Exploring the Meaning of Diexodos in Greek

διέξοδος refers to a thoroughfare, the kind of open, passable place where people come and go. It appears once, in Jesus’ parable of a wedding feast, where servants are sent out to gather guests from public road junctions.

Root and Related Words

διέξοδος is associated with διά (dia), “through/because of” (Strong’s G1223), and ἔξοδος (exodos), “departure” (Strong’s G1841). Together these related elements frame the word as belonging to movement and passage: the idea of going through and the idea of going out.

Occurrences

“Go therefore to the intersections of the highways, and as many as you may find, invite to the wedding feast.’” (Matthew 22:9)

In the parable’s action, διέξοδος marks the outward-facing space where the invitation is to be extended: the “intersections of the highways.” The instruction assumes that such places are publicly accessible and naturally populated—locations where “as many as you may find” can be encountered without prior selection or private access. The thoroughfare functions as the opposite of a closed setting: it is where paths meet, traffic flows, and strangers can be found in ordinary movement.

The word also shapes how the command is carried out. The servants are not told to search house by house or to approach a defined list of names; they are sent to the thoroughfares, where the social and geographic mix is widest. Because the place is an “intersection,” it suggests a point of decision and connection: multiple routes converge, and the servants’ work takes place at a node where travelers arrive from different directions. Within the parable’s scene, διέξοδος is therefore the practical setting that makes the invitation expansive—an outward sweep into the common spaces where people are already moving.

Sense and Usage

The single use of διέξοδος anchors the word’s sense in a concrete, everyday environment: the passable public roadway system. A “thoroughfare” is not merely a road in the abstract; it is a place defined by transit—by the fact that it is used, crossed, and shared. In Matthew 22:9 this quality matters because the act commanded is invitation. The servants are to find people, and the thoroughfare is the fitting locale for finding “as many as you may find,” since a public route is where unknown persons may be met in the normal course of travel.

The verse’s phrasing also tightens the image: “intersections of the highways.” A thoroughfare can be imagined as a line of travel, but an intersection brings breadth and variety. It is a gathering point created not by an event but by infrastructure: a built meeting of ways. Thus διέξοδος here carries the notion of openness and availability embedded in the scene. The servants’ movement is outward (“Go therefore”), and the place they go is outward-facing as well: not secluded roads but the junctions where movement is most visible and diverse.

Because the command is tied to an invitation “to the wedding feast,” the thoroughfare also carries a social contrast within the narrative logic of the parable: the feast is a destination, an enclosed celebration; the thoroughfare is the public space outside, where people are encountered before they enter. The word’s contribution is to hold those two spaces in view at once. The feast requires guests, and the thoroughfare is where guests are gathered. In this way, διέξοδος highlights the transition point between ordinary travel and a summoned attendance: those found on the roads are invited into the banquet.

Imagery

The imagery of διέξοδος in Matthew 22:9 is street-level and outward-looking: a crossroads on a highway where people pass by and paths converge. The verse presents a scene of open air and open access—an intersection as a meeting of routes—and makes that setting the stage for a wide-reaching invitation.

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).