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Colossians 2:19 — Word Study

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N1904καὶ οὐ κρατῶν τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐξ οὗ πᾶν τὸ σῶμα διὰ τῶν ἁφῶν καὶ συνδέσμων ἐπιχορηγούμενον καὶ συμβιβαζόμενον αὔξει τὴν αὔξησιν τοῦ θεοῦ.¶

BSAandkai notou holding fastkrateō [is no longer holding fast, has become detached] to theho headkephalē [Christ, the source of spiritual life] fromek whomhos, hē allpas theho bodysōma [the church, the community of believers] throughdia theho jointshaphē [connections, ligaments] andkai ligamentssundesmos [bonds, ties] being suppliedepichorēgeō [nourished, supplied] andkai being knit togethersumbibazō [united, joined] it increasesauxanō [increases, develops] with theho increaseauxēsis [brings it to maturity, increases its spiritual strength] <the>ho of God.theos [the Creator, the Sustainer]

Word
Listen & take awayColossians 2
English ↓ Download MP3 The Berean Standard Bible chapter audio already hosted for the site's Bible section — verse 19 is in this chapter.
Greek ↓ Download MP3 Nestle 1904 — the very text on this page — read by Andy Martin in Erasmian pronunciation.
Say the word Each Greek word carries its transliteration (theos) — no per-word recordings of the Greek exist to link to.
Take it away
Colossians 2:19quick helps
In a sentenceThe passage warns against losing connection to Christ, the head of the body, which is the church.
Who is speakingThe Apostle Paul, writing to the Colossian church.
Where we areIn a section addressing false teachings and the importance of holding fast to Christ.
The hard wordκρατῶν
Take awayConnection to Christ is essential for spiritual growth.
8 commentators on this verse Gill, Jamieson, Poole, Trapp & more — read them › clause subjectκρατέω verbκρατέω 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 — Colossians 2:19

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 — Warning Against False Teachingsgenerated

18Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you with speculation about what he has seen. Such a person is puffed up without basis by his unspiritual mind.
19He has lost connection to the head, from whom the whole body, supported and knit together by its joints and ligaments, grows as God causes it to grow.
20If you have died with Christ to the spiritual forces of the world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its regulations:
21“Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!”?

Colossians 2:19 emphasizes the necessity of maintaining a connection to Christ, the head of the body, which is the church. Paul warns that detaching from Christ leads to spiritual loss and stunted growth. This passage is part of a broader discussion on the dangers of false teachings and the importance of adhering to the truth of the Gospel, as reflected in the surrounding verses, including Colossians 2:18 and Colossians 2:20.


Cross References

ReferenceText (BSB)
1Colossians 2:6–9Therefore, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in Him,
2Colossians 1:18And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and firstborn from among the dead, so that in all things He may have preeminence.
3Galatians 1:6–9I am amazed how quickly you are deserting the One who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—
4Galatians 5:2–4Take notice: I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.
51 Timothy 2:4–6who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

The Key Word κρατῶν, krateōgenerated

The word κρατῶν is a present active participle of κρατέω, which means to hold fast or grasp firmly. It indicates an ongoing action, emphasizing the necessity of continually maintaining a connection.

This term suggests strength and determination in holding onto something vital, in this case, Christ as the head of the church. The parsing as a participle indicates that this action is crucial for the subject's well-being.


How Translations Differ — measured against the Berean Standard Biblegenerated

In the Berean Standard Bible, the phrase is rendered as holding, which aligns with the KJV and other translations that emphasize the act of maintaining a connection to Christ.

However, the BSB and WEB use holding firmly, which adds a nuance of strength to the action. The translations generally agree on the importance of this connection, though they differ slightly in wording.


Sentence Structuregenerated

The verse contains a main clause led by the verb κρατῶν, holding, which governs the rest of the sentence. It describes the relationship between the body and the head, emphasizing how the body is supported and knit together.

The structure includes several phrases that elaborate on the body, its connections, and the source of its growth, showing a complex interrelationship between these elements.


Septuagint Backgroundgenerated

The word κρατέω has roots in the Septuagint, where it translates the Hebrew word חָזַק, meaning to be strong or firm. This connection highlights the importance of strength in maintaining one's relationship with God.

The term σῶμα also appears in the LXX, translating the Hebrew word for flesh, indicating a continuity of meaning regarding the body in both Testaments.


In plain words — the whole versegenerated

Colossians 2:19 warns that losing connection to Christ, the head of the church, results in spiritual disconnection. The body grows and thrives only when it is firmly connected to its head, emphasizing the necessity of maintaining that relationship.


Frequently Asked Questionsgenerated

What does it mean to lose connection to the head?

Losing connection to the head refers to detaching from Christ, who is the source of spiritual life and nourishment for the church.

How does the body grow?

The body grows as God causes it to grow, indicating that spiritual growth is a divine process dependent on maintaining a connection to Christ.

What are the implications of being disconnected from Christ?

Being disconnected from Christ can lead to spiritual stagnation and vulnerability to false teachings, as emphasized in the surrounding verses.

Why is the head important in this context?

The head, which is Christ, is essential for the body, the church, to function properly and grow, as He provides direction and sustenance.


Reflection Questionsgenerated

  1. In what ways can I ensure that I am holding fast to Christ in my daily life?
  2. What practices help me stay connected to the body of believers?
  3. How can I recognize when I am becoming detached from my spiritual source?
  4. What steps can I take to encourage others to maintain their connection to Christ?

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

Early church Fathers commented on the significance of Christ as the head of the body, emphasizing the necessity of holding fast to Him.

IrenaeusAgainst Heresies Book IV c. 130–202
-this man will first of all "hold the head, from which the whole body is compacted and bound together, and, through means of every joint according to the measure of the ministration of each several part,
Early Church Fathers on Colossians 2 →
John ChrysostomHomily on Colossians 7 c. 347–407
"And not holding fast the Head," he saith, "from whom all the body." All the body thence hath its being, and its well-being. Why, letting go the Head, dost thou cling to the members? If thou art fallen off from it, thou art lost.
Early Church Fathers on Colossians 2 →
Severian of Gabala d. after 408
The purpose and view of the epistle is here, as Paul mentions, to respond to the emphasis on angels urged by some. Christ is the head of all, just as the soul is the head of the body. Christ is head of all the cosmic elements.
Early Church Fathers on Colossians 2 →

Commentators on this verse — 8 expositors, verse by verse

Each of these wrote on Colossians 2:19 itself, not merely on the chapter around it.

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

And not holding the head,.... Christ, as some copies express it; for by making use of angels as mediators and intercessors, Christ the only Mediator, the Lord and head of angels, and of the church,

Read John Gill on Colossians 2 →
Robert Jamieson1802–1880Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary

And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.

Read Robert Jamieson on Colossians 2 →
Matthew Poole1624–1679Matthew Poole's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And not holding the Head: here the apostle suggests, that those things he had before taxed did proceed from hence, that they let go the Lord Christ himself, ,9, from whom all truths are to be derived, and consequently he is all truth itself, ; not to adhere to him is the spring of all apostacies, lie being the Head: see ,16. From which all the body; whence is communicated and distributed such influence to the body, the church, as is necessary to all the sensations and motions thereof. By joints and bands having nourishment ministered; being in all its members fitly framed together by the Spirit, ,22, and united by faith, , hath a continual subsidy of life and vigour. And knit together; and…

Read Matthew Poole on Colossians 2 →
John Trapp1601–1669Trapp's Complete Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

19 And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. Ver. 19. And not holding the head] This is worse than all the former, that they despoiled Christ of his dignity; as if he alone were not sufficient to cherish and increase his Church. With the increase of God] That proceeds from God, that is, from the Spirit of Christ the head; to which growth is opposed that vain puffing up, Colossians 2:18, whereby men do not increase, but swell; grow bigger indeed, but weaker, as a gouty hand.

Read John Trapp on Colossians 2 →
Charles John Ellicott1819–1905Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(19) Not holding the Head.—In this lay the fatal error. All these speculations and superstitions interfered with the direct hold of the soul on the mediation of Christ, as the Head, from whom alone, as being “the image of the invisible God,” come all spiritual life and growth. Therefore they had a practical and spiritual importance. From which all the body . . .—Comp Ephesians 4:15-16, and see Note there. The agreement is nearly verbal, but the characteristic difference of idea, so often noted, is still traceable. There the body “maketh increase unto the building up of itself in love;” here the increase is simply “the increase of God”—the increase which God gives, and which grows into His…

Read Charles John Ellicott on Colossians 2 →
AdamClarkeAdam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible

Verse 19. And not holding the Head] Not acknowledging Jesus Christ as the only Saviour of mankind, and the only Head or chief of the Christian Church, on whom every member of it depends, and from whom each derives both light and life. For a farther explanation of these words See Clarke on Ephesians 4:16, where the figures and phraseology are the same.

Read AdamClarke on Colossians 2 →
CambridgeThe Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

19. holding] Holding fast (R.V.). The word is used Acts 3:11 of the healed cripple’s grasp of the Apostles who had healed him.—The erring teacher is said “not to hold” the Head, not only as a man but as a teacher.the head] “Regarded as a title, so that a Person is at once suggested” (Lightfoot). Angel-worship, and all its ways, was ipso facto a slackening of the soul’s contact with Christ.On this sacred word “Head” see Colossians 1:18 and notes; and cp. the close and full parallel, Ephesians 4:15-16.from which] Better, out of Whom. The relative pronoun is masculine, while the Greek word for “head” is feminine.“Out of”:—so in Ephesians 4:16. The thought conveyed is at once of vital connexion…

Read Cambridge on Colossians 2 →
Albert Barnes1798–1870Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And not holding the Head - Not holding the true doctrine respecting the Great Head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ; Notes, Ephesians 1:22.

Read Albert Barnes on Colossians 2 →

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

He has lost connection to the head, from whom the whole body, supported and knit together by its joints and ligaments, grows as God causes it to grow.

WEBWorld English Bible2000

and not holding firmly to the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and ligaments, grows with God’s growth.

MSBMajority Standard Bible2022

He has lost connection to the head, from whom the whole body, supported and knit together by its joints and ligaments, grows as God causes it to grow.

NETBNew English Translation2006

He has not held fast to the head from whom the whole body, supported and knit together through its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.

Tyndale line

KJVKing James Version1611

And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.

ASVAmerican Standard Version1901

and not holding fast the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increaseth with the increase of God.

RVARevised Version, American1894

and not holding fast the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increaseth with the increase of God.

NWBWebster's Bible1833

And not holding the head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.

GNVGeneva Bible1599

And holdeth not the head, whereof all the body furnished and knit together by ioyntes and bands, increaseth with the increasing of God.

Strictly literal

DBYDarby Translation1890

and not holding fast the head, from whom all the body, ministered to and united together by the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God.

YLTYoung's Literal Translation1862

and not holding the head, from which all the body — through the joints and bands gathering supply, and being knit together — may increase with the increase of God.

LSVLiteral Standard Version2020

and not holding the Head, from which all the body—gathering supply through the joints and bands, and being knit together—may increase with the increase of God.

ULBUnlocked Literal Bible2017

He does not hold on to the head. It is from the head that the whole body throughout its joints and ligaments is supplied and held together; it grows with the growth given by God.

From the Latin

DRADouay-Rheims (Challoner)1899

And not holding the head, from which the whole body, by joints and bands, being supplied with nourishment and compacted, groweth unto the increase of God.

Simplified

FBVFree Bible Version2020

Such people are not connected to the head that directs the body, nourished and joined together through the body's sinews and muscles. As the body is united together it grows the way God wants it to grow.

BBEBible in Basic English1949

And not joined to the Head, from whom all the body, being given strength and kept together through its joins and bands, has its growth with the increase of God.

Word by word, the decisions they made

κρατῶνkrateō holding fast G2902 2 different renderings
holdingDRA KJV LSV NWB WEB YLT
holding fastASV DBY RVA
ἁφῶνhaphē joints G860 2 different renderings
jointsASV DBY DRA KJV LSV NWB RVA YLT
ligamentsBSB MSB NETB ULB WEB
ἐπιχορηγούμενονepichorēgeō being supplied G2023 3 different renderings
being suppliedASV DRA RVA WEB
suppliedULB
nourishedFBV
συμβιβαζόμενονsumbibazō being knit together G4822 3 different renderings
unitedDBY FBV
being knit togetherLSV YLT
joinedBBE
αὔξειauxanō it increases G837 2 different renderings
increasesDBY
increasingGNV

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.

clausesubjectμηδεὶςNo oneobjectὑμᾶςyouverbκαταβραβευέτωlet disqualifyclause · adverbialclauseverbθέλωνdelightingprepositional phrase · adverbialἐνinnoun phraseταπεινοφροσύνῃhumilityκαὶandnoun phraseθρησκείᾳ[the] worshipnoun phraseτῶνof theἀγγέλωνangelsclausenoun phrase · objectclauseobjectwhichverbἑόρακενhe has seenverbἐμβατεύωνdetailingclauseclauseadverbialεἰκῇvainlyverbφυσιούμενοςbeing puffed upprepositional phrase · adverbialὑπὸbynoun phraseτοῦthenoun phraseνοὸςmindnoun phraseτῆςof thenoun phraseσαρκὸςfleshαὐτοῦof himκαὶandclauseadverbialοὐnotverbκρατῶνholding fastnoun phrase · objectnoun phraseτὴνto theΚεφαλήνheadclauseprepositional phrase · adverbialἐξfromοὗwhomnoun phrase · subjectπᾶνallnoun phraseτὸtheσῶμαbodyclause · adverbialprepositional phrase · adverbialδιὰbynoun phraseτῶνthenoun phraseἁφῶνjointsκαὶandσυνδέσμωνligamentsverb phrase · verbἐπιχορηγούμενονbeing suppliedκαὶandσυνβιβαζόμενονbeing knit togetherverbαὔξειincreasesnoun phrase · adverbialτὴνwith thenoun phraseαὔξησινincreasenoun phraseτοῦ-Θεοῦof God

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

et non tenens caput, ex quo totum corpus per nexus, et conjunctiones subministratum, et constructum crescit in augmentum Dei.

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

ܘܠܐ ܐܚܕ ܪܫܐ ܕܡܢܗ ܟܠܗ ܦܓܪܐ ܡܬܪܟܒ ܘܡܬܩܝܡ ܒܫܪܝܢܐ ܘܒܗܕܡܐ ܘܪܒܐ ܬܪܒܝܬܐ ܕܐܠܗܐ

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

καὶ οὐ κρατῶν τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐξ οὗ πᾶν τὸ σῶμα διὰ τῶν ἁφῶν καὶ συνδέσμων ἐπιχορηγούμενον καὶ συμβιβαζόμενον αὔξει τὴν αὔξησιν τοῦ θεοῦ.¶

The standard critical text of the New Testament.

Nestle-Aland 27th edition1993 · Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft

καὶ οὐ κρατῶν τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐξ οὗ πᾶν τὸ σῶμα διὰ τῶν ἁφῶν καὶ συνδέσμων ἐπιχορηγούμενον καὶ συμβιβαζόμενον αὔξει τὴν αὔξησιν τοῦ θεοῦ.¶

The previous edition, still widely cited.

SBL Greek New Testament2010 · Michael Holmes

καὶ οὐ κρατῶν τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐξ οὗ πᾶν τὸ σῶμα διὰ τῶν ἁφῶν καὶ συνδέσμων ἐπιχορηγούμενον καὶ συμβιβαζόμενον αὔξει τὴν αὔξησιν τοῦ θεοῦ.¶

The Society of Biblical Literature edition, freely licensed.

Westcott–Hort1881 · Westcott and Hort

καὶ οὐ κρατῶν τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐξ οὗ πᾶν τὸ σῶμα διὰ τῶν ἁφῶν καὶ συνδέσμων ἐπιχορηγούμενον καὶ συμβιβαζόμενον αὔξει τὴν αὔξησιν τοῦ θεοῦ.¶

The edition that turned scholarship toward the earliest manuscripts.

Tregelles1857–1879 · Samuel Prideaux Tregelles

καὶ οὐ κρατῶν τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐξ οὗ πᾶν τὸ σῶμα διὰ τῶν ἁφῶν καὶ συνδέσμων ἐπιχορηγούμενον καὶ συμβιβαζόμενον αὔξει τὴν αὔξησιν τοῦ θεοῦ.¶

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

Tyndale House Greek NT2017 · Tyndale House, Cambridge

καὶ οὐ κρατῶν τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐξ οὗ πᾶν τὸ σῶμα διὰ τῶν ἁφῶν καὶ συνδέσμων ἐπιχορηγούμενον καὶ συμβιβαζόμενον αὔξει τὴν αὔξησιν τοῦ θεοῦ.¶

A recent critical edition following documentary evidence closely.

Byzantine majority text2018 · Robinson–Pierpont

καὶ οὐ κρατῶν τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐξ οὗ πᾶν τὸ σῶμα διὰ τῶν ἁφῶν καὶ συνδέσμων ἐπιχορηγούμενον καὶ συμβιβαζόμενον αὔξει τὴν αὔξησιν τοῦ θεοῦ.¶

The reading of the majority of surviving manuscripts.

Textus Receptus1550/1894 lineage

καὶ οὐ κρατῶν τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐξ οὗ πᾶν τὸ σῶμα διὰ τῶν ἁφῶν καὶ συνδέσμων ἐπιχορηγούμενον καὶ συμβιβαζόμενον αὔξει τὴν αὔξησιν τοῦ θεοῦ.¶

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.

Colossians 2:19καίandandκαίοὐnotnotοὐκρατέωholding fasholding fastκρατέωto theto theκεφαλήheadheadκεφαλήἐκfromfromἐκὅςwhomwhomὅςπᾶςallallπᾶςthetheσῶμαbodybodyσῶμαδιάthroughthroughδιάthetheἁφήjointsjointsἁφήκαίandandκαίσύνδεσμοςligamentsligamentsσύνδεσμοςἐπιχορηγέωbeing supplbeing suppliedἐπιχορηγέωκαίandandκαίσυμβιβάζωbeing knit being knit togeσυμβιβάζωαὐξάνωit increaseit increasesαὐξάνωwith thewith theαὔξησιςincreaseincreaseαὔξησις<the><the>θεόςof God.of God.θεόςσύνPrep. withPrep. withσύνκράτοςn.n. dominn.n. dominion, κράτοςArticle thArticle theσῴζωv. I save,v. I save, healσῴζωἅπτωv. I touchv. I touch or hἅπτωἐπίPrep. on, Prep. on, to, aἐπίαὐξάνωv. I causev. I cause to iαὐξάνωμήNeg.prt. nNeg.prt. not, lμήοὗAdv where,Adv where, whitοὗἔξεστι(ν)v. it is pv. it is permitἔξεστι(ν)μόνοςAdv alone,Adv alone, but,μόνοςπαράδοσιςn.f. an inn.f. an instrucπαράδοσιςἩρῴδηςn.m. Herodn.m. HerodἩρῴδηςπίναξn.m. a plan.m. a plate, pπίναξγωνίαn.f. a corn.f. a corner, γωνίαδεξιόςAdj on theAdj on the righδεξιόςνεκρόςAdj dead, Adj dead, a corνεκρόςἄνDisj.prt. Disj.prt. an unἄν
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 Colossians 2:19

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.

and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
καὶkai and G2532 Conjunction
8,978× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Colossians as anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
And or also, a connecting word used to join ideas or words, like in Matthew 2:18 and Hebrews 1:1.
Tyndale gloss
and
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

καί (kai) is a conjunction meaning 'and,' used to connect words, phrases, and clauses. It serves various functions, including copulative and adjunctive uses, and can express cumulative ideas like 'also' or 'even.' The New Testament frequently employs it to link terms and sentences, as seen in verses like Matthew 2:18 and John 10:3. Abbott-Smith notes its use in both simple and complex structures, while Thayer emphasizes its role as the most common particle in the New Testament.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

καί,

conj.,

and.

Copulative.

Connecting single words;

in general: Mt 2:18 16:1, Mk 2:15, Lk 8:15, He 1:1, al. mult.; repeated before each of the terms in a series, Mt 23:23, Lk 14:21, Ro 7:12 9:4, al.;

connecting numerals (WM, § 37, 4): Jo 2:20, Ac 13:20;

joining terms which are not mutually exclusive, as the part with the whole: Mt 8:33 26:59, Mk 16:17,

Read the full entry →
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament from a scan

καί, a conj., and; the most freq. by far of all the particles in the N. T. [On its uses see W. § 53, 3sqq.; B. 361 (310) sqq., and ef. Ellicott on Phil. iv. 12; on the difference between it and τέ see 8. v. τέ ad init. ] I. It serves as a copulative i.e. to connect (Lat. et, atque, Germ. und) ; 1. it connects single words or terms: a. univ., as of Φαρισαῖοι καὶ Σαδδουκαῖοι, Mt. xvi. 1; ὁ θεὸς καὶ πατήρ, he who is God and Father (see θεός, 3); ἐν καρδίᾳ καλῇ καὶ ἀγαθῇ, Lk. viii. 15; πολυμερῶς καὶ πολυτρόπως, ΗΘ}. 1. 1; it is repeated before single terms, to each of which its own force and weight is thus given: ἡ υἱοθεσία καὶ ἡ δόξα καὶ ai διαθῆκαι καὶ ἡ νομοθεσία καὶ ἡ λατρεία καὶ αἱ ἐπαγγελίαι, Ro. ix. 4 ; ἁγία καὶ δικαία καὶ ἀγαθή, Ro. vii. 12; add, Mt. xxiii. 23; Lk. xiv. 21; Jn. xvi. 8; Acts xv. 20, 29; xxi. 25; Heb. ix. 10; Rey. v. 12; xviii. 12 sq.; ef. W. 519 sq. (484). b. it…

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

και. In LAE p. 129 ff. Deissmann discusses the thoroughly popular character of the Johannine style with its short paratactic sentences, introduced by kal. . . καί. To illustrate this, he cites amongst other exx. a Dream from the Serapeum, P Par 51 (B.C. 160) (= Selections, p. 18 ff. : see especially the amended readings in Archiv vi. p. 204), which runs—** ὦμ[ην] βατί -- δ)ίζειν pe [ἀπ]ὸ λειβὸς ἕως ἀ[ πηλι]ώτου, καὶ ἀναπίπτομαι ἐπ᾿ ἄχυρον" καὶ [ἄν]θρωπ[ος9] ἀπὸ λιβός μου, ἐχόμενός μου’ ἀναπίπτει καὶ αὐτός, καὶ ὥσπερ κεκλειμμ[évot] μου ἦσαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοί μου, καὶ ἐξαί[φνης] ἀνύγω τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς pov, καὶ ὁρῶ kTA., “ I dreamed that I was going from West to East, and I lie down upon chaff. And there | αὐτὸ (deleted in the original) Σεμφθεῖ. | ἐκ καινῆς ἐν Σομολ(ῶ)…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

καί (kai) — and.

