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1 Timothy 3:1 — Word Study

Depth

N1904Πιστὸς λόγος· εἴ τις ἐπισκοπῆς ὀρέγεται, καλοῦ ἔργου ἐπιθυμεῖ.

BSATrustworthy [is]pistos [faithful, reliable] theho saying:logos Ifei anyonetis [one who seeks] overseershipepiskopē [bishop, elder] aspires to,oregō [reaches out after, longs for] of goodkalos [good, honorable] a workergon [work, occupation] he is desirous.epithumeō [sets his heart on, has a strong desire for]

Word
Listen & take away1 Timothy 3
English ↓ Download MP3 The Berean Standard Bible chapter audio already hosted for the site's Bible section — verse 1 opens the chapter.
Say the word Each Greek word carries its transliteration (epithumeō) — no per-word recordings of the Greek exist to link to.
Take it away
1 Timothy 3:1quick helps
In a sentencePaul states that aspiring to be an overseer is a commendable pursuit.
Who is speakingThe Apostle Paul, addressing Timothy and the church.
Where we are1 Timothy 3 outlines the qualifications for church leaders.
The hard wordἐπισκοπή
Take awayAspiring to leadership in the church is a noble ambition.
8 commentators on this verse Gill, Jamieson, Poole, Trapp & more — read them › clause subjectπιστός verbὀρέγω The sentence as the grammar sees it Open the tree ›
How rare are these words?in the New Testament

Every word here is used elsewhere in the New Testament.

Bars are logarithmic — , the commonest word in the Greek New Testament, stands 19,867 times, so a linear scale would leave everything else invisible. Click a row to open that word.

Deep Study — 1 Timothy 3:1

Sections marked generated are written from the data on this page rather than by a named author. Everything else — the lexicon entries, the cross references, the manuscript readings, the counts — is quoted from its source unchanged.

Context — Qualifications for Overseersgenerated

1This is a trustworthy saying: If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble task.
2An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
3not dependent on wine, not violent but gentle, peaceable, and free of the love of money.
4An overseer must manage his own household well and keep his children under control, with complete dignity.

1 Timothy 3:1 presents a trustworthy statement regarding the role of overseers in the church. Paul emphasizes that anyone who aspires to this position desires a noble task, setting the stage for the qualifications that follow in the subsequent verses. This passage serves as a guide for the church in selecting leaders who are fit for the responsibilities of oversight and care for the community.


Cross References

ReferenceText (BSB)
11 Timothy 1:15This is a trustworthy saying, worthy of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.
21 Timothy 4:9This is a trustworthy saying, worthy of full acceptance.
32 Timothy 2:11This is a trustworthy saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him;
4Titus 3:8This saying is trustworthy. And I want you to emphasize these things, so that those who have believed God will take care to devote themselves to good deeds. These things are excellent and profitable for the people.
51 Timothy 3:2–7An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,

The Key Word ἐπισκοπή, episkopēgenerated

The term ἐπισκοπή refers to the role of oversight, often translated as 'overseer' or 'bishop.' It is derived from the verb ἐπισκοπέω, which means to watch over or visit. The parsing indicates that it is a feminine noun in the genitive case, suggesting that it denotes the office or function of overseeing.

In the context of church leadership, this word encompasses both the responsibilities of guiding the congregation and the authority that comes with the role. It highlights the importance of spiritual oversight and the care required in fulfilling such a position.


How Translations Differ — measured against the Berean Standard Biblegenerated

The verse is rendered in the Berean Standard Bible as 'This is a trustworthy saying: If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble task.' This wording is consistent across several translations, including the KJV and ASV, which also affirm the nobility of the task.

However, differences arise in the rendering of specific terms. For example, ἐπισκοπῆς is translated as 'bishop' in the KJV and ASV, while the BSB uses 'overseer.' Additionally, the word 'noble' is rendered as 'good' in several versions, indicating a slight variation in the emphasis of the term.


Sentence Structuregenerated

The main clause is introduced by the finite verb ἐπιθυμεῖ, he desires, which governs the entire statement. It is supported by a conditional clause introduced by εἴ, if, and a noun phrase that specifies what is desired: ἐπισκοπῆς, overseership.

This structure clearly establishes the relationship between aspiring to leadership and the noble nature of the task, emphasizing the significance of the aspiration itself.


Septuagint Backgroundgenerated

ἐπισκοπή does not appear in the Septuagint; however, it relates to the Hebrew word פָּקַד (H6485), which means to attend to or visit. This connection highlights the biblical theme of oversight and care, both in the Old and New Testaments.

The concept of oversight in the church reflects the divine oversight described in the Hebrew Scriptures, where leaders are called to care for the people entrusted to them.


In plain words — the whole versegenerated

1 Timothy 3:1 states that anyone who wants to be an overseer desires a noble task. This means that the role of an overseer is important and should be approached with seriousness and commitment.


Frequently Asked Questionsgenerated

What does it mean to aspire to be an overseer?

To aspire to be an overseer means to have a strong desire to take on the responsibilities of leadership and care within the church community.

Why is being an overseer considered a noble task?

Being an overseer is considered noble because it involves guiding and nurturing the spiritual well-being of others, reflecting the heart of service and sacrifice.

What qualifications are needed for an overseer?

Qualifications for an overseer include being above reproach, self-controlled, hospitable, and able to teach, as outlined in the verses following this one.

How can someone prepare for the role of overseer?

Preparation for the role of overseer involves spiritual growth, understanding biblical teachings, and developing leadership qualities through service and mentorship.


Reflection Questionsgenerated

  1. What qualities do you think are essential for someone in a leadership position in the church?
  2. How can aspiring leaders ensure they are pursuing this role for the right reasons?
  3. In what ways can the church support individuals who desire to become overseers?
  4. What challenges might someone face when taking on the role of an overseer, and how can they prepare for them?

The early church on this verse — how the Fathers read it

Early church writings reference this verse to discuss the qualifications and responsibilities of church leaders, emphasizing the importance of character and service.

DidacheThe Didache, Chapter 15 c. 100
Appoint, therefore, for yourselves, bishops and deacons worthy of the Lord, men meek, and not lovers of money, and truthful and proved; for they also render to you the service of prophets and teachers.
Early Church Fathers on 1 Timothy 3 →
TertullianA Treatise on the Soul c. 155–220
To ourselves even does the apostle allow the concupiscible quality. "If any man," says he, "desireth the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work." Now, by saying "a good work," he shows us that the desire is a reasonable one.
Early Church Fathers on 1 Timothy 3 →
TertullianOn Exhortation to Chastity c. 155–220
Thence, therefore, among us the prescript is more fully and more carefully laid down, that they who are chosen into the sacerdotal order must be men of one marriage;
Early Church Fathers on 1 Timothy 3 →

Commentators on this verse — 8 expositors, verse by verse

Each of these wrote on 1 Timothy 3:1 itself, not merely on the chapter around it.

John Gill1697–1771Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

This is a true saying,.... Some think this clause belongs to the last verse of the preceding chapter; and then the sense is, this is a doctrine that is true, and to be believed, that there is

Read John Gill on 1 Timothy 3 →
Robert Jamieson1802–1880Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary

This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.

Read Robert Jamieson on 1 Timothy 3 →
Matthew Poole1624–1679Matthew Poole's Commentary on the Holy Bible

1 TIMOTHY CHAPTER 3 The office of a bishop is to be esteemed a good work. The qualifications requisite in a bishop, and in deacons. ,15 Why Paul wrote these instructions to Timothy. The important truths of the Christian revelation. This is a true saying; pistov, a faithful saying, that which none can dispute, of which none ought to doubt. If a man desire the office of a bishop; if a man desire any office to which belongs an oversight of the church of God. The Greek word episkoph signifies in the general an oversight of others; here the following discourse restrains it to an oversight of persons and affairs in the church. The apostle by this phrase determines this employment lawful, and…

Read Matthew Poole on 1 Timothy 3 →
John Trapp1601–1669Trapp's Complete Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

1 This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. Ver. 1. If a man desire] As no woman, so neither may every man desire the office of a minister, but such only as are gifted and fitted for such a service. He desireth a good work] But a hard work. The ministry is not an idle man’ s occupation, but a sore labour; Onus ipsis etiam angelis tremendum, saith Chrysostom, a burden too heavy for an angel’ s shoulders; a pains nothing short of that of a travailing woman, saith Melancthon after Paul, Galatians 4:19. There were those who read this text thus, Quicunque desiderat episcopatum bonum, opes desiderat. But this was a foul mistake at best. That is a good…

Read John Trapp on 1 Timothy 3 →
Charles John Ellicott1819–1905Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

III. (1) This is a true saying.—There is no reason why the rendering of this formula adopted in 1 Timothy 1:15, “faithful is this saying,” should be altered here. The “faithful saying” here refers to the wish for high and arduous work in the Church of Christ, and declares such a wish to be a noble one; for the office in question was a beautiful one, and honourable, and in those days meant stern and ceaseless work, grave and constant danger. It was no doubt one of the well-known sayings among the brethren of the first days, and not improbably, with the other “faithful sayings” of this group of Epistles, formed a part of their liturgy, and was woven into some of their special prayers offered…

Read Charles John Ellicott on 1 Timothy 3 →
AdamClarkeAdam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible

CHAPTER III. Concerning bishops, their qualifications and work, 1-7. Of deacons, and how they should be proved, 8-10. Of their wives and children, and how they should be governed, 11-13. How Timothy should behave himself in the Church, 14, 15. The great mystery of godliness, 16. NOTES ON CHAP. III. Verse 1. This is a true saying] πιστοςολογος. This is a true doctrine. These words are joined to the last verse of the preceding chapter by several of the Greek fathers, and by them referred to the doctrine there stated. The office of a bishop] επισκοπης. The episcopacy, overseership or superintendency. The word ορεγεται, which we translate desire, signifies earnest, eager, passionate desire; and…

Read AdamClarke on 1 Timothy 3 →
CambridgeThe Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

1–7. The duties and characters of Bishops or PresbytersFollowing the directions concerning the general arrangements for public worship come instructions as to the character and qualifications of the appointed ministers, the presbyterate, and the diaconate (male and female). These are introduced by a well-known saying among them, declared to be ‘faithful’ or ‘trustworthy.’ See Appendix, E.

Read Cambridge on 1 Timothy 3 →
Albert Barnes1798–1870Barnes' Notes on the Bible

This is a trite saying - Greek, “Faithful is the word” - the very phrase which is used in 1 Timothy 1:15; see the notes on that verse. The idea here is, that it was worthy of credence; it was not to be doubted.

Read Albert Barnes on 1 Timothy 3 →

The verse in English, compared — 16 translations, and where they part company

Every translation on this page is a decision someone had to make and commit to. Read down a column and you see one translator's judgement; read across a row and you see the range the Greek actually allows. The BSB is the wording the rest of this page is measured against, so it is listed first.

Modern formal

BSBBerean Standard Bible2020

This is a trustworthy saying: If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble task.

WEBWorld English Bible2000

This is a faithful saying: someone who seeks to be an overseer desires a good work.

MSBMajority Standard Bible2022

This is a trustworthy saying: If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble task.

NETBNew English Translation2006

This saying is trustworthy: “If someone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a good work.”

Tyndale line

KJVKing James Version1611

This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.

ASVAmerican Standard Version1901

Faithful is the saying, If a man seeketh the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.

RVARevised Version, American1894

Faithful is the saying, If a man seeketh the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.

NWBWebster's Bible1833

This is a true saying, If a man desireth the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.

GNVGeneva Bible1599

This is a true saying, If any man desire the office of a Bishop, he desireth a worthie worke.

Strictly literal

DBYDarby Translation1890

The word [is] faithful: if any one aspires to exercise oversight, he desires a good work.

YLTYoung's Literal Translation1862

Stedfast [is] the word: If any one the oversight doth long for, a right work he desireth;

LSVLiteral Standard Version2020

The word [is] steadfast: If anyone longs for overseership, he desires a right work;

ULBUnlocked Literal Bible2017

This saying is trustworthy: If someone desires to be an overseer, he desires a good work.

From the Latin

DRADouay-Rheims (Challoner)1899

A faithful saying: if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.

Simplified

FBVFree Bible Version2020

This is a trustworthy statement: “If someone aspires to be an elder, this is a good work to want to do.”

BBEBible in Basic English1949

This is a true saying, A man desiring the position of a Bishop has a desire for a good work.

Word by word, the decisions they made

Πιστὸςpistos Trustworthy [is] G4103 2 different renderings
faithfulASV DBY DRA RVA WEB
trustworthyBSB FBV MSB NETB ULB
λόγος·logos saying: G3056 3 different renderings
sayingASV BBE BSB DRA GNV KJV MSB NETB NWB RVA ULB WEB
wordDBY LSV YLT
statementFBV
ἐπισκοπῆςepiskopē overseership G1984 4 different renderings
bishopASV DRA GNV KJV NWB RVA
overseershipLSV
elderFBV
positionBBE
ὀρέγεται,oregō aspires to, G3713 2 different renderings
aspires toBSB DBY FBV MSB NETB
longs forLSV
καλοῦkalos of good G2570 2 different renderings
goodASV BBE DBY DRA FBV KJV NETB NWB RVA ULB WEB
rightLSV YLT
ἐπιθυμεῖ.epithumeō he is desirous. G1937 2 different renderings
desiresBSB DBY LSV MSB NETB ULB WEB
desireBBE DRA GNV KJV

Counted from the translations carried on this site, not from a survey of every English Bible. A rendering shared by many versions is usually inherited rather than independently arrived at — the Tyndale line in particular runs through most of them.


The sentence as the grammar sees it — from the Nestle 1904 treebank

This is not our own analysis: it is the scholarly syntax tree for the verse, showing how the clause actually holds together.

clausepredicateΠιστὸςTrustworthy [is]noun phrase · subjecttheλόγοςsayingclauseclauseεἴIfclausesubjectτιςanyoneobjectἐπισκοπῆςoverseershipverbὀρέγεταιaspires toclausenoun phrase · objectκαλοῦof goodἔργουa workverbἐπιθυμεῖhe is desirous

Boxes are the grammarian's groupings — clause, noun phrase, prepositional phrase.


The earliest translations — Latin and Syriac

Every translation is an argument about meaning made by someone who had to commit to one. These two were made while the Greek was still a living language, and they are the oldest opinions we have about what this verse says.

Latin VulgateAD 382–405

Fidelis sermo : si quis episcopatum desiderat, bonum opus desiderat.

Jerome revised the Old Latin against the Greek from AD 382; the Latin west read this text for a thousand years.

Syriac Peshittaby AD 400

ܡܗܝܡܢܐ ܗܝ ܡܠܬܐ ܕܐܢ ܐܢܫ ܪܐܓ ܩܫܝܫܘܬܐ ܥܒܕܐ ܛܒܐ ܪܐܓ

The Bible of the Syriac-speaking church, in the language nearest to the Aramaic Jesus spoke.

Shown verse by verse rather than word by word: aligning a Greek word to its Latin or Syriac counterpart automatically would be guesswork, and a wrong alignment is worse than none.


The Greek editions compared — what the manuscripts actually say

Eight printed editions of the Greek New Testament, side by side. Where they agree the wording is settled; where a word is missing from an edition it is marked, so you can see the difference rather than take it on trust.

Nestle-Aland 28th edition2012 · Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft

Πιστὸς λόγος· εἴ τις ἐπισκοπῆς ὀρέγεται, καλοῦ ἔργου ἐπιθυμεῖ.

The standard critical text of the New Testament.

