Exploring the Meaning of Komopolis in Greek

κωμόπολις means “village” and appears once in the New Testament, in Jesus’ statement about moving on to preach in “the next towns” (Mark 1:38). In that scene it names the kind of places that lie ahead on his itinerary and frames the scope of his preaching mission.

Root and Related Words

κωμόπολις is built from two related terms: κώμη (kōmē), “village” (Strong’s G2968), and πόλις (polis), “city” (Strong’s G4172). The combined form presents a place-word that draws on familiar settlement vocabulary, linking the notion of a village with the broader civic language of a city.

Occurrences

“He said to them, “Let’s go elsewhere into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because I came out for this reason.”” (Mark 1:38)

Here κωμόπολις falls within Jesus’ own explanation of what comes next: movement (“Let’s go elsewhere”) toward a set of nearby populated places (“the next towns”) with a clear purpose (“that I may preach there also”). The word marks the destinations as established communities suitable for public proclamation—places that can be visited in succession and that together form a network of reachable stops. In this sentence the emphasis is not on a single location but on plurality and sequence: “the next” towns are one after another, implying continued travel and repeated preaching in multiple communities rather than remaining in one place.

Because the stated goal is preaching “there also,” κωμόπολις contributes a sense of extension: the message is not confined to where Jesus is presently speaking but is carried outward to additional locales. The word functions as a geographic anchor for the mission rationale, setting the preaching task in concrete destinations rather than as an abstract program. It is the type of place, not the name of a place, that matters in the line; κωμόπολις supplies that type.

Sense and Usage

In its lone attestation, κωμόπολις operates as a practical term for inhabited places on a route—settlements that are near enough to be described as “next” and numerous enough to invite a planned progression. The translation “towns” in Mark 1:38 captures how the word can name real, distinct communities without requiring the precision of a formal city name. Within the verse, the word’s force is shaped by three surrounding elements: direction (“elsewhere”), sequence (“next”), and purpose (“that I may preach there also”). Together these show κωμόπολις as the ordinary setting for public speech in motion: not a lone destination that ends the journey, but a set of places that advances it.

The verse also places κωμόπολις under the logic of calling and reason: “because I came out for this reason.” The word for “towns” is therefore not incidental scenery; it is tied to the stated reason for going out. The places designated by κωμόπολις represent the immediate field in which that reason is worked out. The term helps the reader envision a pattern of ministry distributed across multiple communities—reachable, identifiable, and close enough to be grouped as “the next” ones—so that preaching is pictured as something that happens again and again in successive settlements.

Finally, because κωμόπολις is used in a forward-looking invitation (“Let’s go”), it carries an active, outward-facing orientation in this context. It is a word spoken at a decision point: the next stage involves leaving the current setting and entering other villages as preaching sites. The verse’s momentum depends on those destinations being meaningful, inhabited locales; κωμόπολις supplies that concrete horizon.

Imagery

Mark 1:38 casts κωμόπολις in the imagery of travel from one inhabited place to another, with “the next towns” set ahead as successive stops. The word evokes roads leading outward and a cluster of settlements within reach—places waiting “there” for the same preaching that is happening “here,” as the speaker turns his gaze from the present location to the villages ahead.

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).