καί,

conjunction, copulative, joining words and sentences,

__A and; also adverb, even, also, just, frequently expressing emphatic assertion or assent, corresponding as positive to the negative οὐ (μή) or οὐδέ (μηδέ). copulative, and,

__A.I joining words or sentences to those preceding, ἦ, καὶ κυανέῃσιν ἐπ᾽ ὀφρύσινεῦσε Κρονίων [Refs 8th c.BC+]: repeated with two or more Nouns, αἱ δὲ ἔλαφοι κ. δορκάδες κ. οἱ ἄγριοι οἶες κ. οἱ ὄνοι οἱ ἄγριοι [Refs 5th c.BC+]; joining only the last pair, [Refs 4th c.BC+]; ὁ ὄχλος πλείων κ. πλείων ἐπέρρει more and more, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; to add epithets after πολύς, πολλὰ κ. ἐσθλά [Refs 8th c.BC+]

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

καί

kai

apparently, a primary particle, having a copulative and sometimes also

a cumulative force; and, also, even, so then, too, etc.; often used in

connection (or composition) with other particles or small words:--and,

also, both, but, even, for, if, or, so, that, then, therefore, when,

yet.

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

καί

Cj.

and, even, also, namely

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

καί kai 9x

(1) and, Mt. 2:2, 3, 11; 4:22; (2) καί ... καί, both ... and; (3) as a cumulative particle, also, too, Mt. 5:39; Jn. 8:19; 1 Cor. 11:6; (4) emphatic, even, also, Mt. 10:30; 1 Cor. 2:10; in NT adversative, but, Mt. 11:19; also introductory of the apodosis of a sentence, Gal. 3:28; Jas. 2:4

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Conj — Conjunction
conjunction — it joins clauses, and never changes form.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

CONJ CONJunction or conjunctive particle

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
89%and
and89% · 8448×also8% · 714×other renderings2% · 191×other renderings1% · 124×

9,477 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 42 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
adverbial16%subject13%object10%predicate3%verb2%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 8,978 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
ἐνἐπίπρός
σύ
χάριςgrace, favor, kiπρόςπατήρfather, Father,
ἐγώ
πατήρfather, Father, πρόςθεόςGod, a god
εἰμίI am, exist
αὐτόςArticle theἐγώ
θεόςGod, a god
Article theθέλημαwill, wish, desiδέbut, on the othe
καίand8978×
what comes after →
Article the
ἀδελφόςa brotherπατήρfather, Father, μήτηρa mother
λέγωI say, speak
αὐτόςArticle theπρός
οὐNeg
εἰμίI am, existμήNegδύναμαιI am powerful, a
ὁράωI see, look upon, ex
Article theαὐτόςἀνήρa male human bei
ἐν
Article theπᾶςall, the whole, ὅλοςall, the whole,

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

Concordanceκαί · 8,978× in the New Testament
Luke Matthew Revelation Acts Mark John 1 Corinthians Romans Hebrews 2 Corinthians Ephesians 1 John

3 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 Ignatius of Antioch
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

ἡ 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 4th c. AD 1st c. AD 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 καὶ κανηφόρου τῶν

P.Adl. 11Pathyris99 BC

1 ἔτους ιζ Θῶυθ κη ἀπέδοτο Πετεσοῦχος Φίβιος καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ τὸ ὕπαρχον αὐτοῖς ἥμισυ περιστερῶνος τοῦ ὄντος ἐν τῶι ἀπὸ βορρᾶ μέρει

P.Grenf. 2 35Pathyris99 BC

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

and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
οὐou not G3756 Particle · negative
1,622× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
rarer in Colossians than elsewhere in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
This is a strong 'no', used to deny something completely. It appears in the New Testament, such as in Matthew 13:29 and John 1:21. It is a negative answer to a question.
Tyndale gloss
no
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word οὐ (transliterated as ou) is a primary negative particle meaning 'not' or 'no.' It is used to negate verbs or statements, often appearing in various forms depending on the following sound. In the New Testament, it frequently serves to deny facts and is distinct from another negative particle, μή (transliterated as ), which is used for prohibitions or wishes.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

οὐ, before a vowel with smooth breathing οὐκ, before one with rough breathing οὐχ (but improperly οὐχ ἰδού, Ac 2:7, WH, mg.; cf. WH, Intr., § 409; M, Pr., 44, 244),

[in LXX for לֹא, אַיִן, אֵין;]

neg. particle,

not, no, used generally c. indic. and for a denial of fact (cf . μή);

absol. (accented), οὔ, no: Mt 13:29, Jo 1:21 21:5; οὒ οὔ, Mt 5:37, Ja 5:12.

Most freq. negativing a verb or other word, Mt 1:25 10:26, 38, Mk 3:25 9:37, Jo 8:29, Ac 7:5, Ro 1:16, Phl 3:3, al.; in…

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

οὐ before a consonant, οὐκ before a vowel with a smooth breathing, and ody before an aspirated vowel ; but sometimes in the best codd. οὐχ occurs even before a smooth breathing; accordingly LT WH mrg. have adopted οὐχ ἰδού, Acts ii. 7; LT οὐχ ᾿Ιουδαϊκῶς, Gal. ii. 14 (see WH. Introd. § 409); L οὐχ ὀλίγος, Acts xix. 23; οὐχ ἠγάπησαν, Rev. xii. 11; and contrariwise οὐκ before an aspirate, as οὐκ ἕστηκεν, Jn. viii. 44 T; [οὐκ ἕνεκεν, 2 Co. vii. 12 T]; (οὐκ εὗρον, Lk. xxiv. 3; [οὐκ ὑπάρχει, Acts iii. 6] in cod. x [alsoC*; ef. cod. Alex. in 1 ἔβαν. iv. 2,12; Job xix. 16; xxxviiil. 11, 26]); cf. W. $5, 14d. 14; Β. τ; [A. v. Schiitz, Hist. Alphab. Att., Berol. 1875, pp: 54-58 ; Sophocles, Hist. of Grk. Alphab., 1st ed. 1848, p- 64 sq. (on the breathing); Tdf Sept., ed. 4, Proleg. pp: Xxxiii. xxxiv.; Scrivener, Collation ete., 2d ed., p. lv. no. 9; id. cod. Bezae p. xlvii. no. 11 (ef. p. xlii.…

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

ου to make the voyage” (Edd.), and P Amh II. 78?! (a.p. 184) τοιαύτης ο[ὖ]ν αὐθαδίας ἐν αὐτῷ οὔσης οὐ δυνάμενος [ἐν]καρτερεῖν ἐπιδίδωμι, ‘“ his audacity having reached this pitch I can endure no longer and present this petition.” See further Proleg. p. 231 f. In support of the translation ‘‘ I determined not to know” in 1 Cor 2, we may cite P Par 2657 (B.c. 163) (= UPZi. Ρ-. 248) οὐκ ἐκρίναμεν καταχωρῆσαι, ‘we determined not to record,” P Tebt I. 124° (c. B.c. 118) οὐκ (ἐκδρίναμεν ἐξαρ[ιθ]μεῖ[σθαι, “we determined not to be counted,” and the classical formula in P Hamb I. 27° (B.c. 250 (249)) οὐκ ἔφη εἰδέναι, ‘he said that he did not know.” The origin of the double negative οὐ μή is fully discussed by Moulton Pro/eg. p. 187 ff. When we pass to its actual occurrences in the NT, we find that these for the most part are found in passages derived from the OT and in the Sayings of our Lord…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

οὐ (ou) — no.

οὐ,

the negative of fact and statement, as μή of will and thought; οὐ denies, μή rejects; οὐ is absolute, μή relative; οὐ objective, μή subjective. —The same differences hold for all compounds of οὐ and μή, and some examples of οὐδέ and οὐδείς are included below.—As to the Form, see infr. G. USAG[Refs 5th c.BC+]

I. as the negative of single words,

II. as the negative of the sentence.

I. οὐ adhering to single words so as to form a quasi-compound with them:—with Verbs: οὐ δίδωμι withhold, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; οὐκ εἰῶ prevent, [Refs]; οὐκ ἐθέλω refuse, [Refs]; οὔ φημι deny, [Refs 4th c.BC+]; but sometimes οὐ is retained, εἰ δ᾽ ἂν.. οὐκ ἐθέλωσιν [Refs 8th c.BC+]; ἐάντε.. οὐ (variant{μή}) φῆτε ἐάντε φῆτε [Refs 8th c.BC+] —On the use of οὐ in contrasts, see below [Refs 5th…

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

οὐ

ou

ouk ook, and (before an aspirate)

ouch ookh

a primary word; the absolute negative (compare 3361) adverb; no or

not:--+ long, nay, neither, never, no (X man), none, (can-)not, +

nothing, + special, un(-worthy), when, + without, + yet but. See also

3364, 3372.

see GREEK for 3361

see GREEK for 3364

see GREEK for 3372

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

οὐ

Neg.prt.

no, not

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

οὐ ou 1x

negative adverb, originally the gen. of ὅς, spelled οὐκ if followed by a word beginning with a vowel and a smooth breathing, οὐχ if followed by a vowel and rough breathing, not, no, Mt. 5:37; 12:43; 23:37; for the peculiarities of its usage (especially as distinct from μή) consult a grammar

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Particle-N — Particle · negative
particle — a small word colouring the clause; it does not decline.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

PRT-N PaRTicle, disjunctive particle Negative

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
82%not
not82% · 1383×certainly6% · 96×surely4% · 70×no longer3% · 50×no2% · 39×other renderings3% · 51×

1,689 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 17 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
adverbial82%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 1,622 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
εἰμίI am, existἐγώαὐτός
ὅς
ἐγώθερίζωI reap, gatherδέbut, on the othe
ὅτιthat, since, because
σύαὐτόςἐγώ
αὐτός
λέγωI say, speakἐνἐπί
σύ
λέγωI say, speakγάρforὅς
οὐnot1622×
what comes after →
εἰμίI am, exist
ἐκArticle theἐγώ
μήNeg
παρέρχομαιI pass byεἰσέρχομαιI go in, come inπίνωI drink, imbibe
οἶδαI know, remember
ὅτιthat, since, becArticle theτίςIrg
γάρfor
εἰμίI am, existθέλωI will, wish, deArticle the
δύναμαιI am powerful, am ab
ἔρχομαιI come, goσῴζωI save, healArticle the

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

Concordanceοὐ · 1,622× in the New Testament
John Matthew Luke 1 Corinthians Romans Mark Acts 2 Corinthians Revelation Hebrews 1 John Galatians

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

Across the New Testament26 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
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 6c. AD 40

ὡς γὰρ τῶν κολοσσιαίων μεγεθῶν τὰς ἐμφάσεις καὶ ἡ βραχυτάτη σφραγὶς τυπωθεῖσα δέχεται, οὕτως τάχα που καὶ τὰ τῆς ἀναγραφείσης ἐν τοῖς νόμοις κοσμοποιίας ὑπερβάλλοντα κάλλη καὶ ταῖς μαρμαρυγαῖς τὰς τῶν ἐντυγχανόντων ψυχὰς ἐπισκιάζοντα βραχυτέροις…

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 1.11c. AD 75–95

ὁ δὲ τῶν παρʼ ἡμῖν ἀρχιερέων οὐδενὸς ἀρετῇ δεύτερος Ἐλεάζαρος τῷ προειρημένῳ βασιλεῖ ταύτης ἀπολαῦσαι τῆς ὠφελείας οὐκ ἐφθόνησε πάντως ἀντειπὼν ἄν, εἰ μὴ πάτριον ἦν ἡμῖν τὸ μηδὲν ἔχειν τῶν καλῶν ἀπόρρητον.

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 1.8c. AD 100

ἐγὼ δὲ οὐχ ὡς διδάσκαλος, ἀλλ̓ ὧς εἰς ἐξ ὑμῶν ὑποδείξω ὀλίγα, δἰ ὧν ἐν τοῖς παροῦσιν εὐφρανθήσεσθε.

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 4th c. AD 6th c. AD

δὲ γενόμεναι κατὰ τὸ ἀναγκαῖον κληρονομήσασαι ταξάμεναι τὰ καθήκοντα τέλη θεᾶι Βερενίκηι κυριεύομεν. ὅθεν οὐκ ἀποδιδόντων τὰ ἡμέτερα ἐπεδώκαμεν ἐν τῶι λ ἔτει προσανγελίαν Ἡρακλείδει γενομένωι ἀρχιφυλακίτηι τοῦ Παθυρίτου

C.Erbstreit16Diospolis Magna (Theben)135 BC

ι ἀρουρῶν πρόκτησιν … ένου αὐτὸν ἐν συνεδρίωι καὶ συγχώρησιν … ειν, ἐν ἧι οὐκ εὐδοκεῖ ὁ πατήρ. ὅθεν καταβεβραβευμένοι … ήρου συνεριου ἀξιοῦμεν, ἐὰν φαίνηται, συντάξαι γράψαι, οἷς

P.Adl. 2Pathyris125 BC

ὠνῆς ἐν πίστει διὰ τῶν περὶ τὸν Πανεβχοῦνιν ἐκτελειωθεῖσαν τῶι … ἔτει ἀντὶ ὀφειλημάτων, οὐκ ἐπελευσομένους τὸν Πανερέα καὶ τὴν Σενενοῦπιν περὶ ὀφειλημάτων μηδὲ περὶ ἄλλου μηδενός. ταῦτα δὲ

and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
κρατῶνkrateō holding fast G2902 Verb · present · active · participle · nominative · singular · masculine
47× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in Colossians than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
This word means to grasp or seize something, like in Matthew 9:25 and Acts 27:13. It is about using strength to take hold of or retain something. The Bible translates it as 'hold' or 'take'.
Amplified meaning
is no longer holding fast, has become detached
Tyndale gloss
to grasp/seize
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

κρατέω is built from the root κράτος, meaning strength or power. It encompasses meanings such as to be strong, to rule, to seize, and to retain. In the New Testament, it appears in contexts of holding power over others, obtaining possession, or retaining teachings. Notably, it is used in Matthew 9:25 and Acts 2:24.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

κρατέω, -ῶ

(< κράτος),

[in LXX chiefly for חזק hi., also for אחז, etc.;]

to be strong, mighty, hence, to rule, be master, prevail (so chiefly in cl.; in LXX: Es 1:1, I Es 4:38, Wi 14:19, al.).

to get possession of, obtain, take hold of (Hdt., Thuc., al.): c. gen. rei (M, Pr., 65), Ac 27:13; τ. χειρός, Mt 9:25, Mk 1:31 5:41 9:27, Lk 8:54; c. acc. rei, Mt 12:11; c. acc. pers., Mt 14:3 18:28 21:46 22:6 26:4, 48 ff.,

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

κρατέω. For κρατέω in its primary sense of ‘‘ become master of,’’ “rule,” ‘conquer,’’ we may cite P Oxy I. 33 verso: 8 (late ii/A.D.) πρῶτον μὲν Καῖσαρ ἔϊσωσε Κλεοπάτρ[αν] ἐκράτησεν βασι[λείας, ““ἴπ the first place Caesar saved Cleopatra’s life when he conquered her kingdom” (Edd.). The gen. construction, which is here supplied, is comparatively rare in the NT (cf. Pro/eg. pp. 65, 235), but may be further illustrated by P Par 26°? (B.c. 163-2) (= Se/ections, p. 18) ὑμῖν δὲ γίνοιτο κρατεῖν πάσης ἧς ἂν αἱρῆσθε χώρας, and by the magic P Lond 121®8® (iii/a.p.) (=I. p. 106) Upkre . . . κρατοῦσα [τοῦ ὅλου συστήματος --αἡ invocation to the constellation of the Bear. [See also the interesting parallels to Ac 271% in Field Wo¢es, p. 144.) Another magic papyrus 2. 46‘! (iv/A.D.) (=I. p. 80) κράτει τῇ ἀριστερᾷ σου τὸν δακτύλ(ιον) shows the more common accusative ; see also the curious theological…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

κρατέω (krateō) — to grasp/seize.

κρᾰτ-έω,

Aeolic dialect κρετέω, aorist infinitive κρέτησαι [Refs 7th c.BC+] — middle, aorist ἐπι-κρατησάμενοι[Refs 2nd c.AD+]:—passive, future κρατήσομαι [Refs 1st c.AD+] and, with variant{κρατηθήσομαι}, [Refs 5th c.BC+]:—to be strong, powerful: hence,

I. absolutely, rule, hold sway, Ἤλιδα.., ὅθι κρατέουσιν Ἐπειοί [Refs 8th c.BC+]; μέγα κρατέων ἤνασσε with mighty sway.., [Refs 8th c.BC+]; ὁ κρατῶν the ruler, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; ἡ κρατοῦσα the lady of the house [Refs 4th c.BC+]

I.2. in Poets, with dative, rule among, μέγα κρατέεις νεκύεσσιν [Refs 8th c.BC+]; Φθίᾳ rule in Phthia, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

κρατέω

krateo

from 2904; to use strength, i.e. seize or retain (literally or

figuratively):--hold (by, fast), keep, lay hand (hold) on, obtain,

retain, take (by).

see GREEK for 2904

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

κρατέω

v.

I lay hold of, obtain

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

κρατέω krateō 47x

pr. to be strong; to be superior to any one, subdue, vanquish, Acts 2:24; to get into one’s power, lay hold of, seize, apprehend, Mt. 14:3; 18:28; 21:46; to gain, compass, attain, Acts 27:13; in NT to lay hold of, grasp, clasp, Mt. 9:25; Mk. 1:31; 5:41; to retain, keep under reserve, Mk. 9:10; met, to hold fast, observe, Mk. 7:3, 8; 2 Thess. 2:15; to hold to, adhere to, Acts 3:11; Read the full entry →

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

κρατέω κράτος to be strong, mighty, powerful: hence,

absol. to rule, hold sway, be sovereign, Hom., Trag.; ἡ κρατοῦσα the lady of the house, Aesch.

c. dat. to rule among, κρατέεις νεκύεσσιν Od.

c. gen. to be lord or master of, ruler over, πάντων Hom.; δωμάτων Aesch., etc.

to conquer, prevail, get the upper hand, Hdt., attic; κρ. γνώμηι to prevail in opinion, Hdt.; τῆι μάχηι Eur., etc.;—also c. acc. cogn., κρ. τὸν ἀγῶνα Dem.:— οἱ κρατοῦντες the conquerors, Xen.:—of reports, etc., to prevail, become current, Soph., Thuc.

impers., κατθανεῖν κρατεῖ 'tis better to die, Aesch.; κρατεῖ ἀπολέσθαι Eur.

c. gen. to prevail over, Aesch.; ὁ λόγος τοῦ ἔργου ἐκράτει surpassed, went beyond it, Thuc.

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

V-PAP-NSM Part of Speech: Verb Tense: Present Voice: Active Mood: Participle Case: Nominative Number: Singular Gender: Masculine

Bible dictionarieson the English sense
Easton's Bible Dictionary

Fast

The sole fast required by the law of Moses was that of the great Day of Atonement (q.v.), Lev. 23:26-32. It is called “the fast” (Acts 27:9).

The only other mention of a periodical fast in the Old Testament is in Zech. 7:1-7; 8:19, from which it appears that during their captivity the Jews observed four annual fasts.

(1.) The fast of the fourth month, kept on the seventeenth day of Tammuz, the anniversary of the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans; to commemorate also the incident recorded Ex. 32:19. (Comp. Jer. 52:6, 7.)

