noun · feminine
katallagas
Strong’sG2643
reconciliation
stem katallag-4 times in the New Testamentin 2 of 27 books3 of 10 forms occur
What it means
A plain-English reading of the word, with the lexicons it draws on — Abbott-Smith, Strong's, and Liddell-Scott-Jones — right below it, in full.
AI Summary
Exchange is the basic sense of this word: a swap or exchange of one thing for another 12. Ancient Greek usage narrows this to specific commercial senses, such as the exchange of money, a money-changer's profit, or cargo carried in trade 3, though the Bible does not use the word in these ways.
The word's meaning in the New Testament is reconciliation 124: a change from enmity to friendship 3, specifically the reconciliation of sinners to God 123, understood as a restoration to God's favor 2.
Sources: 1 Abbott-Smith 2 Strong's 3 LSJ 4 Dodson. Condensed by anthropic/claude-sonnet-5 on 2026-09-23 — it may still misstate what these say; check them yourself if it matters to you.
The lexicons it was drawn from, in full:
Abbott-Smith — the 1922 lexicon entry, in full
κατ-αλλαγή, -ῆς, ἡ
(< καταλλάσσω), [in LXX: Is 9:5(4), II Mac 5:20*;]
G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 1922 — public domain. References open in the reader.
Strong’s G2643 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from
Saidkat-al-lag-ay'
exchange (figuratively, adjustment), i.e. restoration to (the divine) favor
Fromfrom G2644;
King Jamesatonement, reconciliation(-ing).
James Strong, Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, 1890 — public domain. The numbers in it link to the entries here.
Liddell-Scott-Jones — the classical dictionary this word appears in
exchange, especially of money, Refs 4th c.BC+
2 money-changer's profit, agio, Refs 4th c.BC+
3 freight, merchandise, metaphorically, [ἀραὶ] βαρεῖαι κ.Refs 4th c.BC+
4 change, difference, Refs 1st c.BC+
II change from enmity to friendship, reconciliation, καταλλαγὰς ποιεῖσθαι πρός τινας Refs 5th c.BC+
II.2 reconciliation of sinners with God, NT
H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, H. S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (9th ed., 1925–1940) — digitised by the Perseus Digital Library and corrected and expanded by Tyndale House, Cambridge, via STEPBible-Data's TFLSJ table, CC BY 4.0. Covers all of Greek literature, not just the Bible.
Translated as
Every occurrence, sorted by the English it was actually given — the evidence for what the word means, not a gloss of it.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), dedicated to the public domain — berean.bible.
Biblang forms
Every form this word takes in Biblang, with the Greek it corresponds to and how often the New Testament uses it.
| Job in the sentence case | one singular | more than one plural |
|---|---|---|
| subject nominative | katallagas1×καταλλαγὴ | katallagais |
| object accusative | katallagan1×καταλλαγὴν | katallagain |
| direct address vocative | katallagar | katallagair |
| of, belonging to genitive | katallagau2×καταλλαγῆς | katallagaiu |
| to, for dative | katallaga | katallagai |
Tinted cells are forms the New Testament never uses, so there is no Greek to show against them — but they are still correct Biblang, built from the slots below like any other.
Why these forms, and no others — the slots that make them
katallaga is this word in every one of its forms. The slots after it make all the rest.
same in every form varies — every value shown
Where it appears
Every verse the word appears in, filed under the form it takes there.
4 occurrences, every one of them listed
katallagas“reconciliation”subjectnominative singular1×
Romans 11:15ei gar tas apobolas autoiu katallagas kosmou, tinas tas proslēmpsias ei mē …For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their …
katallagan“reconciliation”objectaccusative singular1×
Romans 5:11… Iēsu Christou, dia hou nun tan katallagan labana.… through whom we have now received reconciliation.
katallagau“reconciliation”of, belonging togenitive singular2×
2 Corinthians 5:18… kai dōarantou ni tan diakonian tau katallagau,… and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
2 Corinthians 5:19… titherantos en ni ton logon tau katallagau.… committed to us the message of reconciliation.