Menu

Luke 12:26 — Word Study

Depth

N1904εἰ οὖν οὐδὲ ἐλάχιστον δύνασθε, τί περὶ τῶν λοιπῶν μεριμνᾶτε;¶

BSAIfei [in this case, as a condition] thenoun not evenoute [the] leastelachistos [even the least, a minor task] you are able [to do],dunamai [are not able, lack the power] whytis aboutperi theho restloipos [the remaining things, what is left] are you anxious?merimnaō [are anxious, have concern]

Word
Listen & take awayLuke 12
English ↓ Download MP3 The Berean Standard Bible chapter audio already hosted for the site's Bible section — verse 26 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 (merimnaō) — no per-word recordings of the Greek exist to link to.
Take it away
Luke 12:26quick helps
In a sentenceJesus points out the futility of worry by comparing it to our inability to control even the smallest things.
Who is speakingJesus, addressing His followers about their concerns.
Where we areIn a teaching moment where Jesus discusses worry and trust in God.
The hard wordἐλάχιστος
Take awayIf we cannot manage the small things, we should not be anxious about the larger issues.
4 commentators on this verse Gill, Jamieson, Trapp, Ellicott & more — read them › clause verbδύναμαι 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 — Luke 12:26

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 — Teaching on Worrygenerated

25Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
26So if you cannot do such a small thing, why do you worry about the rest?
27Consider how the lilies grow: They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory was adorned like one of these.
28If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith!

Luke 12:26 is part of a larger teaching where Jesus encourages His followers not to worry about their lives. He emphasizes that worrying does not add to our lives and questions the logic of being anxious about things we cannot control. This teaching is consistent with the broader message found in Luke 12:25 and Luke 12:27, where He illustrates God's provision through nature.


Cross References

ReferenceText (BSB)
1Luke 12:29And do not be concerned about what you will eat or drink. Do not worry about it.
2Psalm 39:6Surely every man goes about like a phantom; surely he bustles in vain; he heaps up riches not knowing who will haul them away.
3Ecclesiastes 7:13Consider the work of God: Who can straighten what He has bent?
41 Peter 5:7Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — 4 references, hung on the phrase they belong to


The Key Word ἐλάχιστος, elachistosgenerated

The word ἐλάχιστος is an adjective meaning 'least' or 'smallest.' It is the superlative form of ἐλαχύς, indicating something minimal or insignificant. In this context, it emphasizes that even the smallest tasks are beyond our control, highlighting our limitations.

The parsing shows it as accusative singular neuter, which means it is functioning as the object of the verb. This grammatical structure underlines the idea that if we cannot handle even the least of tasks, we should reconsider our worries about larger issues.


How Translations Differ — measured against the Berean Standard Biblegenerated

The primary translation used here is the Berean Standard Bible, which states, 'So if you cannot do such a small thing, why do you worry about the rest?'. Other translations like the KJV and ASV use 'least' to describe the small task, while the WEB opts for 'even the least things.'

The translations differ particularly in how they render ἐλάχιστον and δύνασθε. While the BSB, KJV, and ASV use 'least,' the NETB and ULB translate it as 'very little.' For δύνασθε, the BSB uses 'cannot,' while the KJV states 'are not able.'


Sentence Structuregenerated

The main verb in this verse is δύνασθε, you are able, which governs the structure. The verse consists of a conditional clause introduced by εἰ, followed by a statement about the small task and a question about worry.

The grammatical tree indicates that the main clause is supported by an infinitive phrase that specifies what they are unable to do, along with a direct question that inquires about their anxiety regarding the rest.


Septuagint Backgroundgenerated

ἐλάχιστος does not have a direct equivalent in the Septuagint, but it relates to the Hebrew word for 'small' or 'least.' The concept of being minimal appears in various contexts, emphasizing humility and the insignificance of certain worries.

The conjunctions and particles used in this verse, such as οὖν and περί, also have their roots in the Septuagint, where they serve to connect thoughts and ideas, enhancing the flow of reasoning.


In plain words — the whole versegenerated

Luke 12:26 teaches that if we cannot manage even the smallest things, we should not worry about the larger ones. Jesus uses this teaching to remind us of our limitations and to encourage trust in God's provision.


Frequently Asked Questionsgenerated

What does Jesus mean by 'such a small thing'?

Jesus refers to the smallest tasks in life, emphasizing that if we cannot control these, we should not be anxious about bigger concerns.

Why does Jesus tell us not to worry?

He teaches that worry does not add to our lives and that God provides for our needs, as illustrated in the surrounding verses.

How can I apply this teaching about worry in my life?

Consider the small things that cause you anxiety and reflect on how they may not be worth your concern, trusting that God is in control.

What does this verse say about human ability?

It highlights our limitations by showing that we often struggle with even minor tasks, which should lead us to trust in God's greater capabilities.


Reflection Questionsgenerated

  1. What small worries do I have that I can hand over to God?
  2. How does recognizing my limitations help me trust God more?
  3. In what areas of my life do I need to focus less on worry and more on faith?
  4. How can I remind myself of God's provision when I feel anxious?

Commentators on this verse — 4 expositors, verse by verse

Each of these wrote on Luke 12:26 itself, not merely on the chapter around it.

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

If ye then be not able to do that which is least,.... As to make the smallest addition to a man's stature, or rather to add one moment to his days: why take ye thought for the rest?