Nestle-Aland 27th edition1993 · Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft

Πιστὸς λόγος· εἴ τις ἐπισκοπῆς ὀρέγεται, καλοῦ ἔργου ἐπιθυμεῖ.

The previous edition, still widely cited.

SBL Greek New Testament2010 · Michael Holmes

Πιστὸς λόγος· εἴ τις ἐπισκοπῆς ὀρέγεται, καλοῦ ἔργου ἐπιθυμεῖ.

The Society of Biblical Literature edition, freely licensed.

Westcott–Hort1881 · Westcott and Hort

Πιστὸς λόγος· εἴ τις ἐπισκοπῆς ὀρέγεται, καλοῦ ἔργου ἐπιθυμεῖ.

The edition that turned scholarship toward the earliest manuscripts.

Tregelles1857–1879 · Samuel Prideaux Tregelles

Πιστὸς λόγος· εἴ τις ἐπισκοπῆς ὀρέγεται, καλοῦ ἔργου ἐπιθυμεῖ.

An independent critical text built from the oldest witnesses then known.

Tyndale House Greek NT2017 · Tyndale House, Cambridge

Πιστὸς λόγος· εἴ τις ἐπισκοπῆς ὀρέγεται, καλοῦ ἔργου ἐπιθυμεῖ.

A recent critical edition following documentary evidence closely.

Byzantine majority text2018 · Robinson–Pierpont

Πιστὸς λόγος· εἴ τις ἐπισκοπῆς ὀρέγεται, καλοῦ ἔργου ἐπιθυμεῖ.

The reading of the majority of surviving manuscripts.

Textus Receptus1550/1894 lineage

Πιστὸς λόγος· εἴ τις ἐπισκοπῆς ὀρέγεται, καλοῦ ἔργου ἐπιθυμεῖ.

The printed tradition behind the King James Version.

Every witness on this verse all agree
Critical editions
Nestle-Aland 28th edition2012Nestle-Aland 27th edition1993SBL Greek New Testament2010Westcott–Hort1881Tregelles1857–1879Tyndale House Greek NT2017
Byzantine / Majority
Byzantine majority text2018
Received Text
Textus Receptus1550/1894

A witness that read differently would show its variant word here, marked.

Word by word, across the editions

Every edition agrees. All 8 printed editions — Nestle-Aland 28, Nestle-Aland 27, SBLGNT, Westcott-Hort, Tregelles, Tyndale House 2017, Textus Receptus (KJV), Byzantine majority — carry every word of this verse, in the same order, with no difference that any translator would render differently.


The map of this verse — what each word keeps company with

This is a map of two things, both counted rather than judged. Company kept: which words stand within three words of each of these, anywhere in the Greek New Testament — the thicker the line, the more often the pair meet compared with chance. Built from: the words a word is made out of, taken from its own Strong’s entry. It is not a map of meaning: nothing here claims two words mean the same thing. Click any circle to see the numbers behind it.

1 Timothy 3:1πιστόςTrustworthyTrustworthy [isπιστόςthetheλόγοςsaying:saying:λόγοςεἰIfIfεἰτὶςanyoneanyoneτὶςἐπισκοπήoverseershioverseershipἐπισκοπήὀρέγωaspires to,aspires to,ὀρέγωκαλόςof goodof goodκαλόςἔργονa worka workἔργονἐπιθυμέωhe is desirhe is desirous.ἐπιθυμέωπείθωv. I persuv. I persuade, πείθωλέγωv. I say, v. I say, speakλέγωεἰ δὲ μήNeg.prt. bNeg.prt. but ifεἰ δὲ μήἐπισκέπτομαιv. I look v. I look upon,ἐπισκέπτομαιἀγαθόςAdj goodAdj goodἀγαθόςἐπίPrep. on, Prep. on, to, aἐπίὄροςn.n. a moun.n. a mountainὄροςἀληθινόςAdj true, Adj true, real,ἀληθινόςμάρτυςn.m. a witn.m. a witnessμάρτυςτηρέωv. I keep,v. I keep, guarτηρέωσοφίαn.f. wisdon.f. wisdomσοφίαδυνατόςAdj powerfAdj powerful, aδυνατόςτολμάωv. I dare,v. I dare, enduτολμάωδοκέωv. I thinkv. I think, seeδοκέωτὶςIndef.pr. Indef.pr. any oτὶςποιμήνn.m. a shen.m. a shepherdποιμήνκαρπόςn.m. fruitn.m. fruit, resκαρπόςδικαιόωv. I make v. I make rightδικαιόω
meets it a little oftener than chancemeets it far oftener than chancebuilt from the same roottwo words of the verse share ita word of this versea related word

Lexicons — every word in 1 Timothy 3:1

One dossier per word, with every reference work grouped by kind — Greek lexicons, morphology, Bible dictionaries, topical chains and the English of the translators themselves. The verse sits at the head of each block with the word under study lit, so you never lose your place. The panel above gives the short answer; this is the long one, and it is the part of the page worth indexing.

Every entry below is the lexicographer's own text. Imported from the CrossWire SWORD modules — Abbott-Smith, the full Liddell-Scott-Jones, Strong's, Dodson, the Intermediate LSJ, Robinson and Packard on the Greek, Webster and Cawdrey on the English the translators were using. Where a cell says a work has no entry, that work genuinely has none for this word.

Trustworthy [is] the saying: If anyone overseership aspires to, of good a work he is desirous.
Πιστὸςpistos Trustworthy [is] G4103 Adjective · nominative · singular · masculine
67× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in 1 Timothy than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
Being faithful or trustworthy is what this word means, as seen in Matthew 24:45 and 1 Corinthians 4:2. It describes someone who is loyal and dependable, like the apostles in the Bible.
Amplified meaning
faithful, reliable
Tyndale gloss
faithful
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

πιστός is an adjective meaning trustworthy or faithful, derived from the root πείθω. It describes both people and things, indicating reliability and trustworthiness, as seen in various New Testament passages like Matthew 24:45 and 2 Timothy 2:2. The word can also denote a believer, someone who trusts in God or is convinced of Jesus' resurrection. Notably, Liddell-Scott-Jones highlights its use in classical literature, while Moulton & Milligan note its rare active sense of 'trusting' in the New Testament.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

πιστός, -ή, -όν

(< πείθω),

[in LXX chiefly for נֶאֱמָן;]

Pass., to be trusted or believed;

of persons, trusty, faithful: Mt 24:45 25:21, 23, Lk 12:42, Ac 16:15, I Co 4:2, 17 7:25, Eph 1:1 6:21, Col 1:2, 7 4:7, 9, I Ti 1:12, II Ti 2:2, He 2:17 3:2, 5, I Pe 5:12, Re 2:13 19:11; of God, I Co…

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Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament from a scan

πιστός, -7, -όν, (πείθω [q. v-]), [fr. Hom. down], Sept. mostly for 1232}; 1. trusty, faithful; of persons who show themselves faithful in the transaction of business, the execution of commands, or the discharge of official duties: δοῦλος, Mt. xxiv. 45; xxv. 21, 23; οἰκονόpos, Lk. xii. 42; 1 Co. iv. 2; διάκονος, Eph. vi. 21; Col. i. 7; iv. 7; ἀρχιερεύς, Heb. ii. 17; iii. 2; of God, abiding by his promises, 1 Co.i.9; x.13; 2Co.i. 18; 1 Th. v. 24; 2 Th. ii. 8; Heb. x. 23: xi. 11; 2 Tim. 1. 13; Avdneds 9: 1 Pet. 1v. 19% add, 1 Co.ave 17; Colsava 9s 1 Tim. i. 12; Heb. iii. 5; 1 Pet. v. 12; πιστὸς ἔν τινι, in a thing, Lk. xvi. 10-12; xix. 17; 1 Tim. iii. 11; ἐπί τι, Mt. xxv. 23; ἄχρι θανάτου, Rev. ii. 10. one who kept his plighted faith, Rev. ii. 13; worthy of trust; that can be relied on: 1 Co. vii. 25; 2 Tim. ii. 2; Christ is called μάρτυς ὁ πιστός, Rev. i. 5; with καὶ ἀληθινός added, Rev.…

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Moulton & Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek Testament from a scan

πιστός. For πιστός, ‘‘ faithful,” ‘‘ trustworthy,” as generally in the NT, cf. P Grenf II. 7312 (late iii/A.D.) (= Selections, p- 118) τ]αύτην παραδέδωκα τοῖς καλοῖς kal πιστοῖς ἐξ αὐτῶν τῶν νεκροτάφων εἰς τήρησιν, “1 have handed her over to the good and faithful men among the grave-diggers themselves that they may take care of her” (cf. Mt 2574), and P Oxy I. 4159 (iii/iv A.D.) ἁγνοὶ πιστοὶ σύνδικοι, “true and trustworthy advocates.” In a deed of sale of a slave, published by Eitrem (S#/avenkauf, Christiania, 1916), the slave is described as 27 πιστοῦ kal adpdcrov, ‘faithful and not given to running away.’’ A petitioner for release from prison οὕνεκα Tod θεοῦ kal τοῦ καλῶς ἔχοντος, “in the name of God and of fair play,’’ describes himself, P Petr II. 19(1a)4, as δοὺς τὰ πιστά, with reference apparently to certain required ‘‘ pledges”: cf. BGU IV. 115276 (B.C. 10) οὗ τὰ] πιστὰ (reading…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

πιστός (pistos) — faithful.

πιστός, ή, όν,

(πείθω):

__B passive, to be trusted or believed:

__B.I of persons, faithful, trusty, ἑταῖρος [Refs 8th c.BC+]: comparative -ότερος [Refs 5th c.BC+]: superlative πιστότατος [Refs 8th c.BC+] a trusted friend of P., Ergias cited in [Refs 4th c.BC+]; οἱ πιστοί, in Persia, trusty councillors, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; τάδε Περσῶν πιστὰ καλεῖται [Refs 4th c.BC+]

__B.I.2 trustworthy, worthy of credit, [Refs 5th c.BC+]. adverb, - τῶς καὶ ἀδόλως [Refs]

__B.I.3 genuine, π. Ἀταλάντης γόνος [Refs 5th c.BC+]; Θηρικλέους π. τέκνον, of a cup, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; unmistakable, νόσοι πονηραὶ καὶ π. [LXX]

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

πιστός

pistos

from 3982; objectively, trustworthy; subjectively,

trustful:--believe(-ing, -r), faithful(-ly), sure, true.

see GREEK for 3982

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

πιστός, ή, όν

Adj

trustworthy, faithful, believing

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

πιστός pistos 67x

faithful, true, trusty, Mt. 24:45; 25:21, 23; Lk. 12:42; 2 Tim. 2:2; put in trust, 1 Cor. 7:25; true, veracious, Rev. 1:5; 2:13; credible, sure, certain, indubitable, Acts 13:34; 1 Tim. 1:15; believing, yielding belief and confidence, Jn. 20:27; Gal. 3:9; spc. a Christian believer, Acts 10:45; 16:1, 15; Read the full entry →

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Adj-NSM — Adjective · nominative · singular · masculine
nominative — the one doing it — the subject.
Agrees with anything else marked singular masculine.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

A-NSM Part of Speech: Adjective Case: Nominative Number: Singular Gender: Masculine

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
68%faithful
faithful68% · 46×believing12% · 8×trustworthy9% · 6×believers4% · 3×faithful!3% · 2×other renderings4% · 3×

68 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 8 different ways. The commonest English word for it is not its meaning — it is one translator's decision, repeated.

What it does in the sentencefrom the Nestle 1904 treebank
predicate54%subject13%adverbial12%object9%indirect object6%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 67 occurrences — a word inside a phrase counts towards whatever that phrase is doing.

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
Article the
εἰμίI am, existμάρτυςa witnessΔαυίδProp
καίand, even, also, nam
ἀγαθόςgoodἀδελφόςa brotherἀγαπητόςloved, beloved
εἰμίI am, exist
ὀλίγος& Advὅς
ἐγώ
κρίνωI judge, decide,ἁμαρτίαa sin
ὅτιthat, since, because
ἐγώδουλεύωI am a slave, am
πιστόςTrustworthy [is]67×
what comes after →
Article the
λόγοςa word, speech, κύριοςlord, Lord, mastθεόςGod, a god
ἐν
ἐλάχιστοςleast, smallest,κύριοςlord, Lord, mastΧριστόςanointed, the Me
καίand, even, also, nam
ἀληθινόςtrue, real, genuἀγαπητόςloved, belovedἐπιγινώσκωI come to know,
εἰμίI am, exist
καίand, even, also,Article the
ἐπί
ὀλίγος& Advπολύςmuch, many, ofte

branches are dictionary forms, so endings do not split one phrase into five; the number on a branch is how many times the New Testament takes that path

Concordanceπιστός · 67× in the New Testament
1 Timothy Revelation Luke 1 Corinthians Hebrews Matthew Acts Colossians 1 Peter 2 Timothy Titus 2 Corinthians
Across the New Testament19 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 29 Old Testament verses where this Greek word stands: which Hebrew word keeps standing there too. A correspondence of verses rather than a word-by-word alignment, so read the percentage as strength of evidence, not as a claim about any single verse.

Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
Josephus Philo of Alexandria Clement of Rome The Shepherd of Hermas Ignatius of Antioch
Philo of AlexandriaAllegorical Interpretation of Genesis 2.67c. AD 40

ὄντως γὰρ ἀναίσχυντος καὶ θρασεῖα ἡ αἴσθησις, ἣ ἐξουθενηθεῖσα ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ πατρὸς παρὰ τὸν πιστὸν ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ οἴκῳ (ibid.

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 6.256c. AD 75–95

πολέμιον γὰρ σὸν οὐκ εἰδέναι ἔφασκε, πιστὸν δὲ ἐν τοῖς μάλιστα δοῦλον καὶ χιλίαρχον καὶ τὸ τούτων μεῖζον γαμβρόν τε ἤδη καὶ συγγενῆ.

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 11.5c. AD 100

καί: τὸ ὕδωρ αὐτοῦ πιστόν: βασιλέα μετὰ δόξης ὄψεσθε, καὶ ἡ ψυχὴ ὑμῶν μελετήσει φόβον κυρίου

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
8th c. AD 3rd c. AD 6th c. AD 2nd c. AD 4th c. AD

κέχρησαι τὸ κερμάτιον, οὐ δὲ φάσιν ἀπέστειλας ἐμοί. ἐγὼ γὰρ μή εἰ ἤδη ὅτι πιστὸς εἶ οὐκ ἂν ἔχρησά σοι. εἰδὼς τὴν σὴν πίστιν οὐδενὶ ἔδωκα τὸ γράμμα. ἄν

O.Krok. 2 267KrokodiloAD 98–AD 117

ὡς ἐπίτροπος · εἰ μὲν ηὕρηκες μίσθωμα αὐτῇ εἰς Διδύμους, ἀσφάλισον σεαυτῷ λίαν παρὰ πιστὸν ἄνθρωπον ἵνα μὴ αὐτὴν ὑβρίσωσιν· ἐὰν ποιῄσεις μοι μικρόν τι, ἀνταποδώσω σοι καὶ πάντοτε

O.Did. 402DidymoiAD 110–AD 115

μὲν ἔλθῃς ὑγιαίνουσα, οἴσεις μοι αὐτὴ τὸ τετράδερμα, εἰ δὲ μή, πέμψεις μοι διὰ πιστοῦ τινος ἐπεὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ οὐ δύναμαι μένειν. εὐχαριστῶ α … φησαπολ ἔρρωσο. τε προσα

Trustworthy [is] the saying: If anyone overseership aspires to, of good a work he is desirous.
ho the G3588 Article · nominative · singular · masculine
19,783× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in 1 Timothy as anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
The Greek word for 'the' or 'this', used to point out a specific person or thing, like in Acts 17:28. It can also mean 'he', 'she', or 'it'.
Tyndale gloss
the/this/who
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The definite article — the commonest word in the Greek New Testament at 19,867 occurrences. Greek uses it more freely than English does and can drop it deliberately, so its presence and its absence both carry weight for a translator; but no single occurrence carries a message of its own. Here it simply gathers “the things” into one definite bundle.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

ὁ, ἡ, τό,

the prepositive article (ἄρθρον προτακτικόν), originally a demonstr. pron. (so usually in Hom.), in general corresponding to the Eng. definite article.