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
11%holding
holding11% · 5×do hold fast6% · 3×having seized6% · 3×he seized4% · 2×lay hold of4% · 2×do seize4% · 2×seized4% · 2×you did seize4% · 2×other renderings55% · 26×

47 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 32 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 47 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
δηνάριονa denariusἸησοῦςJesusαὐτός
αὐτός
ζητέωI seek, search fἐγείρωI wake, arouse, ὀφθαλμόςthe eye
οὐNeg
καίand, even, also,
δόλοςdeceit, guile, treac
ἸησοῦςJesusἐν
εἰμίI am, exist
αὐτός
κρατέωholding fast47×
what comes after →
Article the
χείρa handπαράδοσιςan instruction, ἸωάννηςJohn
αὐτός
καίand, even, also,πνίγωI choke, stranglArticle the
καίand, even, also, nam
ἀποκτείνωI put to death, φοβέωI fear, am terri
ἐγώ
ἀλλάbut, except
φοβέωI fear, am terrified
Article the

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

Concordanceκρατέω · 47× in the New Testament
Mark Matthew Revelation Acts Hebrews John Luke 2 Thessalonians Colossians
Across the New Testament9 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 32 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 The Shepherd of Hermas Clement of Rome
Philo of AlexandriaAllegorical Interpretation of Genesis 1.73c. AD 40

ὅταν δὲ ἔμπαλιν ἀφηνιάσῃ καὶ ἀναχαιτίσῃ ὁ θυμὸς καὶ ἡ ἐπιθυμία καὶ τὸν ἡνίοχον, λέγω δὲ τὸν λογισμόν, τῇ βίᾳ τῆς ὁρμῆς κατασύρῃ καὶ ὑποζεύξῃ, ἑκάτερον δὲ πάθος λάβηται τῶν ἡνιῶν, ἀδικία κρατεῖ·

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 1.178c. AD 75–95

Ἅβραμος δὲ διώκων εἵπετο μέχρι καὶ δευτεραίους συνήλασεν αὐτοὺς εἰς Ὠβὰ τῆς Δαμασκηνῶν γῆς, ἐπιδείξας ὅτι τὸ νικᾶν οὐκ ἐν τῷ πλήθει καὶ τῇ πολυχειρίᾳ κεῖσθαι συμβέβηκεν, ἀλλὰ προθυμία τῶν μαχομένων καὶ τὸ γενναῖον κρατεῖ παντὸς ἀριθμοῦ, τριακοσίοις…

Clement of RomeFirst Clement 27.5c. AD 96

ἢ τίς ἀντιστήσεται τῷ κράτει τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ;

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
3rd c. AD 2nd c. AD 6th c. AD 7th c. AD 4th c. AD
P.Adl. 20Poinkoris (Diopolites)99 BC

κώμης Μούχεως ἑπταρούρων πήχεις στερεοὺς μέτρῳ βασιλικοὺς τριακοσίους ὧν γείτονες νότου οἰκία Πκώιος ἧς κρατεῖ … , βορρᾶ οἱ λοιποὶ τόποι, ἀπηλιώτου ῥύμη βασιλική, λιβὸς οἱ λοιποὶ τόποι, ἢ

P. Mich. 5 324Tebtynis (Arsinoites)AD 47

αὐτῶν ὁμολογούντων πατρὸς δουλίαν ἐφʼ ὃν χρόνον περίεστιν ἡ Ταορσεῦς τῆς προγεγραμμένης δουλείας Θερμουθαρίου· κρατεῖν οὖν καὶ δεσπόζειν ἕκαστον τῶν ὁμολογούντων καὶ τοὺς παρʼ αὐτῶν καὶ τοὺς μεταλημψομένους ὧν

ZPE 156 (2006), p. 199-216Soknopaiu Nesos (ArsinoitesAD 50

Νήσωι τῆς Ἡρακλείδου, ὧν γείτονες τῆς μὲν α σφραγῖδος νότου Πισάιτος οἰκία, ἧς νῦν κρατεῖ τὰ τέκνα, καὶ Στοτοήτιος αὐλὴ, δι’ ἧς εἴσοδος καὶ ἔξοδος κοινή, βορρᾶ Θαυβάστιος οἰκία

and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
τὴνho to the G3588 Article · accusative · singular · feminine
19,783× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Colossians 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-ASF — Article · accusative · singular · feminine
accusative — the one it is done to — the object.
Agrees with anything else marked singular feminine.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

T-ASF Part of Speech: definite arTicle Case: Accusative Number: Singular Gender: Feminine

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
to 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

and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
κεφαλὴνkephalē head G2776 Noun · accusative · singular · feminine
75× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in Colossians than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
The head is the upper part of the body, but it can also mean a leader or a source, like Christ being the head of the church in 1 Corinthians 11:3. It's about control or authority.
Amplified meaning
Christ, the source of spiritual life
Tyndale gloss
head
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

κεφαλή (kephalē) means 'head' and can refer to the literal head of a person or animal, as well as metaphorically to denote authority or superiority, such as in the context of a husband or Christ. It appears in various New Testament verses, including Matthew 5:36 and 1 Corinthians 11:3. The term also encompasses meanings related to the top or extremity of objects, like a corner-stone.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

κεφαλή, -ῆς, ἡ,

[in LXX nearly always for רֹאשׁ;]

the head: Mt 5:36, Mk 6:24, Re 1:14 9:7, al. mult.; fig., ἄνθρακες ἐπὶ τὴν κ., Ro 12:20(LXX); αἷμα, Ac 18:6; metaph., of a husband, c. gen., I Co 11:3, Eph 5:23; of Christ, I Co 11:3, Eph 4:15 5:23, Col 1:18 2:10, 19; of things, κ. γωνίας, Mt…

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

κεφαλή, -ῆς, ἡ, Sept. for wN 1; the head, both of men: Mt. v. 36; Mk. vi. 24; Lk. vii. 38, 44 [Rec.], 46; Jn. xiii. 9; Acts xviii. 18; 1 Co. xi. 4; Rev. i. 14; iv. 4, and often; and of animals: Rev. ix. 7, 17, 19, etc.; on the phrases κλίνειν THY κ-» ἐπαίρειν THY K., See κλίνω, 1 and ἐπαίρω; on the saying in Ro. xii. 20, see under ἄνθραξ. Since the loss of the head destroys the life, κεφαλή is used in phrases relating to capital and extreme punishments: 80 in τὸ αἷμα ὑμῶν ἐπὶ τὴν k. ὑμῶν (see αἷμα, 2 a. p. 15°), Acts xviii. 6, and similar phrases in class. Grk.; see Passow 8. v. p. 1717*; Pape s. v.3; [L. and S.s. ν. 1. 3 and 4]. Metaph. anything supreme, chief, prominent; of persons, master, lord: τινός, of a husband in relation to his wife, 1 Co. xi. 3; Eph. v. 23; of Christ, the lord of the husband, 1 Co. xi. 3 [ef. B. 124. 54. (109)]; of the church, Eph. iv. 15; v. 23; Col. ii. 19…

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

κεφαλή. For the literal sense of κεφαλή it is sufficient to quote PSI V. 455" (A.D. 178) ἐφῖδον τοῦτον... ἔχοντα ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς τραύματα τρία, and P Lond 478 (ii/A.p.) (=I. p- 81) κεφαλὴν κομόωσαν ἐθείραις. Cf. also P Par 5741*28 (iii/A.D.) (= Selections, p. 113) λόγος λεγόμενος ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς αὐτοῦ, ‘an invocation to be uttered over the head (of the possessed one),” and the Christian amulet BGU III. 954° (vi/A.D.) (= Selections, p. 133) κλίνω τὴν κεφαλήν [μο]υ κα «τ: ἐνώπιόν σου. With Ac 18° we may compare BGU IV. 1024'"-17 (end of iv/A.D.) ἐκδέξι το[ίνυν] τὴην (Δ. τὴν) ἕως κεφ[αλῆ]ς τ[ι]Ἱμωρίαν, and to McNeile’s rendering of Mt 214 κεφαλὴν γωνίας, ‘‘the furthest extremity (not ‘the top’) of the corner,” a certain support is given by P Flor I. 508% (A.D. 268) ἐπ᾽ ἀπηλιωτικῆ[ς Ke]padis πρώτης μερίδος, apparently = ‘‘at the eastern extremity of the first division.’” In P Oxy II. 273!8…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

κεφαλή (kephalē) — head.

κεφᾰλή, ἡ,

head of man or beast, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; κεφαλῇ.. μείζονες taller in stature, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; so μείων.. κεφαλήν[Refs 3rd c.BC+]

__a κατὰ κεφαλῆς, Epic dialect κὰκ κεφαλῆς, down over the head, κόνιν.. χεύατο κὰκ κεφαλῆς [Refs 8th c.BC+]

__b κατὰ κεφαλήν, Epic dialect κὰκ κεφαλήν on the head, Ἐρύλαον.. βάλε πέτρῳ μέσσην κὰκ κεφαλήν [Refs 8th c.BC+]: in Prose, from above, [Refs 5th c.BC+]: c.genitive, above, κ. κ. τινῶν γενέσθαι [Refs]; τὸ κ. κ. ὕδωρ, of rain water, [Refs 4th c.BC+] (-ῆς): in Architecture texts, upright, [Refs]; also, per head, each person (compare below 1.2), [LXX+4th c.BC+]

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

κεφαλή

kephale

from the primary kapto (in the sense of seizing); the head (as the

part most readily taken hold of), literally or figuratively:--head.

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

κεφαλή, ῆς, ἡ

n.f.

the head

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

κεφαλή kephalē 75x

the head, Mt. 5:36; 6:17; the head, top; κεφαλὴ γωνίας, the head of the corner, the chief corner-stone, Mt. 21:42; Lk. 20:17; met. the head, superior, chief, principal, one to whom others are subordinate, 1 Cor. 11:3; Eph. 1:22

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

κεφαλή the head of man or beast, Hom., etc.; κατὰ κεφαλῆς, epic κὰκ κεφαλῆς, over the head, id. Hom.; κὰκ κεφαλήν on the head, Il.:— ἐς πόδας ἐκ κεφαλῆς from head to foot, id. Il.:— ἐπὶ κεφαλήν head foremost, head downwards, headlong, Hdt., Plat., etc.

the head, put for the whole person, Hom.; ἶσον ἐμῇ κεφαλῇ like myself, Il.; φίλη κ., Lat. carum caput, id. Il.: in bad sense, ὦ κακαὶ κεφαλαί Hdt.; ὦ μιαρὰ κ. Ar.

the head, i. e. the life, παρθέμενοι κεφαλάς setting their heads on the cast, Od.:—in imprecations, ἐς κεφαλὴν τρέποιτ᾽ ἐμοί on my head be it! Ar., etc.

generally, κ. σκορόδου a head of garlic, id. Ar.: the top or brim of a vessel, Theocr.: the coping of a wall, Xen.:—in pl. the head or source of a river…

Read the full entry →
Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Noun-ASF — Noun · accusative · singular · feminine
accusative — the one it is done to — the object.
Agrees with anything else marked singular feminine.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

N-ASF Part of Speech: Noun Case: Accusative Number: Singular Gender: Feminine

Bible dictionarieson the English sense
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

hed (ro'-sh, Aramaic re'sh, and in special sense gulgoleth, literally, "skull," "cut-off head" (1Ch 10:10), whence Golgotha (Mt 27:33; Mr 15:22; Joh 19:17); mera'ashah, literally, "head-rest," "pillow," "bolster" (1Ki 19:6); qodhqodh, literally, crown of the head (De 28:35; 33:16,20; 2Sa 14:25; Isa 3:17; Jer 48:45); barzel, "the head of an axe" (De…

Torrey's New Topical Textbook

- The uppermost and chief member of the body

Isa 1:6; 2Ki 6:31

- All the other members necessary to

1Co 12:21

- The body supported and supplied by

Eph 4:16

- Put for the whole person

Ge 49:26; Pr 10:6

- Put for the life

Da 1:10; 1Sa 28:2

- PARTS OF MENTIONED

. The skull

2Ki 9:35; Mt 27:33

. The crown

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
75%head
head75% · 57×heads22% · 17×chief3% · 2×

76 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
object36%adverbial27%predicate27%subject9%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 75 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
ἐπίθρίξa hairφέρωI carry, bear, b
εἰς
γίνομαιI come into bein
ἔχωI have, hold, posses
ὄφιςa serpentμέγαςβλασφημίαabusive or scurr
εἰμίI am, exist
Χριστόςanointed, the Meἀνήρa male human bei
ἑπτάIndec
Article the
κεφαλήhead75×
what comes after →
αὐτός
καίand, even, also,στέφανοςa crown, garlandἐπί
καίand, even, also, nam
Article theἱμάτιονouter garmentεἷςone
Article the
Χριστόςanointed, the Meπούςthe footγυνήa woman, wife, m
σύ
ὀμνύωI swear, take anπᾶςall, the whole, οὐNeg
γωνίαa corner, a secret p
παρά

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

Concordanceκεφαλή · 75× in the New Testament
Revelation Matthew 1 Corinthians Mark Luke Acts John Ephesians Colossians 1 Peter Romans
Across the New Testament11 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 196 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 The Shepherd of Hermas Clement of Rome The Epistle of Barnabas
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 100c. AD 40

δι’ ἣν αἰτίαν οἱ μὲν ἄλλοι φιλόσοφοι τὸν ἀριθμὸν τοῦτον ἐξομοιοῦσι τῇ ἀμήτορι Νίκῃ καὶ Παρθένῳ, ἣν ἐκ τῆς τοῦ Διὸς κεφαλῆς ἀναφανῆναι λόγος ἔχει, οἱ δὲ Πυθαγόρειοι τῷ ἡγεμόνι τῶν συμπάντων·

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 1.50c. AD 75–95

ἀφείλετο δὲ καὶ τὸν ὄφιν τὴν φωνὴν ὀργισθεὶς ἐπὶ τῇ κακοηθείᾳ τῇ πρὸς τὸν Ἄδαμον καὶ ἰὸν ἐντίθησιν ὑπὸ τὴν γλῶτταν αὐτῷ πολέμιον ἀποδείξας ἀνθρώποις καὶ ὑποθέμενος κατὰ τῆς κεφαλῆς φέρειν τὰς πληγάς, ὡς ἐν ἐκείνῃ τοῦ τε κακοῦ τοῦ πρὸς ἀνθρώπους…

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 6.4c. AD 100

λέγει δὲ πάλιν ὁ προφήτης: Λίθον ὃν ἀπεδοκίμασαν οἱ οἰκοδομοῦντες, οὗτος ἐγενήθη εἰς κεφαλὴν γωνίας.

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
2nd c. AD 4th c. AD 3rd c. AD 1st c. AD 2nd c. BC
ZPE 156 (2006), p. 199-216Soknopaiu Nesos (ArsinoitesAD 50

ἡμέρας ἐπὶ τὸν ἅπαντα χρόνον καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ποιήσω καθότι προγέγραπται. ἔγραψεν ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ Κεφαλᾶς Στοτοήτιος διὰ τὸ μὴ εἰδέναι αὐτὸν γράμματα. Στοτοῆτις Σαταβοῦτος μητρὸς Θαήσιος ἠγόρακα καθὼς πρόκειται.

P.Sijp. 26Philadelphia (Arsinoites)AD 51

Πτολεμαῖος Φίλωνος, ἀπὸ ὑπερετῶν Χαιρήμων Καλλιστράτου, γίνονται γ Νέου Σεβαστοῦ Νεμεσίων Πτολεμαίου, Πεβῶς Ἁρυώτου, Κεφάλων ὁμοίως, γίνονται γ, γίνονται η, τὸ ἥμισυ δ

P. Princ. 1 1Philadelphia (Arsinoites)AD 51

α ὀβολὸν Ἡρακλῆς ὁμοίως Λεύκου … ἡμιωβέλιον χαλκοῦς 2 α ὀβολὸν Ἰσχυρίων Πανετβύιος … Κεφάλων Πανετβύιος

and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
ἐξek from G1537 Preposition
913× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Colossians as anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
The preposition 'out from' shows movement or origin, like in John 6:31 and Acts 9:3. It helps us understand where people or things come from or are going.
Tyndale gloss
out from
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word ἐκ (transliterated as ek) is a preposition that means 'from' or 'out of,' governing the genitive case. It indicates origin, separation, or motion away from a place, time, or cause. In the New Testament, it is used to denote various relationships, such as source or distinction, and appears in contexts like John 6:31 and Matthew 1:3. Different lexicons highlight its versatility in both literal and metaphorical senses.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

ἐκ (ἐξ),

prep. c. gen.,

from out of, from (see Addendum, p. 492).

ἐκ, before a vowel ἐξ,

prep. c. gen.,

of motion outwards, separation from (opp. to εἰς; = Lat. e, ex), from out of, from among, from.

Of Place,

of motion, out of, forth from, off from: Jo 6:31, Ac 9:3, Ga 1:8, al.; esp. after verbs of motion, Mt 8:28 17:9, Mk 1:25 7:28, Jo 1:33 20:1, Ac 12:7, 17 27:30, al.; constr. praeg., σώζειν (διας.) ἐκ, Ju 5, Ac 28:4. Metaph., Mt 7:4, 5, I Pe 2:9; ἐκ τ.…

Read the full entry →
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament from a scan

ἐκ, before a vowel ἐξ, a preposition governing the genitive. It denotes as well exit or emission out of, as separation from, something with which there has been close connection ; opp. to the prepositions εἰς into and ἐν in: from out of, out from, forth from, from, (Lat. e, ex), [ οἵ. W. 364, 366 (343) sq.; B. 326 sq. (281)]. It is used I. of Pace, and 1. univ. of the place from which; from a surrounding or enclosing place, from the interior of: ἄρτος, ἄγγελος, φῶς ἐξ οὐρανοῦ, Jn. vi. 81 sq.; Acts ix. 3 [here RG ἀπό]; Gal. 1. 8; ἀνατολή, δύναμις ἐξ ὕψους, Lk. i. 78; xxiv. 49; esp. after verbs of going, fleeing, leading, calling, freeing, removing, releasing, etc. : ἥκειν ἐκ τῆς ᾿Ιουδαίας eis τ. Γαλιλαίαν, Jn. iv. 47; ἐξέρχεσθαι ἔκ τινος out of the body of one (spoken of demons), Mk. i. 25; v. 8 [here L mrg. ἀπό]; vii. 29; of power emanating from the body, Mk. v. 30 [cf. B. 301 (258)…

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

ἐκ 190 passages as P Tebt I. 23" (c. B.C. 119 or 114) οὐκ ὀρθῶς κρίνομεν πέπρακταί σοι μὴ ἐκ τῆς ἡμῶν προεδρίας πεφροντικέναι ἀπροσδέητον ἑτέρων γενέσθαι, ‘I consider that you have acted badly in not having been careful that he should be independent of others owing to my superior rank ”’ (Edd. ), 24. 248° (B.c. 117) ἔκ τε τῆς πλείστης προσεδρείας, ‘on account of the prolonged attendance ’’ (Edd.), and P Fay 12} (c. B.C. 103) ἐκ κοινολογ[ς(]α[ς] τ[ἢ]ς συνσταθείσης πρὸς αὐτούς, ‘‘as the result of the colloquy which took place between τ᾿ (Edd.). From this it is an easy transition to the meaning ‘‘ according to”’ or “in accordance with,’’ as in the common legal phrase καθάπερ ἐγ δίκης, ‘‘as if in accordance with a legal decision,’’ z. δ. ‘‘as if a formal decree of the court had been obtained,’’ as in P Eleph 1132 (B.C. 311-0) (= Selections, p- 3), P Ryl 11. 15435 (a.p. 66): cf. P Petr III.…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

ἐκ (ek) — out from.

ἐκ,

before a vowel ἐξ, also

__A ἐξ τῳ ϝοίκῳ [Refs] and less frequently ; ἐγ- in Inscrr. before β γ δ λ μ ; Cretan dialect and Boeotian dialect ἐς [Refs 6th c.BC+]; ἐχ frequently in Attic dialect Inscrr. before χ φ θ (and in early Inscrr. before ς, [Refs]:—preposition governing GEN. only (except in [Refs 4th c.BC+]:—radical sense, from out of, frequently also simply, from.

__A.I OF PLACE, the most frequently usage, variously modified:

__A.I.1 of Motion, out of, forth from, ἐκ Πύλου ἐλθὼν τηλόθεν ἐξ ἀπίης γαίης [Refs 8th c.BC+] to strike with a spear in the hand, opposed to ἀντιτοξεύειν or ἀκοντίζειν, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; ἐκ χρυσῶν φιαλῶν πίνειν[Refs 5th c.BC+]

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

ἐκ

ek

or ex ex

a primary preposition denoting origin (the point whence action or

motion proceeds), from, out (of place, time, or cause; literal or

figurative; direct or remote):--after, among, X are, at,

betwixt(-yond), by (the means of), exceedingly, (+ abundantly above),

for(- th), from (among, forth, up), + grudgingly, + heartily, X

heavenly, X hereby, + very highly, in, ...ly, (because, by reason) of,

off (from), on, out among (from, of), over, since, X thenceforth,

through,

X unto, X vehemently, with(-out). Often used in composition,

with the same general import; often of completion.

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

ἐκ, ἐξ

Prep.

from out, out from among, from

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

ἐκ ek 915x

ἐχ before vowels, with genitive, from, out of, a place, Mt. 2:15; 3:17; of, from, out of, denoting origin or source, Mt. 1:3; 21:19; of, from some material, Mt. 3:9; Rom. 9:21; of, from, among, partitively, Mt. 6:27; 21:31; Mk. 9:17; from, denoting cause, Rev. 8:11; 17:6; means or instrument, Mt. 12:33, 37; by, through, denoting the author or efficient cause, Mt. 1:18; Read the full entry →

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

ἐκ

ἐξ before a vowel, ἐγ before β γ δ λ μ prep. governing GEN. only, Lat. e, exRadical sense, from out of, opp. to εἰς:

out of, from. c. gen.

OF PLACE:

of Motion, out of, forth from, Hom., etc.: ἐκ θυμοῦ φίλεον I loved her from my heart, with all my heart, Il.

to denote change from one place or condition to another, κακὸν ἐκ κακοῦ one evil from (or after) another, id. Il.; λόγον ἐκ λόγου λέγειν Dem.

to express distinction from a number, ἐκ πόλεων πίσυρες four out of many, Il.

of Position, like ἔξω, outside of, beyond, ἐκ βελέων out of shot, id. Il.; ἐκ καπνοῦ out of the smoke, Od.

with Verbs of Rest, ἐκ ποταμοῦ χρόα νίζετο washed his body with water from the river, id. Od.:—with Verbs signifying to hang or fasten, ἐκ πασσαλόφι κρέμασεν φόρμιγγα he hung his lyre from (i. e. on) the peg, id.…

Read the full entry →
Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Prep — Preposition
preposition — its sense depends on the case of the word it governs.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

PREP PREPosition

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
28%of
of28% · 258×from26% · 243×out of23% · 216×out from7% · 61×by5% · 51×at2% · 20×other renderings8% · 70×other renderings1% · 14×

933 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 26 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
adverbial69%predicate15%subject11%object5%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 913 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
καίand, even, also,ὅτιthat, since, becἀνάστασιςa rising again,
αὐτός
ἐγείρωI wake, arouse, ἀνίστημιI raise up, set καταβαίνωI go down, come
καίand, even, also, nam
αὐτόςσύἐγώ
εἰμίI am, exist
οὐNegArticle theτίςIrg
εἷςone
καίand, even, also,ὅτιthat, since, becαὐτός
ἐκfrom913×
what comes after →
Article the
οὐρανόςthe sky, the heaθεόςGod, a godστόμαthe mouth, speec
αὐτός
εἰμίI am, existArticle theκαίand, even, also,
νεκρόςdead, a corpse
ἀνίστημιI raise up, set ἐγείρωI wake, arouse, καίand, even, also,
σύ
παραδίδωμιI hand over, delμεριμνάωI am anxious, diἄνθρωποςa man, one of th
πίστιςfaith, belief, trust
ζάωI liveἸησοῦςJesusἀλλάbut, except

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

Concordanceἐκ · 913× in the New Testament
John Revelation Luke Acts Matthew Mark Romans Galatians 1 Corinthians 1 John 2 Corinthians Hebrews

Every reference is on the Strong's page.

Across the New Testament26 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
οὗhos, hē whom G3739 Relative pronoun · genitive · singular · masculine
1,407× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in Colossians than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
The word which is a pronoun used to ask for or identify something, as seen in John 5:11. It can also be used to describe a person or thing, such as in Mark 15:23. This word helps to clarify or specify what is being talked about.
Tyndale gloss
which
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

ὅς is a pronoun meaning 'who,' 'which,' 'what,' or 'that.' It serves as both a demonstrative and a relative pronoun, agreeing in gender with its antecedent. The New Testament uses it in various constructions, including phrases like ὃς μὲν... ὃς δέ to indicate contrasting subjects. Notably, it can express purpose or cause in certain contexts.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

ὅς, ἥ, ὅ,

the postpositive article (ἄρθρον ὑποτακτικόν).