Read John Gill on Luke 12 →
Robert Jamieson1802–1880Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary

And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on.

Read Robert Jamieson on Luke 12 →
John Trapp1601–1669Trapp's Complete Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

26 If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? Ver. 26. For the rest] For superfluities, when ye cannot provide yourselves of necessaries.

Read John Trapp on Luke 12 →
Charles John Ellicott1819–1905Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(26) If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least.—The words are peculiar to St. Luke’s report. If no amount of anxious care can add one cubit to our stature or the measure of our days (see Notes on Matthew 6:27), how much less can we control all the myriad contingencies upon which the happiness of the future may depend!

Read Charles John Ellicott on Luke 12 →

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

So if you cannot do such a small thing, why do you worry about the rest?

WEBWorld English Bible2000

If then you aren’t able to do even the least things, why are you anxious about the rest?

MSBMajority Standard Bible2022

So if you cannot do such a small thing, why do you worry about the rest?

NETBNew English Translation2006

So if you cannot do such a very little thing as this, why do you worry about the rest?

Tyndale line

KJVKing James Version1611

If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?

ASVAmerican Standard Version1901

If then ye are not able to do even that which is least, why are ye anxious concerning the rest?

RVARevised Version, American1894

If then ye are not able to do even that which is least, why are ye anxious concerning the rest?

NWBWebster's Bible1833

If ye then are not able to do that thing which is least, why are ye anxious for the rest?

GNVGeneva Bible1599

If yee then bee not able to doe the least thing, why take yee thought for the remnant?

Strictly literal

DBYDarby Translation1890

If therefore ye cannot [do] even what is least, why are ye careful about the rest?

YLTYoung's Literal Translation1862

If, then, ye are not able for the least — why for the rest are ye anxious?

LSVLiteral Standard Version2020

If, then, you are not able for the least—why are you anxious for the rest?

ULBUnlocked Literal Bible2017

If then you are not able to do such a very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

From the Latin

DRADouay-Rheims (Challoner)1899

If then ye be not able to do so much as the least thing, why are you solicitous for the rest?

Simplified

FBVFree Bible Version2020

If you can't do anything about such small things, why worry about the rest?

BBEBible in Basic English1949

If, then, you are not able to do even that which is least, why are you troubled about the rest?

Word by word, the decisions they made

ἐλάχιστονelachistos [the] least G1646 3 different renderings
leastASV BBE DBY DRA GNV KJV LSV NWB RVA YLT
very littleNETB ULB
even the leastWEB
δύνασθε,dunamai you are able [to do], G1410 2 different renderings
are not ableASV BBE LSV NWB RVA ULB YLT
ableDRA GNV KJV WEB

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.

clauseοὖνthenclauseεἰIfclauseadverbialοὐδὲnot evenobjectἐλάχιστον[the] leastverbδύνασθεyou are able [to do]clauseadverbialτίwhyprepositional phrase · adverbialπερὶaboutnoun phraseτῶνtheλοιπῶνrestverbμεριμνᾶτεare you anxious

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

Si ergo neque quod minimum est potestis, quid de ceteris solliciti estis ?

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

ܐܢ ܕܝܢ ܐܦ ܠܐ ܙܥܘܪܬܐ ܡܫܟܚܝܢ ܐܢܬܘܢ ܡܢܐ ܥܠ ܫܪܟܐ ܝܨܦܝܢ ܐܢܬܘܢ

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

εἰ οὖν οὐδὲ ἐλάχιστον δύνασθε, τί περὶ τῶν λοιπῶν μεριμνᾶτε;¶

The standard critical text of the New Testament.

Nestle-Aland 27th edition1993 · Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft

εἰ οὖν οὐδὲ ἐλάχιστον δύνασθε, τί περὶ τῶν λοιπῶν μεριμνᾶτε;¶

The previous edition, still widely cited.

SBL Greek New Testament2010 · Michael Holmes

εἰ οὖν οὐδὲ ἐλάχιστον δύνασθε, τί περὶ τῶν λοιπῶν μεριμνᾶτε;¶

The Society of Biblical Literature edition, freely licensed.

Westcott–Hort1881 · Westcott and Hort

εἰ οὖν οὐδὲ ἐλάχιστον δύνασθε, τί περὶ τῶν λοιπῶν μεριμνᾶτε;¶

The edition that turned scholarship toward the earliest manuscripts.

Tregelles1857–1879 · Samuel Prideaux Tregelles

εἰ οὖν οὐδὲ ἐλάχιστον δύνασθε, τί περὶ τῶν λοιπῶν μεριμνᾶτε;¶

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

Tyndale House Greek NT2017 · Tyndale House, Cambridge

εἰ οὖν οὐδὲ ἐλάχιστον δύνασθε, τί περὶ τῶν λοιπῶν μεριμνᾶτε;¶

A recent critical edition following documentary evidence closely.

Byzantine majority text2018 · Robinson–Pierpont

εἰ οὖν ἐλάχιστον δύνασθε, τί περὶ τῶν λοιπῶν μεριμνᾶτε;¶

The reading of the majority of surviving manuscripts.

Textus Receptus1550/1894 lineage

εἰ οὖν ἐλάχιστον δύνασθε, τί περὶ τῶν λοιπῶν μεριμνᾶτε;¶

The printed tradition behind the King James Version.