As demonstr. pron.

As freq. in Hom., absol., he (she, it), his (etc.): Ac 17:28 (quoted from the poet Aratus).

Distributive, ὁ μὲν . . . ὁ δέ, the one . . . the other: I Co 7:7, Ga 4:22; pl., Ac 14:4, 17:32, Phl 1:16, al.; οἱ μὲν . . . ἄλλοι δέ, Mt 16:14, Jo 7:12; οἱ μεν̀ . . . ὁ δέ, He 7:21, 23.

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Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament from a scan

ὁ 435 ὁ tives of quantity, ὅλος, πᾶς, πολύς, see each in its own place. d. What has been said concerning adjectives holds true also of all other limitations added to substantives, as ἡ κατ᾽ ἐκλογὴν πρόθεσις, Ro. ix. 11; ἡ παρ᾽ ἐμοῦ διαθήκη, Ro. xi. 27; 6 λόγος 6 τοῦ σταυροῦ, 1 Co. i. 18; ἡ εἰς Χριστὸν πίστις, Col. ii. 5; on the other hand, ἡ πίστις ὑμῶν ἡ πρὸς τὸν θεόν, 1 Th. i. 8; τῆς διακονίας τῆς εἰς τοὺς ἁγίους, 2 Co. viii. 4; see many other exx. of each usage in W. 131 (124) sqq.; [B. 91 (80) sqq.]. e. The noun has the article before it when a demonstrative pronoun (υὗτος, ἐκεῖνος) belonging to it either precedes or follows [W. § 18, 4; B. § 127, 29-31]; as, ὁ ἄνθρωπος οὗτος, Jn. ix. 24 [οὗτος ὁ ἄνθρ. 1, Tr mrg. WH); Acts vi. 13; xxii. 26; ὁ λαὸς οὗτος, Mt. xv. 8; 6 vids σου οὗτος, Lk. xv. 30; plur. Lk. xxiv. 17, and numberless other exx.; οὗτος 6 ἄνθρωπος, Lk. xiv. 30; οὗτος ὁ…

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Moulton & Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek Testament from a scan

ὃ, ἡ τό. (1) Apart from connexion with μέν or δέ (see below) the demonstrative use of the art. in the NT is confined to a poetical quotation Ac 1778, but it is not uncommon in the papyri, e.g. P Par 45® (B.C. 153) (= Witkowski®, p. 85) τὰ (for ἃ) πράσεις (Δ πράσσεις), P Oxy VIII. 1160! (iii/iv A.D.) Ta (for ἃ) σεσύλληχα (for συνείληχα) δὲ κέρμα {ταν τηρῶ αὐτὰ εἰς τὴν δίκην, “1 am keeping for the trial the money that I have collected” (Ed.). For the distributive Opéev.. - 6 8€, as in 1 Cor7’, cf. P Lond 535 (B.c. 161) (=I. p. 19, U.P.Z. i. p. 239) kal τὰ μὲν ἡμῶν ἐληφότων εἰς τὴν γινομένην ἡμῖν συντάξειν, τὰ δ᾽ ἔτι διὰ τὴν τῶν ὑποτεταγμένων {(.. ... > παρελκομένων. (2) The use of the art. as a relative, of which there is no trace in the NT, may again be illustrated by the following papyrus citations from ¢c. A.D. 346—P Lond 414® (= II. Ῥ. 292) γεινῴσκιν oe θέλω περὶ τοῦ βρεουίου…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

ὁ (ho) — the/this/who.

ὁ,

ἡ, τό, is, when thus written,

__A demonstrative Pronoun.

__B in Attic dialect, definite or prepositive Article.

__C in Epic dialect, the so-called postpositive Article, = relative Pronoun, ὅς, ἥ, ὅ.—The nominative masculine and feminine singular and plural, ὁ, ἡ, οἱ, αἱ, have no accent in codices and most printed books, except when used as the relative; but ὁ, ἡ, οἱ, αἱ differ only in writing from ὃ, ἣ, οἳ, α; the nominative forms of the article are said by Hdn.Gr.1.474 to be oxytone, and by [Refs 2nd c.AD+] in Aeolic dialect accusative to [Refs 8th c.BC+] genitive and dative dual τοῖιν [Refs 8th c.BC+]— In Doric dialect and all other dialects except Attic dialect and Ionic dialect the feminine forms preserve the old ᾱ instead of changing it to η, hence Doric dialect etc. ἁ, τάν, τᾶ; the genitive plural τάων contracts in many dialects to τᾶ; the genitive…

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

ὁ ἡ τό

ho

he hay, and the neuter

to to

in all their inflections; the definite article; the (sometimes to be

supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom):--the, this, that, one,

he, she, it, etc.

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

ὁ, ἡ, τό

Article

the

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

ὁ ho 19x

the prepositive article, answering, to a considerable extent, to the English definite article; but, for the principle and facts of its usage, consult a grammar; ὁ μὲν ... ὁ δέ, the one ... the other, Phil. 1:16, 17; Heb. 7:5, 6, 20, 21, 23, 24; pl. some ... others, Mt. 13:23; 22:5, 6; ὁ δέ, but he, Mt. 4:4; 12:48; οἱ δέ, but others, Mt. 28:17; used, in a poetic quotation, for a personal pronoun, Acts 17:28

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

ὁ the, that

ὁ, ἡ, τό, is

demonstr. Pronoun.

the definite Article.

in epic, the relative Pronoun, when it is written with the accent ὅ, ἥ, τό ῀ ὅς, ἥ, ὅ. Besides the common forms, note epic gen. sg. τοῖο for τοῦ; pl. nom. τοί, ταί; gen. fem. τάων [α^], dat. τοῖσι, τῇς and τῇσι; dual gen, and dat. τοῖιν:— in Trag. we find τοὶ μέν . . , τοὶ δέ . . , for οἱ μέν . . , οἱ δέ . . ; dat. pl. also τοῖσι, ταῖσι: the dual has commonly but one gender, τώ for τά, τοῖν for ταῖν.

DEMONSTR. PRONOUN:

joined with a Subst., not as the Art., but like Lat. ille, ὁ Τυδείδης Tydeus's famous son, Il.; Νέστωρ ὁ γέρων Nestor— that aged man, id. Il.; τιμῆς τῆς Πριάμου for honour, namely that of Priam, id. Il.

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Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Art-NSM — Article · nominative · singular · masculine
nominative — the one doing it — the subject.
Agrees with anything else marked singular masculine.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

T-NSM Part of Speech: definite arTicle Case: Nominative Number: Singular Gender: Masculine

English usagewhat the translators’ English meant
Webster's Dictionary (1828), Webster's Unabridged (1913), Webster's Dictionary (1806)

THE, an adjective or definitive adjective.

1. This adjective is used as a definitive, that is, before nouns which are specific or understood; or it is used to limit their signification to a specific thing or things, or to describe them; as the laws of the twelve tables. the independent tribunals of justice in our country, are the security or private rights, and the best bulwark against arbitrary power. the sun is the source of light and heat.

This he calls the preaching of the cross.

2. the is also used rhetorically before a noun in the singular number, to denote a species by way of distinction; a single thing representing the whole. the fig tree putteth forth her green figs; the almond tree shall flourish; the grasshopper shall be a burden.

3. In poetry, the sometimes loses the final vowel before another vowel.

Th' adorning thee with so much art,

Is but a barb'rous skill.

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
64%the
the64% · 13160×<the>28% · 5846×those3% · 597×other renderings4% · 788×other renderings1% · 294×

20,685 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 83 different ways. The commonest English word for it is not its meaning — it is one translator's decision, repeated.

What it does in the sentencefrom the Nestle 1904 treebank
subject34%adverbial32%object24%predicate5%indirect object4%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 19,783 occurrences — a word inside a phrase counts towards whatever that phrase is doing.

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
καίand, even, also, nam
αὐτόςεἰμίI am, existἐγώ
ἐν
καίand, even, also,αὐτόςArticle the
εἰς
αὐτόςεἰσέρχομαιI go in, come inἔρχομαιI come, go
αὐτός
λέγωI say, speakδέbut, on the otheπρός
εἰμίI am, exist
οὗτοςσύἐγώ
the19783×
what comes after →
θεόςGod, a god
Article theκαίand, even, also,ἐγώ
δέbut, on the other ha
λέγωI say, speakἸησοῦςJesusἀποκρίνομαιI answer, reply
ἸησοῦςJesus
λέγωI say, speakκαίand, even, also,Article the
κύριοςlord, Lord, master,
ἐγώἸησοῦςJesusArticle the
πατήρfather, Father, ance
ἐγώσύαὐτός

branches are dictionary forms, so endings do not split one phrase into five; the number on a branch is how many times the New Testament takes that path

Concordance · 19,783× in the New Testament
Matthew Acts Luke John Revelation Mark Romans 1 Corinthians Hebrews 2 Corinthians Ephesians 1 John

40 inflected forms — one of the commonest words in the New Testament. Full distribution →

Across the New Testament27 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
Josephus Philo of Alexandria The Shepherd of Hermas Clement of Rome The Epistle of Barnabas
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 1c. AD 40

Τῶν ἄλλων νομοθετῶν οἱ μὲν ἀκαλλώπιστα καὶ γυμνὰ τὰ νομισθέντα παρ’ αὐτοῖς εἶναι δίκαια διετάξαντο, οἱ δὲ πολὺν ὄγκον τοῖς νοήμασι προσπεριβαλόντες ἐξετύφωσαν τὰ πλήθη μυθικοῖς πλάσμασι τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἐπικρύψαντες.

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 1.argc. AD 75–95

τοῦ κόσμου σύστασις καὶ διάταξις τῶν στοιχείων.

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 1.1c. AD 100

Χαίρετε, υἱοὶ καὶ θυγατέρες, ἐν ὀνόματι κυρίου τοῦ ἀγαπήσαντος ἡμᾶς, ἐν εἰρήνῃ.

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
2nd c. AD 3rd c. AD 1st c. AD 3rd c. BC 6th c. AD
P.Stras. 2 89Pathyris100 BC

r βασιλεύοντος Πτολεμαίου τοῦ ἐπικαλουμένου Ἀλεξάνδρου καὶ Βερενίκης τῆς ἀδελφῆς θεῶν Φιλομητόρων ἔτους ιε, ἐφʼ ἱερέων καὶ ἱερειῶν

P.Adl. 11Pathyris99 BC

ιζ Θῶυθ κη ἀπέδοτο Πετεσοῦχος Φίβιος καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ τὸ ὕπαρχον αὐτοῖς ἥμισυ περιστερῶνος τοῦ ὄντος ἐν τῶι ἀπὸ βορρᾶ μέρει Παθύρεως χαλκοῦ Γ. ἐπρίατο Ὧρος Νεχούτου.

P.Grenf. 2 35Pathyris99 BC

βασιλευόντων Πτολεμαίου τοῦ ἐπικαλουμένου Ἀλεξάνδρου καὶ Βερενίκης τῆς ἀδελφῆς θεῶν φιλομητόρων ἔτους ιϛ, ἐφʼ ἱερέων καὶ ἱερειῶν

Trustworthy [is] the saying: If anyone overseership aspires to, of good a work he is desirous.
λόγος·logos saying: G3056 Noun · nominative · singular · masculine
331× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in 1 Timothy than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
In the Bible, this word refers to a message or idea expressed through words, like in Matthew 8:8 and Luke 7:7. It's not just a single word, but a whole thought or concept. Jesus used this word to teach about God's kingdom.
Tyndale gloss
word
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

λόγος (logos) is a Greek word meaning 'word' or 'speech,' derived from the verb λέγω (lego). It encompasses a range of meanings including a saying, statement, discourse, or even the inward thought itself. In the New Testament, it often refers to the word of God or teachings, appearing in verses like Matthew 8:8 and John 1:1. The lexicons do not show significant disagreement regarding its meanings.

Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament — φωνή, λόγος from a scan

On these words, and on their relation to one another, very much has been written by the Greek grammarians and natural philosophers (see Lersch, Sprachphilosophie der Alten, vol. iii. pp. 85, 45, and passim). Φωνή, from φάω, ds φωτίζουσα τὸ νοούμενον (Plutarch, De Plac. Phil. 19), rendered in our Version ‘ voice’ (Matt. ii. 18), ‘sound’ (John iii. 8), ‘noise’ (Rev. vi. 1), is distinguished from ψόφος, in that it is the cry of a living creature (ἡ δὲ φωνὴ ψόφος τίς ἐστιν ἐμψύχου, Aristotle, De Anima, 2. 8. 14), being sometimes ascribed to God (Matt. ui. 17), to men (Matt. iii. 3), to animals (Rev. ix. 9), and, though improperly, to inanimate objects as well (1 Cor. xiv. 7), as to the trumpet (Matt. xxiv. 31), to the wind (John iii. 8), to the thunder (Rev. vi. 1; οἵ. Ps. lxxvi. 19). But λόγος, a word, saying, or rational utterance of the νοῦς, whether spoken (προφορικός, and thus φωνὴ τῶν…

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Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

λόγος, -ου, ὁ (< λέγω),

[in LXX chiefly for

דָּבָר, also for אֵמֶר, מִלָּה, etc.;]

Of that by which the inward thought is expressed, Lat. oratio, sermo, vox, verbum.

a word, not in the grammatical sense of a mere name (ἔπος, ὄνομα, ῥῆμα), but a word as embodying a conception or idea: Mt 8:8, Lk 7:7, I Co 14:9, 19, He 12:19, al.

a saying, statement, declaration: Mt 19:22 (T om.), Mk 5:36 7:29, Lk 1:29, Jo 2:22 6:60, Ac…

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Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament from a scan

λόγος, -ov, 6, (λέγω), [fr. Hom. down], Sept. esp. for 425, also for 798 and 799; prop. ὦ collecting, collection, (see Aéyw), —and that, as well of those things which are put together in thought, as of those which, having been thought i. e. gathered together in the mind, are expressed in words. Accordingly, a twofold use of the term is to be distinguished: one which relates to speaking, and one which relates to thinking. I. As respects SPEECH: 1. a word, yet not in the grammatical sense (i. q. vocabulum, the mere name of an object), but language, voz, i. e. a word which, uttered by the living voice, embodies a conception or idea; (hence it differs from ῥῆμα and ἔπος [q. v.; cf. also λαλέω, ad init.]): Heb. xii. 19; ἀποκριθῆναι λόγον, Mt. xxii. 46; εἰπεῖν λόγῳ, Mt. viii. 8 [Rec. λόγον (cf. εἶπον, 3 a. fin.)]; Lk. vii. 7; λαλῆσαι πέντε, μυρίους, λόyous, 1 Co. xiv. 19; διδόναι λόγον…

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Moulton & Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek Testament from a scan

λόγος “Λόγον διδόναι with reference to judgment, as in Rom 14!2, occurs in such a passage as BGU I. 164?! (ii/iii A.D.) ὡς σοῦ μέλλοντος λόγον διδόναι τῷ λαμπροτάτῳ ἡγεμόνι, and λόγον ἀποδιδόναι (cf. Mt 1255, Lk 162, Heb 1.317} in 20. 98% (a.p. 211) κελεῦσαι αὐτὸν ἀχθῆναι ἐπὶ σὲ λόγον ἀποδώσοντα περὶ See also the Christianized imprecations against violators of tombs cited by Ramsay (Zzke, p- 396), one probably from Lycaonia and belonging to iv/a.p., /HS xxii. (1902), p. 354 ὃς δ᾽ ἐὰν ἐπισβιάσητε, δώσει θεῷ λόγον, “‘whosoever shall force an entrance, shall give account to God,”” and another from Laodicea, Athen. Mitthetl. xiii. Pp. 249 (¢. A.D. 400) ἤ τις δ᾽ ἕτερον ἐπενβάλῃ τῷ τάφῳ κριτῇ τῷ ζῶντι λόγον ἔνδικον πο[ι]ή[σει, ‘and if any one shall lay another in the tomb, he shall render judicial account to the | living Judge.”’ tions, p. 56), where so much is paid εἰς λόγον διατροφῆς, | “το…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

λόγος (logos) — word.