As demonstr. pron. = οὗτος, ὅδε, this, that, also for αὐτός, chiefly in nom.: ὅς δέ, but he (cf. ἦ δὲ ὅς, freq. in Plat.), Mk 15:23, Jo 5:11; ὃς μὲν . . . ὃς δέ, the one . . . the other, Mt 21:35 22:5 25:15, Lk 23:33, Ac 27:14, Ro 14:5, I Co 11:21, II Co 2:16, Ju 22; neut., ὃ μὲν . . . ὃ δέ, the one . . . the other, some . . . some, Mt 13:8, 23, Read the full entry →

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

ὅς 455 ὅς iii. 5 [RG], 6; Heb. vi. 10; ix. 20; Jas. ii. 5; 1 In. iii. 24; Jude 15; for other exx. see below; ἐν ὥρᾳ 7 οὐ γινώoxet, Mt. xxiv. 50; τῇ παραδύσει 9 παρεδώκατε, Mk. vii. 13 ; add, Lk. ii. 20; v. 9; ix. 435 xii. 46; xxiv. 25; Jn. xvii. 5; Acts ii. 22; xvii. 31; xx. 38; 2 Co. xii. 21; 2Th.i. 4; Rev. xviii. 6; ef. W. § 24,1; [B. as above]. Rarely attraction oceurs where the verb governs the dative [but see below]: thus, κατέναντι οὗ ἐπίστευσε θεοῦ for xarévavre θεοῦ, ᾧ ἐπίστευσε (See κατέναντι). Ro. iv. 17; φωνῆς, ἧς ἔκραξα (for 7 (al. ἥν, οἴ. W. 164 (154 sq.) Β. 287 (217)}7), Acts xxiv. 21, οἵ. Is. vi. 4; (7γετο δὲ καὶ τῶν ἑαυτοῦ τε πιστῶν, οἷς ἥδετο καὶ ὧν ἠπίστει πολλούς, for καὶ πολλοὺς τούτων, οἷς ἠπίστει, Xen. Cyr. ὅ, 4, 39; ὧν ἐγὼ ἐντετύχηκα οὐδείς; for οὐδεὶς τούτων, οἷς ἐντετ. Plato, Gorg. p. 509 ἃ.; Protag. p. 361 6.; derep.7 p.531e.; παρ᾽ ὧν βοηθεῖς, οὐδεμίαν λήψει…

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

ος is found as a demonstrative pronoun in P Ryl II. 14415 (complaint of assault—a.D. 38) ὃς δὲ ἐκ τοῦ ἐναντίου ἄλογον ἀηδίαν μοι ἐπιχειρήσας παρεχρήσατό μοι πολλὰ καὶ ἄσχημα, ‘“whereupon he opposing me made a brutal and odious attack upon me and subjected me to much shameful mishandling” (Edd.): cf. Mk 15%, Jn 51. For ὃς μέν... ὃς δέ, “the one . . the other,” as in Mt 21° a/., see P Oxy IX. 1189? (c. A.D. 117) ἐπιστολὰς δύο ds ἔγραψα ἣν μὲν σοὶ ἣν δὲ Σαβείνῳ, and for ὃς δέ solétarium see PSI. IV. 313° (iii/iv A.D.) with the editor’s note. Ὃς ἄν (ἐάν) c. conj. = ‘‘ whosoever ” may be illustrated Ly P Par 4622 (B.c. 153) (= Witkowski*, p. 87), περὶ dv ἂν βούληι γράφε, P Grenf I. 30% (B.c. 103) ἐφ} οἷς ἂν οὖν ὑμῶν προσδέωνται, P Oxy IV. 743%% (B.C. 2) ἐν ols ἐὰν σοῦ προσδέηται, °° ὑπὲρ ὧν ἐὰν θέλῃς. For the comparative usage of ὃς ἄν and ὃς ἐάν, see Thackeray Gr. i. p. 68, cited s.v. ἄν.…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

ὅς (hos, hē) — which.

ὅς, ἥ, ὅ,

genitive οὗ, ἧς, οὗ, etc.; dative plural οἷς, αἷς, οἷς, etc.: Epic dialect forms, genitive ὅου (probably replacing Οο) in the phrases ὅου κλέος οὔ ποτ᾽ ὀλεῖται [Refs 8th c.BC+]; feminine ἕης [Refs 8th c.BC+]; elsewhere only ἧς [Refs]; dative plural οἷς, οἷσι, ᾗς, ᾗσι (never αἷς or αἷσι in [Refs 8th c.BC+] — _pronoun_ used,

__A as demonstrative by the side of οὗτος, ὅδε, and the Article ὁ, ἡ, τό: in post-Homeric Gr. this use survived only in a few special phrases.

__B as a Relat. by the side of the Article ὅ, ἥ, τό (see. ὁ, ἡ, τό, c):—this demonstrative and Relat. pronoun must not be confounded with the Possess. ὅς, ἥ, ὅν. (With Gr. Relat. ὅς, ἥ, ὅ cf. Sanskrit Relat. yas, yā, yad, Lithuanian jis, ji (he, she), Oslav. i, ja, je (he, she…

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

ὅς ἥ ὅ

hos

he hay, and neuter

ho ho

probably a primary word (or perhaps a form of the article 3588); the

relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what,

that:--one, (an-, the) other, some, that, what, which, who(-m, -se),

etc. See also 3757.

see GREEK for 3588

see GREEK for 3757

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

ὅς, ἥ, ὅ

Rel.pr.

who, which, what, that

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

ὅς hos 1x

who, which, what, that, Mt. 1:16, 23, 25; in NT interrog. ἐφ’ ὅ, wherefore, why, Mt. 26:50; in NT ὅς μὲν ... ὅς δέ, for ὁ μὲν ... ὁ δέ, Mt. 21:35; 2 Cor. 2:16

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Rel-GSM — Relative pronoun · genitive · singular · masculine
genitive — of, from, belonging to.
Agrees with anything else marked singular masculine.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

R-GSM Part of Speech: Relative pronoun Case: Genitive Number: Singular Gender: Masculine

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
25%which
which25% · 356×whom20% · 291×who17% · 238×that14% · 199×what8% · 117×whatever2% · 30×whose2% · 29×other renderings10% · 145×other renderings2% · 25×

1,430 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 60 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
object40%subject29%adverbial26%indirect object3%predicate3%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 1,407 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
ἐν
ἡμέραa dayαὐτόςἵναin order that, s
καίand, even, also, nam
αὐτόςἔχωI have, hold, poυἱόςa son, descenden
αὐτός
λέγωI say, speakἀπόλλυμιI destroy, lose,δοῦλος (II)
διά
ἐκεῖνοςΧριστόςanointed, the Meαὐτός
εἰς
καίand, even, also,ἐγώοἰκίαa house, househo
ὅςwhom1407×
what comes after →
εἰμίI am, exist
Article theμεθερμηνεύωI translate, intκαίand, even, also,
οὐNeg
εἰμίI am, existἔξεστι(ν)it is permitted,γινώσκωI come to know,
Article the
θεόςGod, a godυἱόςa son, descendenκύριοςlord, Lord, mast
καίand, even, also, nam
σύποιέωI do, makeαὐτός
δέbut, on the other ha
ἄνDisjἑξήκονταIndecτριάκονταIndec

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

Concordanceὅς · 1,407× in the New Testament
Acts Luke John Matthew Romans Mark Hebrews Revelation 1 Corinthians 2 Corinthians Colossians Ephesians

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

Across the New Testament27 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 The Shepherd of Hermas Ignatius of Antioch Clement of Rome
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 33c. AD 40

ἵν’ οὖν μὴ αἰεὶ συμφερόμεναι στασιάζωσι καὶ πόλεμος ἀντ’ εἰρήνης ἐπικρατῇ τὴν ἀκοσμίαν ἐν κόσμῳ τιθείς, οὐ μόνον ἐχώρισε φῶς καὶ σκότος, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὅρους ἐν μέσοις ἔθετο διαστήμασιν, οἷς ἀνεῖρξε τῶν ἄκρων ἑκάτερον·

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

πῶς τὸ Σοδομιτῶν ἔθνος θεὸς κατεστρέψατο χολωθεὶς αὐτοῖς ἐφ' οἷς ἡμάρτανον.

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 4.8c. AD 100

Μωϋσῆ Μωϋσῆ, κατάβηθι τὸ τάχος, ὅτι ἠνόμησεν ὁ λαός σου, οὓς ἐξήγαγες ἐκ γῆς Αἰγύπτου, καὶ συνῆκεν Μωϋσῆς καὶ ἔριψεν τὰς δύο πλάκας ἐκ τῶν χειρῶν αὐτοῦ: καὶ συνετρίβη αὐτῶν ἡ διαθήκη, ἵνα ἡ τοῦ ἠγαπημένου Ἰησοῦ ἐγκατασφραγισθῇ εἰς τὴν καρδίαν ἡμῶν…

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 2nd c. BC
P.Grenf. 1 32Pelusion103 BC

θεοῖς. καλῶς ποιήσεις διαλύσας Ἁρκοννῆσιν καὶ Ψενανοῦπιν καὶ … … ελθεῖν ἐπὶ προ … ους καὶ γραψάτωσαν ἡμῖν ὑπὲρ ὧν ἐσπούδασας διὰ τὰς ἡμῶν παρακλήσεις καὶ ση

P.Adl. 15Pathyris (?)101 BC

ἐδάνεισεν Ὧρος Ὥρου Ὥρωι Νεχούτου ὡς ἐτῶν ν μέσος μελίχρως ὑποκλαστὸς ἀναφάλακρος μακροπρόσωπος εὐθύριν οὖς ἀριστερὸν τετρημένον πυροῦ ἀρτάβας τεσσαράκοντα ἓξ κριθῆς ἑξήκοντα ἐννέα , ἴσους ἀτόκους, ὧν ἀπόδοσιν

P.Adl. 17Krokodilopolis (Pathyrites)100 BC

τῆς ἐπιγονῆς τῶν ἐκ Παθύρεως ὡς ἐτῶν ν μέσος μελίχρως τετανὸς ἀναφάλακρος μακροπρόσωπος εὐθύριν οὖς ἀριστερὸν τετρημένον χαλκοῦ ταλάντων πέντε . προπωλητὴς καὶ βεβαιωτὴς τῶν κατὰ τὴν ὠνὴν ταύτην

and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
πᾶνpas all G3956 Adjective · nominative · singular · neuter
1,242× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in Colossians than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
This word means all or every, as in Matthew 3:10 and Romans 7:8, where it refers to everything or all people, emphasizing the universal nature of God's message.
Tyndale gloss
all
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word πᾶς (i.e., *pas*) means 'all' or 'every' and appears in various forms, including masculine, feminine, and neuter. It is used in the New Testament to denote totality, as in 'all things' or 'every kind,' and can function as an adjective or pronoun. Notably, it can also imply 'the whole' when used with definite articles, as seen in verses like Matthew 28:18.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

πᾶς, πᾶσα, πᾶν, gen., παντός, πάσης, παντός,

[in LXX chiefly for כֹּל;]

all, every.

As adj.,

c. subst. anarth., all, every, of every kind: Mt 3:10 4:23, Mk 9:49, Lk 4:37, Jo 2:10, Ac 27:20, Ro 7:8, Re 18:17, al. mult.; pl., all, Ac 22:15, Ro 5:12, He 1:6, al.; of the highest degree, π. ἐξουσία (προθυμία, χαρά), Mt 28:18,

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

πᾶς, πᾶσα, πᾶν, en. παντός, πάσης, παντός, [dat. plur. Lchm. πᾶσι ten times, -σιν seventy-two times; Tdf. -σι five times (see Proleg. p. 98 sq.), -ow seventy-seven times; Treg. -ow eighty-two times; WH -ox fourteen times, -ow sixty-eight times; see N, v (ἐφελκυστικόν)], Hebr. 75, [fr. Hom. down], all, every; it is used I. adjectively, and 1. with anarthrous nouns; a. any, every one (86. of the class denoted by the noun annexed to mas); with the Singular: as πᾶν δένδρον, Mt. iii. 10; πᾶσα θυσία, Mk. ix. 49 [T WH Tr mrg. om. Tr txt. br. the cl.]; add, Mt. v.11; xv. 13; Lk. iv. 37; Jn.ii. 10; xv.2; Acts ii.43; v.42; Ro. xiv. 11; 1 Co. iv. 17; Rev. xviii. 17, and very often; πᾶσα ψυχὴ ἀνθρώπου, Ro. ii. 9 (πᾶσα ἀνθρ. ψυχή, Plat. Phaedr. p- 249e.); πᾶσα συνείδησις ἀνθρώπων, 2 Co. iv. 2; mas λεγόμενος θεός, 2 Th. ii. 4; πᾶς ἅγιος ἐν Χριστῷ, Phil. iv. 21sqq. with the Plural, all or any that are…

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

παῖς. In Gnomon 41 (¢. A.D. 150) it is laid down—éav Αἰγύπτιος ἐκ κοπρίας [ἀν]έληται παῖδα καὶ τοῦτον υἱοποιήσηται, μετὰ θάνατον τεταρτολο[ γεῖτ]αι, ““1Γ an Egyptian shall take up a child from the dungheap, and adopt him as a son, he shall be mulcted after his death to the extent of one fourth of his property.” For παῖς applied to a female child see P Strass I. 41° (A.D. 250) ἐκδικῆσαι τὰ τῆς παιδός, and P Oxy 1 5215 (A.D. 325) εΠδαμὲν τὴν παῖδα ἔχουσαν κατὰ τῶν εἰσχίων ἀμυχὰς μετὰ πελιωμάτων (see 76. II. p. 319), ““νγῈ saw that the girl had wounds on her hips with livid spots”: cf. Lk 8° (for voc. of address see Pro/eg. pp. 70, 235). The word is commonly applied to slaves, as in Lk 77 a/., e.g. P Lille 27 (iii/B.c.), where 11 male slaves are enumerated under the heading παῖδες, then 2 female slaves, and then again 3 male slaves: cf. P Strass I. 405 (a. p. 569) Κολλοῦθος Βίκτορος…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

πᾶς (pas) — all.

πᾶς, πᾶσα, πᾶν,

__AAeolic dialect παῖς, παῖσα [Refs 7th c.BC+] feminine πάνσα [Refs 8th c.BC+], Epic dialect and Delph. πάντεσσι [Refs 8th c.BC+]; also Locrian dialect πάντεσιν [Refs 5th c.BC+]; πάντοις [Refs 2nd c.BC+] as accusative masculine in [LXX+7th c.BC+], etc. (but in compounds sometimes long in Attic dialect, [Refs].]—Coll. pronoun, when used of a number, all; when of one only, the whole; of the several persons in a number, every.

__A.I in plural, all, πάντες τε θεοὶ πᾶσαί τε θέαιναι [Refs 8th c.BC+]; πάντες ὅσοι.. [Refs 8th c.BC+]; πάντας ᾧ ἂνπεριτυγχάνῃ, for ὅσοις ἄν, [Refs 5th c.BC+]: also with the Article, see.below [Refs 5th c.BC+]

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

πᾶς

pas

including all the forms of declension; apparently a primary word; all,

any, every, the whole:--all (manner of, means), alway(-s), any (one),

X daily, + ever, every (one, way), as many as, + no(-thing), X

thoroughly, whatsoever, whole, whosoever.

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

πᾶς, πᾶσα, πᾶν

Adj

all, the whole, every kind of

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

πᾶς pas 1x

all; in the sg. the whole, entire, usually when the substantive has the article, Mt. 6:29; 8:32; Acts 19:26; every, only with an anarthrous subst., Mt. 3:10; 4:4; pl. all, Mt. 1:17, et al. freq.; πάντα, in all respects, Acts 20:35; 1 Cor. 9:25; 10:33; 11:2; by a Hebraism, a negative with πᾶς is sometimes equivalent to οὐδείς or μηδείς, Mt. 24:22; Lk. 1:37; Acts 10:14; Read the full entry →

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

A-NSN Part of Speech: Adjective Case: Nominative Number: Singular Gender: Neuter

Bible dictionarieson the English sense
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

ol: Used in various combinations, and with different meanings.

(1) All along, "Weeping all along as he went" (Jer 41:6), i.e. throughout the whole way he went, feigning equal concern with the men from Shiloh, etc., for the destruction of the Temple, so as to put them off their guard.

(2) All in all, "That God may be all in all" (1Co 15:28, Greek: panta en pasin, "all things in all (persons and) things"). "The universe, with all it comprises, will wholly answer to God's will and reflect His mind" (Dummelow).

(3) All one, "It is all one" (Job 9:22), "it makes no difference whether I live or die."

(4) At all, "If thy father miss me at all" (1Sa 20:6), "in any way," "in the least."

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
62%all
all62% · 789×all things12% · 156×every12% · 150×everyone6% · 76×everything3% · 34×other renderings3% · 40×other renderings2% · 19×

1,264 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 28 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
subject40%adverbial30%object21%predicate5%indirect object3%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 1,242 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
αὐτόςσύλόγοςa word, speech,
ἐν
καίand, even, also,ἀλλάbut, exceptἐγώ
Article the
αὐτόςὅςArticle the
αὐτός
λέγωI say, speakδείκνυμιI point out, shoπροσφέρωI bring to, offe
ἐπί
καίand, even, also,ἐγώεἰμίI am, exist
πᾶςall1242×
what comes after →
Article the
ἔθνοςa race, people, λαόςa people, the crπιστεύωI believe, have
καίand, even, also, nam
Article theχορτάζωI feed, satisfyδιά
σύ
εἰμίI am, existἐνκαίand, even, also,
γάρfor
Article theσύοὗτος
δέbut, on the other ha
Article theοὗτοςὅς

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

Concordanceπᾶς · 1,242× in the New Testament
Acts Luke Matthew 1 Corinthians Romans Mark John Revelation Hebrews 2 Corinthians Ephesians Colossians

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

Across the New Testament27 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 The Shepherd of Hermas Clement of Rome Ignatius of Antioch
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 10c. AD 40

καὶ γὰρ πατὴρ ἐκγόνων καὶ δημιουργὸς τῶν δημιουργηθέντων στοχάζεται τῆς διαμονῆς καὶ ὅσα μὲν ἐπιζήμια καὶ βλαβερὰ μηχανῇ πάσῃ διωθεῖται, τὰ δὲ ὅσα ὠφέλιμα καὶ λυσιτελῆ κατὰ πάντα τρόπον ἐκπορίζειν ἐπιποθεῖ·

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

ὡς οἱ Νώχου ἔγγονοι πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην ἐπῴκησαν.

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 2.4c. AD 100

πεφανέρωκεν γὰρ ἡμῖν διὰ πάντων τῶν προφητῶν, ὅτι οὕτε θυσιῶν οὔτε ὁλοκαυτωμάτων οὔτε προσφορῶν χρῄζει, λέγων ὅτε μέν:

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 6th c. AD 4th c. AD 1st c. AD
P.Stras. 2 89Pathyris100 BC

γῆ Σενπελαίας, βορρᾶ γῆ Πανᾶτος ἀπηλιώτου ποταμός, λιβὸς Ἀραμείους, ἢ οἳ ἂν ὦσι γείτονες πάντων πάντοθεν. ἐπρίατο Πετεαρσεμθεὺς Πανοβχούνιος ὡς ἐτῶν μ χαλκοῦ τάλαντα δύο . προπωλητὴς καὶ βεβαιωτὴς

P.Grenf. 2 35Pathyris99 BC

ἐτῶν λ χαλκοῦ δραχμῶν τρισχιλίων . προπωληταὶ καὶ βεβαιωταὶ τῶν κατὰ τὴν ὠνὴν ταύτην πάντων Νεχούτης καὶ ὁ σὺν αὐτῷ οἱ ἀποδόμενοι, ὃν ἐδέξατο Πακοῖβις ὁ πριάμενος. Ἑρμίας ὁ

BGU 3 1000Pathyris99 BC

χαλκοῦ δραχμὰς δισχιλίας καὶ διακοσίας . προπωλητὴς καὶ βεβαιωτὴς τῶν κατὰ τὴν ὠνὴν ταύτην πάντων Πανοβχοῦνις ὁ ἀποδόμενος, ὃν ἐδέξατο Εὔνους ὁ πριάμενος. Ἑρμίας ὁ παρὰ Πανίσκου κεχρημάτικα.

and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
τὸho the G3588 Article · nominative · singular · neuter
19,783× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Colossians 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-NSN — Article · nominative · singular · neuter
nominative — the one doing it — the subject.
Agrees with anything else marked singular neuter.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

T-NSN Part of Speech: definite arTicle Case: Nominative Number: Singular Gender: Neuter

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

and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
σῶμαsōma body G4983 Noun · nominative · singular · neuter
142× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in Colossians than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
The word for body refers to the whole physical person, used literally or figuratively in the Bible, as seen in Matthew 27:58 and 1 Corinthians 6:13.
Amplified meaning
the church, the community of believers
Tyndale gloss
body
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word σῶμα (lemma: sōma) means 'body' and can refer to both living and dead bodies, as well as the concept of a person or material substance. In the New Testament, it is used to describe the human body, the Church as the body of Christ, and even inanimate objects. The term contrasts with πνεῦμα (spirit) and ψυχή (soul), highlighting its physical nature.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

σῶμα, -τος, τό,

[in LXX for גְּוִיָּה ,בָּשָׂר, etc., and for Aram. נְבֵלָה ;]

a body.

Prop., of the human body,

as always in Hom. (opp. to δέμας), of the dead body: Mt 27:58, 59 Mk 15:43, al.;

of the living body: Lk 11:34, I Co 6:13, al.; ἐν σ. εἶναι, He 13:3; as the instrument of the soul, τὰ διὰ τοῦ σ., II Co 5:10; opp. to πνεῦμα, Ro 8:10, I Co 5:3 7:4, Ja 2:26; to ψυχή, Mt…

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

σῶμα, -τος, τό, (appar. fr. σῶς ‘entire’, [but cf. Curtius § 570; al. fr. r. ska, sko, ‘to cover’, ef. Vaniéek p. 1055; Curtius p. 696]), Sept. for “3, "3, etc.; nba3 (a corpse), also for Chald. BW2; α body; and 1. the body both of men and of animals (on the distinction between it and σάρξ see σάρξ, esp. 2 init.; (cf. Dickson, St. Paul's use of ‘ Flesh’ and ‘Spirit’, p. 247 sqq.]); a. as everywh. in Hom. (who calls the living body δέμας) and not infreq. in subseq. Grk. writ., a dead body or corpse: univ. Lk. xvii. 37; of a man, Mt. xiv. 12 RG; (Mk. xv. 45 R G];, Acts ix. 40; plur. Jn. xix. 31; τὸ σ. τινος, Mt. xxvii. 58 sq.; Mk. xv. 43; Lk. xxiii. 52,55; Jn. xix. 38, 40; xx. 12; Jude 9; οὗ the body of an animal offered in sacrifice, plur. Heb. xiii. 11 (Ex. xxix. 14; Num. xix. 3). b. as in Grk. writ. fr. Hesiod down, the living body : —of animals, Jas. iii. 3;—of man: τὸ σῶμα, absol.…

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

σῶμα, “ἐᾷ body” (1) properly of the human body (a) cf. P Cairo Zen I. 5903429 (B.c. 257) peta τῆς τοῦ σώματος ὑγιείας, and the common salutation, as in 24. 590369 (B.c. 257), εἰ τῶι τε σώματι Eppwoat καὶ τἄλλα σοι κατὰ γνώμη[ν] ἐστίν, εἴη ἂν ὡς ἡμεῖς θέλομεν. See also BGU IV. 120848 (B.c. 27-26) τὰ δὲ] ἄλλα χαριεῖ τοῦ σώμαί( τος) [ἐπι μείλόμενος) ty’ ὑγιένῃς, ὃ δὴ μέγιστον ἡγοῦμίαι, PSI VII. 8ογ33 (a.p. 280) where a prisoner petitions ἔχειν τὸ σῶμα ἐλεύθερον καὶ ἀνύβριστον, and the magic P Lond 121°89 (jji/A.D.) (=I. p. 103) διαφύλασσέ pov τὸ σῶμα τὴν ψυχὴν ὁλόκληρον. Cf. Aristeas 139 ἁγνοὶ καθεστῶτες κατὰ σῶμα καὶ κατὰ ψυχήν. The tripartite division of I Thess 559 is found in P Oxy VIII. 1161° (iv/a.p.), where the writer (a Christian) prays to our God and the gracious Saviour and His beloved Son, ὅπως οὗτοι πάντες β[ο]ηθήσωσιν ἡμῶν τῷ σώματι, τῇ ψυχῇ, τῴ... πν(εύματι). For the…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

σῶμα (sōma) — body.

