κοιλία

κοιλία — koilía

κοιλία, κοιλίας, ἡ (κοῖλος hollow); the Sept. for בֶּטֶן, the belly; מֵעִים` the bowels; קֶרֶן, the interior, the midst of a thing; רֶחֶם, the womb; the belly: and

1. the whole belly, the entire cavity; hence ἡ ἄνω and ἡ κάτω κοιλία, the upper (i. e. the stomach) and the lower belly are distinguished; very often so in Greek writings from Herodotus down.

2. the lower belly, the alvine region, the receptacle of the excrement (Plutarch, symp. 7, 1, 3 under the end εἴπερ εἰς κοιλίαν ἐχώρει διά στομαχου πᾶν τό πινόμενον): Mat 15:17; Mar 7:19.

3. the gullet (Latinstomachus): Mat 12:40; Luk 15:16 (WH Tr marginal reading χορτασθῆναι ἐκ etc.); 1Co 6:13; Rev 10:9 f; δουλεύειν τῇ κοιλία, to be given up to the pleasures of the palate, to gluttony (see δουλεύω, 2 b.), Rom 16:18; also for ὧν ὁ Θεός ἡ κοιλία, Php 3:19; κοιλίας ὄρεξις, Sir 23:6.

4. the womb, the place where the foetus is conceived and nourished till birth: Luke 1:41f, 44; Luk 2:21; Luk 11:27; Luk 23:29; Joh 3:4 (very often so in the Sept.; very rarely in secular authors; Epictetus diss. 3, 22, 74; of the uterus of animals, ibid. 2, 16, 43); ἐκ (beginning from (see ἐκ, IV. 1)) κοιλίας μητρός, Mat 19:12; Luk 1:15; Act 3:2; Act 14:8; Gal 1:15, (for אֵם מִבֶּטֶן, Psa 21:11;; Job 1:21; Isa 49:1; Jdg 16:17 (the Vaticanus manuscript, ἀπό κοιλίας μητρός; cf. Winer's Grammar, 33 (32))).

5. in imitation of the Hebrew בֶּטֶן, tropically, the innermost part of a man, the soul, heart, as the seat of thought, feeling, choice (Job 15:35; Job 32:18 (the Sept. γαστήρ); Pro 18:8 (the Sept. ψυχή); (the Sept. σπλάγχνα); Hab 3:16; Sir 19:12 Sir 51:21): Joh 7:38.