SOJOURNING — A Word-Study Dossier ξένος, πάροικος, παρεπίδημος — and the verb παροικέω — in Hebrews 11:13 and 1 Peter 2:11, with their threads, related words, and the LXX background This dossier assembles the texts. It does not deliver a verdict. The occurrences stand first, the related words and the background second, the open question last. ———————————————————————————— I. THE TWO TEXTS "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and embraced them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." (Heb 11:13, WEB) "Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul." (1 Pet 2:11, WEB) Three words of one family stand in the two passages: ξένος (xenos, Strong's 3581), πάροικος (paroikos, Strong's 3941), and παρεπίδημος (parepidēmos, Strong's 3927). One correction of form belongs at the head of the dossier. The verb παρεπιδημέω does not occur in either passage, nor in the New Testament text (Nestle 1904) at all: the family stands in the two texts as adjectives. The verb the family does supply stands in the Hebrews thread, at its head — παροικέω (paroikeō, Strong's 3939), the verb of πάροικος, at Heb 11:9. That verb, and not a form of παρεπιδημέω, is the verb this dossier parses. ———————————————————————————— II. EVERY OCCURRENCE IN THE HEBREWS THREAD (Heb 11:8–16) The thread is the Abraham movement of the faith chapter: the call out (11:8), the sojourning in the land of promise (11:9), the city looked for (11:10), the offspring from one as good as dead (11:11–12), the death and the confession (11:13), and the homeland named (11:14–16). The family occurs three times in the range: one verb and two adjectives. 1. Heb 11:9 — παρῴκησεν (parōkēsen) παροικέω, aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular (V-AIA-3S). Πίστει παρῴκησεν εἰς γῆν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας ὡς ἀλλοτρίαν, ἐν σκηναῖς κατοικήσας μετὰ Ἰσαὰκ καὶ Ἰακὼβ τῶν συγκληρονόμων τῆς ἐπαγγελίας τῆς αὐτῆς. "By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise" (Heb 11:9, WEB). The verb is aorist: the sojourning is stated whole, as one act under "by faith," at the head of the thread. Its object is the land of the promise itself — εἰς γῆν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας — and the land is entered ὡς ἀλλοτρίαν, "as one belonging to another." The promised land and the foreign land are the same land, in one sentence. Related forms in the same verse, included and distinguished: — κατοικήσας (katoikēsas): κατοικέω (Strong's 2730), aorist active participle, nominative masculine singular (V-APA-NMS) — "having dwelt." κατοικέω is the ordinary verb of settling and dwelling. In this verse it does not stand alone: the dwelling it names is ἐν σκηναῖς, in tents, and it hangs from the sojourning verb that precedes it. The settling is real; its form is a tent. — σκηναῖς (skēnais): σκηνή (Strong's 4633), noun, dative feminine plural — "in tents." The tent is the movable house: raised, struck, and carried. It is named alongside two more generations, Isaac and Jacob, the fellow heirs (συγκληρονόμων) of the same promise. — ἀλλοτρίαν (allotrian): ἀλλότριος (Strong's 245), adjective, accusative feminine singular, agreeing with γῆν — "belonging to another, not one's own." It is a property word, and it is used here of the land, not of the man. The man sojourns; the land is another's. 2. Heb 11:13 — ξένοι (xenoi) ξένος, adjective, nominative masculine plural. καὶ ὁμολογήσαντες ὅτι ξένοι καὶ παρεπίδημοί εἰσιν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. "And having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth" (Heb 11:13, WEB). The two adjectives of the verse stand as predicates of εἰσιν — "they are" (present indicative, 3rd person plural, of εἰμί) — inside a confession (ὁμολογήσαντες, aorist participle: "having confessed"). The confession is made by the dead: the verse opens Κατὰ πίστιν ἀπέθανον οὗτοι πάντες, "these all died in faith," and the confession follows the dying. The sphere named is not Canaan but ἡ γῆ — the earth. 