σῶμα, ατος, τό

[Refs 4th c.AD+] dative plural σωμάτεσι [Refs 3rd c.BC+], body of man or beast, but in [Refs 8th c.BC+], always dead body, corpse (whereas the living body is δέμας), ὥς τε λέων ἐχάρη μεγάλῳ ἐπὶ σώματι κύρσας [Refs 8th c.BC+]; ς. δὲ οἴκαδ᾽ ἐμὸν δόμεναι πάλιν [Refs 8th c.BC+]; so also in [NT+8th c.BC+]; νεκρὸν σ. [Refs 2nd c.AD+]; μέγιστον σ... σποδου, ={σ. μέγιστον ὃ νῦν σποδός ἐστι}, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

2. the living body, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; γενναῖος τῷ σ. [Refs 5th c.BC+]; εὔρωστος τὸ σ. [Refs 5th c.BC+]; τὸ σ. σῴζειν or -εσθαι save one's life, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; διασῴζειν or -εσθαι[Refs 5th c.BC+]; περὶ τοῦ σ. ἀγωνίζεσθαι for one's life, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; ἔχειν τὸ σ. κακῶς, ὡς βέλτιστα, etc., to be…

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

σῶμα

soma

from 4982; the body (as a sound whole), used in a very wide

application, literally or figuratively:--bodily, body, slave.

see GREEK for 4982

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

σῶμα, ατος, τό

n.n.

body, flesh

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

σῶμα sōma 142x

the body of an animal; a living body, Mt. 5:29, 30; 6:22, 23, 25; Jas. 3:3; a person, individual, 1 Cor. 6:16; a dead body; corpse, carcass, Mt. 14:12; 27:52, 58; Heb. 13:11; the human body considered as the seat and occasion of moral imperfection, as inducing to sin through its appetites and passions, Rom. 7:24; 8:13; genr. a body, a material substance, 1 Cor. 15:37, 38, 40; the substance, reality, as opposed to ἡ σκιά, Col. 2:17; in NT…

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Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

σῶμα σῶμα, ατος, τό, deriv. uncertain the body of a man: in Hom. always the dead body, corpse, carcase, whereas the living body is δέμας.

the living body, Hes., Hdt., attic; τὸ ς. σώζειν or -εσθαι to save one's life, Dem., Thuc.; ἔχειν τὸ ς. κακῶς, ὡς βέλτιστα, to be in a bad, a good state of body, Xen.

body, as opp. to the soul (ψυχή), Plat., etc.; τὰ τοῦ ς. ἔργα bodily labours, Xen.; τὰ εἰς τὸ ς. τιμήματα bodily punishments, Aeschin.

periphr., ἀνθρώπου σῶμα ῀ ἄνθρωπος, Hdt.; esp. in Trag., σῶμα θηρός ῀ ὁ θήρ, Soph., etc.:—often of slaves, ς. αἰχμάλωτα Dem., etc

generally, a body, i. e. any material substance, Plat., etc.

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

N-NSN Part of Speech: Noun Case: Nominative Number: Singular Gender: Neuter

Bible dictionarieson the English sense
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

bod'-i:

I. PHILOLOGICAL:

Generally speaking, the Old Testament language employs no fixed term for the human body as an entire organism in exact opposition to "soul" or "spirit." Various terms were employed, each of which denotes only one part or element of the physical nature, such as "trunk," "bones," "belly," "bowels," "reins," "flesh," these parts being used, by synecdoche, for the whole: etsem = "bone," or "skeleton," hence, "body," is found in Ex 24:10 the King James Version; La 4:7; nephesh = "living organism" (Le 21:11; Nu 6:6,7,11; 19:11,13,16; Hag 2:13); nebhelah = "a flabby thing," "carcass" (

→ Called HOUSE 2Co 5:1

→ HOUSE OF CLAY Job 4:19

→ THE TEMPLE OF GOD 1Co 3:16; 6:3,15,19

→ Corruptible Job 17:14; 1Co 15:53,54

→ Resurrection of 1Co 15:19-54

→ See RESURRECTION

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
90%body
body90% · 130×bodies7% · 10×body?2% · 3×other renderings1% · 1×

144 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 4 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
subject29%adverbial29%object25%predicate17%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 142 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
ἐνὅλοςall, the whole, εἰμίI am, exist
εἷςone
ἐνπολύςmuch, many, ofteπόρνηa prostitute
καίand, even, also, nam
ψυχήthe soul, life, ἐπουράνιοςheavenly, celestῥέδηa chariot
δέbut, on the other ha
Article theεἷςoneποῖοςIrg
ἴδιοςone’s own, private,
Article theσπέρμαseed, offspring
σῶμαbody142×
what comes after →
Article the
ἸησοῦςJesusΧριστόςanointed, the Meἔνδυμαa garment, raime
σύ
φωτεινόςbright, luminousσκοτεινόςfull of darknessβάλλωI cast, throw, r
οὐNeg
οἶδαI know, rememberἐξουσιάζωI exercise authoπαρά
ἐγώ
πρόςεἰςArticle the
αὐτός
ἔρχομαιI come, goἐνArticle the

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

Concordanceσῶμα · 142× in the New Testament
1 Corinthians Matthew Luke Romans 2 Corinthians Ephesians Colossians John Hebrews James Mark Philippians

Every reference is on the Strong's page.

Across the New Testament18 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 50 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 Ignatius of Antioch
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 30c. AD 40

τοσούτῳ γὰρ τὸ νοητὸν τοῦ ὁρατοῦ λαμπρότερόν τε καὶ αὐγοειδέστερον ὅσῳπερ ἥλιος, οἶμαι, σκότους καὶ ἡμέρα νυκτὸς καὶ [τὰ κριτήρια] νοῦς, ὁ τῆς ὅλης ψυχῆς ἡγεμών, ὀφθαλμῶν σώματος.

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 1.60c. AD 75–95

οὐκ ἐπὶ νουθεσίᾳ δὲ τὴν κόλασιν ἔλαβεν, ἀλλʼ ἐπʼ αὐξήσει τῆς κακίας, ἡδονὴν μὲν πᾶσαν ἐκπορίζων αὐτοῦ τῷ σώματι, κἂν μεθʼ ὕβρεως τῶν συνόντων δέῃ ταύτην ἔχειν·

Clement of RomeFirst Clement 6.2c. AD 96

διὰ ζῆλος διωχθεῖσαι γυναῖκες Δαναΐδες καὶ Δίρκαι, αἰκίσματα δεινὰ καὶ ἀνόσια παθοῦσαι, ἐπὶ τὸν τῆς πίστεως βέβαιον δρόμον κατήντησαν καὶ ἔλαβον γέρας γενναῖον αἱ ἀσθενεῖς τῷ σώματι.

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 2nd c. BC 4th c. AD
P. Grenf. 1 21Pathyris127 BC

τε ἄλλα καὶ ἐπίτροπον Ἑρμ … φιλον ὄντα συγγενῆ κατέστησεν καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν οἰκετικῶν σωμάτων δ ὧν ὀνόματα Μυρσίνην καὶ ταύτης … τὰ δὲ λοιπὰ θηλυκὰ β αἷς ὄνομα

P.Grenf. 1 44Pathyris127 BC

τε ἄλλα καὶ ἐπίτροπον Ἑρμ … φιλον ὄντα συγγενῆ κατέστησεν καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν οἰκετικῶν σωμάτων δ ὧν ὀνόματα Μυρσίνην καὶ ταύτης … · τὰ δὲ λοιπὰ θηλυκὰ β αἷς

ἐγγαίων ὄντων δ ἔν τε τῶι Περιθήβας καὶ Παθυρίτηι, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ τῶν οἰκετικῶν σωμάτων, ἐν οἷς καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ Κόχλακος τῆς Ἀραβίας τοῦ δηλουμένου Παθυρίτου νομοῦ μέρους ἡμίσους

and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
διὰdia through G1223 Preposition
667× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in Colossians than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
Means through or because of, like in Matthew 2:12 where the wise men left by another route. It shows cause or occasion, as in 1 Corinthians 3:15, being saved through fire. It can also describe a state or condition, like in Romans.
Tyndale gloss
through/because of
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

διά (dia) is a preposition meaning 'through' and can govern both the genitive and accusative cases. It covers a range of uses, including indicating motion through space or time, causation, and means or instrumentality. In the New Testament, it appears in various contexts, such as in Matthew 2:12 and Romans 8:25. The lexicons do not present significant disagreement regarding its meanings.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

διά (before a vowel δ’, exc. Ro 8:10, II Co 5:7, and in pr. names; Tdf., Pr., 94),

prep. c. gen., acc, as in cl.;

c. gen., through;

of Place, after verbs of motion or action: Mt 2:12 12:43, Mk 2:23, Lk 4:30, Jo 4:4, II Co 11:33, al.; σώζεσθαι (διας-) δ. πυρός, ὕδατος, I Co 3:15, I Pe 3:20; βλέπειν δ. ἐσόπτρου, I Co 13:12; metaph., of a state or condition:

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

διὰ παντός [so L WH Tr (exc. Mk. ν. 5; Lk. xxiv. 53)], or written together διαπαντός [so GT (exe. in Mt.) ; ef. W. 46 (45); Lipsius, Gram. Unters. p. 125], continually, always: Mt. xviii. 10; Mk. ν. 5; Lk. xxiv. 53; Acts ii. 25 (fr. Ps. xv. (xvi.) 8); x. 2; xxiv. 16; Ro. xi. 10 (fr. Ps. Ixviii. (Lxix.) 24); 2 Th. iii. 16; Heb. ix. 6; xiii. 15, (often in Grk. writ.). b. of the time within which a thing is done: διὰ τῆς νυκτός (1, Τ Tr WH διὰ νυκτός), by night, Acts ν. 19; xvi. 9; xvii. 10; xxiii. 31, (Palaeph. 1,10); δύ ἡμερῶν τεσσαράκοντα, repeatedly within the space of forty days, Acts i. 3;— (denying this use of the prep., C. F. A. Fritzsche in Fritzschiorum Opusce. p. 164 sq. would refer these instances to the use noted under a. [see Win., Ellic., Mey. u. s.]). 2. of time elapsed, and which has, so to say, been passed through: Gal. ii. 1 [ef. W. 380 (356)]; δὲ ἡμερῶν, (some) days…

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

διά (A.D. 58) ἀπεσχηκυῖαι [παρὰ τοῦ ᾿Αντ]ιφάνους διὰ χειρὸς [ἐϊξ οἴκου ὃ καὶ ἐπε[ίσθη]σαν κεφάλαιον, ‘have received from Antiphanes from hand to hand in cash the sum which they severally consented to accept ” (Edd.). Among other stereotyped phrases may be mentioned διὰ παντός, common in papyri as in Bibl. Greek in place of the obsolescent ἀεί : thus P Lond 42° (B.c. 168) (=I. p. 30, Selections Ὁ. 9) σοῦ διὰ παντὸς μνείαν ποιούμενοι, LGU IV. 1078* (A.p. 39) Σαραπίων Σαραπιάδι τῇ ἀδελφῇ πλεῖστα χαίρειν καὶ διὰ παντὸς ὑγιαίνειν. A rather different temporal use appears in διὰ νυκτός, “by night’ (Ac 519 etc.), as P Ryl II. 1381 (A.D. 34) κατέλαβα τοῦτον διὰ νυκτὸς ἡλμένον ἐξ ὑπερβατῶν els τὠιὸ τῆς οὐσίας ἐποίκιον Δρομήως λεγώμενου (7. ε. -όμενον), “ΕἼ detected him when under cover of night he had sprung into the farmstead” (Edd.): it is hard to imagine Fritzsche (see Grimm) arguing that here…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

διά (dia) — through/because of.

διά,

poetry διαί (Aeolic dialect ζά, which see), preposition governing genitive and accusative — Rad. sense, through; never anastrophic [Prop. δῐᾰ: but [Refs 8th c.BC+] uses ῑ at the beginning of a line, [Refs 8th c.BC+]: also ᾱ, for the sake of meter, frequently in [Refs 8th c.BC+] uses διαί in Lyric poetry, [Refs]

__A WITH GEN.

__A.I of Place or Space:

__A.I.1 of motion in a line, from one end to the other, right through, in [Refs 8th c.BC+] frequently of the effect of weapons, διὰ μὲν ἀσπίδος ἦλθε.. ἔγχος καὶ διὰ θώρηκος.. [Refs 8th c.BC+] out through the Scaean gate, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; δι᾽ ἠέρος αἰθέρ᾽ ἵκανεν quite through the lower air even to the ether, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; διὰ Τρώων πέτετο straight through them,[Refs 5th c.BC+]: also in Compos. with πρό and ἐκ, see at {διαπρό},{διέκ}: in adverbial phrases, διὰ πασῶν (i.e.…

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

διά

dia

a primary preposition denoting the channel of an act; through (in very

wide applications, local, causal, or occasional):--after, always,

among, at, to avoid, because of (that), briefly, by, for (cause) ...

fore, from, in, by occasion of, of, by reason of, for sake, that,

thereby, therefore, X though, through(-out), to, wherefore, with

(-in). In composition it retains the same general importance.

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

διά

Prep.

through, on account of

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

διά dia 667x

(1) gen., through, used of place or medium, Mt. 7:13; Lk. 6:1; 2 Cor. 11:33; through, of time, during, in the course of, Heb. 2:15; Acts 5:19; through, of immediate agency, causation, instrumentality, by means of, by, Jn. 1:3; Acts 3:18; of means or manner, through, by, with, Lk. 8:4; 2 Cor. 5:7; 8:8; of state or condition, in a state of, Rom.…

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Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

διά through c. gen. through, by means of c. acc.

through.

WITH GEN.:

of Place or Space:

of motion in a line, through, right through, διὰ μὲν ἀσπίδος ἦλθε ἔγχος Il.; δι᾽ ἠέρος αἰθέρ᾽ ἵκανεν quite through the lower air even to the ether, id. Il.; διὰ πάντων ἐλθεῖν to go through all in succession, Xen.

of motion through a space, but not in a line, all through, over, διὰ πεδίοιο Il.; δι᾽ ἄστεος Od.

of Intervals of Space, διὰ δέκα ἐπάλξεων at every 10th battlement, Thuc.; διὰ πέντε σταδίων at a distance of 5 stades, Hdt.

of Time:

throughout, during, διὰ παντὸς τοῦ χρόνου Hdt.; δι᾽ ἡμέρης all day long, id. Hdt.; διὰ παντός continually, Aesch.; δι᾽ ὀλίγου for a short time, Thuc.

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Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Prep — Preposition
preposition — its sense depends on the case of the word it governs.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

PREP PREPosition

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
57%through
through57% · 391×because of22% · 153×on account of10% · 67×for2% · 14×the sake of2% · 14×other renderings6% · 44×

683 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 21 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
adverbial96%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 667 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
θεόςGod, a godπᾶςall, the whole, καυματίζωI burn, scorch
αὐτός
λέγωI say, speakμαθητήςa learner, disciἐνώπιονbefore the face
θεόςGod, a god
Article theδέbut, on the otheσοφόςwise
σύ
ἐνπρόςδίδωμιI offer, give
ἐγώ
καίand, even, also,εἶπονI say, speakἐνώπιονbefore the face
διάthrough667×
what comes after →
Article the
λόγοςa word, speech, ὄνομαname, character,προφήτηςa prophet, poet
οὗτος
λέγωI say, speakArticle theκαίand, even, also,
ὅς
Article theαἰτίαa cause, reason,καίand, even, also,
αὐτός
Article theγίνομαιI come into beinκαίand, even, also,
τίςIrg
οὐNegArticle theμετά

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

Concordanceδιά · 667× in the New Testament
Romans Acts John Matthew Hebrews 2 Corinthians 1 Corinthians Luke Mark Ephesians Galatians 1 Peter

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 663 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 The Shepherd of Hermas Clement of Rome Ignatius of Antioch
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 5c. AD 40

οὐ μὴν διὰ τοῦθ’ ἡσυχαστέον, ἀλλ’ ἕνεκα τοῦ θεοφιλοῦς καὶ ὑπὲρ δύναμιν ἐπιτολμητέον λέγειν, οἴκοθεν μὲν οὐδέν, ὀλίγα δ’ ἀντὶ πολλῶν, ἐφ’ ἃ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην διάνοιαν φθάνειν εἰκὸς ἔρωτι καὶ πόθῳ σοφίας κατεσχημένην.

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 1.4c. AD 75–95

τὸν μὲν γὰρ πρὸς τοὺς Ῥωμαίους πόλεμον ἡμῖν τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις γενόμενον καὶ τὰς ἐν αὐτῷ πράξεις καὶ τὸ τέλος οἷον ἀπέβη πείρᾳ μαθὼν ἐβιάσθην ἐκδιηγήσασθαι διὰ τοὺς ἐν τῷ γράφειν λυμαινομένους τὴν ἀλήθειαν,

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 1.7c. AD 100

ἐγνώρισεν γὰρ ἡμῖν ὁ δεσπότης διὰ τῶν προφητῶν τὰ παρεληλυθότα καὶ τὰ ἐνεστῶτα, καὶ τῶν μελλόντων δοὺς ἀπαρχὰς ἡμῖν γεύσεως, ὧν τὰ καθ̓ ἕκαστα βλέποντες ἐνεργούμενα, καθὼς ἐλάλησεν, ὀφείλομεν πλουσιώτερον καὶ ὑψηλότερον προσάγειν τῷ φόβῳ αὐτοῦ.

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 6th c. AD 4th c. AD 1st c. AD
P.Adl. 12Pathyris102 BC

ἀρουρῶν ἑπτὰ ἀρούρας τρεῖς · γείτονες μιᾶς μὲν νότου γῆ Πατήφιος, βορρᾶ γῆ Πακοίβιος διὰ τῶν Φίβιος υἱῶν, ἀπηλιώτου ὁδὸς βασιλική, λιβὸς γῆ Ψεμμώνθου τοῦ Πανεχάτου καὶ τῶν μετόχων,

P.Adl. 14Pathyris101 BC

ἐν σφραγῖσι δυσίν , ὧν γείτονες μιᾶς μὲν νότου γῆ Πατήφιος, βορρᾶ γῆ Πακοίβιος διὰ τῶν Φίβιος υἱῶν, ἀπηλιώτου ὁδὸς βασιλική, λιβὸς γῆ Ψεμμώνθου τοῦ Πανεχάτου καὶ τῶν μετόχων,

P.Amh. 2 51Pathyris89 BC

ἀπὸ ἀπηλιώτου μέρει Παθύρεως οἰκίαν ᾠκοδομημένην καὶ δεδοκωμένην καὶ τεθυρωμένην ἧς αἱ γειτνίαι δεδήλωνται διὰ τῆς ὠνῆς.

and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
τῶνho the G3588 Article · genitive · plural · feminine
19,783× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Colossians 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-GPF — Article · genitive · plural · feminine
genitive — of, from, belonging to.
Agrees with anything else marked plural feminine.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

T-GPF Part of Speech: definite arTicle Case: Genitive Number: Plural Gender: Feminine

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

and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
ἁφῶνhaphē joints G860 Noun · genitive · plural · feminine
2× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in Colossians than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
This word means a joint or a connection, like a ligament that holds things together. In Ephesians 4:16 and Colossians 2:19, it describes how the different parts of the body are connected and work together.
Amplified meaning
connections, ligaments
Tyndale gloss
joint
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word ἁφή (haphe) derives from ἅπτω and primarily means a joint or ligament, signifying a connection or fastening. It appears in the New Testament in Ephesians 4:16 and Colossians 2:19, where it refers to the bonds that hold the body together. The lexicons also note its broader meanings, including touch and kindling, but these are less relevant in the New Testament context.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

ἁφή, -ῆς, ἡ

(< ἅπτω, to fasten, fit),

[in LXX for נֶגַע, freq. in Le;]

a joint (MM, s.v.): Eph 4:16, Col 2:19 (Lft., in l.).†

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

ἁφή, -ῆς, ἡ, (ἅπτω to fasten together, to fit), (Vulg. Junctura [and nexus]), bond, connection, [ A. V. joint (see esp. Bp. Lghtft. on Col. as below) ]: Eph. iv. 16; Col. ii. 19. (Plut. Anton. ec. 27.)

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

ἁφή. For the special sense of “kindling” see P Tebt I. 8813 1. (B.C. 115-4) εἴς τε τὰς θυσίας καὶ λύχνων ἁφῶν, “for sacrifices and for the kindling of lamps” (cf. λυχναψία, BGU II. 3621112, ete) ; and for the meaning ‘‘sand” or ““dust” as a technical term of the arena see Sy// 80414 (?i/A.D.) ἁφῇ πηλώσασθαι (with the editor's note). It is, however, a wholly different connexion with wrestling that is associated with the NT meaning of the word. Dean Robinson (on Eph 418) has shown how from the ἁφὴ ἄφυκτος with which the wrestler fastened on his opponent ἁφή came to be used of the union of the Democritean atoms, and further of a band or ligament in ancient physiology. Hence in the Pauline usage, the thought is not so much of “touch” as of ‘*fastening’’—the whole body is compacted διὰ πάσης ἁφῆς τῆς ἐπιχορηγίας ‘ by every ligament of the whole apparatus” (Eph 415), which in Col 215 is…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

ἁφή (haphē) — joint.

