Psalm 133:1 · Symbol · Unity and Fellowship
The Words Yachad and Koinonia
The Hebrew yachad means together, and the Greek koinonia means a sharing in something held in common.
When Jacob blessed his sons, he used the verb yachad to refuse a joining: “may I never join their assembly” (Genesis 49:6).
We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And this fellowship of ours is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.
- The word
- יַחַד (yachad), H3162
- First appears
- Genesis 13:6 “But the land was unable to support both…”
Summary
Yachad is the Hebrew word for people in one place, at one time or at one task, and Scripture uses it of kinsmen, of a people answering God and of rulers who plot against Him. Koinonia is the New Testament's word for the church's share in Christ and its life with one another. Henotes, oneness, names the unity the church keeps and the unity it grows toward.
- Yachad can describe enemies as well as brothers, so its sense comes from its verse.
- Koinonia names fellowship with God's Son and also money sent to the saints in Jerusalem.
- In Psalm 86:11 David asks God, with the verb yachad, for an undivided heart.
The First Use of Yachad
Genesis gives yachad its first use, of two households in one land.
This study follows the Hebrew yachad and the Greek koinonia and henotes through the verses that set their sense. Unity is one of the values Scripture asks of every believer, and these words show what the Bible means when it speaks of God's people together.
The question this study answers is what the words meant to the writers who used them and whether they always name unity. It gives their counts, their senses, the verses where they stand and a reading that tests them against unity.
But the land was unable to support both of them while they stayed together, for they had so many possessions that they were unable to coexist.Psalm 133:1 later joins this word to the same verb for dwelling, and there the pairing is praised.
Where the Words Stand
Four words, two in each language, carry the Bible's speech about being together and being one.
Yachad stands far more often than the other three words, and the Greek noun for oneness is the rarest of the four.
| Word | Sense | Rows | Verses | Books with the most verses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hebrew | ||||
| yachad, יַחַד, H3162, noun used as an adverb | unitedness; together | 141 | 139 | Isaiah, 33 verses; Psalms, 27 verses; Jeremiah, 17 verses; Job, 16 verses; 21 books in all |
| yachad, יָחַד, H3161, verb | be joined | 3 | 3 | Genesis, Psalms and Isaiah, 1 verse each |
| Greek | ||||
| koinonia, κοινωνία, G2842, noun | participation; fellowship, communion; contribution | 18 | 16 | 2 Corinthians, 3 verses; Philippians, 3 verses; 1 John, 3 verses; 1 Corinthians, 2 verses; 9 books in all |
| henotes, ἑνότης, G1775, noun | unity | 2 | 2 | Ephesians alone |
The rows are those of the tagged Hebrew and Greek texts. A verse that uses a word twice holds two rows. The Berean text of 2 Corinthians 13:14 reads “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit”, but the verse has no tagged row for koinonia. The count leaves it out.
Yachad, Together
The word follows a father and son, a people at Sinai and the tribes gathered again.
The prophets use the word for the reunion of the divided kingdoms. Jeremiah foresaw that Judah and Israel “will come together from the land of the north” (Jeremiah 3:18).
Jerusalem is built up as a city united together,The tagged Hebrew of the psalm uses yachad for Jerusalem itself, a city whose parts are joined into one.
Do the Words Always Mean Unity?
Psalm 2, 2 Corinthians 6 and 1 John 1 test the words against unity.
The togetherness yachad names can be turned against God. In Psalm 2:2 “the rulers gather together, against the LORD and against His Anointed One.”
Koinonia can name a partnership Scripture forbids. Paul asks in 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?”
John warns that a claim of fellowship with God can be false where a life walks in darkness (1 John 1:6).
A word's meaning is set by its use in a verse, and the sense of its root cannot be read into every use. So yachad names concord only where its verse speaks of concord, and koinonia names a gift only where its verse speaks of giving.
The Verb, the Fellowship and the Oneness
The verb yachad, the senses of koinonia and the noun henotes, each in the verses that show it.
The Strong's definition of the verb yachad is “to be (or become) one”. Isaiah uses it of the king of Babylon: “You will not join them in burial” (Isaiah 14:20).
Teach me Your way, O LORD, that I may walk in Your truth. Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear Your name.The tagged Hebrew glosses the verb unite here, an imperative, so the prayer asks God Himself to do the joining.
Abbott-Smith's Greek lexicon (1922) gives koinonia two senses, “fellowship, communion” and “contribution”, and calls the second the outcome of the first.
Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?Paul asks what the cup and the bread of the Supper share in, and the tagged Greek glosses koinonia here “a participation”.
And do not neglect to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.Hebrews counts sharing with others among the sacrifices that please God, the second sense of the word.
The Strong's definition of henotes is “oneness, i.e. (figuratively) unanimity”.
and with diligence to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.Paul asks for diligence, so the unity the church has been given is a unity it can lose.
until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ.Paul sets the measure of Christ as the end toward which the church's growth in unity runs.
Hebrews 13:16, Ephesians 4:3, Ephesians 4:13
A Voice on Koinonia
John Chrysostom reads the word at the Lord's Supper.
died 407 · John Chrysostom
Chrysostom stands here for a sharing so close that those who share become one body.
Read the page on John Chrysostom
“‘For we, who are many, are one bread, one body.’ ‘For why speak I of communion?’ saith he, ‘we are that self-same body.’ For what is the bread? The Body of Christ. And what do they become who partake of it? The Body of Christ: not many bodies, but one body. For as the bread consisting of many grains is made one, so that the grains no where appear; they exist indeed, but their difference is not seen by reason of their conjunction; so are we conjoined both with each other and with Christ: there not being one body for thee, and another for thy neighbor to be nourished by, but the very same for all. Wherefore also he adds, ‘For we all partake of the one bread.’ Now if we are all nourished of the same and all become the same, why do we not also show forth the same love, and become also in this respect one? For this was the old way too in the time of our forefathers: ‘for the multitude of them that believed,’ saith the text, ‘were of one heart and soul.’ Not so, however, now, but altogether the reverse. Many and various are the contests betwixt all, and worse than wild beasts are we affected towards each other's members. And Christ indeed made thee so far remote, one with himself: but thou dost not deign to be united even to thy brother with due exactness, but separatest thyself, having had the privilege of so great love and life from the Lord. For he gave not simply even His own body; but because the former nature of the flesh which was framed out of earth, had first become deadened by sin and destitute of life; He brought in, as one may say, another sort of dough and leaven, His own flesh, by nature indeed the same, but free from sin and full of life; and gave to all to partake thereof, that being nourished by this and laying aside the old dead material, we might be blended together unto that which is living and eternal, by means of this table.”
John Chrysostom · Homily on 1 Corinthians 24 · on 1 Corinthians 10:17Patristic
Partners in the Gospel
Philippians uses koinonia for the Spirit, for Christ's sufferings and for the work of the gospel.
Paul speaks of “fellowship with the Spirit” (Philippians 2:1) and of “the fellowship of His sufferings” (Philippians 3:10).
because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,Paul thanks a church for sharing his work from its first day, which shows koinonia as a partnership in a task.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- STEP Bible TBESH and TBESG glosses (Tyndale House, Cambridge, CC BY 4.0), the Greek senses based on Abbott-Smith (1922), with Strong's definitions (1890) in the same entries.
- STEP Bible, Translators Amalgamated Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament, the tagged texts (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0.
- G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), the entry for koinonia.
- John Chrysostom, Homilies on 1 Corinthians, homily 24, on 1 Corinthians 10:17, translated by Talbot W. Chambers, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, volume 12 (Buffalo: Christian Literature Publishing, 1889)
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