3. Heb 11:13 — παρεπίδημοι (parepidēmoi) παρεπίδημος, adjective, nominative masculine plural. The second adjective of the confession, joined to ξένοι by καί. Where ξένος names the foreigner as such, παρεπίδημος names the foreigner in his stay: one residing for a time among a people not his own. Both stand in the nominative because both are confessed of the patriarchs, in the third person, by the writer who sums them up. Checked and excluded: the count in Heb 11:8–16 is exact, and two absences prove it. — πάροικος, the adjective, does not occur in Heb 11:8–16. The family stands in the thread by its verb (παρῴκησεν, 11:9) and by the adjectives ξένοι and παρεπίδημοι (11:13), not by the adjective πάροικος. — παρεπίδημος occurs nowhere else in Hebrews. Its other New Testament occurrences are 1 Pet 1:1 and 1 Pet 2:11, the second of which is this dossier's second thread. ξένος occurs once more in Hebrews, at 13:9, of teachings (διδαχαῖς ποικίλαις καὶ ξέναις, "varied and strange teachings") — outside the thread, and of things, not of persons. The expectation verb of 11:10, ἐξεδέχετο ("he was looking for," imperfect), is not of this family and is not counted. Summary of the thread: three occurrences — one aorist verb of sojourning (11:9) and two nominative plural adjectives in a confession (11:13). The verb is past and whole; the confession is present: εἰσιν, "they are." The thread's own verbs of movement run out from them: Abraham went out (11:8), looked for the city (11:10), died (11:13), and — stated as the thread's refusal — did not go back (11:15). ———————————————————————————— III. EVERY OCCURRENCE IN THE 1 PETER THREAD (1 Pet 2:9–12) The thread is the constituting of a people and the address that follows it: a chosen race and a people for God's own possession (2:9), once not a people and now God's people (2:10), the appeal (2:11), and the conduct among the nations (2:12). The family occurs twice in the range, both in one verse, both in the accusative. 1. 1 Pet 2:11 — παροίκους (paroikous) πάροικος, adjective, accusative masculine plural (Adj-AMP). Ἀγαπητοί, παρακαλῶ ὡς παροίκους καὶ παρεπιδήμους ἀπέχεσθαι τῶν σαρκικῶν ἐπιθυμιῶν. "Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts" (1 Pet 2:11, WEB). This is the word that does not occur as an adjective in the Hebrews thread. Here it stands first in the pair. The adjective that Hebrews supplied only through its verb, Peter supplies in person — and in the accusative, because the readers themselves are its object: Peter addresses them as παροίκους. The appeal that carries the address is παρακαλῶ — "I beg, I urge" (present active indicative, 1st person singular, of παρακαλέω). 2. 1 Pet 2:11 — παρεπιδήμους (parepidēmous) παρεπίδημος, adjective, accusative masculine plural (Adj-AMP). The second adjective of the pair, in the same case as the first. Set beside Heb 11:13, the form is the same word in a different case and a different voice: there the writer confesses it of the dead in the nominative; here the apostle lays it on the living in the accusative, inside an appeal, before any command is given. The identity is stated first. The abstaining follows it. Related verbs in 2:11–12, included and distinguished: — ἀπέχεσθαι (apechesthai): ἀπέχω (Strong's 568), present middle infinitive (V-PNM) — "to abstain, to hold oneself away from." The infinitive carries the content of Peter's appeal: as sojourners, abstain from the fleshly lusts. The verb is middle: the holding-away is done by the readers to themselves. — στρατεύονται (strateuontai): στρατεύω (Strong's 4754), present middle indicative, 3rd person plural (V-PIM-3P) — "they wage war, they campaign." Its subject is the fleshly lusts (τῶν σαρκικῶν ἐπιθυμιῶν), and its theatre is κατὰ τῆς ψυχῆς — "against the soul." The war verb is present tense: the campaign is not announced as future. — ἔχοντες (echontes) at 2:12: ἔχω, present active participle, nominative masculine plural, with τὴν ἀναστροφὴν ὑμῶν … καλήν — "having your conduct honorable" (1 Pet 2:12, WEB). The conduct (ἀναστροφή) is a noun, and it is located by a preposition: ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, "among the nations." Neither verb is of the sojourning family; both are recorded because the thread's movement runs through them. Checked and excluded: within 1 Pet 2:9–12 the family occurs only at 2:11 — παροίκους and παρεπιδήμους, two occurrences, one verse. The family's other forms in this letter stand outside the thread and are recorded so the count is exact: παρεπιδήμοις (dative plural) at 1 Pet 1:1, in the letter's address to the elect sojourners of the dispersion, and τῆς παροικίας ὑμῶν at 1 Pet 1:17 — παροικία, the noun, "the time of your sojourning." Neither is counted above. Summary