ἁφή, ἡ,

(ἅπτω) lighting, kindling, περὶ λύχνων ἁφάς about lamp-lighting time, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

II. (ἅπτομαι) touch, ἐπώνυμον δὲ τῶν Διὸς γέννημ᾽ ἁφῶν (Wieseler for γεννημάτων) τέξεις.. Ἔπαφον[Refs 4th c.BC+]

II.2. sense of touch, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

II.3. touch of the harp-strings, metaphorically, ἐμμελοῦς ἁφῆς καὶ κρούσεως[Refs 4th c.BC+]

II.4. grip, in wrestling, etc., ἁφὴν ἐνδιδόναι αὑτοῦ[Refs 1st c.BC+]; ἁ. εἶχεν ἡ συνδιαίτησις ἄφυκτον, of [Refs 1st c.AD+]

II.5. sand sprinkled over wrestlers, to enable them to get a grip of one another, [Refs 2nd c.AD+]

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

ἁφή

haphe

from 680; probably a ligament (as fastening):--joint.

see GREEK for 680

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

ἁφή, ῆς, ἡ

n.f.

a band, fastening, a ligament

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

ἁφή haphē 2x

a fastening; a ligament, by which the different members are connected, commissure, joint, Eph. 4:16; Col. 2:19*

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

ἁφή ἅπτω a lighting, kindling, περὶ λύχνων ἁφάς about lamp- lighting time, Hdt.

(ἅπτομαι) a touching, touch, Aesch.: the sense of touch, Plat., etc.

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

N-GPF Part of Speech: Noun Case: Genitive Number: Plural Gender: Feminine

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
50%ligament
ligament50% · 1×joints50% · 1×

2 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 2 different ways. The commonest English word for it is not its meaning — it is one translator's decision, repeated.

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
πᾶςall, the whole, ever
διά
Article the
διά
ἁφήjoints
what comes after →
Article the
ἐπιχορηγίαsupply, provisio
καίand, even, also, nam
σύνδεσμοςa band, bond

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

Concordanceἁφή · 2× in the New Testament
Colossians Ephesians
Across the New Testament2 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 51 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 Polycarp
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 62c. AD 40

χρώματα μὲν [ἡ] ὅρασις, φωνὰς δὲ ἀκοή, χυλοὺς δὲ γεῦσις, καὶ ὄσφρησις ἀτμούς, μαλακότητας δὲ καὶ σκληρότητας καὶ ὅσα θερμὰ ἢ ψυχρὰ λειότητάς τε καὶ τραχύτητας ἁφή.

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 1.218c. AD 75–95

ὡς δʼ ἀπιοῦσαν ἐπιλελοίπει τὰ ἀναγκαῖα, ἐν κακοῖς ἦν, ὕδατος δὲ σπανίζοντος ὑπʼ ἐλάτῃ τινὶ θεῖσα τὸ παιδίον ψυχορραγοῦν, ὡς μὴ παρούσης τὴν ψυχὴν ἀφῇ, προῄει πορρωτέρω.

PolycarpPolycarp to the Philippians 6.2c. AD 110

εἰ οὖν δεόμεθα τοῦ κυρίου, ἵνα ἡμῖν ἀφῇ, ὀφείλομεν καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφιέναι: ἀπέναντι γὰρ τῶν τοῦ κυρίου καὶ θεοῦ ἐσμὲν ὀφθαλμῶν, καὶ πάντας δεῖ παραστῆναι τῷ βήματι τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ ἕκαστον ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ λόγον δοῦναι.

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

ἠρώτησα περὶ τῆς ἐντολῆς, καὶ ἀγοράσας πάλι σοι μελήσει τελωνῆσαι αὐτὰ καὶ μὴ αὐτὸν ἀφῇς στρηνιᾶν. καὶ σύ μοι γράφε περὶ ὧν θέλεις, καὶ ποιήσω. τὰ φάκια δραχμῶν υμ

P.Stras. 4 187AD 113–AD 120

ἀναδιδόντος τὴν ἐπιστολὴν καὶ τὰ ἀβάσκαντά σου παιδία· συνήλιξα ταύτῇ τῇ ἐπιστολῇ γράμματα ἵνα ἀφῇς αὐτὰ Ἑρμιόνῃ ἃ διελεύσεται ἐὰν ᾖ ἅπασα ἀσφάλεια, τὰ ἀκόλουθα ἀφήσω. ἐὰν μὴ ᾖ,

P.Oslo 2 40 aOxyrhynchosAD 150

δούλης Ἰσαροῦτος ὡς ἐτῶν ἐννέα ἀσυκοφαντήτου πλὴν ἱερᾶς νόσου καὶ ἐπαφῆς καὶ τάξασθαι ἐὰν ἀφῇ τὰ ὑπὲρ ταύτης τέλη καὶ δεσπόζειν αὐτῆς καὶ τῶν ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν ἐσομένων ἐξ

and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
καὶkai and G2532 Conjunction
8,978× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Colossians as anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
And or also, a connecting word used to join ideas or words, like in Matthew 2:18 and Hebrews 1:1.
Tyndale gloss
and
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

καί (kai) is a conjunction meaning 'and,' used to connect words, phrases, and clauses. It serves various functions, including copulative and adjunctive uses, and can express cumulative ideas like 'also' or 'even.' The New Testament frequently employs it to link terms and sentences, as seen in verses like Matthew 2:18 and John 10:3. Abbott-Smith notes its use in both simple and complex structures, while Thayer emphasizes its role as the most common particle in the New Testament.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

καί,

conj.,

and.

Copulative.

Connecting single words;

in general: Mt 2:18 16:1, Mk 2:15, Lk 8:15, He 1:1, al. mult.; repeated before each of the terms in a series, Mt 23:23, Lk 14:21, Ro 7:12 9:4, al.;

connecting numerals (WM, § 37, 4): Jo 2:20, Ac 13:20;

joining terms which are not mutually exclusive, as the part with the whole: Mt 8:33 26:59, Mk 16:17,

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

καί, a conj., and; the most freq. by far of all the particles in the N. T. [On its uses see W. § 53, 3sqq.; B. 361 (310) sqq., and ef. Ellicott on Phil. iv. 12; on the difference between it and τέ see 8. v. τέ ad init. ] I. It serves as a copulative i.e. to connect (Lat. et, atque, Germ. und) ; 1. it connects single words or terms: a. univ., as of Φαρισαῖοι καὶ Σαδδουκαῖοι, Mt. xvi. 1; ὁ θεὸς καὶ πατήρ, he who is God and Father (see θεός, 3); ἐν καρδίᾳ καλῇ καὶ ἀγαθῇ, Lk. viii. 15; πολυμερῶς καὶ πολυτρόπως, ΗΘ}. 1. 1; it is repeated before single terms, to each of which its own force and weight is thus given: ἡ υἱοθεσία καὶ ἡ δόξα καὶ ai διαθῆκαι καὶ ἡ νομοθεσία καὶ ἡ λατρεία καὶ αἱ ἐπαγγελίαι, Ro. ix. 4 ; ἁγία καὶ δικαία καὶ ἀγαθή, Ro. vii. 12; add, Mt. xxiii. 23; Lk. xiv. 21; Jn. xvi. 8; Acts xv. 20, 29; xxi. 25; Heb. ix. 10; Rey. v. 12; xviii. 12 sq.; ef. W. 519 sq. (484). b. it…

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

και. In LAE p. 129 ff. Deissmann discusses the thoroughly popular character of the Johannine style with its short paratactic sentences, introduced by kal. . . καί. To illustrate this, he cites amongst other exx. a Dream from the Serapeum, P Par 51 (B.C. 160) (= Selections, p. 18 ff. : see especially the amended readings in Archiv vi. p. 204), which runs—** ὦμ[ην] βατί -- δ)ίζειν pe [ἀπ]ὸ λειβὸς ἕως ἀ[ πηλι]ώτου, καὶ ἀναπίπτομαι ἐπ᾿ ἄχυρον" καὶ [ἄν]θρωπ[ος9] ἀπὸ λιβός μου, ἐχόμενός μου’ ἀναπίπτει καὶ αὐτός, καὶ ὥσπερ κεκλειμμ[évot] μου ἦσαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοί μου, καὶ ἐξαί[φνης] ἀνύγω τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς pov, καὶ ὁρῶ kTA., “ I dreamed that I was going from West to East, and I lie down upon chaff. And there | αὐτὸ (deleted in the original) Σεμφθεῖ. | ἐκ καινῆς ἐν Σομολ(ῶ)…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

καί (kai) — and.

καί,

conjunction, copulative, joining words and sentences,

__A and; also adverb, even, also, just, frequently expressing emphatic assertion or assent, corresponding as positive to the negative οὐ (μή) or οὐδέ (μηδέ). copulative, and,

__A.I joining words or sentences to those preceding, ἦ, καὶ κυανέῃσιν ἐπ᾽ ὀφρύσινεῦσε Κρονίων [Refs 8th c.BC+]: repeated with two or more Nouns, αἱ δὲ ἔλαφοι κ. δορκάδες κ. οἱ ἄγριοι οἶες κ. οἱ ὄνοι οἱ ἄγριοι [Refs 5th c.BC+]; joining only the last pair, [Refs 4th c.BC+]; ὁ ὄχλος πλείων κ. πλείων ἐπέρρει more and more, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; to add epithets after πολύς, πολλὰ κ. ἐσθλά [Refs 8th c.BC+]

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

καί

kai

apparently, a primary particle, having a copulative and sometimes also

a cumulative force; and, also, even, so then, too, etc.; often used in

connection (or composition) with other particles or small words:--and,

also, both, but, even, for, if, or, so, that, then, therefore, when,

yet.

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

καί

Cj.

and, even, also, namely

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

καί kai 9x

(1) and, Mt. 2:2, 3, 11; 4:22; (2) καί ... καί, both ... and; (3) as a cumulative particle, also, too, Mt. 5:39; Jn. 8:19; 1 Cor. 11:6; (4) emphatic, even, also, Mt. 10:30; 1 Cor. 2:10; in NT adversative, but, Mt. 11:19; also introductory of the apodosis of a sentence, Gal. 3:28; Jas. 2:4

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Conj — Conjunction
conjunction — it joins clauses, and never changes form.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

CONJ CONJunction or conjunctive particle

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
89%and
and89% · 8448×also8% · 714×other renderings2% · 191×other renderings1% · 124×

9,477 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 42 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
adverbial16%subject13%object10%predicate3%verb2%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 8,978 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
ἐνἐπίπρός
σύ
χάριςgrace, favor, kiπρόςπατήρfather, Father,
ἐγώ
πατήρfather, Father, πρόςθεόςGod, a god
εἰμίI am, exist
αὐτόςArticle theἐγώ
θεόςGod, a god
Article theθέλημαwill, wish, desiδέbut, on the othe
καίand8978×
what comes after →
Article the
ἀδελφόςa brotherπατήρfather, Father, μήτηρa mother
λέγωI say, speak
αὐτόςArticle theπρός
οὐNeg
εἰμίI am, existμήNegδύναμαιI am powerful, a
ὁράωI see, look upon, ex
Article theαὐτόςἀνήρa male human bei
ἐν
Article theπᾶςall, the whole, ὅλοςall, the whole,

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

Concordanceκαί · 8,978× in the New Testament
Luke Matthew Revelation Acts Mark John 1 Corinthians Romans Hebrews 2 Corinthians Ephesians 1 John

3 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 Ignatius of Antioch
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

ἡ 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 4th c. AD 1st c. AD 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 καὶ κανηφόρου τῶν

P.Adl. 11Pathyris99 BC

1 ἔτους ιζ Θῶυθ κη ἀπέδοτο Πετεσοῦχος Φίβιος καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ τὸ ὕπαρχον αὐτοῖς ἥμισυ περιστερῶνος τοῦ ὄντος ἐν τῶι ἀπὸ βορρᾶ μέρει

P.Grenf. 2 35Pathyris99 BC

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

and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
συνδέσμωνsundesmos ligaments G4886 Noun · genitive · plural · masculine
4× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in Colossians than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
A bond or tie that holds things together, like ligaments in the body or a uniting principle. It is used in Colossians 2:19 to describe the bond of the body.
Amplified meaning
bonds, ties
Tyndale gloss
bond(age)
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word σύνδεσμος (i.e., *sundesmos*) means a bond or fastening that brings things together. It can refer to physical ligaments in the body or metaphorically to concepts like unity or perfection, as seen in Colossians 2:19 and Ephesians 4:3. The word is formed from the prefix σύν (together) and a root meaning to bind. Notably, some sources suggest different interpretations of its metaphorical uses.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

σύν-δεσμος, -ου, ὁ

(< συνδέω),

[in LXX for קשׁר, קטר, etc. ;]

that which binds together, a bond: of the ligaments of the body, Col 2:19. Metaph., σ. ἀδικίας, Ac 8:23; τ. τελειότητος, Col 3:14; τ. εἰρήνης, Eph 4:3 (v. Lft., Col., ll. c.).†

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

σύν-δεσμος, -ov, ὁ, (συνδέω) ; 1. that which binds together, a band, bond: of the ligaments by which the members of the human body are united together (Eur. Hipp. 199; Tim. Loer. p. 100 Ὁ. [i. 6. 3, 3, p. 386 ed. Bekk.] ; Aristot. ἢ. a. 10, 7, 3 p. 638°, 9; Galen), Col. ii. 19 [where see Bp. Lghtft.]; trop.: τῷ συνδέσμῳ τῆς εἰρήνης, i. 6. τῇ εἰρήνῃ ὡς συνδέσμῳ, Eph. iv. 3 (σύνδεσμος εὐνοίας x. φιλίας, Plut. Num. 6); ἥτις ἐστὶ σύνδ. τῆς τελειότητον, that in which all the virtues are so bound together that perfection is the result, and not one of them is wanting to that perfection, Col. iii. 14 [ef. Bp. Lghtft. ad loc. ]. εἰς σύνδεσμον ἀδικίας ὁρῶ σε ὄντα, I see that you have fallen into (cf. εἰμί, V. 2 a. p. 119", and see below) the bond of iniquity, i.e. forged by iniquity to fetter souls, Acts viii. 23 (the phrase σύνδ. ἀδικίας occurs in another sense in Is. lviii. 6). 2. that which is…

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

σύνδεσμος in its lit. sense of ‘‘ fastening” (cf. Col 21%) occurs in Aristeas 85 τοῦ θυρώματος δὲ kal τῶν περὶ αὐτὸ συνδέσμων κατὰ τὰς φλιάς, ‘‘the great doorway and the fastenings which held it to the door-posts” (Thackeray). For the metaph. usage in Col 3! Wetstein cites from Simplicius in Epictet. p. 208 a parallel expression of the Pythagoreans : καλῶς οἱ ΠΙυθαγορεῖοι περισσῶς τῶν ἄλλων ἀρετῶν τὴν φιλίαν ἐτίμων καὶ σύνδεσμον αὐτὴν πασῶν τῶν ἀρετῶν ἔλεγον. It may be noted that for τελειότητα in Col 1. D*Gdeg read ἑνότητα. Σύνδεσις is used fof the ‘‘continuation ” of a text on the following page in P Oxy XIV. 173773 (ii/iii A.D.).

Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

σύνδεσμος (sundesmos) — bond(age).

σύνδεσμ-ος, ὁ,

irregular plural σύνδεσμα [Refs 5th c.BC+]:—that which binds together, bond of union, fastening, ξ. ἦν.. τὰ ξύλα, τοῦ μὴ ἀσθενὲς εἶναι τὸ οἰκοδόμημα [Refs 5th c.BC+]; ἀραρότως σύνδεσμα χρυσὸς εἶχε the golden headband kept its bonds firmly fixed, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; ἁμμάτων σύνδεσμα fastenings of garments, [Refs]; μελέων σύνδεσμα, of sinews or ligaments, [NT+5th c.BC+]

2. metaphorically, bond of union; ὁ σ. τῆς πόλεως the bond that keeps the state together, of good citizens, [NT+5th c.BC+]

3. Grammars, conjunction, [Refs 4th c.BC+]; σ. ἓν ποιεῖ τὰ πολλά[Refs 3rd c.BC+]

II. ={σύνδεσις}[Refs 5th c.BC+]

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

σύνδεσμος

sundesmos

from 4862 and 1199; a joint tie, i.e. ligament, (figuratively) uniting

principle, control:--band, bond.

see GREEK for 4862

see GREEK for 1199

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

σύνδεσμος, ου, ὁ

n.m.

a band, bond

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

σύνδεσμος syndesmos 4x

that which binds together, Col. 2:19; a band of union, Eph. 4:3; Col. 3:14; a bundle, or, bond, Acts 8:23*

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

σύνδεσμος σύν-δεσμος, ὁ, heterog. pl. σύνδεσμα, a bond of union, bond, fastening, Eur., Thuc.: metaph., good men are called ὁ ξ. τῆς πόλεως the bond that keeps the state together, Plat.

in Grammar, a conjunction, Arist.

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

N-GPM Part of Speech: Noun Case: Genitive Number: Plural Gender: Masculine

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
75%bond
bond75% · 3×ligaments25% · 1×

4 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 2 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
predicate50%adverbial50%

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
καίand, even, also, nam
πικρίαbitternessἁφήa band, fastenin
Article the
ἐν
εἰμίI am, exist
ὅς
σύνδεσμοςligaments
what comes after →
Article the
εἰρήνηpeace, peace of τελειότηςperfectness, per
ἀδικίαunrighteousness
ὁράωI see, look upon
ἐπιχορηγέωI supply, provide
καίand, even, also,

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

Concordanceσύνδεσμος · 4× in the New Testament
Colossians Acts Ephesians
Across the New Testament3 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
Philo of Alexandria The Epistle of Barnabas Ignatius of Antioch Josephus
Philo of AlexandriaWho is the Heir of Divine Things 198c. AD 40

διὸ καὶ τὰ βάρος ἔχοντα τῶν κούφων διεχώρισε, τὰ μὲν τῷ συμπλεκτικῷ συνδέσμῳ ἑνώσας, τὰ δὲ διαλελυμένως ἐξενεγκών·

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 3.120c. AD 75–95

ἕκαστος δὲ τῶν κιόνων κρίκον εἶχε χρύσεον κατὰ τὸ ἔξω μέτωπον προσφυὴς ὥσπερ ῥίζαις τισὶν ἐμπεπλεγμένος κατὰ στίχον πρὸς ἀλλήλους τετραμμένοι τὴν περιφέρειαν, καὶ διʼ αὐτῶν ἐπίχρυσοι σκυταλίδες ἐλαυνόμεναι πέντε πήχεων ἑκάστη τὸ μέγεθος σύνδεσμος…

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 3.3c. AD 100

πρὸς ἡμᾶς δὲ λέγει: Ἰδοὺ αὕτη ἡ νηστεία, ἣν ἐγὼ ἐξελεξάμην, λέγει κύριος: λύε πάντα σύνδεσμον ἀδικίας, διάλυε στραγγαλιὰς βιαίων συναλλαγμάτων, ἀπόστελλε τεθραυσμένους ἐν ἀφέσει καὶ πᾶσαν ἄδικον συγγραφὴν διάσπα.

and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
ἐπιχορηγούμενονepichorēgeō being supplied G2023 Verb · present · passive · participle · nominative · singular · neuter
5× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in Colossians than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
To supply means to provide what is needed, as seen in 2 Peter 1:5 and 2 Corinthians 9:10, where it describes giving people what they need to grow spiritually.
Amplified meaning
nourished, supplied
Tyndale gloss
to supply
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word ἐπιχορηγέω (i.e., *epichoregeo*) is composed of the prefix ἐπι- meaning 'upon' or 'besides' and χορηγέω meaning 'to supply'. It generally means to supply or furnish, often with a connotation of generosity. In the New Testament, it appears in contexts where one is providing for another, such as in 2 Peter and 2 Corinthians, and can also be used in a passive sense.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

** ἐπι-χορηγέω, -ῶ

[in LXX: Si 25:22, II Mac 4:9 A * ;]

to supply, provide: c. acc rei, II Pe 1:5; id. c. dat. pers., II Co 9:10, Ga 3:5; pass., Col 2:19, II Pe 1:11 (cf. χορηγέω, and v. MM, Exp., xiv).†

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

ἐπι-χορηγέω, τῶ; 1 aor. impy. ἐπιχορηγήσατε; Pass., [pres. ἐπιχορηγοῦμαι]; 1 fut. ἐπιχορηγηθήσομαι; (see xopnyew); to supply, furnish, present, (Germ. darreichen) : τινί τι, 2 Co. ix. 10; Gal. iii. δ; i. 4: to show or afford by deeds: τὴν ἀρετήν, 2 Pet. i. 5; in pass., εἴσοδος, furnished, provided, 2 Pet. i. 11; Pass. to be supplied, ministered unto, assisted, (so the simple χορηγεῖσθαι in Xen. rep. Athen. 1,13; Polyb. 3, 75,3; 4, 77,2; 9, 44,1; Sir. xliv. 6; 3 Mace. vi. 40): Col. ii. 19, where Vulg. subministratum. (Rare in prof. writ. as Dion. Hal. 1, Μ επος 42; Phal. ep. 50; Diog. Laért. 5, 67; [Alex. Aphr. probl. 1, 81].)

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

ἐπιχορηγέω. Though the simple χορηγέω is more common, the compound verb is also well attested in the papyri: see e.g. P Oxy II. 2825 (A.D. 30-5) where a man in lodging a complaint against his wife states—é]yd μὲν οὖν ἐπεχορήγησα αὐτῇ τὰ ἑξῆς Kal ὑπὲρ δύναμιν, ““1 for my part provided for my wife in a manner that exceeded my resources ” (Edd.). The passage may perhaps be taken as illustrating the “generous” connotation underlying the corresponding subst., as in Phil 11 (see Kennedy ad /. in 5:7). Examples of the verb from marriage-contracts are BGU I. 183° (A.D. 85) ἐπιχωρη[γοῦντος “Qpov δέοντα] πάντα, P Oxy VI. 905} (A.D. 170) (= Selections, p. 86) καὶ ὃ γαμῶν ἐπι]χορηγείτω τῇ γαμουμένῃ τὰ δέοντα κατὰ δύναμιν [τοῦ βίου, CPR I, 2712 (A.D. 190) τοῦ ᾿Ισιδώρου [ἐ]πιχορηγοῦϊντος] αὐτῇ τὰ ϑέοντα…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

ἐπιχορηγέω (epichorēgeō) — to supply.