Every witness on this verse they differ
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

WordEditions carrying itMissing from
οὐδὲ not evenNA28, NA27, Tyn, SBL, WH, TregTR, Byz

Apparatus — SBL Greek New Testament, CC BY 4.0


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.

Luke 12:26εἰIfIfεἰοὖνthenthenοὖνοὐδέnot evennot evenοὐδέἐλάχιστος[the] least[the] leastἐλάχιστοςδύναμαιyou are ablyou are able [tδύναμαιτίςwhywhyτίςπερίaboutaboutπερίthetheλοιπόςrestrestλοιπόςμεριμνάωare you anxare you anxiousμεριμνάωεἰ δὲ μήNeg.prt. bNeg.prt. but ifεἰ δὲ μήοὐNeg.prt. nNeg.prt. no, noοὐμέριμναn.f. care,n.f. care, worrμέριμναμικρόςAdj littleAdj little, smaμικρόςτὶςIndef.pr. Indef.pr. any oτὶςπέρανAdv over, Adv over, beyonπέρανλείπωv. I am wav. I am wantingλείπωδυνατόςAdj powerfAdj powerful, aδυνατόςἄραDisj.prt. Disj.prt. then,ἄραμένDisj.prt. Disj.prt. trulyμένἔνιv. there iv. there is in,ἔνιπιστόςAdj trustwAdj trustworthyπιστόςοὐδέNeg.cj. neNeg.cj. neitherοὐδέδουλεύωv. I am a v. I am a slaveδουλεύωσῴζωv. I save,v. I save, healσῴζωἆραIrg.prt. aIrg.prt. a partἆραεἶπονv. I say, v. I say, speakεἶπονἀκριβῶς(Comp.)adv(Comp.)adv. carἀκριβῶς
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 Luke 12:26

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.

If then not even [the] least you are able [to do], why about the rest are you anxious?
εἰei If G1487 Conditional particle
501× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Luke as anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
This word means 'if' and is used to express conditions or questions. It appears in many Bible verses, such as Matthew 11:14 and Romans 8:25, introducing a condition or hypothesis.
Amplified meaning
in this case, as a condition
Tyndale gloss
if
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

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

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

εἰ,

conjunctive particle, used in conditions and in indirect questions.

Conditional, if;

c. indic., expressing a general assumption;

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

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

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

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

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

Read the full entry →
Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

εἰ (ei) — if.

εἰ,

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

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

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

Read the full entry →
Strong's Greek Dictionary

εἰ

ei

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

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

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

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

see GREEK for 1489

see GREEK for 1490

see GREEK for 1499

see GREEK for 1508

see GREEK for 1509

see GREEK for 1512

see GREEK for 1513

see GREEK for 1536

see GREEK for 1537

see GREEK for 1437

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

εἰ

Cond.

if

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

εἰ ei 502x

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

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

COND CONDitional particle or conjunction

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Every reference is on the Strong's page.

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

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

If then not even [the] least you are able [to do], why about the rest are you anxious?
οὖνoun then G3767 Conjunction
496× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
rarer in Luke than elsewhere in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
This word means therefore or then, showing a consequence. It appears in Matthew 3:10 and Romans 5:9 to connect ideas and events.
Tyndale gloss
therefore/then
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word οὖν (oun) is a particle used to express consequence, sequence, or to resume a narrative. It translates to 'therefore,' 'then,' or 'accordingly,' and appears frequently in the New Testament, such as in Matthew 3:10 and Romans 5:9. It can also serve in exhortations and questions, indicating what follows logically from previous statements.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

οὖν,

particle expressing consequence or simple sequence (never standing first in a sentence),

wherefore, therefore, then: Mt 3:10, Lk 3:9, Jo 8:38, Ac 1:21, Ro 5:9, al.; in exhortations, Mt 3:8, Lk 11:35, Ac 3:19, Ro 6:12, al.; in questions, Mt 13:28, Mk 15:12, Jo 8:[5], Ro 6:1, al.; continuing a…

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

οὖν ἃ conj. indicating that something follows from another necessarily; [al. regard the primary force of the particle as confirmatory or continuative, rather than illative; cf. Passow, or L.andS.s. v.; Kiihner § 508, 1 ii. p- 707 sqq.; Biiumlein p. 173 sqq.; Kriiger § 69, 52; Donaldson p. 571; Rost in a program “ Ueber Ableitung ” u.s.w. p.2; Klotz p. 717; Hartung ii. 4]. Hence it is used in drawing a conclusion and in connecting sentences together logically, then, therefore, accordingly, consequently, these things being so, [ (Klotz, Rost, al., have wished to derive the word fr. the neut. ptep. ὄν (cf. ὄντως) ; but see Baumlein or Kiihner u.s.); ef. W. § 53, 8]: Mt. iii. 10; x. 32 (since persecutions are not to be dreaded, and consequently furnish no excuse for denying me [οἵ. W. 455 (424)]); Mt. xviii. 4; Lk. iii.9; xvi. 27; In. viii. 38 (καὶ ὑμεῖς οὖν, and ye accordingly, i. e.…

