Bible Lexicons

οἰκονόμος, οἰκονόμου, ὁ (οἶκος, νέμω (`to dispense, manage'); Hesychius ὁ τήν οἶκον νεμόμενος), the manager of a household or of household affairs; especially a steward, manager, superintendent (whether free-born, or, as was usually the case, a freed-man or slave) to whom the head of the house or proprietor has intrusted the management of his affairs, the care of receipts and expenditures, and the duty of dealing out the proper portion to every servant and even to the children not yet of age: Luke 12:42; 1 Corinthians 4:2; Galatians 4:2; the manager of a farm or landed estate, an overseer (A. V. steward): Luke 16:1, 3, 8; ὁ οἰκονόμος τῆς πόλεως, the superintendent of the city's finances, the treasurer of the city (Vulg. arcarius civitatis): Romans 16:23 (of the treasurers or quaestors of kings, Esther 8:9; 1 Esdr. 4:49; Josephus, Antiquities 12, 4, 7; 11, 6, 12; 8, 6, 4). Metaphorically, the apostles and other Christian teachers (see οἰκονομία) are called οἰκονόμους μυστηρίων τοῦ Θεοῦ, as those to whom the counsels of God have been committed to be made known to men: 1 Corinthians 4:1; a bishop (or overseer) is called οἰκονόμος Θεοῦ, of God as the head and master of the Christian theocracy (see οἶκος, 2), Titus 1:7; and any and every Christian who rightly uses the gifts intrusted to him by God for the good of his brethren, belongs to the class called καλοί οἰκονόμοι ποικίλης χάριτος Θεοῦ, 1 Peter 4:10. (Aeschylus, Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle, others; for עַל־בַּיִת the Sept. 1 Kings 4:6; 1 Kings 16:9, etc.)