of the thread: two occurrences, both accusative plural adjectives, both in the address of 2:11. No verb of the family occurs in the thread: Peter does not tell the readers to sojourn. He names them as sojourners, and from the name he draws the conduct — abstain (present infinitive), and hold the conduct honorable among the nations (2:12). ———————————————————————————— IV. RELATED WORDS DISTINGUISHED — AND THE LXX BACKGROUND A. The three words, as the lexicons distinguish them 1. ξένος (xenos, Strong's 3581) — foreign. Strong's: "foreign; by implication, a guest or (vice versa) an entertainer." The word faces both ways: the ξένος is the stranger who arrives and the host who receives him. It names foreignness itself, without stating how long the foreigner stays or where he lives. In Heb 11:13 it stands first in the confession. 2. πάροικος (paroikos, Strong's 3941) — from παρά, beside, and οἶκος, a house: "having a home near," a by-dweller, an alien resident. The word is built on nearness to a house that is not one's own: the πάροικος lives alongside a people, in their country, without the country becoming his. Its verb is παροικέω (Strong's 3939) — "to dwell near, i.e. reside as a foreigner" — which occurs in the New Testament only at Luke 24:18 and Heb 11:9. 3. παρεπίδημος (parepidēmos, Strong's 3927) — from παρά and the base of ἐπιδημέω, to be among a people: "an alien alongside, i.e. a resident foreigner." Where πάροικος is built on the house (οἶκος), παρεπίδημος is built on the people (δῆμος): one who is present among a δῆμος not his own, for a stay. It occurs in the New Testament three times only: Heb 11:13; 1 Pet 1:1; 1 Pet 2:11. Distinguished from all three: ἀλλότριος (Strong's 245), "belonging to another." It is a word of ownership, not of residence, and in the Hebrews thread it describes the land (11:9), while the words above describe the man. The thread keeps the two apart: the man is ξένος and παρεπίδημος; the land is ἀλλοτρία. B. The LXX background Behind the family stand two Hebrew words: גֵּר (gēr), the resident alien who lives under a people's protection without inheritance among them, and תּוֹשָׁב (tōšāb), the settler-sojourner. The Septuagint renders the pair with this dossier's words — but not mechanically. Five texts, all marked LXX: 1. Genesis 23:4 (LXX) — the pair together, in Abraham's mouth. Πάροικος καὶ παρεπίδημος ἐγώ εἰμι μεθ' ὑμῶν. "I am a sojourner and a stranger among you, give me therefore possession of a burying-place among you" (Brenton rendering of the LXX). Here πάροικος renders gēr and παρεπίδημος renders tōšāb. Abraham speaks the pair to the sons of Heth, and the one piece of the promised land he asks to hold in the verse is a grave: κτῆσιν τάφου, a possession of a burying-place. 2. Psalm 38:13 LXX (Ps 39:12 in English numbering) — the pair together, before God. ὅτι πάροικος ἐγώ εἰμι παρὰ σοὶ καὶ παρεπίδημος καθὼς πάντες οἱ πατέρες μου. In paraphrase: "for I am a sojourner beside you, and a sojourner as all my fathers were." The same Greek pair renders the same Hebrew pair (gēr, tōšāb). The sojourning here is παρὰ σοὶ — beside God, with God — and its measure is the fathers: καθὼς πάντες οἱ πατέρες μου, "as all my fathers." 3. Leviticus 25:23 (LXX) — πάροικος under God's ownership of the land. διότι προσήλυτοι καὶ πάροικοι ὑμεῖς ἐστε ἐναντίον μου. "For ye are strangers and sojourners before me" (Brenton rendering of the LXX). Here the assignments cross: πάροικοι renders tōšābîm, while gērîm is rendered προσήλυτοι. The ground of the status is an ownership statement in the same verse: ἐμή ἐστιν ἡ γῆ — "the land is mine" — spoken by God, and because the land is His, the land may not be sold in perpetuity (Lev 25:23, LXX). 4. Genesis 15:13 (LXX) — πάροικον, of the seed. ὅτι πάροικον ἔσται τὸ σπέρμα σου ἐν γῇ οὐκ ἰδίᾳ. In paraphrase: "that your seed will be a sojourner in a land not its own." πάροικον is accusative neuter singular, agreeing with σπέρμα, "seed," and it renders gēr. The sojourning is foretold of the seed before the seed exists, and the land is defined by a negative: οὐκ ἰδίᾳ, not its own. Stephen's speech quotes the oracle at Acts 7:6, keeping πάροικον and giving the land as ἐν γῇ ἀλλοτρίᾳ — with the adjective of Heb 11:9. 