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

οὖν. This common particle, which occurs in the NT nearly 500 times, is used in our sources in a variety of connexions, the exact shade of meaning being determined by the context. (1) For the causal meaning ‘‘therefore” we may cite BGU II. 423" (ii/aA.p.) (= Sevectzons, p. 91) Kal καλῶς pol ἐστιν. ἐρωτῶ ce οὖν, κύριέ pou πατήρ, γράψον μοι ἐπιστόλιον πρῶτον μὲν περὶ τῆς σωτηρίας σου... , “it is well with me. I beg you, therefore, my lord father, write me a letter, first regarding your health ... ,” and P Oxy XIV. 16651 (iii/A.D.), where a son in urgent need of oil writes to his father—dvayxalws οὖν, ἐὰν ἔτι παρὰ σεαυτῷ χρ[ἴ]ον ἔχῃς, δήλωσον ἢ τῷ vie σου ἢ ᾧ ἐὰν σὺ βούλῃ τούτους μοι ἐν τάχει παρα[σ]χεῖν, ‘perforce, therefore, if you have still with you any unguent, instruct your son or any one else you wish to supply me with them speedily ” (Edd.). (2) Οὖν is very common in a looser…

Read the full entry →
Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

οὖν (oun) — therefore/then.

οὖν,

Ionic dialect and Doric dialect ὦν (the latter in [Refs 8th c.BC+], adverb certainly, in fact, confirming something, frequently in contrast with something which is not confirmed, in [Refs 8th c.BC+] only in combination with γε (see. γοῦν), γάρ, οὔτε or μήτε, ὡς, ἐπεί, μέν, etc.:

1. really, φημὶ γὰρ οὖν κατανεῦσαι.. Κρονίωνα for I declare that Zeus did really promise.., [Refs 8th c.BC+]; τόφρα γὰρ οὖν ἑπόμεσθα.., ὄφρ᾽ for we followed them up to the very point, where.., [Refs 8th c.BC+]; ἐλέχθησαν λόγοι ἄπιστοι μὲν ἐνίοισι Ἑλλήνων, ἐλέχθησαν δ᾽ ὦν but they really were spoken, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; Θηβαῖοι μὲν ταῦτα λέγουσι.., Πλαταιῆς δ᾽ οὐχ ὁμολογοῦσι.., ἐκ δ᾽ οὖν τῆς γῆς ἀνεχώρησαν at all events they did return, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; so δ᾽ οὖν after a parenthesis; εἰ δή τις ὑμῶν οὕτως ἔχει,—οὐκ ἀξιῶ μὲν γὰρ ἔγωγε,—εἰ…

Read the full entry →
Strong's Greek Dictionary

οὖν

oun

apparently a primary word; (adverbially) certainly, or

(conjunctionally) accordingly:--and (so, truly), but, now (then), so

(likewise then), then, therefore, verily, wherefore.

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

οὖν

Cj.

therefore, then

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

οὖν oun 499x

then, now then, Mt. 13:18; Jn. 19:29; then, thereupon, Lk. 15:28; Jn. 6:14; therefore, consequently, Mt. 5:48: Mk. 10:9; it also serves to mark the resumption of discourse after an interruption by a parenthesis, 1 Cor. 8:4. Sometimes it is not translated.

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

οὖν really, at all events, used like γοῦν to dismiss a perplexing subject, οὔτ᾽ οὖν ἀγγελίῃς ἔτι πείθομαι, οὔτε θεοπροπίης ἐμπάζομαι Od.; ἐλέχθησαν λόγοι ἄπιστοι μὲν ἐνίοισι Ἑλλήνων, ἐλέχθησαν δ᾽ ὦν but they really were spoken, Hdt.; εἴτ᾽ οὖν, εἴτε μὴ γενήσεται whether it shall be really so, or no, Eur.; εἴτ᾽ οὖν ἀληθὲς εἴτ᾽ οὖν ψεῦδος Plat.; εἰ δ᾽ ἔστιν, ὥσπερ οὖν ἔστι, θεός if he is, as he surely is, a god, id. Plat.

added to indef. Pronouns and Advs., like Lat. cunque, ὅστις whoever, ὁστισοῦν whosoever; ὅπως how, ὁπωσοῦν howsoever; ἄλλος ὁστισοὖν another, be he who he may; so, ὁποιοσοῦν, ὁποσοσοῦν, ὁπωσοῦν, ὁποθενοῦν…

Read the full entry →
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
79%therefore
therefore79% · 428×then19% · 104×other renderings1% · 7×

539 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 5 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

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 496 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
λέγωI say, speak
διακονέωI wait at table,ἔχωI have, hold, poΣατανᾶςan adversary, Sa
μένDisj
Article theεἰCondπολύςmuch, many, ofte
τίςIrg
αὐτόςλέγωI say, speakδιά
Article the
ἸακώβPropὕδωρwater
σύ
καίand, even, also,δεῖit is necessary,ἐρωτάωI ask, question,
οὖνthen496×
what comes after →
Article the
ἸησοῦςJesusἸουδαῖοςJewishμαθητήςa learner, disci
αὐτός
Article theτίςIrgἸησοῦςJesus
καίand, even, also, nam
νίπτωI washἕτεροςanother, differeὁράωI see, look upon
εἰμίI am, exist
Article theσύοὗτος
σύ
πονηρόςevil, bad, wickeτέλειοςperfect, full-grἨλίαςElijah

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

Concordanceοὖν · 496× in the New Testament
John Acts Matthew Romans Luke 1 Corinthians Hebrews 2 Corinthians Ephesians 1 Peter Galatians Philippians

Every reference is on the Strong's page.