λόγος, ὁ,

verbal noun of λέγω (B), with senses corresponding to λέγω (B) II and III (on the various senses of the word see [Refs 2nd c.AD+] 111, compareinfr. VI. 1 a:

I. computation, reckoning (compare λέγω (B) II).

I.1. account of money handled, σανίδες εἰς ἃς τὸν λ. ἀναγράφομεν [Refs 5th c.BC+]; συνᾶραι λόγον μετά τινος settle accounts with, [NT]; δεύτεροι λ. a second audit, [Refs 4th c.AD+]; ὁ τραπεζιτικὸς λ. banking account, Theo Sm.p.73 H.: metaphorically, οὐκ ἂν πριαίμην οὐδενὸς λ. βροτόν [Refs 5th c.BC+]

I.1. b public accounts, i. e. branch of treasury, ἴδιος λ., in Egypt, [Refs]; also as title of treasurer, [Refs 1st c.BC+]; δημόσιος λ., = Latin fiscus, [Refs 1st c.AD+], etc. (but later, = aerarium, [Refs 4th…

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

λόγος

logos

from 3004; something said (including the thought); by implication, a

topic (subject of discourse), also reasoning (the mental faculty) or

motive; by extension, a computation; specially, (with the article in

John) the Divine Expression (i.e. Christ):--account, cause,

communication, X concerning, doctrine, fame, X have to do, intent,

matter, mouth, preaching, question, reason, + reckon, remove,

say(-ing), shew, X speaker, speech, talk, thing, + none of these

things move me, tidings, treatise, utterance, word, work.

see GREEK for 3004

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

λόγος, ου, ὁ

n.m.

a word, speech, divine utterance, analogy

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

λόγος logos 330x

a word, a thing uttered, Mt. 12:32, 37; 1 Cor. 14:19; speech, language, talk, Mt. 22:15; Lk. 20:20; 2 Cor. 10:10; Jas. 3:2; converse, Lk. 24:17; mere talk, wordy show, 1 Cor. 4:19, 20; Col. 2:23; 1 Jn. 3:18; language, mode of discourse, style of speaking, Mt. 5:37; Read the full entry →

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

λόγος λόγος, ὁ, λέγω3 (A) the word or that by which the inward thought is expressed, Lat. oratio; and, (B) the inward thought itself, Lat. ratio.

Lat. vox, oratio, that which is said or spoken:

a word, pl. words, i. e. language, talk, Hom., etc.; λόγου ἕνεκα, Lat. dicis causa, merely for talking's sake, Plat.; λόγῳ in word, in pretence, opp. to ἔργῳ (in deed, in reality), Hdt., attic

a word, saying, statement, Thuc.: an oracle, Pind., Plat.:— a saying, maxim, proverb, Pind., Aesch.

an assertion, promise, Soph.

a resolution, κοινῷ λ. by common consent, Hdt.

a condition, ἐπὶ λόγῳ τοιῷδε id. Hdt.

a command, Aesch.

speech, discourse, conversation, εἰς λόγους ἐλθεῖν, συνελθεῖν, ἀφικέσθαι τινί Hdt., attic; λόγου μεῖζον, κρεῖσσον beyond expression, Hdt., Thuc.; λόγου ἄξιον worth mention…

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Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Noun-NSM — Noun · nominative · singular · masculine
nominative — the one doing it — the subject.
Agrees with anything else marked singular masculine.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

N-NSM Part of Speech: Noun Case: Nominative Number: Singular Gender: Masculine

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
59%word
word59% · 196×words17% · 57×account3% · 10×speech3% · 10×saying3% · 9×other renderings6% · 21×other renderings9% · 29×

332 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 29 different ways. The commonest English word for it is not its meaning — it is one translator's decision, repeated.

What it does in the sentencefrom the Nestle 1904 treebank
object45%adverbial25%subject23%predicate4%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 331 occurrences — a word inside a phrase counts towards whatever that phrase is doing.

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
Article the
ἀκούωI hear, listenκαίand, even, also,διά
ἐν
παγιδεύωI ensnare, entraαὐτόςδυνατόςpowerful, able,
αὐτός
Article theἀποκρίνομαιI answer, replyπερί
διά
αὐτόςεἰμίI am, existμήτεNeg
δέbut, on the other ha
Article theἄλλοςother, another,
λόγοςsaying:331×
what comes after →
Article the
θεόςGod, a godκύριοςlord, Lord, mastπροφητείαprophecy
οὗτος
Article theκαίand, even, also,λέγωI say, speak
καίand, even, also, nam
πᾶςall, the whole, ἰάομαιI healἄκαρποςunfruitful, barr
ἐγώ
οὐNegτηρέωI keep, guard, oὅστις
ὅς
λέγωI say, speakλαλέωI speak, sayἀκούωI hear, listen

branches are dictionary forms, so endings do not split one phrase into five; the number on a branch is how many times the New Testament takes that path

Concordanceλόγος · 331× in the New Testament
Acts John Luke Matthew Mark Revelation 1 Corinthians Hebrews 1 Thessalonians 2 Corinthians 1 Timothy 2 Timothy

Every reference is on the Strong's page.

Across the New Testament24 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 536 Old Testament verses where this Greek word stands: which Hebrew word keeps standing there too. A correspondence of verses rather than a word-by-word alignment, so read the percentage as strength of evidence, not as a claim about any single verse.

Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
Philo of Alexandria Josephus Clement of Rome The Epistle of Barnabas Ignatius of Antioch
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 4c. AD 40

καὶ γὰρ λόγον καὶ ἀκοὴν ὑπερβάλλει μείζω καὶ σεμνότερα ὄντα ἢ ὡς θνητοῦ τινος ὀργάνοις ἐναρμοσθῆναι.

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 1.2c. AD 75–95

τινὲς μὲν γὰρ ἐπιδεικνύμενοι λόγων δεινότητα καὶ τὴν ἀπʼ αὐτῆς θηρευόμενοι δόξαν ἐπὶ τοῦτο τῆς παιδείας τὸ μέρος ὁρμῶσιν, ἄλλοι δὲ χάριν ἐκείνοις φέροντες, περὶ ὧν τὴν ἀναγραφὴν εἶναι συμβέβηκε, τὸν εἰς αὐτὴν πόνον καὶ παρὰ δύναμιν ὑπέστησαν·

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 6.17c. AD 100

ὅτι πρῶτον τὸ παιδίον μέλιτι, εἶτα γάλακτι ζωοποιεῖται: οὕτως οὖν καὶ ἡμεῖς τῇ πίστει τῆς ἐπαγγελίας καὶ τῷ λόγῳ ζωοποιούμενοι ζήσομεν κατακυριεύοντες τῆς γῆς.

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
2nd c. AD 6th c. AD 3rd c. AD 4th c. AD 1st c. AD

ἔτους λε Μεσορὴ ἰδίου λόγου Δρύτωνος. ἐκ τῆς νήσου πρὸς Λαμένθιν δέδωκα πυροῦ ιδ κριθῆς β ἐμβαδικὸν δραχμὰς λ

P.Grenf. 1 22Thebais119 BC

Μοσχίων Πετεαρσένθει χαίρειν. ἔχω εἰς τὸν Ἑρμίου λόγον περὶ πῆς τοπογραμματείας τοῦ νγ ἔτους χαλκοῦ τάλαντα δέκα. γίνεται τάλαντα ι. καὶ περὶ

P.Grenf. 2 26Pathyris104 BC

Ἑλληνικῶν ἃ ἐξέτεισε Παοῦς ὁ Ὥρου πατὴρ καὶ ὁ αὐτὸς Ὧρος εἰς τὸν Ταρεήσιος λόγον τῆς αὐτοῦ μητρὸς τοῖς δανεισταῖς Χαιρήμωνι καὶ Ἐσθλαδᾷ καὶ Πνήφει γυναικὶ καὶ ἀδελφῇ· καὶ

Trustworthy [is] the saying: If anyone overseership aspires to, of good a work he is desirous.
εἴei If G1487 Conditional particle
501× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in 1 Timothy than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
This word means 'if' and is used to express conditions or questions. It appears in many Bible verses, such as Matthew 11:14 and Romans 8:25, introducing a condition or hypothesis.
Tyndale gloss
if
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word εἰ, transliterated as ei, is a primary conditional particle meaning 'if' or 'whether.' It is used in various contexts, including conditions, indirect questions, and expressions of wishes. In the New Testament, it appears frequently, often followed by different verb tenses to indicate various conditions. The lexicons do not present significant disagreement on its usage.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

εἰ,

conjunctive particle, used in conditions and in indirect questions.

Conditional, if;

c. indic., expressing a general assumption;

pres.: seq. indic, pres., Mt 11:14, Ro 8:25, al.; seq. imperat., Mk 4:23 9:22, Jo 15:18, I Co 7:9, al.; seq. fut. indic., Lk 16:31, Ro 8:11, al.; seq. pf. or aor., with negation in apodosis, Mt 12:26, Ro 4:14, al.; similarly, seq. impf., Lk 17:6, Jo 8:39; seq. quæst.,

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Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament from a scan

εἰ 109 εἰ WH, s0 Trin Mt. xii. 41; Ὀζείας L T Tr WH; Πειλᾶτος T WH; Σεμεείν T Tr WH; Ταβειθά WH; Χερουβείν 1, T Tr WH (-βίμ RG); Χοραζείν T Tr WH; ἀφείδεια L; εἰδέα T Tr WH; ἐπαρχεία T WH; ἐπιπόθεια WH; ἡλεί T ; πανοικεί TWH; ῥαββεί T WH; ῥαββουνεί WH; σαβαχθανεί Tr WH; ταλειθά WH; τάχειον WH; τραπεζείτης T WH.| el, is first a conditional particle, ἐγ (Lat. si) ; secondly, an interrogative particle, whether, (Lat. an, num, ne). I. εἰ CoNDITIONAL (on the difference between it and ἐάν, see ἐάν, I. 1 b.) is connected, according to the variety of conditions, with various tenses and moods; viz. ἘΣ with the Indicative of all tenses, when anything is simply and generally assumed to be, or to be done, or to have been done, or to be about to be, (W. § 41 b., 2; ef. 42, 2; [Β. 220(190)]). a. withthe Ind. Present; a. foll. in the apodosis by the ind. pres.: Mt. xix. 10 (εἰ οὕτως ἐστὶν ἡ αἰτία...…

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Moulton & Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek Testament from a scan

ΕἸ , J ἐκπλησσω γὰρ τὸ ἀγαθὸν τοῦ ἀστέρος καὶ εἰς τὸ ἐναντίον ἐκπίπτει. See also Michel 827 A (mid. 11,8.0.) τό τε νόμισμα τὸ ἐκπεπτωκὸς ἀριθμῶι, of coins that have fallen out of use. The verb is not infrequent with reference to crops that “fall to be included”’ in the produce of a particular year, eg. BGU II. 5915" (A.p. 56-7) βουλόμεθα μισθώσασθαι τοὺς ἐκπεπτωκότας εἰς τὸ τρίτον ἔτος Νέρωνος. . . φοινεικίνους καρπούς, P Fay ο115 (A.p. 99) ἐϊλαϊκοὺς καρποὺς ἐκπεππτωκότας (/. ἐκπεπτωκ --Ἰ εἰς τὸ ἐνεστὸ(ς) τρίτον ἔτος. Cf. P Hib I. γ810 (B.c. 244--3) a letter requesting that two persons should be released from some public service—81a τὸ μὴ ἐκπεσίεῖν αὐτοῖς τὸ viv λειτουργῆσαι, ‘because it is not at present their turn to serve,’’ where the editors point out that éxmec[et]v, which has been corrected in the papyrus, is practically equivalent to προσπέσηι in 1.4 of the same document. For the…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

εἰ (ei) — if.

εἰ,

Attic dialect-Ionic dialect and [Refs 4th c.AD+] ἤ [Refs] in Epic dialect:— Particle used interjectionally with imperative and to express a wish, but usually either in conditions, if, or in indirect questions, whether. In the former use its regular negative is μ; in the latter, οὐ.

__A INTERJECTIONALLY, in [Refs 8th c.BC+], come now! with imperative, εἰ δὲ.. ἄκουσον [Refs 8th c.BC+]

__A.2 in wishes, with optative, ἀλλ᾽ εἴ τις.. καλέσειεν [Refs]; so later, εἴ μοι ξυνείη μοῖρα [Refs 8th c.BC+]; of unattained wishes, in [Refs 8th c.BC+]; later with past tenses of indicative, εἰ γάρ μ᾽ ὑπὸ γῆν.. ἧκεν [Refs 4th c.BC+]; εἰ γὰρ τοσαύτην δύναμιν εἶχον ὥστε.. [Refs 8th c.BC+]infinitive (compare the use of infinitive in commands), αἰ γὰρ τοῖος ἐὼν.. ἐμὸς γαμβρὸς καλέεσθαι…

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

εἰ

ei

a primary particle of conditionality; if, whether, that,

etc.:--forasmuch as, if, that, (al-)though, whether. Often used in

connection or composition with other particles, especially as in 1489,

1490, 1499, 1508, 1509, 1512, 1513, 1536, 1537. See also 1437.

see GREEK for 1489

see GREEK for 1490

see GREEK for 1499

see GREEK for 1508

see GREEK for 1509

see GREEK for 1512

see GREEK for 1513

see GREEK for 1536

see GREEK for 1537

see GREEK for 1437

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

εἰ

Cond.

if

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

εἰ ei 502x

if, Mt. 4:3, 6; 12:7; Acts 27:39, freq.; since, Acts 4:9; whether, Mk. 9:23; Acts 17:11; that, in certain expressions, Acts 26:8, 23; Heb. 7:15; by a suppression of the apodosis of a sentence, εἰ serves to express a wish; O if! O that! Lk. 19:42; 22:42; also a strong negation, Mk. 8:12; Heb. 3:11; 4:3; εἰ καί, if even, though, although, Read the full entry →

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
COND — Conditional particle
conditional particle — it marks the clause as a condition.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

COND CONDitional particle or conjunction

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
74%if
if74% · 388×only17% · 89×whether3% · 14×lest3% · 14×other renderings3% · 17×

522 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 12 different ways. The commonest English word for it is not its meaning — it is one translator's decision, repeated.

