2001 Translation

CHELŌNĒNEPHRAXANTO, chelōnēnephraxanto

Sounds Like: KHE-loh-NANE EF-RAX-an-toh

Translations: a tortoise, a testudo formation, they fortified themselves, they enclosed themselves, they hedged themselves in

From the root: ΧΕΛΩΝΗ, ΦΡΑΣΣΩ

Part of Speech: Noun, Verb

Explanation: This appears to be a compound phrase or a misjoined word, likely combining the noun 'ΧΕΛΩΝΗ' (chelone), meaning 'tortoise' or, in a military context, a 'testudo formation' (a shield formation), and the verb 'ἘΦΡΑΞΑΝΤΟ' (ephraxanto), which means 'they fortified themselves' or 'they enclosed themselves'. The phrase would thus describe soldiers forming a testudo and fortifying themselves with it. The first part, 'ΧΕΛΩΝΗΝ', is the accusative singular of 'ΧΕΛΩΝΗ'. The second part, 'ἘΦΡΑΞΑΝΤΟ', is the aorist middle indicative third person plural of 'ΦΡΑΣΣΩ' (phrassō).

Inflection: ΧΕΛΩΝΗΝ: Singular, Accusative, Feminine. ἘΦΡΑΞΑΝΤΟ: Aorist, Middle Voice, Indicative Mood, Third Person, Plural.

Strong’s numbers: G5561 (Lookup on BibleHub), G5420 (Lookup on BibleHub)

Instances

Josephus' The Jewish War

• Book Two — 19:25

From the same root

No other words from the same root, ΧΕΛΩΝΗ, ΦΡΑΣΣΩ, appear in our texts.

This concordance database is in beta

That means it's an unfinished preview of what we're building and is still being refined and corrected. It was initially generated from Google Gemini 2.5. It will be edited and corrected over time, with additional information added as we go.

It is your responsibility to double-check anything important.

Please report any errors or important missing information.