Across the New Testament23 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 110 Old Testament verses where this Greek word stands: which Hebrew word keeps standing there too. A correspondence of verses rather than a word-by-word alignment, so read the percentage as strength of evidence, not as a claim about any single verse.

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

τὸ μὲν οὖν κάλλος τῶν νοημάτων τῆς κοσμοποιίας οὐδεὶς οὔτε ποιητὴς οὔτε λογογράφος ἀξίως ἂν ὑμνῆσαι δύναιτο·

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 1.6c. AD 75–95

ἤδη μὲν οὖν καὶ πρότερον διενοήθην, ὅτε τὸν πόλεμον συνέγραφον, δηλῶσαι τίνες ὄντες ἐξ ἀρχῆς Ἰουδαῖοι καὶ τίσι χρησάμενοι τύχαις ὑφʼ οἵῳ τε παιδευθέντες νομοθέτῃ τὰ πρὸς εὐσέβειαν καὶ τὴν ἄλλην ἄσκησιν ἀρετῆς πόσους τε πολέμους ἐν μακροῖς…

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 1.4c. AD 100

πεπεισμένος οὖν τοῦτο καὶ συνειδὼς ἐμαυτῷ, ὅτι ἐν ὑμῖν λαλήσας πολλὰ ἐπίσταμαι, ὅτι ἐμοὶ συνώδευσεν ἐν ὁδῷ δικαιοσύνης κύριος, καὶ πάντως ἀναγκάζομαι κἀγὼ εἰς τοῦτο, ἀγαπᾶν ὑμᾶς ὑπὲρ τὴν ψυχήν μου, ὅτι μεγάλη πίστις καὶ ἀγάπη ἐγκατοικεῖ ἐν ὑμῖν ἐπ’…

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
3rd c. BC 2nd c. AD 3rd c. AD 4th c. AD 2nd c. BC
P.Grenf. 2 23Latopolites109 BC

χαίρειν. τοῦ παρʼ Ἑρμώνακτος τῶν ὁμοτίμων τοῖς συγγενέσι καὶ ὑποδιοικητοῦ χρηματισμοῦ ἀντίγραφον ὑπόκειται. κατακολουθήσας οὖν τοῖς διʼ αὐτοῦ σημαινομένοις χρημάτισον ἀπὸ τῆς ἐν Παθύρει τραπέζης, συνυπογράφοντος Φίβιος τοῦ…

P.Grenf. 1 30Pathyris104 BC

δὲ καὶ αὐτοί. μεταλαβόντες τοὺς συντετελεσμένους πρὸς τοὺς ἀσεβεῖς Ἑρμωνθίτας ἀγῶνας μεγάλως ἐχάρημεν. ἐπεὶ οὖν προκεχειρίκαμεν προστάτην τοῦ μεγίστου θεοῦ Νεχθφαραῦτος βεα … ρων … δια … στρατιωτῶν

Chrest.Wilck. 12Pathyris89 BC

ἐπιβεβληκέναι εἰς Μέμφιν, Ἱέρακα δὲ προκεχειρίσθαι μετὰ δυνάμεων μυρίων ἐπὶ καταστολὴν τῆς Θηβαίδος. ὅπως οὖν εἰδότες εὐθαρσεῖς ὑπάρχητε ἐκρίναμεν σημῆναι. ἔρρωσθε ἔτους λ Φαῶφι ιθ

If then not even [the] least you are able [to do], why about the rest are you anxious?
οὐδὲoute not even G3761 Conjunction · negative
140× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Luke as anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
This word means 'nor' or 'neither', used to connect negative ideas or options, like in Matthew 6:15 and Romans 4:15. It helps to rule out alternatives or emphasize a point.
Tyndale gloss
nor
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word οὐδέ (oude) is a negative particle that functions as a conjunction meaning 'and not' or 'nor,' and as an adverb meaning 'not even.' It combines elements of negation and exclusion, often appearing in phrases like 'neither... nor.' The New Testament uses it in various contexts, such as in Matthew 6:15 and Acts 4:32.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

οὐδέ, negative particle, related to μηδέ as οὐ to μή.

As conjc., and not, also not, neither, nor: Mt 6:15, Lk 16:31, Ro 4:15, al.; οὐ . . . οὐδέ, Mt 5:15 10:24, Mk 4:22, Lk 6:43, 44, Jo 6:24, Ac 2:27, Ro 2:28, al. (v. Bl., § 77, 10).

