Word studies · Greek · Strong's G4166
ποιμήν · poimḗn · appears 18 times in the New Testament
In one line: One who feeds, leads and protects God's flock.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
John 10:11
Poimēn is a shepherd — one who feeds, leads and defends a flock, and the title Jesus takes for Himself.
The New Testament uses poimēn for literal shepherds, for Jesus as “the good shepherd” who lays down His life for the sheep, and for those who care for God's people. The work it names is unglamorous and constant: feeding, finding strays, and standing between the flock and what would harm it.
Poimēn is an old Greek word of uncertain derivation, used from Homer onward — and long applied to kings, since ruling was pictured as pasturing a people. The Old Testament uses that same image for God and indicts Israel's leaders as shepherds who fed themselves instead of the flock, which is the background Jesus steps into.
English separates “shepherd” and “pastor,” but in Greek they are one word: Ephesians 4:11 calls the same person a poimēn that John 10 calls a shepherd. The office is not an office at all in the Greek — it is a job description involving sheep.
Poimēn (G4166) appears just 18 times in the New Testament, and only once — in Ephesians 4:11 — do English versions render it “pastor.”
Jesus claiming the shepherd image takes up a title Scripture reserves for God Himself, and then redefines it by dying for the flock. Leadership in the church is measured against that: shepherds under the Chief Shepherd, accountable for sheep that were never theirs.
If you lead anyone — a family, a group, a team — ask whether you are feeding them or feeding on them. Name one person in your care this week whose good you can seek at cost to yourself.
a shepherd (literally or figuratively)
When He saw the crowds, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Matthew 9:36When Jesus stepped ashore and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And He began to teach them many things.
Mark 6:34And there were shepherds residing in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night.
Luke 2:8But the one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
John 10:2And it was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,
Ephesians 4:11Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,
Hebrews 13:20Press and hold shepherd in any chapter and this study opens on the verse you are reading, with the lexicons, every occurrence and the commentaries beside it. The Bible is free to read.
Scripture quoted from the Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Strong's definitions are public domain. Counts come from The Pillar's own tagged text.