ἐπιχορηγ-έω,

supply, furnish, [NT+2nd c.BC+]; especially of a husband, provide for a wife, ἐ. τῇ γαμουμένῃ τὰ δέοντα [Refs 1st c.AD+]; conversely, ἐὰν [γυνὴ] ἐ. τῷ ἀνδρὶ αὐτῆς [LXX]:—passive, τὰ ἀπὸ Λιμυρικῆς -ούμενα [NT+1st c.BC+]

Strong's Greek Dictionary

ἐπιχορηγέω

epichoregeo

from 1909 and 5524; to furnish besides, i.e. fully supply,

(figuratively) aid or contribute:--add, minister (nourishment, unto).

see GREEK for 1909

see GREEK for 5524

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

ἐπιχορηγέω

v.

I supply, provide

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

ἐπιχορηγέω epichorēgeō 5x

to supply further; to superadd, 2 Pet. 1:5; to supply, furnish, give, 2 Cor. 9:10; Gal. 3:5; 2 Pet. 1:11; pass. to gather vigor, Col. 2:19*

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

ἐπιχορηγέω fut. ήσω to supply besides, τί τινι NTest.: —Pass., id. NTest.

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Verb-PPP-NSN — Verb · present · passive · participle · nominative · singular · neuter
nominative — the one doing it — the subject.
Agrees with anything else marked singular neuter.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

V-PPP-NSN Part of Speech: Verb Tense: Present Voice: Passive Mood: Participle Case: Nominative Number: Singular Gender: Neuter

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
40%supplying
supplying40% · 2×being supplied20% · 1×do supplement20% · 1×will be supplied20% · 1×

5 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 4 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 5 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
δέbut, on the other ha
Article the
οὖνtherefore, then
Article the
σύνδεσμοςa band, bond
καίand, even, also,
παρεισφέρωI contribute besides
πᾶςall, the whole,
πλουσίωςrichly, abundantly
γάρfor
ἐπιχορηγέωbeing supplied
what comes after →
σύ
Article the
σπέρμαseed, offspring
Article the
καίand, even, also, nam
συμβιβάζωI unite, prove,
ἐν
Article the

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

Concordanceἐπιχορηγέω · 5× in the New Testament
2 Peter 2 Corinthians Colossians Galatians
Across the New Testament4 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
3rd c. AD
P.Chept. 9Sentrempaei? (Arsinoites)AD 268

ἐμοῦ ἀργυρίου δραχμῶν ὀκτακοσίων , ἐφʼ ᾧ πᾶσαν ἐπιμέλειαν ποιήσομαι κατανέμων νομὰς καλλίστας καὶ ἐπιχορηγῶν ὀψώνια ποιμένων καὶ τῆς καλουμένης … … … … ο … τὸν κατʼ ἔτος

and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
καὶkai and G2532 Conjunction
8,978× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Colossians as anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
And or also, a connecting word used to join ideas or words, like in Matthew 2:18 and Hebrews 1:1.
Tyndale gloss
and
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

καί (kai) is a conjunction meaning 'and,' used to connect words, phrases, and clauses. It serves various functions, including copulative and adjunctive uses, and can express cumulative ideas like 'also' or 'even.' The New Testament frequently employs it to link terms and sentences, as seen in verses like Matthew 2:18 and John 10:3. Abbott-Smith notes its use in both simple and complex structures, while Thayer emphasizes its role as the most common particle in the New Testament.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

καί,

conj.,

and.

Copulative.

Connecting single words;

in general: Mt 2:18 16:1, Mk 2:15, Lk 8:15, He 1:1, al. mult.; repeated before each of the terms in a series, Mt 23:23, Lk 14:21, Ro 7:12 9:4, al.;

connecting numerals (WM, § 37, 4): Jo 2:20, Ac 13:20;

joining terms which are not mutually exclusive, as the part with the whole: Mt 8:33 26:59, Mk 16:17,

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

καί, a conj., and; the most freq. by far of all the particles in the N. T. [On its uses see W. § 53, 3sqq.; B. 361 (310) sqq., and ef. Ellicott on Phil. iv. 12; on the difference between it and τέ see 8. v. τέ ad init. ] I. It serves as a copulative i.e. to connect (Lat. et, atque, Germ. und) ; 1. it connects single words or terms: a. univ., as of Φαρισαῖοι καὶ Σαδδουκαῖοι, Mt. xvi. 1; ὁ θεὸς καὶ πατήρ, he who is God and Father (see θεός, 3); ἐν καρδίᾳ καλῇ καὶ ἀγαθῇ, Lk. viii. 15; πολυμερῶς καὶ πολυτρόπως, ΗΘ}. 1. 1; it is repeated before single terms, to each of which its own force and weight is thus given: ἡ υἱοθεσία καὶ ἡ δόξα καὶ ai διαθῆκαι καὶ ἡ νομοθεσία καὶ ἡ λατρεία καὶ αἱ ἐπαγγελίαι, Ro. ix. 4 ; ἁγία καὶ δικαία καὶ ἀγαθή, Ro. vii. 12; add, Mt. xxiii. 23; Lk. xiv. 21; Jn. xvi. 8; Acts xv. 20, 29; xxi. 25; Heb. ix. 10; Rey. v. 12; xviii. 12 sq.; ef. W. 519 sq. (484). b. it…

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

και. In LAE p. 129 ff. Deissmann discusses the thoroughly popular character of the Johannine style with its short paratactic sentences, introduced by kal. . . καί. To illustrate this, he cites amongst other exx. a Dream from the Serapeum, P Par 51 (B.C. 160) (= Selections, p. 18 ff. : see especially the amended readings in Archiv vi. p. 204), which runs—** ὦμ[ην] βατί -- δ)ίζειν pe [ἀπ]ὸ λειβὸς ἕως ἀ[ πηλι]ώτου, καὶ ἀναπίπτομαι ἐπ᾿ ἄχυρον" καὶ [ἄν]θρωπ[ος9] ἀπὸ λιβός μου, ἐχόμενός μου’ ἀναπίπτει καὶ αὐτός, καὶ ὥσπερ κεκλειμμ[évot] μου ἦσαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοί μου, καὶ ἐξαί[φνης] ἀνύγω τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς pov, καὶ ὁρῶ kTA., “ I dreamed that I was going from West to East, and I lie down upon chaff. And there | αὐτὸ (deleted in the original) Σεμφθεῖ. | ἐκ καινῆς ἐν Σομολ(ῶ)…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

καί (kai) — and.

καί,

conjunction, copulative, joining words and sentences,

__A and; also adverb, even, also, just, frequently expressing emphatic assertion or assent, corresponding as positive to the negative οὐ (μή) or οὐδέ (μηδέ). copulative, and,

__A.I joining words or sentences to those preceding, ἦ, καὶ κυανέῃσιν ἐπ᾽ ὀφρύσινεῦσε Κρονίων [Refs 8th c.BC+]: repeated with two or more Nouns, αἱ δὲ ἔλαφοι κ. δορκάδες κ. οἱ ἄγριοι οἶες κ. οἱ ὄνοι οἱ ἄγριοι [Refs 5th c.BC+]; joining only the last pair, [Refs 4th c.BC+]; ὁ ὄχλος πλείων κ. πλείων ἐπέρρει more and more, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; to add epithets after πολύς, πολλὰ κ. ἐσθλά [Refs 8th c.BC+]

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

καί

kai

apparently, a primary particle, having a copulative and sometimes also

a cumulative force; and, also, even, so then, too, etc.; often used in

connection (or composition) with other particles or small words:--and,

also, both, but, even, for, if, or, so, that, then, therefore, when,

yet.

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

καί

Cj.

and, even, also, namely

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

καί kai 9x

(1) and, Mt. 2:2, 3, 11; 4:22; (2) καί ... καί, both ... and; (3) as a cumulative particle, also, too, Mt. 5:39; Jn. 8:19; 1 Cor. 11:6; (4) emphatic, even, also, Mt. 10:30; 1 Cor. 2:10; in NT adversative, but, Mt. 11:19; also introductory of the apodosis of a sentence, Gal. 3:28; Jas. 2:4

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Conj — Conjunction
conjunction — it joins clauses, and never changes form.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

CONJ CONJunction or conjunctive particle

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
89%and
and89% · 8448×also8% · 714×other renderings2% · 191×other renderings1% · 124×

9,477 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 42 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
adverbial16%subject13%object10%predicate3%verb2%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 8,978 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
ἐνἐπίπρός
σύ
χάριςgrace, favor, kiπρόςπατήρfather, Father,
ἐγώ
πατήρfather, Father, πρόςθεόςGod, a god
εἰμίI am, exist
αὐτόςArticle theἐγώ
θεόςGod, a god
Article theθέλημαwill, wish, desiδέbut, on the othe
καίand8978×
what comes after →
Article the
ἀδελφόςa brotherπατήρfather, Father, μήτηρa mother
λέγωI say, speak
αὐτόςArticle theπρός
οὐNeg
εἰμίI am, existμήNegδύναμαιI am powerful, a
ὁράωI see, look upon, ex
Article theαὐτόςἀνήρa male human bei
ἐν
Article theπᾶςall, the whole, ὅλοςall, the whole,

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

Concordanceκαί · 8,978× in the New Testament
Luke Matthew Revelation Acts Mark John 1 Corinthians Romans Hebrews 2 Corinthians Ephesians 1 John

3 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 Ignatius of Antioch
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

ἡ 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 4th c. AD 1st c. AD 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 καὶ κανηφόρου τῶν

P.Adl. 11Pathyris99 BC

1 ἔτους ιζ Θῶυθ κη ἀπέδοτο Πετεσοῦχος Φίβιος καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ τὸ ὕπαρχον αὐτοῖς ἥμισυ περιστερῶνος τοῦ ὄντος ἐν τῶι ἀπὸ βορρᾶ μέρει

P.Grenf. 2 35Pathyris99 BC

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

and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
συμβιβαζόμενονsumbibazō being knit together G4822 Verb · present · passive · participle · nominative · singular · neuter
7× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in Colossians than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
To join with someone means to unite and come together, like in Ephesians 4:16. It can also mean to teach or show something, as in Acts 16:10.
Amplified meaning
united, joined
Tyndale gloss
to join with
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

συμβιβάζω (i.e. *sumbibazo*) means to unite or bring together, often in a metaphorical sense of teaching or instructing. It is built from the prefix συν- (together) and βιβάζω (to force). The New Testament uses it in contexts like Ephesians 4:16 and Colossians 2:2, where it refers to the unity of the body of Christ and instruction.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

συν-βιβάζω

(Rec. συμ-),

[in LXX: Ex 4:12, 15, Le 10:11, Jg 13:8, Ps 31 (32):8 (ירה hi.); Ex 18:16, De 4:9, Is 40:13 (ידע hi.), ib. 14 (בּין hi.), Da TH 9:22 (שׂכל hi.) * ;]

to join or knit together, unite: Eph 4:16, Col 2:2 (but v. infr.), ib. 19.

to compare, consider, conclude (Plat.): Ac 16:10.

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

συμ-βιβάζω [WH συν- (so Tdf.in Eph. iv. 16; Col. ii. 19); ef. σύν, I. fin.]; 1 aor. συνεβίβασα (Acts xix. 33 L T Tr WH, but see below) ; Pass., pres. ptep. συμβιβαζόμενος; 1 aor. ptep. συμβιβασθείς ; (βιβάζω to mount the female, copulate with her; to leap, cover, of animals; allow to be covered, admit to cover) ; 1. to cause to coalesce, to join together, put together: τὸ σῶμα, pass., of the parts of the body ‘knit together’ into one whole, compacted together, Eph iv. 16; Col. ii. 19; ἐο unite or knit together in affection, pass., Col. ii. 2 [ef. W. § 63, 2 a.; B. § 144,13 a.] (to reconcile one to another, Hat. 1, 74; Thue. 2, 29). 2. to put together in one’s mind, to compare; by comparison to gather, conclude, consider : foll. by ὅτι, Acts xvi. 10 (Plat. Hipp. min. p. 369 d.; de rep. 6 p. 504a.). 3. to cause a person to unite with one in a conclusion or come to the same opinion, fo…

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

συνβιβάζω has its ordinary ;Greek sense ‘‘ bring together, compact” in Eph 428, Col 253,19, but in 1 Cor 21° συνβιβάσει (for form see Moulton Gr. ii. p. 187) the meaning is “instruct,” as always in the LXX (Isai 4013: a/.): so Ac 198, and cf. Ac 9??, 162°. For a similar development of meaning, cf. ἐκβιβάζω in such passages as P Oxy II. 260%% (a.p. 59) μέχρι od ἃ ἔχωμεν πρὸς ἑαυτοὺς ἐγ[β]ιβασθῆι, “until our suit is decided” (Edd.), Ρ Hamb I. 4! (a.p. 87) μέχρι οὗ ἐκβιβάσω ἃ ἔχει πρός pe, and P Oxy IX. 11958 (A.D. 135) ἐκβιβάζων τὰ ἐνεστῶτ[ά μοι π]ρὸς “Epplajiov, ‘in explanation of my case against Hermaeus” (Ed.).

Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

συμβιβάζω (sumbibazō) — to join with.

συμβῐβ-άζω,

Causal of συμβαίνω, bring together: passive, to be put together, to be knit together, framed, ἔκ τινος [NT]

2. metaphorically, bring to terms, reconcile, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; σ. τινά τινι reconcile one to another, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; σ. [τινὰς] εἰς τὸ μέσον, as mediator, [Refs 5th c.BC+]: absolutely, bring about an agreement, [Refs]

II. put together, compare, examine, τὰ λεγόμενα [Refs 5th c.BC+]; [τὰς μεταφοράς] [Refs 5th c.BC+] (though Timaeus here explained it intransitive agree).

III. elicit a logical consequence, infer [Refs 4th c.BC+]; σ. ὡς.. [Refs]; σ. πότερον.. [Refs]; πῶς.. [Refs 5th c.BC+]; ὅτι.. [NT]: with accusative et infinitive, [Refs 1st c.BC+] —passive, συμβιβασθέντος when the conclusion has been drawn, variant in [Refs 4th…

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

συμβιβάζω

sumbibazo

from 4862 and bibazo (to force; causative (by reduplication) of the

base of 939); to drive together, i.e. unite (in association or

affection), (mentally) to infer, show, teach:--compact, assuredly

gather, intrust, knit together, prove.

see GREEK for 4862

see GREEK for 939

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

συμβιβάζω

v.

I unite, prove, instruct

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

συμβιβάζω symbibazō 7x

pr. to cause to come together; to unite, knit together, Eph. 4:16; Col. 2:2, 19; to infer, conclude, Acts 16:10; by impl. to prove, demonstrate, Acts 9:22; in NT to teach, instruct, Acts 19:33; 1 Cor. 2:16*

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

συμβιβάζω Causal of συμβαίνω to bring together: Pass. to be joined or knit together, framed, NTest.

metaph. to bring together, reconcile, Hdt.; ς. τινά τινι to reconcile one to another, Thuc.

to put together, compare, examine, Plat.

to prove logically, Arist., NTest.

to teach, instruct, NTest.

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Verb-PPP-NSN — Verb · present · passive · participle · nominative · singular · neuter
nominative — the one doing it — the subject.
Agrees with anything else marked singular neuter.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

V-PPP-NSN Part of Speech: Verb Tense: Present Voice: Passive Mood: Participle Case: Nominative Number: Singular Gender: Neuter

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
29%being knit together
being knit together29% · 2×proving14% · 1×concluding14% · 1×brought forward14% · 1×will instruct14% · 1×being held together14% · 1×

7 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 6 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 7 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
συναρμολογέωI fit togetherἐπιχορηγέωI supply, provid
ΔαμασκόςDamascus
ἐν
ΜακεδονίαMacedonia
εἰς
ὄχλοςa crowd
Article the
ὅς
κύριοςlord, Lord, mast
συμβιβάζωbeing knit together
what comes after →
ὅτιthat, since, because
οὗτοςπροσκαλέωI summon
ἈλέξανδροςAlexander
προβάλλωI put forth
αὐτός
ἐγώ
διά
πᾶςall, the whole,
ἐν
ἀγάπηlove

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

Concordanceσυμβιβάζω · 7× in the New Testament
Acts Colossians 1 Corinthians Ephesians
Across the New Testament4 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 7 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
Philo of AlexandriaOn Drunkenness 37c. AD 40

Μωυσέως γὰρ τοῦ σοφοῦ τὸν λεὼν ἅπαντα τῆς ψυχῆς πρὸς εὐσέβειαν καὶ τιμὴν θεοῦ μετακαλοῦντος καὶ τάς τε προστάξεις καὶ τοὺς ἱερωτάτους νόμους ἀναδιδάσκοντος — φησὶ γὰρ ὅτι „ἐπειδὰν γένηται αὐτοῖς ἀντιλογία καὶ ἔλθωσι πρὸς μέ, διακρίνω ἕκαστον καὶ…

and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
αὔξειauxanō it increases G837 Verb · present · active · indicative · third person · singular
22× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in Colossians than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
To grow means to get bigger or increase, like a plant growing in Matthew 13:32 or a person's faith growing in 2 Corinthians 10:15.
Amplified meaning
increases, develops
Tyndale gloss
to grow
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word αὐξάνω (auxanō) means to grow or increase, both actively and passively. It is used in various contexts, such as the growth of plants (e.g., Mt 6:28), infants (e.g., Lk 1:80), and Christian character (e.g., Eph 4:15). The word can also refer to causing something to grow, as seen in 1 Corinthians 3:6-7. There is some variation in the forms of the verb, with both αὐξάνω and the earlier αὔξω being noted.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

αὐξάνω

(and the earlier form αὔξω, Eph 2:21, Col 2:19; MM, s.v.),

[in LXX chiefly for פּרה;]

trans., to make to grow: I Co 3:6, 7, II Co 9:10. Pass., to grow, increase, become greater: Mt 13:32, Mk 4:8, II Co 10:15, Col 1:6; τῇ ἐπιγνώσει τ. θεοῦ, Col 1:10; εἰς σωτηρίαν, I Pe 2:2.

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

αὐξάνω, and earlier (the only form in Pind. and Soph. [Veitch s. v. says, ‘Hes. Mimnerm. Soph. Thue. always have av& or avfoua, and Pind. except αὐξάνοι Fr. 130 (Bergk)’}) αὔξω (Eph. ii. 21; Col. ii. 19) ; impf. nvéavov; fut. αὐξήσω ; 1 aor. ηὔξησα; [Pass., pres. αὐξάνομαι] ; 1 aor. ηὐξήθην; 1. trans. to cause to grow, to augment: 1 Co. iii. 6 sq.; 2Co.ix.10. Pass. to grow, increase, become greater: Mt. xiii. 32; Mk. iv.8 L T Tr WH; 2 Co.x. 15; Col. i. 6 [not Rec.]; εἰς τὴν ἐπίγνωσιν τοῦ θεοῦ unto the knowledge of God, Col. i. 10 (GL T Tr WH τῇ ἐπιγνώσει. τοῦ θεοῦ): εἰς σωτηρίαν [not Rec.] to the attaining of salvation, 1 Pet. ii. 2. 2. ace. to later usage (fr. Aristot. an. post. 1,13 p. 78°, 6, ete., down; but nowhere in Sept. (ef. B. 54 (47); 145 (127); W. § 38, 1}) intrans. to grow, increase: of plants, Mt. vi. 28; Mk. iv. 8 Rec.; Lk. xii. 27 [not Tdf.; Trmrg. br. αὐξ.} ; Lk. xiii.…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

αὐξάνω (auxanō) — to grow.

αὐξάνω

[Refs 5th c.BC+]:—also αὔξω (poetry ἀέξω, which see) [Refs 6th c.BC+] (so Attic dialect Inscrr. and Ptolemaic Papyrus; both forms in NT) imperfect ηὔξανον only Ps.-[Refs 5th c.BC+]; ηὖξον[Refs 5th c.BC+]: future αὐξήσω[LXX+5th c.BC+]: aorist I ηὔξησα[Refs 6th c.BC+]: perfect ηὔξηκα[Refs 5th c.BC+]:—passive, αὐξάνομαι[Refs 5th c.BC+], imperfect ηὔξετο[Refs 8th c.BC+]: perfect ηὔξημαι[Refs 5th c.BC+], Ionic dialect αὔξ-[Refs 5th c.BC+]: pluperfect ηὔξητο[Refs]: aorist ηὐξήθην[Refs 5th c.BC+]: future αὐξηθήσομαι[Refs 5th c.BC+]:—increase, not in [Refs 8th c.BC+]; opposed to ἰσχναίνειν, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

αὐξάνω

auxano

a prolonged form of a primary verb; to grow ("wax"), i.e. enlarge

(literal or figurative, active or passive):--grow (up), (give the)

increase.

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

αὐξάνω

v.

I cause to increase, become greater, grow

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

αὐξάνω auxanō 21x

also spelled αὔξω, trans. to cause to grow or increase; pass. to be increased, enlarged, Mt. 13:32; 1 Cor. 3:6, 7; intrans. to increase, grow, Mt. 6:28; Mk. 4:8

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

αὐξάνω poet. ἀέξω q. v. to make large, increase, augment, Hdt., etc. (Hom. only uses ἀέξω).

to increase in power, strengthen, exalt, aggrandise, Hdt., attic: also to promote to honour, glorify, magnify, Trag., Plat.

Pass. to grow, wax, increase, Hes., Hdt., etc.; αὐξ. ἐς πλῆθος, ἐς ὕψος id. Hdt.; of a child, to grow up, id. Hdt.; ηὐξανόμην I grew taller, Ar.; so with an adj., αὐξάνεσθαι μέγας to wax great, Eur. Hence

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
22%increasing
increasing22% · 5×continuing to grow13% · 3×growing9% · 2×they grow9% · 2×increased4% · 1×continuing to increase4% · 1×giving growth4% · 1×will increase4% · 1×other renderings30% · 7×

23 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
verb96%subject5%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 22 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
καρποφορέωI bear fruitἀναβαίνωI go up, mount, ἑαυτοῦ
παιδίονa little child, an i
δέbut, on the othe
θεόςGod, a god
Article the
πῶς
ἀγρόςa field, the cou
δέbut, on the other ha
ὅτανwhen, whensoever
αὐξάνωit increases22×
what comes after →
καίand, even, also, nam
κραταιόωI strengthen, coπληθύνωI increase, multφέρωI carry, bear, b
Article the
λαόςa people, the crγέννημαoffspring, childπίστιςfaith, belief, t
εἰς
ναόςa temple, shrineαὐτόςσωτηρίαdeliverance, sal
οὐNeg
κοπιάωI grow weary, to
μέγας
Article the

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

Concordanceαὐξάνω · 22× in the New Testament
Acts Colossians Luke 1 Corinthians 2 Corinthians Ephesians Matthew 1 Peter 2 Peter John Mark
Across the New Testament11 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 32 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
Philo of AlexandriaAllegorical Interpretation of Genesis 3.227c. AD 40

σπέρματα βαλοῦμαι, φυτεύσω, αὐξήσει τὰ φυτά, καρποὺς ταῦτα οἴσει, οἳ οὐ μόνον εἰς ἀπόλαυσιν ἔσονται χρήσιμοι τὴν ἀναγκαίαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς περιουσίαν ἀρκέσουσιν·

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 1.60c. AD 75–95

οὐκ ἐπὶ νουθεσίᾳ δὲ τὴν κόλασιν ἔλαβεν, ἀλλʼ ἐπʼ αὐξήσει τῆς κακίας, ἡδονὴν μὲν πᾶσαν ἐκπορίζων αὐτοῦ τῷ σώματι, κἂν μεθʼ ὕβρεως τῶν συνόντων δέῃ ταύτην ἔχειν·

Clement of RomeFirst Clement 24.5c. AD 96

ἐξῆλθεν ὁ σπείρων καὶ ἔβαλεν εἰς τὴν γῆν ἕκαστον τῶν σπερμάτων, ἅτινα πεσόντα εἰς τὴν γῆν ξηρὰ καὶ γυμνὰ διαλύεται: εἶτ̓ ἐκ τῆς διαλύσεως ἡ μεγαλειότης τῆς προνοίας τοῦ δεσπότου ἀνίστησιν αὐτά, καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ἑνὸς πλείονα αὔξει καὶ ἐκφέρει καρπόν.