As adv., not even: Mt 6:29, Mk 6:31, Lk 7:9, Read the full entry →

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

οὐδέ, [fr. Hom. down], a neg. disjunctive conjunction, compounded of ov and δέ, and therefore prop. i. q. but not; generally, however, its oppositive force being lost, it serves to continue a negation. [On the elision of ε when the next word begins with a vowel (observed by Tdf. in eight instances, neglected in fifty-eight), see TW. Proleg. p. 96; cf. WH. App. p. 146; W.§5, 1 a.; B. p. 10 sq.] It signifies 1. and not, continuing a negation, yet differently from οὔτε; for the latter connects parts or members of the same thing, since τέ is adjunctive like the Lat. que; but οὐδέ places side by side things that are equal and mutually exclude each other [(?). There appears to be some mistake here in what is said about ‘mutual exclusion’ (cf. W. § 55, 6): οὐδέ, like δέ, always makes reference to something preceding; οὔτε to what follows also; the connection of clauses negatived by οὔτε is…

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

οὐδέ is used adverbially = ‘not even,” as in Mk 651, 1 Cor 5}, in P Oxy XIV. 16608 (iii/a.D.) τοὺς ἐγδοχεῖς οὐκ ἔπεμψας ὡς ἐνετειλάμην σοι, ἀλλ᾽ οὐδὲ ἔγραψας εἰ ἀπετάξαντο, ‘you have not sent the middlemen as I bade you, and you have not even written whether they departed” (Edd.), 24. 1765+ (iii/A.D.) οὐδὲ ἅπαξ ἠξίωσάς μοι γράφειν, ‘‘not even once have you deigned to write me.” For οὐδὲ εἷς, as in Ac 455, cf. 26. 16689 (iii/A.D.) Kal οὐκέτι φόβος οὐδὲ εἷς Ever, “Sand there is no longer any fear at all” (Edd.), 2d. I. 1221? (iii/iv A.D.) ἡμεῖ[ς] δὲ aypeve τῶν θηρίων δυνά[με]θα οὐδὲ ἕν, ‘‘and we cannot catch a single animal ”’ (Edd.).

Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

οὐδέ (oude) — nor.

οὐδέ,

negative Particle, related to μηδέ as οὐ to μή, partly conjunction, partly adverb:

__A CONJUNCTION, but not, mostly answering to μέν (sometimes written divisim), [Refs 8th c.BC+], but not, is followed by οὐδέ, nor, ἄλλοις μὲν πᾶσιν ἑήνδανεν, οὐδέ ποθ᾽ Ἥρῃ, οὐδὲ Ποσειδάων᾽, οὐδὲ γλαυκώπιδι κούρῃ [Refs]

__A.II more frequently and not, nor: sometimes without a negative preceding, Κίρκη δ᾽ ὡς ἐνόησεν ἔμ᾽ ἥμενον, οὐδ᾽ ἐπὶ σίτῳ χεῖρας ἰάλλοντα [Refs 8th c.BC+]; δεινὸν γάρ, οὐδὲ ῥητόν [Refs 5th c.BC+]: after a negative compound, ὃν ἠτίμησ᾽ Ἀγαμέμνων, οὐδ᾽ ἀπέλυσε θύγατρα [Refs 8th c.BC+]

Read the full entry →
Strong's Greek Dictionary

οὐδέ

oude

from 3756 and 1161; not however, i.e. neither, nor, not even:--neither

(indeed), never, no (more, nor, not), nor (yet), (also, even, then)

not (even, so much as), + nothing, so much as.

see GREEK for 3756

see GREEK for 1161

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

οὐδέ

Neg.cj.

neither, nor, not even

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

οὐδέ oude 143x

negative conj., neither, nor, and not, also not, Mt. 5:15; 6:15, 20, 26, 28; when single, not even Mt. 6:29; 8:10

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

CONJ-N CONJunction or conjunctive particle Negative

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
57%nor
nor57% · 82×not even21% · 30×neither15% · 22×not5% · 7×other renderings3% · 4×

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

What it does in the sentencefrom the Nestle 1904 treebank
adverbial43%subject9%object7%verb5%predicate4%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 140 occurrences — a word inside a phrase counts towards whatever that phrase is doing.

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
αὐτός
λέγωI say, speakκαίand, even, also,κύριοςlord, Lord, mast
καίand, even, also, nam
μνῆμαa tomb, monumentπολύςmuch, many, ofteεἷςone
ἀλλάbut, except
αὐτόςδύναμαιI am powerful, aἡμέραa day
ἄνθρωποςa man, one of the hu
Article theἀπόοὐδείςno one, none, no
οὐρανόςthe sky, the heaven
Article theἐν
οὐδέnot even140×
what comes after →
Article the
πατήρfather, Father, ἄγγελοςan angel, messenυἱόςa son, descenden
γάρfor
Article theἀποθνῄσκωI am dying, am aἀπό
ἐγώ
λέγωI say, speakποιέωI do, makeσύ
εἷςone
ῥῆμαa thing spokenὅςτὶς
ἐκ
θέλημαwill, wish, desiβάτος (I)a thorn bush or ἀκαθαρσίαuncleanness, imp

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

Concordanceοὐδέ · 140× in the New Testament
Matthew Luke John Acts Revelation 1 Corinthians Mark Galatians Romans Hebrews 1 Thessalonians 1 Timothy

Every reference is on the Strong's page.

Across the New Testament18 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
Josephus Philo of Alexandria Clement of Rome The Shepherd of Hermas The Epistle of Barnabas
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 15c. AD 40

ἑκάστῃ δὲ τῶν ἡμερῶν ἀπένειμεν ἔνια τῶν τοῦ παντὸς τμημάτων τὴν πρώτην ὑπεξελόμενος, ἣν αὐτὸς οὐδὲ πρώτην, ἵνα μὴ ταῖς ἄλλαις συγκαταριθμῆται, καλεῖ, μίαν δ’ ὀνομάσας ὀνόματι εὐθυβόλῳ προσαγορεύει, τὴν μονάδος φύσιν καὶ πρόσρησιν ἐνιδών τε καὶ…

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 1.1c. AD 75–95

Τοῖς τὰς ἱστορίας συγγράφειν βουλομένοις οὐ μίαν οὐδὲ τὴν αὐτὴν ὁρῶ τῆς σπουδῆς γινομένην αἰτίαν, ἀλλὰ πολλὰς καὶ πλεῖστον ἀλλήλων διαφερούσας.