What it does in the sentencefrom the Nestle 1904 treebank
adverbial7%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 501 occurrences — a word inside a phrase counts towards whatever that phrase is doing.

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
αὐτός
λέγωI say, speakδίδωμιI offer, giveἐπερωτάωI interrogate, q
καίand, even, also, nam
αὐτόςἄρτοςbread, a loaf, fδίδωμιI offer, give
ὅτιthat, since, because
ΒηθσαϊδάPropγινώσκωI come to know, σύ
σύ
ἐνλέγωI say, speakἐπερωτάωI interrogate, q
λέγωI say, speak
καίand, even, also,αὐτόςἐγώ
εἰIf501×
what comes after →
δέbut, on the other ha
τὶςArticle theεἰ δὲ μήNeg
μήNeg
Article theἐνεἷςone
τὶς
θέλωI will, wish, deδοκέωI think, seem, aἔχωI have, hold, po
γάρfor
Article theπιστεύωI believe, have διά
Article the
θεόςGod, a godΣατανᾶςan adversary, Saδεξιόςon the right han

branches are dictionary forms, so endings do not split one phrase into five; the number on a branch is how many times the New Testament takes that path

Concordanceεἰ · 501× in the New Testament
1 Corinthians Matthew Luke John Romans 2 Corinthians Acts Mark Galatians Hebrews Revelation 1 Peter

Every reference is on the Strong's page.

Across the New Testament25 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 307 Old Testament verses where this Greek word stands: which Hebrew word keeps standing there too. A correspondence of verses rather than a word-by-word alignment, so read the percentage as strength of evidence, not as a claim about any single verse.

Trustworthy [is] the saying: If anyone overseership aspires to, of good a work he is desirous.
τιςtis anyone G5100 Indefinite pronoun · nominative · singular · masculine
529× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in 1 Timothy than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
This pronoun refers to a person or thing in a general sense, as seen in Luke 9:49 and John 11:1. It can mean someone, anyone, or anything. This term is often used to describe an unspecified individual or object.
Amplified meaning
one who seeks
Tyndale gloss
one
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

τὶς is an enclitic indefinite pronoun meaning 'someone' or 'something.' It can refer to a certain person or object and appears in both singular and plural forms, such as τινός and τινες. The New Testament uses it in various contexts, including Luke 9:49 and Acts 5:25. It is related to the interrogative pronoun τίς, indicating its flexible use in questions and statements.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

τις, neut., τι, gen., τινός,

enclitic indefinite pron., related to interrog. τίς as πού, πως, ποτέ to ποῦ, πῶς, πότε.

As subst.,

one, a certain one: Lk 9:49, Jo 11:1, Ac 5:25, al.; pl., τίνες, certain, some: Lk 13:1, Ac 15:1, Ro 3:8, al.

someone, anyone, something, anything: Mt 12:29, Mk 9:30, Lk 8:46, Jo 2:25, Ac 17:25, Ro…

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Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament from a scan

τὶς, τὶ. ἘΣ what follows, εἰ καί lays less emphasis upon it; although it is evident that εἰ καί can often be substituted for καὶ ei.” Cf. Herm. Vig. p. 829 sq.; W. 444 (413); Ellic. on Phil. ii. 17; Schmalfeld, Griech. Syntax, § 41; Paley, Grk. Particles, p. 31]. 8. εἰ μή, a. in a conditional protasis, with the same sequence of moods and tenses as the simple εἰ, see 1. above, if not, unless, except, [W. 477 (444) sqq.; B. 345 (297)]: Mt. xxiv. 22; Jn. ix. 33; | xv. 22, 24; Ro. vii. 7, ete. b. it serves, with the entire. following sentence, to limit or correct what has just been said, only, save that, (Lat. nisi quod), [B. 359 (308) ]: Mk. vi. 5; 1 Co. vii. 17 (where Paul by the addition εἰ μὴ ἑκάστῳ κτλ. strives to prevent any one in applying what had been said a little while before, viz. οὐ δεδούλωται . . ἐν τοιούτοις to his own case, from going too far) ; in ironical answers, unless…

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Moulton & Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek Testament from a scan

τις (indef. pron.), ‘* someone, something’’: P Vat ΑἸ (B.c. 168) (= UPZi. p. 303) πᾶς τις πειρᾶται. . ., P Lond 421° (B.C. 168) (= Selections, p. 10) εἰς πᾶν τι ἐληλυθυῖα διὰ, τὴν τοῦ σίτου τιμήν, ‘having come to the last extremity because of the high price of corn,’’ P Oxy IV. 7421° (B.c. 2) ἐάν τι δύνῃ... δὸς ἐργασίαν, “if you can, give your attention to it’’ (Edd.), 2d. I. 120% (iv/a.D.) τινα ὁρῶντα αἱαυτὸν (/. ἑαυτὸν) ἐν δυστυχίᾳ, ““α man finding himself in adversity,’ 13 ἀποστῖλόν pot τινα ἢ Γοῦνθον ἢ ᾿Αμμώνιον, “send someone to me, either Gunthus or Ammonius” (Edd.). P Oxy VI. 937°" (ili/A.D.) γ]ράψον ἐκεῖ TO kat’ εἶδος ὅτι τι kal τι εἴληφας is translated by the editors ‘* write the list there, that you have received so and so.” They 3) ες remark that it is simpler to take τι καί τι as analogous to τὸ καὶ τό than ‘‘to take τί kal τί as an indirect interrogative, ὅτι being…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

τις (tis) — one.

τις,

τι, Indef. pronoun any one, any thing, enclitic through all cases (for exceptions see below):—but τί; τί; Interrog. pronoun who? what?, oxytone in the monosyllable cases, paroxytone in the others:—Dialectal forms: [Refs 5th c.AD+] σις (si se) [Refs 4th c.AD+] σις (with ?? for σ) [Refs 5th c.BC+]; Thess. κις [Refs], neuter κι in διεκί, ποκκί (which see); neuter plural Doric dialect σά, Boeotian dialect τά, Aeolic dialect dative τίω, τίοισι (see. infr. B). (I.-[Refs 5th c.BC+] q[uglide]i-, cf. Latin quis, quid, etc.; for σά, τά, see at {ἄσσα}, σά μά; with τέο (see. infr. B) cf. OSlav. genitive česo)

__A Indef. pronoun τις, τι, genitive Ionic dialect τεο [Refs 8th c.BC+]; more frequently τευ [Refs 8th c.BC+]; Trag. and Attic dialect του [Refs 5th c.BC+]; του is rare after [NT+4th…

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

τὶς

tis

an enclitic indefinite pronoun; some or any person or object:--a (kind

of), any (man, thing, thing at all), certain (thing), divers, he

(every) man, one (X thing), ought, + partly, some (man, -body, -

thing, -what), (+ that no-)thing, what(-soever), X wherewith,

whom(-soever), whose(-soever).

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

τις, τι

Indef.pr.

any one, some one

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

τις tis 534x

enclitic, indefinite pronoun, a certain one, someone, Mt. 12:47; pl. some, certain, several, Lk. 8:2; Acts 9:19; 2 Pet. 3:16; one, a person, Mt. 12:29; Lk. 14:8; Jn. 6:50; combined with the name of an individual, one, Mk. 15:21; as it were in a manner, a kind of, Heb. 10:27; Jas. 1:18; any whatever, Read the full entry →

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Indef-NSM — Indefinite pronoun · nominative · singular · masculine
nominative — the one doing it — the subject.
Agrees with anything else marked singular masculine.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

X-NSM Part of Speech: indefinite pronoun Case: Nominative Number: Singular Gender: Masculine

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
27%anyone
anyone27% · 144×some19% · 102×certain17% · 93×anything9% · 48×any9% · 47×one6% · 34×someone4% · 19×something3% · 18×other renderings7% · 37×

542 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 35 different ways. The commonest English word for it is not its meaning — it is one translator's decision, repeated.

What it does in the sentencefrom the Nestle 1904 treebank
subject66%object20%adverbial9%predicate3%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 530 occurrences — a word inside a phrase counts towards whatever that phrase is doing.

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
εἰCond
καίand, even, also,αὐτόςὅτιthat, since, bec
δέbut, on the other ha
εἰCondεἰμίI am, existλέγωI say, speak
ἐάνCond
καίand, even, also,λέγωI say, speakἐγώ
μήNeg
ἵναin order that, sἐάνCondβλέπωI look, see
καίand, even, also, nam
αὐτόςΦαρισαῖοςa Phariseeὁδόςa way, road, jou
τὶςanyone529×
what comes after →
Article the
γραμματεύςa scribe, town-cμαθητήςa learner, disciἀπό
σύ
λέγωI say, speakπλανάωI lead astray, dἐρωτάωI ask, question,
αὐτός
ἐκὁράωI see, look uponἀπό
ἐκ
αὐτόςArticle theἐγώ
εἰμίI am, exist
ἐνπλούσιοςrichὑδρωπικόςafflicted with d

branches are dictionary forms, so endings do not split one phrase into five; the number on a branch is how many times the New Testament takes that path

Concordanceτὶς · 529× in the New Testament
Acts Luke John 1 Corinthians Mark 2 Corinthians Hebrews Matthew 1 Timothy Romans James Revelation

Every reference is on the Strong's page.

Across the New Testament27 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 121 Old Testament verses where this Greek word stands: which Hebrew word keeps standing there too. A correspondence of verses rather than a word-by-word alignment, so read the percentage as strength of evidence, not as a claim about any single verse.

Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
Philo of Alexandria Josephus The Shepherd of Hermas Clement of Rome Ignatius of Antioch
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 4c. AD 40

καὶ γὰρ λόγον καὶ ἀκοὴν ὑπερβάλλει μείζω καὶ σεμνότερα ὄντα ἢ ὡς θνητοῦ τινος ὀργάνοις ἐναρμοσθῆναι.

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 1.argc. AD 75–95

ὅτι λιμοῦ τὴν Χαναναίαν καταλαβόντος εἰς Αἴγυπτον ἀπῆρε καὶ διατρίψας ἐν αὐτῇ τινα χρόνον ὑπέστρεψεν ὀπίσω.

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 2.5c. AD 100

πλήρης εἰμὶ ὁλοκαυτωμάτων, καὶ στέαρ ἀρνῶν καὶ αἷμα ταύρων καὶ τράγων οὐ βούλομαι, οὐδ̓ ἂν ἔρχησθε ὀφθῆναί μοι, τίς γὰρ ἐξεζήτησεν ταῦτα ἐκ τῶν χειρῶν ὑμῶν;

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
2nd c. AD 3rd c. BC 3rd c. AD 4th c. AD 6th c. AD

ἂν ὦσι γείτονες πάντοθεν· μὴ ἐξέστω δὲ τῷ καθόλου ἐπὶ τὴν διαθήκην ταύτην ἄλλῳ τινὶ ἐπέρχεσθαι, εἰ δὲ μὴ ἄκυρον ἔστω καὶ προσαποτεισάτω ὁ ἐπιφέρων ὕστερον … ἄλλον τῆς

P.Cair. Cat. 10364 descr.Pathyris126 BC–102 BC

προγεγραμμένου ἵππου, καὶ μὴ ἐπελεύσεσθαί σοι ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ. ἐὰν δὲ ἐπέλθωμεν ἢ ἄλλος τις ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἥ τʼ ἔφοδος ἄκυρος ἔσται καὶ προσαποτείσομέν σοι χαλκοῦ τάλαντα πέντε.

BGU 6 1260Pathyris102 BC

σημαινομένης ἀρούρης μιᾶς , καὶ μὴ ἐπελεύσασθαι Νεχθανοῦπιν καὶ τοὺς τούτου υἱοὺς μηδʼ ἄλλον τινὰ τῶν παρʼ αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τὸν Πετεαρσεμθεία μηδʼ ἐπʼ ἄλλον τινὰ τῶν παρʼ αὐτοῦ περὶ

Trustworthy [is] the saying: If anyone overseership aspires to, of good a work he is desirous.
ἐπισκοπῆςepiskopē overseership G1984 Noun · genitive · singular · feminine
4× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in 1 Timothy than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
Oversight or the office of a bishop, like in Acts 1:20 and 1 Timothy 3:1, where church leaders are responsible for guiding their community.
Amplified meaning
bishop, elder
Tyndale gloss
oversight
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word ἐπισκοπή (i.e., *episkopē*) means visitation or oversight and is derived from the verb ἐπισκοπέω (i.e., *episkopeō*). It encompasses the idea of God's inspection or visitation, whether in mercy or judgment, and also refers to the office of a bishop in the Christian context. The New Testament uses it to describe both divine oversight and ecclesiastical roles.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

† ἐπι-σκοπή, -ῆς, ἡ

[in LXX chiey for פָּקַד פְּקֻדָּה ;]

a visiting, visitation (εἰς ἐ. τοῦ παιδός, Lucian, dial. deor., 20, 6); as in LXX (after Heb.), of God's visitation in mercy, or in judgment (Le 19:20 Jb 10:12, Je 6:15, Wi 2:20, al.): Lk 19:44, I Pe 2:12 (v. Hort, in l.).

office, charge, esp. office of an ἐπίσκοιος (q.v.): Ac 1:20 (LXX), I Ti 3:1 (Cremer, 527 f., 864; DCG, ii, 809

b).†

Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament from a scan

ἐπι-σκοπή, -7s, ἡ, (ἐπισκοπέω), inspection, visitation, (Germ. Besichtigung) ; a. prop.: εἰς ἐπισκ. τοῦ παιδός to visit the boy, Leian. dial. deor. 20, 6; with this exception no example of the word in prof. writ. has yet been noted. b. In biblical Grk., after the Hebr. 17p2, that act by which God looks into and searches out the ways, deeds, character, of men, in order to adjudge thein their lot accordingly, whether joyous or sad; inspection, investigation, visitation, (Vulg. usually visitatio): so univ. ἐν ἐπισκοπῇ Ψυχῶν, when he shall search the souls of men, i. 6. in the time of divine judgment, Sap. iii. 13; also ἐν ὥρᾳ ἐπισκοπῆς, Sir. xviii. 20 (19); so perhaps ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ἐπισκοπῆς, 1 Pet. ii. 12 [see below]; in a good sense, of God’s gracious care: τὸν καιρὸν τῆς ἐπισκοπῆς σου. i. 6. τὸν καιρὸν ἐν ᾧ ἐπεσκέψατο σε ὁ θεός, in which God showed himself gracious toward thee and offered…

Read the full entry →
Moulton & Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek Testament from a scan

ἐπισκοπή. A iv/a.D. Lycaonian inser, describes a bishop 85---εἴἴκοσι πέντε ὅλοις ἔτεσιν τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν μετὰ πολ[λ]ῆς ἐπιτειμίας διοι[κἸήσας (Zxf VII. vi. p. 387: C. and B. ii. p. 543). The subst. ἐπισκοπεία is found in the Royal Ordinances P Tebt I. 5159 (b.c. 118), where reference is made to penalties incurred for making false returns ‘Sin connexion with the government inspections ’’—mpbs τὰς βα(σιλικὰς) ἐπισκοπείας.

Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

ἐπισκοπή (episkopē) — oversight.