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
2nd c. AD 2nd c. BC 4th c. AD
BIFAO 81 (1981) Suppl., p. 399-Ghoran oder Magdola (Arsinoites)326 BC–2 BC

ημεν μ … ριτου … … τησ … τας τὸ πλοῖον … … … αυξει … ας τὴν ἐνβολὴν ποιήσειν εἰς … … … … … μηπο

P. Münch. 3 65AD 101–AD 200

καὶ τοιαῦτα εἰς τὴν γῆν κατατεθῆναι … … αι δὲ καὶ τῶν ἐν αὐξήσει γενομένων … … ρω τὴν βοτανολογίαν γενέσθαι … καὶ ἐπι … εχ … αι

P.Hamb. 4 257AD 101–AD 300

r Αὐξάνων Θιᾶτι. καλῶς ἐποίησας ἀμελήσας περὶ τῆς διαγραφῆς ἂν καὶ νῦν ὡς ἐνετειλάμην σου τῷ

and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
τὴνho with the G3588 Article · accusative · singular · feminine
19,783× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Colossians 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-ASF — Article · accusative · singular · feminine
accusative — the one it is done to — the object.
Agrees with anything else marked singular feminine.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

T-ASF Part of Speech: definite arTicle Case: Accusative Number: Singular Gender: Feminine

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
with 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

and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
αὔξησινauxēsis increase G838 Noun · accusative · singular · feminine
2× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in Colossians than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
Growth refers to the process of getting bigger or increasing, like the growth of the church in Ephesians 4:16 and Colossians 2:19.
Amplified meaning
brings it to maturity, increases its spiritual strength
Tyndale gloss
growth
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word αὔξησις (auxesis) means increase or growth, derived from αὔξω (auxō). It is used in contexts relating to physical growth or development, as seen in Ephesians 4:16 and Colossians 2:19. The term also appears in ancient texts, referring to crops and rhetorical amplification.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

** αὔξησις, -εως, ἡ

(< αὔξω),

[in LXX: II Mac 5:16*;]

increase, growth: Eph 4:16, Col 2:19.†

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

αὔξησις, -ews, ἡ. (αὔξω), increase, growth: Eph. iv. 16; τοῦ θεοῦ, effected by God, Col. ii. 19; cf. Meyer ad lvoe. ({Hat.], Thue., Xen., Plat., and subseq. writ.)

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

αὔξησις. Chrest. Τ. 70" (an inscr. of B.c. 57-) τούτου πρὸς αὔξησιν ἀγομένου, of a temple for which the priests ask the privilege of ἀσυλία.

Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

αὔξησις (auxēsis) — growth.

αὔξ-ησις, εως, ἡ,

growth, increase, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; of the Delta, [Refs 5th c.BC+], increments, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; multiplications, [Refs 1st c.BC+]

2. amplification, in Rhet., [Refs 4th c.BC+]

3. Grammars, the augment, [Refs]

Strong's Greek Dictionary

αὔξησις

auxesis

from 837; growth:--increase.

see GREEK for 837

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

αὔξησις, εως, ἡ

n.f.

increasing, increase, growth

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

αὔξησις auxēsis 2x

increase, growth, Eph. 4:16; Col. 2:19*

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

αὔξησις αὔξω growth, increase, Thuc.; of crops, Hdt.

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Noun-ASF — Noun · accusative · singular · feminine
accusative — the one it is done to — the object.
Agrees with anything else marked singular feminine.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

N-ASF Part of Speech: Noun Case: Accusative Number: Singular Gender: Feminine

Bible dictionarieson the English sense
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

in'-kres, (noun), in-kres' (verb): Employed in the English Bible both as verb and as noun, and in both cases to represent a number of different words in the original. As a verb it is used in the ordinary sense of the term. As a noun it is usually used of plant life, or of the herds and flocks, to denote the fruitage or the offspring; more rarely of money, to denote the interest. As examples of the different terms translated by this word, students who read Hebrew or Greek may compare De 7:22; Pr 16:21; Job 10:16 the King James Version; Job 12:23; Nu 18:30; De 7:13

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
100%increase
increase100% · 2×

2 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 1 different way. The commonest English word for it is not its meaning — it is one translator's decision, repeated.

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
Article the
μέροςa part, portionαὐξάνωI cause to incre
αὔξησιςincrease
what comes after →
Article the
σῶμαbody, fleshθεόςGod, a god

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

Concordanceαὔξησις · 2× in the New Testament
Colossians Ephesians
Across the New Testament2 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
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 41c. AD 40

τίς γὰρ οὐκ οἶδεν ὅτι πρῶτον μέν ἐστι σπορὰ καὶ φυτεία, δεύτερον δὲ τῶν σπαρέντων καὶ φυτευθέντων αὔξησις, ἡ μὲν εἰς τὸ κάτω ῥίζας ἀποτείνουσα οἱονεὶ θεμελίους, ἡ δ’ εἰς τὸ ἄνω πρὸς ὕψος αἰρομένων καὶ στελεχουμένων;

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 5.312c. AD 75–95

τὴν γὰρ ἰσχὺν εἶναί μοι κατὰ τὴν ταύτης αὔξησιν καὶ παραμονήν .

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 3rd c. AD 4th c. AD

Ἀρτεμίδωρον καὶ τῶι ἐπωνύμωι αὐτῶν ἱερεῖ εἴς τε τὸν κόσμον τῆς συνόδου καὶ τὴν αὔξησιν αὐτῆς χαρίσασθαι. καὶ τὰ νῦν πάλιν ἐντυχόντος μοι τοῦ Ἀρτεμιδώρου ὅπως ἐξῇ αὐτοῖς ἀναθεῖναι

Stud.Pal. 5 6HermopolisAD 266–AD 268

εἶναι· τὸ γάρτοι ἔθνος τὸ ἡμέτερον ἐπιτηρῆσαν ἑκάστοτε τὴν τοῦ Νείλου φοράν τε καὶ αὔξησιν παρεῖχεν ἑκάστου ἔτους ἔκδηλόν τινα σίτου μοῖ ραν … ταύτῃ τῇ δόσει κατεκλείσθη το

CPR 7 20HermopolisAD 305

καὶ ταῦτα ἀνθρώποις δεδώρηται, τὰς οὐσίας ἁπάσας τῶν τότε ἀποφάσει ὑποπεσόντων καὶ τὰς κτήσεις αὔξησιν συνθεμένη … πρὸς αὔξησιν τῶν πόλεων καὶ εὐδαιμονίαν μείζονα, ὡς μὴ μόνον περιγενέσθαι τῷ

and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
τοῦho <the> G3588 Article · genitive · singular · masculine
19,783× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Colossians 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-GSM — Article · genitive · singular · masculine
genitive — of, from, belonging to.
Agrees with anything else marked singular masculine.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

T-GSM Part of Speech: definite arTicle Case: Genitive 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
<the>19783×
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

and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body through the joints and ligaments being supplied and being knit together it increases with the increase <the> of God.
θεοῦ.¶theos of God. G2316 Noun · genitive · singular · masculine
1,311× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Colossians as anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
This word simply means God, referring to the one true deity. It is used throughout the New Testament, including in Matthew 27:46 and Acts 14:11, to describe the supreme being and creator of the universe.
Amplified meaning
the Creator, the Sustainer
Tyndale gloss
God
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

θεός (theos) means 'God' or 'a god' and is used in both singular and plural forms. It refers to the supreme deity in monotheistic contexts, as well as to lesser deities in polytheistic settings. The New Testament frequently employs this term, notably in verses like Matthew 27:46 and Acts 19:37. Some lexicons note its use as a title for rulers or magistrates, reflecting its broader application in ancient texts.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

θεός, -οῦ, ὁ, ἡ (Ac 19:37 only; v. M, Pr., 60, 244), late voc., θεέ (Mt 27:46; cf. De 3:24, al.),

[in LXX chiefly for אֱלֹהִים, also for אֵל and other cognate forms, יהוה, etc.;]

a god or deity, God.

In polytheistic sense, a god or deity: Ac 28:6, I Co 8:4, II Th 2:4, al.; pl., Ac. 14:11 19:26, Ga 4:8, al.

Of the one true God;

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

θεός, -οὔ, ὁ and ἡ, voc. θεέ, once in the N. T., Mt. xxvii. 46; besides in Deut. iii. 24; Judg. [xvi. 28;] xxi. 3; [2 S. vii. 25; Is. xxxviii. 20]; Sir. xxiii. 4; Sap. ix. 1; 3 Mace. vi. 3; 4 Mace. vi. 27; Act. Thom. 44 sq. 57; Eus. h. 6. 2, 23,16; [5, 20,7; vit. Const. 2,55, 1.59]; ef. W. §8, 2 ο.; [B. 12 (11)]; ({on the eight or more proposed derivations see Vaniéek p. 386, who follows Curtius (after Doderlein) p. 513 sqq. in connecting it with a root meaning to supplicate, implore; hence the implored ; per contra cf. Max Miiller, Chips ete. iv. 227 sq.; L. and 8. s. v. fin.]); [fr. Hom. down]; Sept. for 58, ΟΝ and m7; a god, a goddess; 1. a general appellation of deities or divinities: Acts xxviii. 6; 1 Co. viii. 4; 2 Th. ii. 4; once ἡ θεός, Acts xix. 37 G LT Tr WH; θεοῦ φωνὴ καὶ οὐκ ἀνθρώπου, Acts xii. 22; ἄνθρωπος ὧν ποιεῖς σεαυτὸν θεόν, Jn. x. 33; plur., of the gods of the…

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

θεός. For the application of the title θεός to the Ptolemaic kings it is sufficient to recall Brit. Mus. Inscrr. IV. 1 No. 906% (B.C. 284-273) where a votive offering is dedicated in honour of Πτολεμαίου τοῦ σωτῆρος καὶ θεοῦ, and the description of Ptolemy V. (Epiphanes) on the Rosetta stone—OG/S gol? (B.C. 196) ὑπάρχων θεὸς ἐκ θεοῦ Kal θεᾶς : cf. Deissmann LAE, p. 348 and the full discussion by E. Kornemann ‘‘ Zur Geschichte der antiken Herrscherkulte” in Beztrdge zur alten Geschichte [Klio] i., p. 51 ff. (Leipzig, 1902). The same practice is still more strikingly illustrated in the Imperial period, as when in an inscr. from the Fayum district, dated March 17th, B.c. 24, Augustus is described as θεὸς ἐκ θεοῦ (OG/S 6557), or as when a votive inscr. is addressed to Nero—daya0a(t) θεῶ(ι) (Cos 927): see Deissmann 7s. p. 349. With this may be compared the frequent use for Augustus of the…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

θεός (theos) — God.

θεός, ὁ,

Boeotian dialect θιός, Laconian dialect σιός (see. below), [Refs 5th c.AD+], Cretan dialect θιός [Refs], Doric dialect also θεύς [Refs 3rd c.BC+]; vocative (only late) θεός, also θεέ [LXX+NT]; but classical in compound names, Ἀμφίθεε, Τιμόθεε:—God, the Deity, in general sense, both singular and plural (εἰ καὶ ἐπὶ θεοὺς καὶ ἔτι μᾶλλον ἐπὶ θεὸν ἁρμόζει μεταφέρειν [Refs 8th c.BC+]; σὺν θ. εἰρημένον [Refs 5th c.BC+]: so in plural, σύν γε θεοῖσιν [Refs 8th c.BC+]; οὐ θεῶν ἄτερ pi.[Refs 8th c.BC+]; ὑπὲρ θεόν against his will,[Refs 4th c.BC+]; θεῶν συνεθελόντων, βουλομένων, [Refs 5th c.BC+]bless you! good heavens! for heaven's sake! [Refs 8th c.BC+]: doubled in poets, θεὸν θεόν τις ἀγλαϊζέτω [Refs 5th c.BC+]; θεοί (Cretan dialect θιοί) as an opening formula in Inscrr. (i.e. τύχην ἀγαθὴν διδοῖεν), [Refs].1, etc.: in Prose also with the Article, ὁ θ.…

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

θεός

theos

of uncertain affinity; a deity, especially (with 3588) the supreme

Divinity; figuratively, a magistrate; by Hebraism, very:--X exceeding,

God, god(-ly, -ward).

see GREEK for 3588

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

θεός, οῦ, ὁ

n.f. & n.m.

God, a god

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

θεός theos 1x

a deity, Acts 7:43; 1 Cor. 8:5; an idol, Acts 7:40; God, the true God, Mt. 3:9, et al. freq.; God, possessed of true godhead, Jn. 1:1; Rom. 9:5; from the Hebrew, applied to potentates, Jn. 10:34, 35; τῷ θεῷ, an intensive term, from the Hebrew, exceedingly, Acts 7:20, and, perhaps, 2 Cor. 10:4

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

θεός θεός, ὁ, God, Hom., both in general sense, Θεὸς δώσει God will grant, and in particular sense, θεός τις a god; πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε Hom.:—things are said to happen σὺν θεῷ, σύν γε θεοῖσιν by the will of God, id. Hom., etc.; οὐκ ἄνευ θεοῦ, Lat. non sine diis, Od.; οὐκ ἄνευθε θεοῦ Il.; οὐ θεῶν ἄτερ Pind.;— ἐκ θεόφι Il.;— ὑπὲρ θεόν against his will, id. Il.;— κατὰ θεόν τινα, Lat. divinitus, Eur.:—as an oath, πρὸς θεῶν by the gods, in God's name, Trag.; θεὸς ἴστω Soph., etc.

θεός as fem. for θεά, θέαινα, a goddess, Hom.; θήλεια θεός Il.; ἡ νερτέρα θ. Proserpine, Soph.; often in oaths, νὴ τὼ θεώ id. Soph.; ναὶ τὼ σιώ, with the Spartans, of Castor and Pollux, Xen.; with the Boeotians, of Amphion and Zethus, id.…

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

N-GSM Part of Speech: Noun Case: Genitive Number: Singular Gender: Masculine

Bible dictionarieson the English sense
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

god ('Elohim, 'El, [`Elyon], Shadday, Yahweh; Theos):

I. INTRODUCTION TO THE GENERAL IDEA

1. The Idea in Experience and in Thought

2. Definition of the Idea

3. The Knowledge of God

4. Ethnic Ideas of God

(1) Animism

(2) Fetishism

(3) Idolatry

(4) Polytheism

(5) Henotheism

(6) Pantheism

(7) Deism

(8) Semitic Monolatry

(9) Monotheism

II. THE IDEA OF GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

1. The Course of Its Development

2. Forms of Its Manifestation

(1) The Face or Countenance of God

(2) The Voice and Word of God

(3) The Glory of God

(4) The Angel of God

(5) The Spirit of God

(6) The Name of God

(7) Occasional Forms

3. The Names of God

(1) Generic

(2) Attributive

(3) Yahweh

4. Pre-prophetic Conceptions of God

(1) Yahweh Alone Is the God of Israel

(a) His Early Worship

(b) Popular Religion

(c) Polytheistic Tendencies

(i) Coordination

(ii) Assimilation

(iii) Disintegration

(d) No Hebrew Goddesses

(e) Human Sacrifices

Easton's Bible Dictionary

God

(A.S. and Dutch God; Dan. Gud; Ger. Gott), the name of the Divine Being. It is the rendering (1) of the Hebrew ’El, from a word meaning to be strong; (2) of ’Eloah_, plural _’Elohim. The singular form, Eloah, is used only in poetry. The plural form is more commonly used in all parts of the Bible, The Hebrew word Jehovah (q.v.), the only other word generally employed to denote the Supreme Being, is uniformly rendered in the Authorized Version by “LORD,” printed in small capitals. The existence of God is taken for granted in the Bible. There is nowhere any argument to prove it. He who disbelieves this truth is spoken of as one devoid of understanding (Ps. 14:1).

The arguments generally adduced by theologians in proof of the being of God are:

(1.) The a priori argument, which is the testimony afforded by reason.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

(good). Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures two chief names are used for the one true divine Being--ELOHIM, commonly translated God in our version, and JEHOVAH, translated Lord . Elohim is the plural of Eloah (in Arabic Allah); it is often used in the short form EL (a word signifying strength , as in EL-SHADDAI, God Almighty, the name by which God was specially known to the patriarchs. (Genesis 17:1; 28:3; Exodus 6:3) The etymology is uncertain, but it is generally agreed that the primary idea is that of strength, power of effect , and that it properly describes God in that character in which he is exhibited to all men in his works, as the creator, sustainer and supreme governor of the world. The plural form of Elohim has given rise to much discussion. The fanciful idea that it…

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

This name, the derivation of which is uncertain, we give to that eternal, infinite, perfect, and incomprehensible Being, the Creator of all things, who preserves and governs all by his almighty power and wisdom, and is the only proper object of worship. The proper Hebrew name for God is JEHOVAH, which signifies He is. But the Jews, from a feeling of reverence, avoid pronouncing this name, substituting for it, wherever it occurs in the sacred test, the word ADONAI, Lord; except in the expression, ADONAI JEHOVAH, Lord Jehovah, for which they put, ADONAI ELOHIM, Lord God. This usage, which is not without an element of superstition, is very ancient, dating its origin some centuries before Christ; but there is no good ground for assuming its existence in the days of the inspired Old Testament writers. The proper word for God is ELOHIM, which is plural in its form, being thus used to signify…

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
96%god
god96% · 1289×other renderings3% · 34×other renderings1% · 19×

1,342 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 14 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
subject31%adverbial26%object24%predicate12%indirect object5%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 1,311 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
βασιλείαkingship, sovereλόγοςa word, speech, υἱόςa son, descenden
δέbut, on the other ha
Article theπαράδικαιοσύνηjustice, justnes
ἀπό
εἰρήνηpeace, peace of ὅτιthat, since, becἐγώ
καίand, even, also, nam
ἈβραάμPropἸσαάκPropΧριστόςanointed, the Me
εἰμίI am, exist
οὐNegυἱόςa son, descendenοὗτος
θεόςof God.1311×
what comes after →
Article the
δίδωμιI offer, giveπαντοκράτωρruler of the uniπατήρfather, Father,
καίand, even, also, nam
Article theπατήρfather, Father, αὐτός
ἐγώ
καίand, even, also,Article theἐκβάλλωI throw, cast, p
ἐν
Article theαὐτόςΧριστόςanointed, the Me
εἰμίI am, exist
Article theκαίand, even, also,εἰς

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

Concordanceθεός · 1,311× in the New Testament
Acts Romans Luke 1 Corinthians Revelation John 2 Corinthians Hebrews 1 John Matthew Mark 1 Peter

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

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

Counted over the 1,637 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 Ignatius of Antioch Clement of Rome
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 7c. AD 40

Τινὲς γὰρ τὸν κόσμον μᾶλλον ἢ τὸν κοσμοποιὸν θαυμάσαντες τὸν μὲν ἀγένητόν τε καὶ ἀίδιον ἀπεφήναντο, τοῦ δὲ θεοῦ πολλὴν ἀπραξίαν ἀνάγνως κατεψεύσαντο, δέον ἔμπαλιν τοῦ μὲν τὰς δυνάμεις ὡς ποιητοῦ καὶ πατρὸς καταπλαγῆναι, τὸν δὲ μὴ πλέον ἀποσεμνῦναι…

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

ὡς πύργος, ὃν οἱ παῖδες αὐτοῦ ἐφ' ὕβρει τοῦ θεοῦ ᾠκοδόμησαν, καὶ ὡς τὰς φωνὰς αὐτῶν μετέβαλε καὶ ὁ τόπος, ἐν ᾧ τοῦτο γέγονε, Βαβυλὼν ἐκλήθη.

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 1.2c. AD 100

Μεγάλων μὲν ὄντων καὶ πλουσίων τῶν τοῦ θεοῦ δικαιωμάτων εἰς ὑμᾶς, ὑπέρ τι καὶ καθ̓ ὑπερβολὴν ὑπερευφραίνομαι ἐπὶ τοῖς μακαρίοις καὶ ἐνδόξοις ὑμῶν πνεύμασιν: οὕτως ἔμφυτον τῆς δωρεᾶς πνευματικῆς χάριν εἰλήφατε.

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.Grenf. 2 33Pathyris101 BC

αὐτῷ μέρος ἧς ἐμισθώσατο σὺν Πακοίβι Σχώτου καὶ τοῖς μετόχοις γῆς σιτοφόρου λεγομένης Νεχθαραῦτι θεοῦ μεγάλου παρὰ τῶν ἱερέων ἐτῶν δέκα εἰς τὰ ἐνλιπόντα αὐτῷ ἑτέρων , τεσσάρων εἰς

P.Adl. 20Poinkoris (Diopolites)99 BC

1 βασιλευόντων Πτολεμαίου τοῦ καὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου θεοῦ Φιλομήτορος καὶ Βερενίκης τῆς ἀδελφῆς θεᾶς Φιλαδέλφου ἔτους ἑκκαιδεκάτου ἐφʼ ἱερέων καὶ ἱερειῶν καὶ

Chrest.Wilck. 12Pathyris89 BC

ἡμῖν Φιλόξενος ὁ ἀδελφὸς διʼ ὧν κεκόμικεν ἡμῖν Ὄρσης γραμμάτων περὶ τοῦ τὸν μέγιστον Θεὸν Σωτῆρα βασιλέα ἐπιβεβληκέναι εἰς Μέμφιν, Ἱέρακα δὲ προκεχειρίσθαι μετὰ δυνάμεων μυρίων ἐπὶ καταστολὴν τῆς

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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