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

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

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
2nd c. AD 3rd c. AD 3rd c. BC 1st c. AD 4th c. AD
P.Cair. Zen. 3 59330Philadelphia? (Arsinoites)249 BC

Θοτέως αὐτοὶ ἄνευ ἡμῶν διελογίσαντο καὶ οὐ δυνάμεθα παρακολουθῆσαι τί πεποιήκασιν ἕως τοῦ νῦν, οὐδὲ αἰτούμενοι τὸν λόγον ἐτόλμησαν ἡμῖν δοῦναι. καὶ περὶ τούτων οὖν πλεονάκις ἐπεμαρτυρόμην Ἰάσονι ὅτι

P. Grenf. 1 12Latopolis151 BC

Παμφίλου ὄντα συγγενῆ, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ Ἐσθλάδου τοῦ Ἐσθλάδου. Ἀλλωι δὲ οὐθενὶ οὐθὲν καταλείπω οὐδε δίδωμι. Μαρτυρες … … … … δεξι … … μελίχρως τετανὸς … οὐλὴ

P.Grenf. 1 37Thebais109 BC

ς οὕτως ὑπὸ γε… ς δεομένων δὲ τῶν … ντων ὑμῶν διαλήψεως … καὶ οὐδὲ μέχρι τοῦ νῦν οὐδενός … ς ἀξιοῦμεν … ἀνθρώπου ἀλόγως … ὀφείλει ἡμῖν διάφορα

If then not even [the] least you are able [to do], why about the rest are you anxious?
ἐλάχιστονelachistos [the] least G1646 Adjective · accusative · singular · neuter
13× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in Luke than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
The smallest or least important thing, as seen in Matthew 25:40 and 1 Corinthians 15:9. This word is used to describe something that is minimal or insignificant, and is often used to emphasize the importance of humility.
Amplified meaning
even the least, a minor task
Tyndale gloss
least
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word ἐλάχιστος (elachistos) means 'smallest' or 'least' and is the superlative form of ἐλαχύς (elachus). It is used in various contexts in the New Testament, often to denote size, amount, or importance, such as in Matthew 5:19 and 1 Corinthians 15:9. There is a comparative form, ἐλαχιστότερος (elachistoteros), meaning 'less than the least,' which is noted in the lexicons.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

ἐλάχιστος, -η, -ον

(v.s. ἐλάσσων),

smallest, least: as proper superlat., I Co 15:9; elsewhere, as usually in late Gk., intensive (B1., § 11, 3); Mt 2:6 (LXX) 25:40, 45, Lk 12:26 16:10 19:17, I Co 4:3 6:2, Ja 3:4; ἐ. ἐν τ. βασιλείᾳ τ. οὐρανῶν, Mt 5:19 (v. Dalman, Words, 113). Compar., ἐλαχιστότερος (for corresp. superl., v. LS; v. also Bl., § 44, 3); less than the least: Eph 3:8.†

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

ἐλάχιστος, -η, -ov, (superl. of the adj. μικρός, but coming fr. ἐλαχύς), [(Hom. h. Mere. 578), Hdt. down], smallest, least, — whether in size: Jas. iii. 4; in amount: of the management of affairs, πιστὸς ἐν ἐλαχίστῳ, Lk. xvi. 10 (opp. to ἐν πολλῷ); xix. 17; ἐν ἐλαχίστῳ ἄδικος, Lk. xvi. 10; in importance: what is of the least moment, 1 Co. vi. 2; in authority: of commandments, Mt. νυ. 19; in the estimation of men: of persons, Mt. xxv. 40, 45: in rank and excellence: of persons, Mt. v.19; 1 Co. xv. 9; of a town, Mt. ii. 6. οὐδὲ [RG οὔτε] ἐλάχιστον, not even a very small thing, Lk. xii. 26; ἐμοὶ εἰς ἐλάχιστόν ἐστι (see εἰμί, V. 2 ¢.), 1 Co. iv. 8.

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

ἐλάχιστος. For this form as a true superlative, as in 1 Cor 159 (cf. Proleg. p. 79), we may cite P Tebt I. 2457 (B.c. 117) ἐπὶ τὸ the document is official, though written in very bad Greek. It survives even as late as viii/A.D. in P Lond 7782 (=I. p. 233) ἀπὸ μικροῦ εἴδους ἕως ἐλαχίστου. The phrase ἐν ἐλαχίστῳ, as in Lk 161°, cf. Josh 678, occurs in P Catt’: 28 (ii/A.p.) (= Chrest. 11. p. 422), and the plur. in P Hib I. 27% (B.c. 301-240) ὡς οὖν ἠδυνάμην ἀκριβέστατα ἐν ἐλαχίστοις συναγαγεῖν. With reference to persons, as Mt 55, see Sy// 41τ858 (A.D. 238) καὶ γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς ἀπὸ πολλῶν οἱκοδεσποτῶν εἰς ἐλαχίστους κατεληλύθαμεν. ἐλάχιστον, ““αἱ least

Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

ἐλάχιστος (elachistos) — least.