5. Exodus 2:22 (LXX) — πάροικος, in a name. ὅτι πάροικός εἰμι ἐν γῇ ἀλλοτρίᾳ. "Saying, I am a sojourner in a strange land" (Brenton rendering of the LXX). Moses names his son Gershom by the word: πάροικος renders gēr, and the land is ἀλλοτρίᾳ, "belonging to another" — the same adjective Hebrews lays on the land of promise at Heb 11:9. ———————————————————————————— V. THE THREADS SIDE BY SIDE Hebrews 11 thread: — Abraham is called, and goes out, not knowing where he goes (11:8). — He sojourns — one aorist verb, παρῴκησεν — in the land of the promise, as in a land belonging to another (11:9). — His dwelling under that verb is in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, heirs of the same promise (11:9). — He is looking for the city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God (11:10). — These all die in faith, not having received the promises, seeing and greeting them from afar (11:13). — They confess — nominative, third person — that they are ξένοι and παρεπίδημοι on the earth (11:13). — Such speech declares that they seek a homeland (11:14). — The homeland is not the one they left: they had opportunity to return, and did not (11:15). — They desire a better country, a heavenly one; God is not ashamed to be called their God; He has prepared a city for them (11:16). The movement of the thread runs forward: out, sojourn, look, die, confess, seek, desire. No command to anyone follows the confession inside the thread. The sojourning is confessed of the dead, and its resolution is a city prepared by another hand. 1 Peter 2 thread: — A people is constituted first: a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession (2:9). — The constitution is a reversal: once not a people, now God's people; once without mercy, now having received mercy (2:10). — Then the address: Beloved — as παροίκους and παρεπιδήμους (2:11, accusative, second person). — From the address, one infinitive: ἀπέχεσθαι — abstain from fleshly lusts, which campaign (στρατεύονται, present) against the soul (2:11). — The conduct is held honorable in a named place: among the nations (ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, 2:12). — The nations speak against them as evildoers; the nations see the good works (2:12). — The end named inside the thread is not a country but a day: that they may glorify God in the day of visitation (2:12). The movement of the thread runs in place: constituted, addressed, abstaining, conducting, witnessed. No departure is commanded inside the thread. The sojourning is addressed to the living, and its theatre is the nations among whom they remain. Set together: — Hebrews confesses the words (nominative) of men who die; Peter addresses the words (accusative) to readers who live. — Hebrews gives the family a verb, once, aorist, at the head of its movement; Peter gives the family no verb at all — the readers are named by the adjectives, and the verbs that follow are abstain and wage war and hold. — Hebrews names the land as another's (ἀλλοτρία, 11:9) and the earth as the sphere of the confession (11:13); Peter names the nations as the sphere of the conduct (2:12). — Hebrews ends its thread with a country desired and a city prepared (11:16); Peter ends his with a day named — the day of visitation (2:12). — In the LXX behind both, the pair stands in Abraham's mouth over a grave (Gen 23:4), in a prayer that locates the sojourning beside God (Ps 38:13 LXX), and in a law that grounds the status in God's ownership of the land (Lev 25:23). ———————————————————————————— VI. THE CRUX, LEFT OPEN The crux stays open: Does the sojourner in these threads belong chiefly by departing, by waiting, or by bearing witness while remaining in a place he does not own? This dossier assembles the text under that question. It does not answer it. ———————————————————————————— Sources: Greek text and parsing — Nestle 1904 via BibleHub text analysis, interlinear, and lexicon pages (Heb 11:9, 11:13; 1 Pet 2:11, 2:12; Strong's 245, 3581, 3927, 3939, 3941), verified 2026-10-26. English — World English Bible (public domain), via Bible Gateway WEB (Heb 11:8–16; 1 Pet 2:9–12), verified 2026-10-26. LXX texts — Gen 15:13; Gen 23:4; Ex 2:22; Lev 25:23; Ps 38:13 LXX (Rahlfs text with the Brenton rendering, except Gen 15:13 and Ps 38:13, which are given above in paraphrase and marked as such), verified 2026-10-26. One correction of the commissioning brief is recorded in section I: the verb at Heb 11:9 is παρῴκησεν, of παροικέω; no form of παρεπιδημέω occurs in either thread.