# G3316 - mesites **Strong's:** [G3316](https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g3316/) · BLB lookup **Pronunciation:** mes-ee'-tace **Part of speech:** masculine noun **Root:** from *mesos* (μέσος, G3319), "middle" **NT occurrences:** six: [Galatians 3:19, 20](/codex/galatians-3-19-20/); [1 Timothy 2:5](/codex/1-timothy-2-5/); [Hebrews 8:6](/codex/hebrews-8-6/); [Hebrews 9:15](/codex/hebrews-9-15/); [Hebrews 12:24](/codex/hebrews-12-24/) ![Icon of Christ as King and Great High Priest, crowned and wearing bishop's vestments with crosses, blessing with his right hand and holding an open Gospel book](/codex/assets/christ-great-high-priest-damaskinos-icon.jpg) *Christ as "King of kings and Great High Priest," the mediator of a better covenant ([Hebrews 8:6](/codex/hebrews-8-6/)). Icon by Michael Damaskinos, second half of the 16th century, Byzantine and Christian Museum, Athens. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.* ## Semantic range (Thayer / BDAG) 1. **One who stands in the middle between two parties**, a go-between who brings estranged parties to agreement: mediator, arbiter, negotiator. 2. **A guarantor or surety** of an agreement, the one who stands behind its terms. In ordinary Hellenistic usage the word belonged to law and commerce: the arbiter in a dispute, the broker of a contract, the person who vouched for an agreement. The Septuagint uses it at [Job 9:33](/codex/job-9-33/), where Job laments that there is no "umpire" (ASV) between himself and God who could lay a hand on both. ## Theological force In the New Testament *mesitēs* is a covenant word. Every use concerns the relation between God and His people under a covenant, and four of the six name Jesus Christ. - **The Mosaic covenant.** The law "was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator" ([Galatians 3:19](/codex/galatians-3-19/), ASV), usually understood as Moses. Paul's next sentence, "a mediator is not a mediator of one; but God is one" ([Galatians 3:20](/codex/galatians-3-20/), ASV), is famously difficult; its general thrust is that the law came through an intermediary between two parties, while the promise to Abraham came from God directly. - **The one mediator.** "For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all" ([1 Timothy 2:5-6](/codex/1-timothy-2-5-6/), ASV). The two parallel uses of *heis* ("one") match the oneness of the mediator to the oneness of God, and the anarthrous *anthrōpos* stresses that the mediator is Himself human. Verse 6 defines His mediation by His self-giving as a ransom (*antilytron*; see [G3083 - lytron](/codex/g3083-lytron/)). - **The mediator of a better covenant.** Christ "is also the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises" ([Hebrews 8:6](/codex/hebrews-8-6/), ASV); "for this cause he is the mediator of a new covenant, that a death having taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, they that have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance" ([Hebrews 9:15](/codex/hebrews-9-15/), ASV); believers have come "to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling" ([Hebrews 12:24](/codex/hebrews-12-24/), ASV). In Hebrews the mediator is also the high priest and the sacrifice. See [New Covenant](/codex/new-covenant/) and [G1242 - diatheke](/codex/g1242-diatheke/). **Mediator and intercessor are different words.** The New Testament's intercession vocabulary is *entynchanō* ("to intercede," [Romans 8:27](/codex/romans-8-27/), [8:34](/codex/romans-8-34/); [Hebrews 7:25](/codex/hebrews-7-25/)), *hyperentynchanō* ("to intercede on behalf of," [Romans 8:26](/codex/romans-8-26/)) and the noun *enteuxis* ("intercession," [1 Timothy 2:1](/codex/1-timothy-2-1/)). *Mesitēs* is never used of believers praying for one another. In [1 Timothy 2](/codex/1-timothy-2/) the two vocabularies sit four verses apart: believers are told to offer *enteuxeis* for all people, because there is one *mesitēs*. The passage itself distinguishes interceding from mediating. See [Intercession of the Saints](/codex/intercession-of-the-saints/). **One, not only.** Moses is called a mediator in [Galatians 3:19](/codex/galatians-3-19/), so the noun is not reserved for Christ. What is unique in [1 Timothy 2:5](/codex/1-timothy-2-5/) is the scope ("between God and men," not between God and one nation) and the ground (a ransom "for all"). That role belongs to Christ alone. ## Notable verses - **[Galatians 3:19-20](/codex/galatians-3-19-20/)**, the law "ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator" - **[1 Timothy 2:5-6](/codex/1-timothy-2-5-6/)**, "one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus" - **[Hebrews 8:6](/codex/hebrews-8-6/)**, "the mediator of a better covenant" - **[Hebrews 9:15](/codex/hebrews-9-15/)**, "the mediator of a new covenant, that a death having taken place" - **[Hebrews 12:24](/codex/hebrews-12-24/)**, "Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and... the blood of sprinkling" ## See also - [Intercession of the Saints](/codex/intercession-of-the-saints/), where the one-mediator text is most often debated - [New Covenant](/codex/new-covenant/), the covenant Christ mediates - [G1242 - diatheke](/codex/g1242-diatheke/), the Greek word for covenant - [G3083 - lytron](/codex/g3083-lytron/), the ransom word family behind *antilytron* - [Christ the Savior](/codex/christ-the-savior/), the person who mediates - [Atonement](/codex/atonement/), the work on which His mediation rests