For an Informed Love of God
Bill Mounce
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πόλις
πόλις means “city, town.”
“These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our πόλις” (Acts 16:20).
“Joseph went up from Galilee, from the πόλις of Nazareth, to Judea, to the πόλις of David” (Luke 2:2).
Mounce's Expository Dictionary (abridged):
Noun: πόλις (polis), GK G4484 (S G4172), 163x. In the NT, πόλις refers mainly to a place of human inhabitation such as a “city, town, village.” The designation of Bethany as a πόλις points to the NT’s lack of distinction between “city” proper and “village” (πόλις) because Bethany is called a πόλις (GK G3267) in Mk. 8:23. Most significantly, Jerusalem is portrayed as “the holy city” (Mt. 4:5; 27:53; see also Rev. 11:2; 20:9). πόλις can also describe the inhabitants of a place (Mt. 8:34; 21:10; Mk. 1:33).