1. lineage running back to some progenitor, ancestry: Herodotus 2, 143; 3, 75.

2. a race or tribe, i. e. a group of families, all those who in a given people lay claim to a common origin: εἰσί ἀυτεων (Βαβυλωνίων) πατριαί τρεῖς, Herodotus 1, 200. The Israelites were distributed into (twelve) מַטּות, φυλαί, tribes, descended from the twelve sons of Jacob; these were divided into מִשְׁפָחות, πατριαί, deriving their descent from the several sons of Jacob's sons; and these in turn were divided into הָאָבות בֵּית, οἶκοι, houses (or families); cf. Gesenius, Thesaurus, i., p. 193; iii., p. 1463; Winer's RWB under the word Stämme; (Keil, Archaeol. § 140); hence, ἐξ οἴκου καί πατριᾶς Δαυίδ, i. e. belonging not only to the same 'house' (πατριά) as David, but to the very 'family' of David, descended from David himself, Luke 2:4 (αὗται αἱ πατριαί τῶν υἱῶν Συμεών, Exodus 6:15; ὁ ἀνήρ αὐτῆς Μανασσης τῆς φυλῆς αὐτῆς καί τῆς πατριᾶς αὐτῆς, Judith 8:2; τῶν φυλῶν κατά πατριᾶς αὐτῶν, Numbers 1:16; οἶκοι πατριῶν, Exodus 12:3; Numbers 1:2, and often; add, Josephus, Antiquities 6, 4, 1; 7, 14, 7; 11, 3, 10).

3. family in a wider sense, equivalent to nation, people: Acts 3:25 (1 Chronicles 16:28; Psalm 21:28 ()); πᾶσα πατριά ἐν οὐρανοῖς (i. e. every order of angels) καί ἐπί γῆς, Ephesians 3:15.