Alex Is Not in the Bible — Alexander, the Name It Shortens, Is

Alex is not in the Bible, but Alexander, the name it most often shortens, is. Alexander comes from the Greek Alexandros, “defending men,” and the New Testament mentions men named Alexander in five passages.

What does Alex mean?

Alex is a short form of Alexander, Alexandra and other names that begin with Alex-. Alexander is the Latin form of the Greek Alexandros, made from alexo, “to defend, help,” and aner, “man,” so the name means “defending men.” Because it shortens both the masculine and the feminine names, Alex is given to boys and girls. Alexis is a separate Greek name built on the same verb.

Is Alex in the Bible?

The short form Alex does not occur in Scripture, and it has no Hebrew meaning, since the name is Greek. Alexander, though, appears in five New Testament passages:

• Simon of Cyrene, the man forced to carry the cross of Jesus, is called “the father of Alexander and Rufus” (Mark 15:21).
• An Alexander of the high priest’s family is present with Annas and Caiaphas when Peter and John are questioned (Acts 4:6).
• During the riot at Ephesus, the Jews in the crowd push an Alexander forward to speak. When the crowd realizes he is a Jew, they shout “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” for about two hours (Acts 19:33-34).
• Paul writes that he has handed Hymenaeus and Alexander “over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme” (1 Timothy 1:20).
• “Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm,” Paul writes in his second letter to Timothy (2 Timothy 4:14). He may be the same man as the Alexander of 1 Timothy.

Alexander the Great and the Bible

The most famous Alexander is not named in the New Testament, but he is named in the Bibles of Catholic and Orthodox Christians. The First Book of Maccabees opens with him: “After Alexander son of Philip, the Macedonian, who came from the land of Kittim, had defeated King Darius of the Persians and the Medes, he succeeded him as king” (1 Maccabees 1:1). Protestant Bibles do not include that book, though the “first king” of Greece in Daniel’s vision (Daniel 8:21) has traditionally been read as Alexander.

His conquests spread Greek across the eastern Mediterranean, and the common Greek of that world, called koine, is the language in which the New Testament was written. In Alexandria, the city he founded in Egypt, Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. That translation, the Septuagint, is the version the New Testament writers most often quote.

Is Alex a Christian name?

Alexander has been a Christian name since the early Church. Many early saints bore it, among them Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, who opposed Arius and took part in the Council of Nicaea in 325, and eight popes have taken it. Alex, as its short form, shares that history.

Related reading

• Sandra Is Not in the Bible — but Alexander Appears Five Times
• Alexis Is Not in the Bible — It Means “Helper”
• Is Your Name in the Bible? A Directory of 231 Names