Exploring the Meaning of Paradoxos in Greek

παράδοξος describes something “remarkable,” a term used in Luke’s narration of a moment of public astonishment. It appears in Luke 5:26, where it captures the crowd’s response to what they have just witnessed.

Root and Related Words

παράδοξος is linked with παρά (para), “from/with/beside” (Strong’s G3844), and δόξα (doxa), “glory” (Strong’s G1391). These related elements place the adjective within a word-family that can speak about something set “beside” what is expected and therefore striking in its appearance or effect.

Occurrences

“Amazement took hold on all, and they glorified God. They were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen strange things today.”” (Luke 5:26)

In this scene, παράδοξος belongs to the crowd’s own summary of events: “We have seen strange things today.” The narrative stacks several responses—“Amazement took hold on all,” “they glorified God,” and “They were filled with fear”—and then gives the spoken conclusion that gathers those reactions into a single verdict. Calling what they saw “strange things” presents the event as outside the ordinary run of experience, not merely interesting but arresting enough to leave the onlookers both praising and afraid.

The word functions as a final label that interprets what has just happened without itemizing details. Luke reports emotional and religious effects first (amazement, glorifying God, fear), and then the crowd’s remark gives language to the shared perception: the day has been marked by what is “remarkable.” The placement matters: the adjective is not used as a detached description by the narrator; it is the crowd’s communal testimony, offered as an explanation for their amazement and fear. It also carries the time note “today,” showing that the “remarkable” character of the event is immediate and fresh, an observation made while the impact is still upon them.

Sense and Usage

As “remarkable,” παράδοξος marks an experience that stands out from what people normally expect to see. In Luke 5:26 it does not describe a person’s character or an object’s appearance, but the whole complex of happenings that has just unfolded. The word thereby gathers an event into a single evaluative category: it was the sort of thing that demands comment because it does not fit easily within everyday categories.

The surrounding reactions show what counts as “remarkable” in this context. First, “Amazement took hold on all,” indicating a response not confined to one individual but spreading through the whole group as a shared, overpowering impression. Next, “they glorified God,” suggesting that the crowd interprets the extraordinary nature of what they have seen as connected with God’s activity and worthiness of praise. Then, “They were filled with fear,” which shows that the remarkable event is not received as entertainment or novelty; it carries weight, producing reverent dread as well as awe. Finally, the spoken line, “We have seen strange things today,” gives a plain, unadorned conclusion: the day has confronted them with what they can only describe as remarkable.

Because the statement comes from the crowd, the adjective also reflects an ordinary observer’s vocabulary for encountering something overwhelming. The line does not attempt analysis; it simply asserts the fact of having witnessed something that exceeds normal expectation. In that way, παράδοξος can function as a bridge between experience and interpretation: the crowd moves from the raw feeling of amazement to the act of glorifying God, and the word “remarkable” provides the shared verbal handle for what triggered both praise and fear.

The verse also shows that “remarkable” does not have to mean merely rare or curious; it can describe what provokes worshipful response. The crowd’s amazement and fear are not contradictory but complementary in the way the verse presents them. παράδοξος, placed on their lips, helps explain how one event can elicit both glorifying God and trembling: it is remarkable enough to expose them to something beyond their ordinary control and understanding, and therefore it presses them toward both praise and fear.

Imagery

Luke 5:26 paints the word’s imagery in social and emotional terms: a gathered group seized by amazement, turning upward in praise, and speaking together about “strange things.” παράδοξος evokes the moment when a crowd, still under the force of what it has witnessed, can only point to the day itself and name it remarkable.

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).