UBS Greek Dictionary Article

Form 1

Part of speech: noun, m.

Inflections: χείμαρρος; -ου

Constructions: χείμαρρος; χειμάζομαι; ῥέω

Sense 1: brook, winter stream, rainy-season stream

Semantic entry: 1.77

Semantic domains: Geographical Objects and Features

Subdomains: Bodies of Water

Definition: a stream or river which flows only during the rainy season (in Palestine this would be during the winter months) or when melting snow from the mountains provides running water for a relatively short period of time

Notes: The reference in RV JHN 18:1 · LV JHN 18:1 · Read together JHN 18:1 is probably to the narrow valley, not to the stream itself, as noted in 1.52: χείμαρρος.

JHN 18:1: RV JHN 18:1 · LV JHN 18:1 · Read together JHN 18:1

Show passage in OET

OET-RV JHN 18:1

18 After he’d said all this, Yeshua (Jesus; Grk. Yesus) and his followers left Yerushalem (Jerusalem) proper and over the Kidron stream towards a garden that he and his followers entered.

OET-LV JHN 18:1

18 Having _said these things, Yaʸsous/(Yəhōshūˊa) came _out with the apprentices/followers of _him beyond the winter _stream of _the Kedrōn/(Qidrōn), where was a_garden, into which he and the apprentices/followers of _him came _in.

Sense 2: ravine, wadi

Semantic entry: 1.52

Semantic domains: Geographical Objects and Features

Subdomains: Depressions and Holes

Definition: a ravine or narrow valley in which a stream flows during the rainy season, but which is normally dry during the dry season

Notes: In desert areas of the world designations for such ravines or valleys are common enough; in fact, there may be several different terms to describe different types of wadis, but for tropical areas and for most temperate parts of the world, it may seem incredible that rivers would regularly dry up during part of the year. What is important, however, in the biblical context in which χείμαρρος[a] ‘a seasonal stream,’ 1.77: χείμαρρος).