ἐπισκοπ-ή, ἡ,

watching over, visitation, of God, [LXX+NT]

II. office of ἐπίσκοπος, [NT]: generally, office, [LXX]

II.2. ={ἐπίσκεψις}[LXX]

Strong's Greek Dictionary

ἐπισκοπή

episkope

from 1980; inspection (for relief); by implication, superintendence;

specially, the Christian "episcopate":--the office of a "bishop",

bishoprick, visitation.

see GREEK for 1980

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

ἐπισκοπή, ῆς, ἡ

n.f.

visitation of judgment, oversight

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

ἐπισκοπή episkopē 4x

inspection, oversight, visitation; of God, visitation, interposition, whether in mercy or judgment, Lk. 19:44; 1 Pet. 2:12; the office of an ecclesiastical overseer, 1 Tim. 3:1; from the Hebrew, charge, function, Acts 1:20*

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

ἐπισκοπή ἐπισκοπή, ἡ, a watching over, visitation, NTest.

the office of ἐπίσκοπος, id. NTest.: generally, an office, id. NTest.

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Noun-GSF — Noun · genitive · singular · feminine
genitive — of, from, belonging to.
Agrees with anything else marked singular feminine.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

N-GSF Part of Speech: Noun Case: Genitive Number: Singular Gender: Feminine

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
50%visitation
visitation50% · 2×position25% · 1×overseership25% · 1×

4 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 3 different ways. The commonest English word for it is not its meaning — it is one translator's decision, repeated.

What it does in the sentencefrom the Nestle 1904 treebank
object75%adverbial25%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 4 occurrences — a word inside a phrase counts towards whatever that phrase is doing.

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
Article the
καιρόςfitting season, καίand, even, also,
τὶς
εἰCond
ἡμέραa day
ἐν
ἐπισκοπήoverseership
what comes after →
σύ
αὐτός
λαμβάνωI receive, take
ὀρέγωI stretch forth, lon
καλόςbeautiful, good,

branches are dictionary forms, so endings do not split one phrase into five; the number on a branch is how many times the New Testament takes that path

Concordanceἐπισκοπή · 4× in the New Testament
1 Peter 1 Timothy Acts Luke
Across the New Testament4 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 26 Old Testament verses where this Greek word stands: which Hebrew word keeps standing there too. A correspondence of verses rather than a word-by-word alignment, so read the percentage as strength of evidence, not as a claim about any single verse.

Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
Clement of Rome Ignatius of Antioch
Clement of RomeFirst Clement 44.1c. AD 96

Καὶ οἱ ἀπόστολοι ἡμῶν ἔγνωσαν διὰ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ὅτι ἔρις ἔσται ἐπὶ τοῦ ὀνόματος τῆς ἐπισκοπῆς.

Ignatius of AntiochThe Letters of Ignatius 7.8.3c. AD 110

ἐρρῶσθαι ὑμᾶς διὰ παντὸς ἐν θεῷ ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστῷ εὔχομαι, ἐν ᾧ διαμείνητε ἐν ἑνότητι θεοῦ καὶ ἐπισκοπῇ.

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
4th c. AD 6th c. AD
CPR 5 11AD 301–AD 325

εἰς τὴν σὴν διακονίαν καὶ προφοράν σοι ἐξεδόμην πρὸς τὸ ἀπαράβλητόν με εἶναι τῆς ἐπισκοπῆς σου, διὰ τοῦτο ὁμολογῶ διὰ τοῦδε τοῦ γραμματίου μὴ ἐνκαταλείπειν σε μηδὲ μετέρχεσθαι

P.Cair. Masp. 3 67298Tentyris oder AntinoopolisAD 527–AD 565

διὰ Ἀβρραμίου τοῦ νῦν οἰκονομοῦντος αὐτὴν, καὶ τῶν ὅτε δήποτε τὴν διοίκησιν αὐτῆς ἤτοι ἐπισκοπὴν καὶ οἰκονομίαν παραληψομένων, ἀποστρέψαι πάντα ἄνθρωπον ἐπελευσόμενον αὐτῷ ἢ τῷ κτήματι τούτου χάριν, ὥστε

Trustworthy [is] the saying: If anyone overseership aspires to, of good a work he is desirous.
ὀρέγεται,oregō aspires to, G3713 Verb · present · middle · indicative · third person · singular
3× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in 1 Timothy than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
To aspire or reach out after something, like a goal or desire, as seen in 1 Timothy 3:1 and Hebrews 11:16.
Amplified meaning
reaches out after, longs for
Tyndale gloss
to aspire
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word ὀρέγω, transliterated as oregō, means to stretch out or reach for something, and can also imply a desire or aspiration. It is used in the New Testament in contexts such as 1 Timothy 3:1 and Hebrews 11:16, where it conveys the idea of longing or aspiring. The word is related to the concept of desire, as noted in its synonym ἐπιθυμέω.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

** ὀρέγω,

[in Sm.: Jb 8:20, Ez 16:49*;]

to reach, stretch out; pass. and mid., to stretch oneself out, reach forth; metaph., to reach after, grasp at, aspire to: c. gen. rei, I Ti 3:1, He 11:16; φιλαργυρίας (v. Ellic. and CGT, in l.), I Ti 6:10.†

SYN.: ἐπιθυμέω, to desire (q.v.).

Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament from a scan

ὀρέγω: (cf. Lat. rego, Germ. recken, strecken, reichen, [Eng. reach; Curtius § 1587); fr. Hom. down; to stretch forth, as χεῖρα, Hom. Il. 15, 371, ete.; pres. mid. [cf. W. p- 252 (237) note], to stretch one’s self out in order to touch or to grasp something, to reach after or desire something: with a gen. of the thing, 1 Tim. iii. 1; Heb. xi. 16; φιλαργυρίας, to give one’s self up to the love of money (not quite accurately since φιλαργ. is itself the ὄρεξις; [cf. Ellicott ad loc.]), 1 Tim. vi. 10.

Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

ὀρέγω (oregō) — to aspire.

ὀρέγω,

[Refs 8th c.BC+]; Ionic dialect and later Prose, [Refs 5th c.BC+]: imperfect ὤρεγον [Refs 5th c.BC+]: future ὀρέξω [Refs 8th c.BC+]: aorist ὤρεξα [Refs 8th c.BC+]:—middle and passive, [Refs 8th c.BC+]: future ὀρέξομαι [Refs 5th c.BC+] (ἐπ-): aorist ὠρεξάμην [Refs 8th c.BC+]; also ὠρέχθην[Refs 8th c.BC+]: perfect ὤρεγμαι [Refs 5th c.BC+]; reduplicate 3rd.pers. plural ὀρωρέχαται, pluperfect -έχατο, [Refs 8th c.BC+] —Cf. ὀρέγνυμι, ὀριγνάομαι:—reach, stretch, stretch out, χεῖρ᾽ ὀρέγων [Refs 8th c.BC+]; Ὅμηρον.., ἐφ᾽ ὃν πᾶσαι χεῖρ᾽ ὀρέγουσι πόλεις, to claim him, [Refs]

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

ὀρέγομαι

oregomai

middle voice of apparently a prolonged form of an obsolete primary

(compare 3735); to stretch oneself, i.e. reach out after (long

for):--covet after, desire.

see GREEK for 3735

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

ὀρέγω

v.

I stretch forth, long for

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

ὀρέγω oregō 3x

to extend, stretch out; mid. to stretch one’s self out, to reach forward to, met. to desire earnestly, long after, 1 Tim. 3:1; Heb. 11:16; by impl. to indulge in, be devoted to, 1 Tim. 6:10*

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Verb-PMI-3S — Verb · present · middle · indicative · third person · singular
present middle indicative — an action in progress.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

V-PMI-3S Part of Speech: Verb Tense: Present Voice: Middle Mood: Indicative Person: third Number: Singular

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
33%aspires to
aspires to33% · 1×stretching after33% · 1×they stretch forward to33% · 1×

3 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 3 different ways. The commonest English word for it is not its meaning — it is one translator's decision, repeated.

What it does in the sentencefrom the Nestle 1904 treebank
verb100%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 3 occurrences — a word inside a phrase counts towards whatever that phrase is doing.

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
ἐπισκοπήvisitation of judgme
τὶς
τὶς
ὅς
κρείττωνstronger, more excel
δέbut, on the othe
ὀρέγωaspires to,
what comes after →
καλόςbeautiful, good, wor
ἔργονwork, labor, act
ἀποπλανάωI cause to wander as
ἀπό
οὗτος
εἰμίI am, exist

branches are dictionary forms, so endings do not split one phrase into five; the number on a branch is how many times the New Testament takes that path

Concordanceὀρέγω · 3× in the New Testament
1 Timothy Hebrews
Across the New Testament2 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The company it keepswords that stand beside it more often than chance
Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
Philo of Alexandria Josephus
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 158c. AD 40

σιτοπόνων τε γὰρ καὶ ὀψαρτυτῶν κάματον ἐπιλιχνεύει καὶ τῆς ἀπὸ τῶν ἡδυσμάτων κνίσσης ἐν κύκλῳ τὴν κεφαλὴν περιάγων μεταλαμβάνειν [τῆς εἰδεχθείας] ὀρέγεται, καὶ ὁπότε πολυτελῆ τράπεζαν θεάσαιτο, καταβαλὼν αὑτὸν ὅλον ἐπὶ τὰ εὐτρεπισθέντα ἐκχεῖται,…

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 19.227c. AD 75–95

οἱ μὲν ἀξιώματός τε τοῦ πρότερον ὀρεγόμενοι καὶ δουλείαν ἔπακτον αὐτοῖς ὕβρει τῶν τυράννων γενομένην φιλοτιμούμενοι διαδιδράσκειν χρόνῳ παρασχόν,

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
4th c. AD 6th c. AD
P.Nekr. 43Fundort: Kysis (Ägypten); Schreibort: Hibis ?AD 310

παρὰ Αὐρηλίας Τσεκε Σύρου ἀλλοϕύλου ἀπὸ κώμης Κύσεως τῆς μεγάλης Ὀάσεως. οἱ τῶν ἀλλοτρίων ὀρεγόμενοι , ἡγεμὸν κύριε, οἴονται … … τὰ μὴ ἑαυτοῖς διαϕέροντα ἀϕαρπάζειν, ἀγνοοῦντες ὡς κόρον

P.Lond. 5 1677AntinoopolisAD 568–AD 570

ἀεὶ σπουδάσουσα πάντα τὰ λυσιτελῆ καὶ ψυχωφελῆ … δικαίων ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν ἀρετὴν ἣν ἐπέχει ὀρέγεται διατελεῖν … μενη καὶ ἐγὼ τοῦτο σαφῶς ἐπιστάμενος ἀόκνως πρόσειμι … τοῖς ἀνεπάφοις ὑμῶν

Trustworthy [is] the saying: If anyone overseership aspires to, of good a work he is desirous.
καλοῦkalos of good G2570 Adjective · genitive · singular · neuter
101× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in 1 Timothy than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
Something or someone that is kalos is fair, beautiful, or good, like the stones in Luke 21:5 or the fish in Matthew 13:48.
Amplified meaning
good, honorable
Tyndale gloss
Fair (Havens)
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word καλός (i.e., *kalos*) means beautiful or good, often referring to outward appearance or moral quality. It encompasses a range of meanings from physical beauty to ethical goodness, as seen in various contexts like good deeds or excellent qualities. The New Testament uses it frequently to describe things that are valuable or virtuous, such as in Matthew 13:8 regarding good soil. There is a distinction noted between καλός and another word for good, ἀγαθός, with καλός emphasizing goodness as it appears to others.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

καλός, -ή, -όν,

[in LXX chiefly for טוֹב, טוֹבָה, also for יָפֶה, etc.;]

primarily, of outward form ("related to . . . ἀγαθός as the appearance to the essence," Cremer, 339), fair, beautiful: λίθοι (EV, goodly), Lk 21:5.

In reference to use, of that which is well adapted to its ends, good, excellent: of fish, τ. καλά (opp. to σαπρά), Mt 13:48; σπέρμα, Mt 13:24, 27, 37, 38; καρπός, Mt 3:10 7:17-19 12:33, Lk 3:9 [WH] 6:43; δένδρον (opp. to σαρπόν), Mt 12:33, Lk 6:43; γῆ,

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Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament from a scan

καλός, -7, -dv, [ prob. primarily ‘ sound,’ ‘ hale,’ ‘ whole ;’ ef. Vaniéek p. 140 sq. ; Curtius § 51], Sept. for 75

Moulton & Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek Testament from a scan

καλός. Hort in his note on 1 Pet 212 has pointed out that while ἀγαθός ‘ denotes what is good in virtue of its results,” καλός “denotes that kind of goodness which is at once seen to be good.” It may not be possible always to press the distinction, but what we may call this self-evidencing power of καλός, a goodness as it appears to, and is realized by, others comes out generally speaking in the citations that follow. Thus in its application to persons the adj. is united with πιστός in the well-known early Christian letter of Psenosiris, where Psenosiris writes regarding Politike —t]atitny παραδέδωκα Tots καλοῖς καὶ πιστοῖς ἐξ αὐτῶν τῶν νεκροτάφων (“‘grave-diggers’’) eis τήρησιν (P Grenf II. 731" (late iii/A.D.) (= Selecttons, p. 118) ). And so in the Silco inscr., OGIS 201® (vi/A.D.), the King announces—érlotevoa τὸν ὅρκον αὐτῶν, ὡς καλοί εἰσιν ἄνθρωποι, ‘‘ quia honesti homines sunt”…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

καλός (kalos) — good.

καλός, ή, όν,

Aeolic dialect κάλος (see. below), α, ον, Boeotian dialect καλϝός [Refs 6th c.BC+]:—

__A beautiful, of outward form, frequently of persons, κάλλιστος ἀνὴρ ὑπὸ Ἴλιον ἦλθεν [Refs 8th c.BC+] usually in the phrase κ. τε μέγας τε [Refs 8th c.BC+]; μέγας καὶ κ. [Refs 8th c.BC+]; καλὸς δέμας beautiful of form,[Refs 5th c.BC+]; Χορῷ καλή beauteous in the dance, [Refs 8th c.BC+]: with infinitive, καλλίονες καὶ μείζονες εἰσοράασθαι [Refs 8th c.BC+]; ἐσορᾶν κ. [Refs 5th c.BC+]: frequently of parts of the body, fair, shapely, κ. πρόσωπα, ὅμματα, παρήϊα, σφυρά, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; of clothes, εἵματα, φάρεα, Χιτών, Χλαῖνα, πέδιλα, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; of arms and armour, κνημῖδες, ἀσπίς, σάκος, κόρυς, φάσγανα, ἔντεα, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; of buildings, manufactured articles, etc., αὐλὴ κ. τε μεγάλη τε [Refs]; κ. δώματα, τεῖχος, πόλιες,[Refs…

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

καλός

kalos

of uncertain affinity; properly, beautiful, but chiefly (figuratively)

good (literally or morally), i.e. valuable or virtuous (for appearance

or use, and thus distinguished from 18, which is properly

intrinsic):--X better, fair, good(-ly), honest, meet, well, worthy.

see GREEK for 18

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

καλός, ή, όν

Adj

beautiful, good, worthy

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

καλός kalos 101x

pr. beautiful; good, of good quality or disposition; fertile, rich, Mt. 13:8, 23; useful, profitable, Lk. 14:34; καλόν ἐστι[ν], it is profitable, it is well, Mt. 18:8, 9; excellent, choice, select, goodly, Mt. 7:17, 19; καλόν ἐστι[ν], it is pleasant, delightful, Mt. 17:4; just, full measure, Lk. 6:38; honorable, distinguished, Jas. 2:7; good, possessing moral excellence, worthy, upright, virtuous, Jn. 10:11, 14; Read the full entry →

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

καλός καλός, ή, όν beautiful, beauteous, fair, Lat. pulcher, of outward form, Hom., etc.; καλὸς δέμας beautiful of form, Od.; so, εἶδος κάλλιστος Xen.; καλὸς τὸ σῶμα id. Xen.; c. inf., κ. εἰσοράασθαι Hom.

