extended Strongs for Greek (STEPBible, CC BY). Occurrence data from the Translators Amalgamated Greek New Testament (STEPBible, CC BY). Scripture quotations from the World English Bible (public domain).