Exploring the Meaning of Keiro in Greek

κείρω expresses the action “to shear,” appearing in narrative, poetic imagery, and instruction where cutting hair or fleece carries social and rhetorical weight. Its uses range from the quiet vulnerability of a lamb before a shearer to deliberate head-shaving connected with a vow and to a disputed, shame-laden scenario involving a woman’s hair.

Occurrences

Acts 8:32 — “Now the passage of the Scripture which he was reading was this, “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. As a lamb before his shearer is silent, so he doesn’t open his mouth.”

Here κείρω stands in a comparison: “As a lamb before his shearer is silent.” The word points to a specific, concrete action done to an animal—shearing—yet the emphasis in the quoted line falls on the lamb’s posture during that act: silence and non-resistance. The shearer’s work implies close handling and vulnerability; the lamb is subject to another’s hands and tools, but the scene highlights composure rather than struggle. Within the sentence’s parallelism, the action of shearing provides the setting that makes the lamb’s silence striking, and that silence is then used to illuminate the following clause, “so he doesn’t open his mouth.”

Acts 18:18 — “Paul, having stayed after this many more days, took his leave of the brothers, and sailed from there for Syria, together with Priscilla and Aquila. He shaved his head in Cenchreae, for he had a vow.”

In this travel notice, κείρω is expressed as a personal, bodily act: “He shaved his head in Cenchreae.” The word anchors the action in a definite place (“in Cenchreae”) and a stated reason (“for he had a vow”). The shearing here is neither accidental nor imposed; it is chosen and purposeful, an outward act tied to an inward commitment signaled by the word “vow.” Because the sentence attaches the shaving directly to the vow, κείρω functions as the visible marker of that vow in the narrative, an action that can be observed and reported alongside departures, companions, and destinations.

1 Corinthians 11:6 — “For if a woman is not covered, let her hair also be cut off. But if it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut off or be shaved, let her be covered.”

In this instruction, κείρω is associated with hair and with social evaluation. The verse sets up a conditional: “if a woman is not covered, let her hair also be cut off.” Then it tightens the argument by appealing to what is regarded as “shameful”: “to have her hair cut off or be shaved.” Within this short line, the act of shearing becomes a rhetorical pressure point. It is presented as a logical consequence (“let her hair also be cut off”), but immediately framed as an outcome that carries stigma (“shameful”), which then supports the concluding directive, “let her be covered.” The word thus contributes to an argument built on what the community finds disgraceful; the possibility of being “shaved” is treated as an undesirable state that reinforces the preceding claim about covering.

Sense and Usage

Across these passages, κείρω consistently refers to the physical act of shearing, an act that removes hair (or, in animal imagery, fleece). Yet each context brings forward a different facet of what shearing communicates when it is placed into a sentence.

In Acts 8:32, shearing belongs to pastoral imagery: a lamb is handled by a shearer. The action supplies a scene in which passivity is intelligible; the lamb is within the shearer’s reach, yet “is silent.” Shearing, as the chosen act in the comparison, suggests an interaction where the one being sheared is exposed and acted upon; the focus is not on violence but on submission and restraint in the face of a cutting or removing action.

In Acts 18:18, the same action shifts into human, intentional practice. The shaving of the head is attached to a vow, and this makes κείρω serve as a public, embodied sign. The narrative does not treat the shaving as a mere grooming detail; it is linked by “for” to the vow, so the act becomes meaningful within the story’s logic. κείρω here functions as a concrete completion or enactment of a commitment, placed among other decisive movements: leaving, sailing, traveling with named companions.

In 1 Corinthians 11:6, κείρω is embedded in ethical reasoning that assumes shared judgments about appearance. The verse uses the possibility of a woman’s hair being “cut off” or “shaved” to intensify the seriousness of being “not covered.” The act of shearing is not introduced neutrally; it is evaluated as “shameful,” and that evaluation is used to drive a conclusion (“let her be covered”). In this usage, κείρω is not primarily about the mechanics of hair removal but about the social meaning attached to such removal. The word therefore participates in a larger appeal to propriety, where bodily presentation communicates honor or shame.

When these three settings are read together, κείρω remains stable as a concrete action but proves flexible in rhetorical function. It can furnish an image of quiet vulnerability (lamb and shearer), mark a deliberate act tied to a vow (a shaved head in a named location), and operate as a socially charged hypothetical in argumentation (shame associated with being shaved). The verb’s concreteness—hair removed by another’s hand or by one’s own decision—allows it to carry these distinct emphases without changing its basic sense.

Imagery

The passages attach vivid, bodily images to κείρω. Acts 8:32 frames it in the close, tactile moment of a lamb before a shearer, a scene that underscores silence under handling. Acts 18:18 places it on a traveler’s head as a visible act connected to a vow at Cenchreae. And 1 Corinthians 11:6 turns the prospect of a shaved head into an argument about what is considered shameful, using the starkness of hair removed to press for a different outward practice—being covered.

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).