τὸ καλόν, like κάλλος, beauty, Eur., etc.: τὰ καλά the decencies, proprieties, elegancies of life, Hdt., etc.

in reference to use, beautiful, fair, good, κ. λιμήν Od.; καλὸς εἴς τι Xen.; πρός τι Plat.; c. inf., κάλλιστος τρέχειν Xen.;—esp. in the foll. phrases, ἐν καλῷ [τόπῳ] in a good place, Thuc.; ἐν καλῷ τοῦ κόλπου, τῆς πόλεως Xen.; ἐν κ. (sub. χρόνῳ), in good time, in season, Eur.:—so, καλόν ἐστι, c. inf., Soph.

of sacrifices, good, auspicious, Aesch., etc.

Read the full entry →
Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Adj-GSN — Adjective · genitive · singular · neuter
genitive — of, from, belonging to.
Agrees with anything else marked singular neuter.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

A-GSN Part of Speech: Adjective Case: Genitive Number: Singular Gender: Neuter

Bible dictionarieson the English sense
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

good (Tobh, Tubh, yaTabh; agathos, agathon, kalos, kalon): In English "good" is used in various senses, most of which are represented in the Bible.

(1) In the Old Testament the commonest word is Tobh, occurring very frequently and translated in a great variety of ways. Of the different shades of meaning, which frequently run into each other, the following may be distinguished:

(a) Possessing desirable qualities, beneficial, agreeable, e.g. "good for food" (Ge 2:9); "We will do thee good" (Nu 10:29); Who will show us any good?" (Ps 4:6); "good tidings of good" (Isa 52:7).

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
78%good
good78% · 80×better8% · 8×right4% · 4×other renderings10% · 10×

102 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 13 different ways. The commonest English word for it is not its meaning — it is one translator's decision, repeated.

What it does in the sentencefrom the Nestle 1904 treebank
object42%predicate33%adverbial16%second object4%subject4%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 101 occurrences — a word inside a phrase counts towards whatever that phrase is doing.

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
Article the
γῆthe earth, soil,ποιμήνa shepherdσύ
καρπόςfruit, result, gain
ποιέωI do, makeἀγαθόςgoodσαπρόςrotten, useless,
αὐτός
ἀποκόπτωI smite, cut offκαρπόςfruit, result, gἐκβάλλωI throw, cast, p
ὅτιthat, since, because
νόμοςa law, the Mosaiἀνάγκηnecessity, constδέbut, on the othe
εἰμίI am, exist
οὐNegγάρforοὗτος
καλόςof good101×
what comes after →
ἔργονwork, labor, action,
προΐστημιI ruleκαίand, even, also,ἐργάζομαιI word, trade, d
καίand, even, also, nam
δίδωμιI offer, giveArticle theἀγαθόςgood
εἰμίI am, exist
ἐγώαὐτόςσύ
Article the
ἅλαςsaltποιμήνa shepherdψυχήthe soul, life,
ποιέωI do, make
Article theκαρπόςfruit, result, gἐγώ

branches are dictionary forms, so endings do not split one phrase into five; the number on a branch is how many times the New Testament takes that path

Concordanceκαλός · 101× in the New Testament
Matthew 1 Timothy Mark Luke John 1 Corinthians Hebrews Romans Titus 1 Peter 2 Timothy Galatians

Every reference is on the Strong's page.

Across the New Testament16 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 131 Old Testament verses where this Greek word stands: which Hebrew word keeps standing there too. A correspondence of verses rather than a word-by-word alignment, so read the percentage as strength of evidence, not as a claim about any single verse.

Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
Philo of Alexandria Josephus Clement of Rome The Shepherd of Hermas The Epistle of Barnabas
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 8c. AD 40

Μωυσῆς δὲ καὶ φιλοσοφίας ἐπ’ αὐτὴν φθάσας ἀκρότητα καὶ χρησμοῖς τὰ πολλὰ καὶ συνεκτικώτατα τῶν τῆς φύσεως ἀναδιδαχθεὶς ἔγνω δή, ὅτι ἀναγκαιότατόν ἐστιν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι τὸ μὲν εἶναι δραστήριον αἴτιον, τὸ δὲ παθητόν, καὶ ὅτι τὸ μὲν δραστήριον ὁ τῶν ὅλων…

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 1.9c. AD 75–95

τούτῳ δὴ πειθόμενος ὡς αἰεὶ τοῖς χρήσιμον ἢ καλόν τι πράττειν δυναμένοις συμφιλοκαλοῦντι καὶ ἐμαυτὸν αἰσχυνόμενος, εἰ δόξαιμι ῥαθυμίᾳ πλέον ἢ τῷ περὶ τὰ κάλλιστα χαίρειν πόνῳ, προθυμότερον ἐπερρώσθην, ἔτι κἀκεῖνα πρὸς τοῖς εἰρημένοις λογισάμενος οὐ…

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 6.12c. AD 100

καὶ εἶπεν κύριος, ἰδὼν τὸ καλὸν πλάσμα ἡμῶν: Λὐξάνεσθε καὶ πληθυνέσθε καὶ πληρώσατε τὴν γῆν.

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
6th c. AD 2nd c. AD 7th c. AD 3rd c. AD 4th c. AD
P.Fay. 116Euhemeria (ArsinoitesAD 104

ἢ κορακίνους τριάκοντα καὶ ταριχεύσας πέμψεις μοι εἰς τὴν πόλιν καὶ ποίησον … τας καλοὺς τεσσαράκοντα , ἐπεὶ βουλεύομαι εἰς πόλιν ἀπελθεῖν χάριν τοῦ μικροῦ καὶ χάριν ἐκείνου τοῦ

P.Rein. 1 52Theadelphia (Arsinoites)AD 250–AD 264

ἐγράφη τὴν περιποίησιν τοῦ σίτου καὶ τὴν ἀναπομπὴν δηλῶσαι· ὑμεῖς δὲ ἠμελήσατε ἴσως οὐ καλῷ συνειδότι χρώμενοι· ὃ καὶ νῦν ποιήσατε ἵνα μὴ μετὰ στρατιώτου ἀναγκάσθητε τοῦτο ποιῆσαι. ἐρρῶσθαί

P.Fay. 133Theadelphia (Arsinoites)AD 260

ἡμερῶν δύο καὶ τριῶν ἵνα καὶ τὰ κοῦφά σοι συνδράμῃ ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁ οἶνος καλὸς γένηται, οἶδας γὰρ ὅτι ὁ καιρὸς νῦν ἐστιν ὀψιμώτερος, καθὼς καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἄλλοις

Trustworthy [is] the saying: If anyone overseership aspires to, of good a work he is desirous.
ἔργουergon a work G2041 Noun · genitive · singular · neuter
169× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in 1 Timothy than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
This term refers to work, toil, or occupation, and can also imply an act or deed. In the Bible, it is used to describe various tasks and activities, such as Jesus' work on earth and the deeds of Christians.
Amplified meaning
work, occupation
Tyndale gloss
work
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word ἔργον, transliterated as ergon, means 'work' or 'deed' and is derived from a root meaning 'to work.' It encompasses a wide range of meanings, including tasks, actions, and products of labor. In the New Testament, it is frequently used to describe both human actions and divine works, appearing in verses like John 3:21 and Ephesians 2:10.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

ἔργον, -ου, τό (originally Ϝέργον, work), [very freq. in LXX, chiefly for מַעֲשֶׂה, מְלָאכָה, also for עֲבֹדָה, פֹּעַל, etc. ;]

work, task, employment: Mk 13:34, Jo 4:34 17:4, Ac 13:2, Phl 1:22 2:30, I Th 5:13, al.; of an enterprise or undertaking (De 15:10, Wi 2:12), Ac 5:38.

a deed, action: Tit 1:16, Ja 1:25 . disting. from λόγος, Lk 24:19, Ro 15:18, II Th 2:17

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Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament from a scan

ἔργον, -ου, τό, anciently Fepyov, (Germ.Werk, [ Eng. work; ef. Vanitek p. 9227); Sept. for Ὁ}, 772y, and countless times for man and wy; work i. 6. 1. business, employment, that with which any one is occupied : Mk. xiii. 34 (διδόναι τινὶ τὸ ἔργον αὐτοῦ); Acts xiv. 26 (πληροῦν) ; 1 Tim. iii. 1; thus of the work of salvation committed by God to Christ: διδόναι and τελειοῦν, Jn. xvii. 4; of the work to be done by the apostles and other Christian teachers, as well as by the presiding officers of the religious assemblies, Acts xiii. 2; xv. 38; 1 Th. v. 13; Phil. i. 22; τὸ ἔργον τινός, yen. of the subj., the work which one does, service which one either performs or ought to perform, 1 Th. v. 13; ἔργον ποιεῖν τινος to do the work of one (i. 6. incumbent upon him), εὐαγγελιστοῦ, 2 Tim. iv.5; τὸ ἔργον τινός i. e. assigned by one and to be done for his sake: τὸ ἔργον τοῦ θεοῦ τελειοῦν, used of…

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Moulton & Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek Testament from a scan

ἔργον. A few miscellaneous exx. of this common word (MGr ἔργο) will suffice : P Petr II. 11 (1) (mid. iii/B.c.) εἰ δυνατόν ἐστιν καὶ μηθέν σε τῶν ἔργων κωλύει, πειράθητι ἐλθεῖν els τὰ ᾿Αρσινόεια, P Par 667: (i/B.c.) ὧν τὰ ἔργα ἀναβάλουσιν (1 --λλ--}, ‘‘whose work is postponed,” P Oxy XII. 1457} (B.C. 4-3) O[vous] θηλήας δύο. . ἐργαζομένας pov τὰ ἴδια ἔργα, P Ryl II. 154° (a.p. 66) τὰ kat’ ἔϊτο]ς γεωργικὰ ἔργα πάντα, and P Tebt 11. 423% (early iii/A.D.) ἄλλοτέ σοι ἔγραψα ὑπομιμνήσκων περὶ τῶν ἔργων. In P Giss I. 201° (ii/A.D.) the word is almost = ‘‘ sample ”—épyé[fo]par τὰ ἔρια! . . . ἃ] ἔγραψας... ὁποῖ]ον δέ σοι χρῶ[μ]α ἀρέσκει, [δήλω]σον δι᾽ ἐπι[σ]τολῆς ἢ μεικρὸν ἔρ[γο]ν (or ἔρ[ιο Jv, see 5.U. ἀρέσκω) αὐτοῦ…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

ἔργον (ergon) — work.

ἔργον,

Doric dialect ϝέργον [Refs 6th c.BC+], Elean ϝάργον [Refs 6th c.BC+] weorc (neuter) 'work', Avest. var[schwa]za-):— work, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; especially in plural, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; τὰ σ᾽ αὐτῆς ἔργα κόμιζε see to thine own tasks, [Refs 8th c.BC+]

1. in [Refs 8th c.BC+]works or deeds of war, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; ἐν τῷ ἔ. during the action, [Refs 6th c.BC+]; ἔργου ἔχεσθαι to engage in battle, [Refs]

2. of peaceful contests, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; also ἔργα θῆκε κάλλιστ᾽ ἀμφὶ κόμαις placed [the reward of] noble deeds about his hair, [Refs]

3. of works of industry,

3. a of tillage, tilled lands, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; οὔτε βοῶν οὔτ᾽ ἀνδρῶν φαίνετο ἔργα [Refs] —the title of Hesiod's work; πατρώϊα ἔ. their father's lands, [Refs 8th c.BC+] will neither go to our farms, [Refs]…

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

ἔργον

ergon

from a primary (but obsolete) ergo (to work); toil (as an effort or

occupation); by implication, an act:--deed, doing, labour, work.

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

ἔργον, ου, τό

n.n.

work, labor, action, deed

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

ἔργον ergon 169x

anything done or to be done; a deed, work, action, Jn. 3:21; Eph. 2:10; 2 Cor. 9:8, et al. freq.; duty enjoined, office, charge, business, Mk. 13:34; Jn. 4:34, et al. freq.; a process, course of action, Jas. 1:4; a work, product of an action or process, Acts 7:41; Heb. 1:10; substance in effect, Rom. 2:15

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

ἔργον ἔργον, ου, τό, Ε῎ργω work, Hom., etc.; τὰ σαυτῆς ἔργα κόμιζε mind your own business, Hom.:

in Il. mostly of deeds of war, πολεμήϊα ἔργα Il., etc.; so, ἐν τῷ ἔργῳ during the action, Thuc.; ἔργου ἔχεσθαι to engage in battle, id. Thuc.

of works of industry, tilled lands, fields, farms, Hom.; οὔτε βοῶν οὔτ᾽ ἀνδρῶν ἔργα (cf. Virgil's hominumque boumque labores), Il.; ἔργα Ἰθάκης the tilled lands of Ithaca, Od.; so in attic, τὰ κατ᾽ ἀγροὺς ἔργα, etc.:—then, generally, property, wealth, possessions, ἔργον ἀέξειν Od.

of women's work, weaving, Hom.

of other occupations, θαλάσσια ἔργα fishing, as a way of life, Od.; periphr., ἔργα δαιτός works of feasting, Il.; so, ἔργα θήρας, etc. Xen., etc.:—in attic also of all kinds of works, such as…

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Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Noun-GSN — Noun · genitive · singular · neuter
genitive — of, from, belonging to.
Agrees with anything else marked singular neuter.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

N-GSN Part of Speech: Noun Case: Genitive Number: Singular Gender: Neuter

Bible dictionarieson the English sense
Nave's Topical Bible

→ See INDUSTRY

→ See LABOR

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
59%works
works59% · 103×work29% · 51×deeds7% · 13×deed3% · 5×other renderings2% · 4×

176 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 7 different ways. The commonest English word for it is not its meaning — it is one translator's decision, repeated.

What it does in the sentencefrom the Nestle 1904 treebank
adverbial47%object33%subject14%predicate5%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 169 occurrences — a word inside a phrase counts towards whatever that phrase is doing.

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
Article the
κατάσύἐκ
ἐκ
οὐNegὅτιthat, since, becσύ
καλόςbeautiful, good, wor
Article theπαρέχωI offer, provideπερί
πᾶςall, the whole, ever
πρόςεἰςἐν
ἐν
δυνατόςpowerful, able, DisjπλουτέωI become rich
ἔργονa work169×
what comes after →
Article the
θεόςGod, a godπατήρfather, Father, χείρa hand
αὐτός
καίand, even, also,πονηρόςevil, bad, wickeἐν
ἀγαθόςgood
καίand, even, also,δόξαhonor, renown, gὅς
ὅς
ποιέωI do, makeἐγώδίδωμιI offer, give
νόμοςa law, the Mosaic La
οὐNegἐάνCondὅτιthat, since, bec

branches are dictionary forms, so endings do not split one phrase into five; the number on a branch is how many times the New Testament takes that path

Concordanceἔργον · 169× in the New Testament
John Revelation James Romans Acts Hebrews 1 Corinthians Galatians Titus 1 Timothy 2 Timothy Matthew

Every reference is on the Strong's page.

Across the New Testament26 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 285 Old Testament verses where this Greek word stands: which Hebrew word keeps standing there too. A correspondence of verses rather than a word-by-word alignment, so read the percentage as strength of evidence, not as a claim about any single verse.

Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
Philo of Alexandria Josephus The Shepherd of Hermas Clement of Rome Ignatius of Antioch
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 9c. AD 40

τὸ δὲ παθητὸν ἄψυχον καὶ ἀκίνητον ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ, κινηθὲν δὲ καὶ σχηματισθὲν καὶ ψυχωθὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ νοῦ μετέβαλεν εἰς τὸ τελειότατον ἔργον, τόνδε τὸν κόσμον·

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 1.19c. AD 75–95

ἰστέον οὖν, ὅτι πάντων ἐκεῖνος ἀναγκαιότατον ἡγήσατο τῷ καὶ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ μέλλοντι βίον οἰκονομήσειν καλῶς καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις νομοθετεῖν θεοῦ πρῶτον φύσιν κατανοῆσαι καὶ τῶν ἔργων τῶν ἐκείνου θεατὴν τῷ νῷ γενόμενον οὕτως παράδειγμα τὸ πάντων ἄριστον…

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 1.6c. AD 100

Τρία οὖν δόγματά ἐστιν κυρίου: ζωῆς ἐλπίς, ἀρχὴ καὶ τέλος πίστεως ἡμῶν: καὶ δικαιοσύνη, κρίσεως ἀρχὴ καὶ τέλος: ἀγάπη εὐφροσύνης καὶ ἀγαλλιάσεως ἔργων δικαιοσύνης μαρτυρία.

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
2nd c. AD 3rd c. AD 3rd c. BC 6th c. AD 1st c. AD
P.Cair. Zen. 2 59291Philadelphia (Arsinoites)252 BC

Ζήνωνι χαίρειν Ἁρμάεις καὶ Τεῶς. ἐνέβημεν εἰς τὰ ἔργα ἀπὸ ἔτους λδ, σοῦ συντάξαντος ἡμῖν τοῖς ἔργοις προσέχειν τετράμηνον. ἔστιν δὲ ἡμῖν μῆνες

P.Cair. Zen. 2 59296Arsinoites251 BC

τοὺς … διώρυγι καὶ εἰς … ὡς τῶν δ … γίνονται δραχμαὶ ρνδ γίνονται ἔργων δραχμαὶ φκβ εἰσὶ δὲ φ καὶ ὥστε Ἄνδρωνι εἰς τοὺς ἐν Φιλαδελφείαι φυλακίτας καὶ

P.Cair. Zen. 3 59369Krokodilopolis (Arsinoites)242 BC

ὅτι ἐπίστῃ με ε οικοτημον. καλῶς οὖν ποιήσεις γράψας Ἀγήνορι ὅπως ἀφεθεὶς πρὸς τοῖς ἔργοις γένωμαι καὶ μὴ ἐν τῆι φυλακῆι καταφθαρῶ. ἔρρωσο. ἔτους ζ, Ἐπεὶφ

Trustworthy [is] the saying: If anyone overseership aspires to, of good a work he is desirous.
ἐπιθυμεῖ.epithumeō he is desirous. G1937 Verb · present · active · indicative · third person · singular
16× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in 1 Timothy than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
To long for something is to set your heart on it, as seen in James 4:2 and Romans 7:7. This word can describe a strong desire, either good or bad, and is often used to warn against lust or coveting.
Amplified meaning
sets his heart on, has a strong desire for
Tyndale gloss
to long for
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word ἐπιθυμέω (i.e., *epithumeo*) is built from roots meaning 'to set the heart upon' or 'to desire.' It covers a range of meanings including longing, coveting, and lusting after something, and can be used with various grammatical constructions. In the New Testament, it appears in contexts of desire, both positive and negative, such as in James 4:2 and Romans 7:7.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

ἐπιθυμέω, -ῶ

(< θυμός),

[in LXX chiefly for אָוָה pi., hithp.; also for חָמַד, etc. ;]

to set one's heart upon, desire, lust after, covet: absol., Ja 4:2, Ro 7:7 13:9 (LXX), I Co 10:6 (of. IV Mac 2:6); seq. κατά (against, in opposition to), Ga 5:17; prop. (as in cl.) c. gen., Ac 20:33, I Ti 3:1; in late Gk. also c. acc (M, Pr., 65), Mt 5:28 (Rec. αὐτῆς; T omits; cf. Ex 20:17, Mi 2:2, Wi 16:3, al.); c. inf., Mt 13:17,

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Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament from a scan

ἐπιθυμέω, -ὦ ; [impf. ἐπεθύμουν ; fut. ἐπιθυμήσω ; 1 aor. ἐπεθύμησα; (θυμός); fr. Aeschyl. down; Sept. for 738 and 12m; prop. to keep the θυμός turned upon a thing, hence [cf. our to set one’s heart upon] to have a desire for, long for; absol. to desire [A. V. lust], Jas. iv. 2; to lust after, covet, of those who seek things forbidden, Ro. vii. 7; xiii. 9 (fr. Ex. xx. 17); 1 Co. x. 6, (4 Mace. ii. 6); κατά Twos, to have desires opposed to [A.V. lust against] a thing, Gal. v. 17 [B. 335 (288)]; τινός, to long for, covet a thing, Acts xx. 33; 1 Tim. iii. 1; of sexual desire, γυναικός, Mt. v. 28 Ree. [see below] (παιδὸς ἢ γυναικός, Xen. an. 4, 1, 14; with the gen. also in Ex. xxxiv. 24; Proy. xxi. 26; xxiii. 3,6; Sap. vi.12; Sir. xxiv. 19 (18), etc.) ; contrary to the usage of the better Grk. writ. with the ace. of the object, Mt. v. 28 L Tr (WH br.), and without an obj. Tdf. (Ex. xx. 17…

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Moulton & Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek Testament from a scan

ἐπιθυμέω. For the late acc. constr. with this verb, as in Mt 57° BD, cf. the Hadrumetum Memorial of iii/A.p., reproduced in BS, p: 274 ff.“ μηδεμίαν ἄλλη[ν] γυναῖκα μήτε παρθένον ἐπιθυμotvra. In P Lond 897 (a.p. 84) (ΞΞ 111. p. 207) after the closing word of ]. 325 the following words have been written and struck out— -. pe. . ce ovK ἐπιθυμῶι εἰς᾿Αρσινοΐτην 7. Other exx. of the verb are BGU I. 248" (ii/a.p.) ὧν oa βούλεθαι (1 κοινῆσαι βούλεται) Kal αὐτὸν €[. Ve Galfedls ἀσπάζομαί σε, μῆτερ, διὰ τῶν γραμμάτων rap ἜΡΙΣ: οὖσα ἤδη θεάσασθαι, and from the inscrr. Sy// 226106 (iii/s. C.) πρὸς δὲ τούτοις Θισαμάτας καὶ Σκύθας καὶ Σαυδαράτας ἐπιθυμεῖν τοῦ ὀχυρώματος (‘‘ fortress”), ΟΟ75 764)° (ii/B.c.) τοῖς ἄλλοις ἄρχουσιν πᾶ]σιν καὶ Ῥωμαίων τοῖς ἐπιθυμοῦσιν καὶ τοῖς ἐλευθέροις…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

ἐπιθυμέω (epithumeō) — to long for.

ἐπιθῡμ-έω,

set one's heart upon a thing, long for, covet, desire, with genitive of things, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; of political attachments, τῶν ἡμετέρων πολεμίων 5th-6th c.BC: Andocides Orator 4.28; ὀλιγαρχίας 5th c.BC: Lysias Orator 20.3: with infinitive, desire to do, πλῶσαι 5th c.BC: Herodotus Historicus 1.24; ἀπικνέεσθαι[Refs 5th c.BC+]: absolutely, desire, covet, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; τὸ ἐπιθυμοῦν τοῦ πλοῦ, ={ἐπιθυμία}, eagerness for it, [Refs]:—passive, to be desired, τὰ ἐπιθυμούμενα 5th-6th c.BC: Plato Philosophus “Philebus” 35d.

Strong's Greek Dictionary

ἐπιθυμέω

epithumeo

from 1909 and 2372; to set the heart upon, i.e. long for (rightfully

or otherwise):--covet, desire, would fain, lust (after).

see GREEK for 1909

see GREEK for 2372

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

ἐπιθυμέω

v.

I long for, covet, lust after

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

ἐπιθυμέω epithumeō 16x

with the gen. or acc., to set the heart upon; to desire, long for, have earnest desire, Mt. 13:17; Lk. 15:16; to lust after, Mt. 5:28; spc. to covet, Rom. 13:9

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

ἐπιθυμέω θυμός to set one's heart upon a thing, lust after, long for, covet, desire, c. gen., Hdt., Aesch., etc.; also c. gen. pers., Xen.:—c. inf. to desire to do, Hdt., Soph.:—absol. to desire, covet, Thuc., etc.; τὸ ἐπιθυμοῦν τοῦ πλοῦ ῀ ἐπιθυμία, eagerness for it, id. Thuc.

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Verb-PAI-3S — Verb · present · active · indicative · third person · singular
present active indicative — an action in progress.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

V-PAI-3S Part of Speech: Verb Tense: Present Voice: Active Mood: Indicative Person: third Number: Singular

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
13%you will covet
you will covet13% · 2×i coveted6% · 1×desired6% · 1×desires6% · 1×he is desirous6% · 1×we desire6% · 1×you desire6% · 1×desire6% · 1×other renderings44% · 7×

16 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 15 different ways. The commonest English word for it is not its meaning — it is one translator's decision, repeated.

What it does in the sentencefrom the Nestle 1904 treebank
verb100%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 16 occurrences — a word inside a phrase counts towards whatever that phrase is doing.

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
καίand, even, also, nam
αὐτός
οὐNeg
λέγωI say, speakκλέπτωI steal
Article the
πρός
δίκαιοςjust, righteous, imp
καίand, even, also,
ὅτεwhen
ἡμέραa day
ἐπιθυμέωhe is desirous.16×
what comes after →
καίand, even, also, nam
εἰCondοὐNeg
αὐτός
ἤδηnow, already
ὁράωI see, look upon, ex
ὅς
γεμίζωI fill, load
Article the
χορτάζωI feed, satisfy
ἀπό

branches are dictionary forms, so endings do not split one phrase into five; the number on a branch is how many times the New Testament takes that path

Concordanceἐπιθυμέω · 16× in the New Testament
Luke Matthew Romans 1 Corinthians 1 Peter 1 Timothy Acts Galatians Hebrews James Revelation
Across the New Testament11 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The company it keepswords that stand beside it more often than chance
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 29 Old Testament verses where this Greek word stands: which Hebrew word keeps standing there too. A correspondence of verses rather than a word-by-word alignment, so read the percentage as strength of evidence, not as a claim about any single verse.

Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
Josephus The Shepherd of Hermas Philo of Alexandria Ignatius of Antioch Polycarp
Philo of AlexandriaOn Joseph 144c. AD 40

καὶ ἔτι πρὸς τούτοις ἀλλότριον τοῦτο, μὴ ἐπιθύμει·

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 3.7c. AD 75–95

καὶ κατανεύσαντος τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν χάριν λαβὼν τομάδος τὸ ἄκρον ἐν ποσὶν ἐρριμμένης διαιρεῖ μέσην καὶ κατὰ τὸ μῆκος τὴν τομὴν ποιησάμενος, ἔπειτα μεθεὶς εἰς τὸ φρέαρ ἔπειθε τοὺς Ἑβραίους τὸν θεὸν ἐπήκοον αὐτοῦ τῶν εὐχῶν γεγονέναι καὶ ὑπεσχῆσθαι τὸ ὕδωρ…

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 19.6c. AD 100

οὐ μὴ γένῃ ἐπιθυμῶν τὰ τοῦ πλησίον σου, οὐ μὴ γένῃ πλεονέκτης.

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
3rd c. AD 4th c. AD 2nd c. BC 3rd c. BC
C.Ptol.Sklav. 154201 BC–102 BC

r Χαιρήμων Σύρωι χαίρειν. ἤδη Θάις ἐπιθυμεῖ σο … ωι … … … η … … προσορμίσῃς

P.Oxy. 14 1666OxyrhynchosAD 201–AD 300

κατελθὼν εἰς Ἀλεξάνδρειαν πολλαῖς ἀφορμαῖς ἐχρησάμην ἄχρι οὗ μετενέχθη εἰς τὴν ἐν Κόπτῳ εἶλαν. ἐπιθυμῶν οὖν πρὸς ὑμᾶς τῷ ἀναπλόῳ καταντῆσαι περιεκλείσθημεν ἀπὸ τοῦ δοθέντος τῷ παιδίῳ ὑπὸ τοῦ

P.Oxy. 59 3997OxyrhynchosAD 201–AD 400

ὅτι καθʼ ἑκάστην ἡμέραν τὸ προσκύνημά σου ποιῶ, εἴτε παρʼ ἀνθρώποις, εἴτε παρὰ θεῷ. ἐπεθύμησα γάρ σε προσκυνῆσαί σε καὶ διὰ γραμμάτων ἔστʼ ἂν ὁ θεὸς δώσῃ τὴν καλὴν

Sources on this page. Lexicons and dictionaries imported from the CrossWire SWORD modules — Abbott-Smith, Strong's, Dodson, the Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones, Robinson and Packard, Webster and Cawdrey. Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (Harper, 1889 — Grimm’s Wilke’s Clavis Novi Testamenti, translated, revised and enlarged by Joseph Henry Thayer) is public domain and is set here from the Internet Archive page scan greekenglishlex00grim; it is uncorrected OCR, marked as such on the entry itself, and the Strong’s numbers — which Thayer’s own edition does not carry — were matched by lemma against the other modules on this page. Trench’s Synonyms of the New Testament (Macmillan, 1880) and Moulton and Milligan’s Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (Hodder & Stoughton, 1930, which entered the United States public domain on 1 January 2026) are set from Internet Archive page scans synonymsofnewtes00treniala and vocabularyofgree00mouluoft, and are likewise uncorrected OCR matched to Strong’s numbers by lemma. Trench treats a group of words at once, so the same essay stands on the page of each word it compares. The Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary is © 1993 and is used here by permission for non-commercial use, www.teknia.com/greek-dictionary. The full Liddell-Scott-Jones and the Hebrew word data (TAHOT) come from STEPBible.org, CC BY 4.0. Brown-Driver-Briggs is the OpenScriptures digitisation, public domain. Syntax analysis is the Nestle 1904 Lowfat treebank (biblicalhumanities.org); the concordance and morphology are built from the tagged Nestle 1904 text. Septuagint occurrences use the Open Scriptures Septuagint lemma index, derived from CCAT (University of Pennsylvania) and the Rahlfs 1935 dataset by Eliran Wong, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 — used here on a non-commercial ministry site. Greek of Josephus and Barnabas from the Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA 4.0. Commentaries and the Ante-Nicene Fathers are public-domain texts hosted on this site. Everyday Greek from the Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri, CC BY 3.0, with dates and provenance from the Heidelberger Gesamtverzeichnis. Philo and the Apostolic Fathers from Open Greek and Latin (First1KGreek), CC BY-SA 4.0. The apparatus and the fifth Greek column are the SBL Greek New Testament, © 2010 SBL and Logos Bible Software, CC BY 4.0. The Latin is the Clementine Vulgate (public domain); the Syriac New Testament is the ETCBC edition (MIT licence). The Hebrew behind the Greek is computed here from the Septuagint index and TAHOT, not taken from any aligned edition. The translation spread and the per-word edition marks come from the Translators Amalgamated Greek NT (STEPBible, CC BY 4.0); clause roles from the Nestle 1904 Lowfat treebank (CC BY-SA 4.0); place identifications and their confidence from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding (CC BY 4.0), with map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Gospel parallels are computed here from shared uncommon vocabulary, not taken from any printed harmony. Cross references are the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and the subject headings are Nave’s Topical Bible, both public domain. Works under Creative Commons licences are used unchanged apart from markup removal.

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