3644. olothreutés

Lexical Summary

olothreutés: Destroyer

Original Word: ὀλοθρευτής
Part of Speech: Noun, Masculine
Transliteration: olothreutés
Pronunciation: o-lo-threu-tés
Phonetic Spelling: (ol-oth-ryoo-tace')
KJV: destroyer
NASB: destroyer
Word Origin: [from G3645 (ὀλοθρεύω - To destroy)]

1. a ruiner
2. (specially), a venomous serpent

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance

destroyer.

From olothreuo; a ruiner, i.e. (specially), a venomous serpent -- destroyer.

see GREEK olothreuo

NAS Exhaustive Concordance

Word Origin
from olothreuó
Definition
a destroyer
NASB Translation
destroyer (1).

Thayer's Greek Lexicon

STRONGS NT 3644: ὀλοθρευτής

ὀλοθρευτής (Rec. ὀλοθρευτής), ὀλοθρευτοῦ, ὁ (ὀλοθρεύω, which see), a destroyer; found only in 1 Corinthians 10:10.

Topical Lexicon

Canonical Setting

ὀλοθρευτοῦ appears once in the Greek New Testament, in 1 Corinthians 10:10. The term draws Paul’s readers back to the wilderness narratives, where Israel’s rebellion encountered swift, supernatural judgment. By invoking “the destroyer,” Paul collapses centuries between Exodus and Corinth, urging the church to read its own life in the light of Scripture’s warnings.

Old Testament Background

1. Exodus 12:23 marks the first explicit appearance of “the destroyer” (LXX ὀλοθρεύων). While “the LORD will pass through to strike Egypt,” the blood-marked lintel restrains the destroying agent. Divine judgment and divine provision stand side by side.
2. Numbers 16:46-50; 2 Samuel 24:15-16; and Psalm 78:49 (LXX ὀλοθρεύοντες) further portray a minister of death who strikes in response to covenant violation. The Old Testament never pictures arbitrary malevolence; each act arises from holiness offended and mercy spurned.

Paul’s Pastoral Use in 1 Corinthians 10

The Corinthian believers assumed that sacramental participation (baptism/“spiritual food and drink”) guaranteed immunity. Paul recounts four wilderness sins—idolatry, immorality, testing Christ, and grumbling—then declares, “And do not grumble, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel” (1 Corinthians 10:10).
• Grumbling appears outwardly minor next to golden-calf worship or flagrant immorality, yet Paul levels all four under the same fatal verdict.
• The lesson is corporate: murmuring fractures fellowship and invites judgment upon the whole community (compare Numbers 14:27-30).
• The warning is present: “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us” (1 Corinthians 10:11).

Angelology and Divine Agency

Scripture alternates between direct divine action (“the LORD struck”), angelic mediation (“the angel of the LORD”), and the impersonal noun (“the destroyer”). ὀλοθρευτοῦ conveys an agent fully obedient to God’s command, never an independent evil force. Early Jewish literature (e.g., Jubilees 49:2) corroborates an angelic executioner restrained only by covenant obedience.

Theological Significance

1. Holiness: God’s moral perfection demands judgment upon persistent rebellion. ὀλοθρευτὸς language exposes sin’s lethal seriousness.
2. Substitution: The Passover lamb prefigures Christ. Because the destroyer “saw the blood” and passed over, the Corinthians can grasp why “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
3. Perseverance: Election never nullifies responsibility. Israel was “baptized into Moses” yet fell; believers are baptized into Christ and must “take heed lest [they] fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).
4. Eschatology: Revelation 9 and 15 depict angels of plague and destruction reminiscent of the Passover night, pointing toward a final visitation when only those sealed in Christ will be spared.

Historical Reception

• Patristic writers (e.g., Origen, Chrysostom) emphasized moral reform: murmuring invites the same destroyer today through spiritual ruin.
• Medieval commentators often allegorized the destroyer as the devil yet preserved God’s sovereignty by depicting Satan as an unwilling instrument.
• Reformation expositors returned to the Exodus parallel, stressing Christ’s blood as the believer’s protection.
• Modern scholarship debates whether Paul imagined a personal angel or a personified plague; the pastoral thrust remains unchanged—divine judgment is real, swift, and avoidable only through obedient faith.

Ministry Applications

1. Worship: The Lord’s Supper recalls both salvation and warning; “destroyer” language guards against careless participation (compare 1 Corinthians 11:29-30).
2. Preaching: Expositional teaching of biblical history equips the church to read current trials as calls to repentance rather than chance events.
3. Discipleship: Small-group study of Numbers 16 and 1 Corinthians 10 highlights the destructive power of unchecked complaining.
4. Evangelism: The Passover backdrop provides a bridge from Old Testament judgment to the atoning work of Jesus Christ.

Practical Warnings and Encouragements

• Guard speech: murmuring challenges God’s wisdom and undermines congregational unity.
• Cherish the covenant: the blood of Christ does not merely pardon; it protects.
• Live reverently: the same God who rescues also disciplines, “for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29).
• Hope firmly: because judgment has fallen on the Lamb, all who shelter in Him face no destroyer in the day of wrath.

Summary

ὀλοθρευτοῦ encapsulates a sober theme: sin invites divine destruction. Yet every mention of the destroyer stands against a backdrop of deliverance secured through substitutionary blood. For the church, the term is both admonition and assurance—urging holiness while magnifying Christ, the true Paschal refuge.

Forms and Transliterations

ολοθρευτου ολοθρευτού ὀλοθρευτοῦ olothreutou olothreutoû

Englishman's Concordance

1 Corinthians 10:10 N-GMS
GRK: ὑπὸ τοῦ ὀλοθρευτοῦ
NAS: and were destroyed by the destroyer.
KJV: were destroyed of the destroyer.
INT: by the Destroyer

Strong's Greek 3644
1 Occurrence

ὀλοθρευτοῦ — 1 Occ.