Cholos (G5560) means lame or crippled — unable to walk normally. It appears 14 times in the NT, typically in accounts of healing miracles. The lame (choloi) are among the primary recipients of Jesus's healing (Matt 11:5, 15:30-31, 21:14) and apostolic healing (Acts 3:2-11, 8:7, 14:8-10). John 5:3 mentions the multitude of invalids at the pool of Bethesda including the lame. In the Kingdom context, the lame walking is a sign of messianic fulfillment (Isa 35:6: 'the lame man shall leap like a deer').
The healing of the lame in the NT is not merely physical — it is eschatological fulfillment. When Isaiah prophesied that in the messianic age 'the lame man shall leap like a deer' (Isa 35:6), he described the comprehensive restoration that God's kingdom would bring. Every healing of a cholos in the Gospels and Acts is a foretaste of that complete restoration. Jesus's answer to John the Baptist's question ('Are you the one?') specifically cited the walking of the lame as evidence (Matt 11:5, Luke 7:22). The healing of the lame man at the Beautiful Gate (Acts 3) — 'walking and leaping and praising God' — echoes Isaiah 35 almost verbatim. Every cholos healed is a sign that the King has come.