ἐλᾰχιστ-ος [ᾰ], η, ον,

superlative of ἐλαχύς: comparative ἐλάσσων (which see):— smallest, least, frequently with a negative, γέρας, δύναμις οὐκ ἐ., [Refs 5th c.BC+]; λόγου ἐλαχίστου of least account, [Refs]; ἐλαχίστου ἐδέησε διαφθεῖραι narrowly missed destroying them, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

2. of Time, shortest, δι᾽ ἐλαχίστου (i.e. χρόνου) [Refs 5th c.BC+]; δι᾽ ἐλαχίστης βουλῆς with shortest deliberation, [Refs]

3. of Number, fewest, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; ἐν ἐλαχίστοις δυσίν between two at least. [Refs]

4. in Mathematics texts, ἐλάχιστα καὶ μέγιστα minima and maxima, [Refs 3rd c.BC+]

Read the full entry →
Strong's Greek Dictionary

ἐλάχιστος

elachistos

superlative of elachus (short); used as equivalent to 3398; least (in

size, amount, dignity, etc.):--least, very little (small), smallest.

see GREEK for 3398

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

ἐλάχιστος, ίστη, ιστον

Adj

least, smallest, very little

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

ἐλάχιστος elachistos 14x

used as the superlative of μικρός, smallest, least, Mt. 2:6; 5:19

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

ἐλάχιστος ἐλά^χιστος, η, ον Sup. of ἐλαχύς, comp. ἐλάσσων, the smallest, least, οὐκ ἐλ. Hhymn., Hdt., etc.; ἐλαχίστου λόγου of least account, id. Hdt.; περὶ ἐλαχίστου ποιεῖσθαι Plat.

of Time, shortest, δι᾽ ἐλαχίστου [sc. χρόνου] Thuc.; δι᾽ ἐλαχίστης βουλῆς with shortest deliberation, id. Thuc.

of Number, fewest, Plat.

τὸ ἐλάχιστον, τοὐλάχιστον, at the least, Hdt., Xen., etc.; also ἐλάχιστα, Thuc., Plat.

there is also a new comp. ἐλαχιστότερος, less than the least, NTest.

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Adj-ASN-S — Adjective · accusative · singular · neuter
accusative — the one it is done to — the object.
Agrees with anything else marked singular neuter.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

A-ASN-S Part of Speech: Adjective Case: Accusative Number: Singular Gender: Neuter Degree: Superlative

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
50%least
least50% · 7×very little21% · 3×smallest matter7% · 1×the smallest?7% · 1×very least7% · 1×very small7% · 1×

14 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
predicate31%adverbial23%object15%indirect object15%subject15%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 13 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
οὗτοςἐγώεἰμίI am, exist
ἐν
πιστόςtrustworthy, faiArticle theὅτιthat, since, bec
οὐδαμῶςNeg
ἸούδαςJudah, Judas, Ju
ἄνθρωποςa man, one of the hu
Article the
οὐδέNeg
οὖνtherefore, then
ἐλάχιστος[the] least13×
what comes after →
εἰμίI am, exist
ἐνἵναin order that, s
καίand, even, also, nam
διδάσκωI teachἐν
καλέωI call, invite, name
ἐν
ἐγώ
ποιέωI do, make
οὐδέNeg
ἐγώ

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

Concordanceἐλάχιστος · 13× in the New Testament
Matthew Luke 1 Corinthians James
Across the New Testament4 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
The Shepherd of Hermas Josephus Clement of Rome
JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 4.287c. AD 75–95

χρησάμενος δὲ κἂν ἐλαχίστῳ μέρει τῶν πεπιστευμένων ἂν ἀπολέσας τύχῃ τὰ λοιπὰ πάντα ἃ ἔλαβεν ἀποδοῦναι κατεγνώσθω.

Clement of RomeSecond Clement 8.5c. AD 96

λέγω γὰρ ὑμῖν, ὅτι ὁ πιστὸς ἐν ἐλαχίστῳ καὶ ἐν πολλῷ πιστός ἐστιν.

The Shepherd of HermasThe Shepherd of Hermas 10.1.5c. AD 140

ἐὰν γὰρ λάβῃς ἀψινθίου μικρὸν λίαν καὶ εἰς κεράμιον μέλιτος ἐπιχέῃς, οὐχὶ ὅλον τὸ μέλι ἀφανίζεται, καὶ τοσοῦτον μέλι ὑπὸ τοῦ ἐλαχίστου ἀψινθίου ἀπόλλυται καὶ ἀπόλλυσι τὴν γλυκύτητα τοῦ μέλιτος, καὶ οὐκέτι τὴν αὐτὴν χάριν ἔχει παρὰ τῷ δεσπότῃ, ὅτι…

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
7th c. AD 6th c. AD 4th c. AD 5th c. AD 1st c. AD
SB 12 10799AD 14–AD 41

ν … ν θω … αν … ωι δοῦναι εἰς γναφὴν περὶ … ἐλαχίστον. οἶδα τοῦ γερδίου δραχμαὶ δ … δραχμαὶ κ τοῦ ἄλλου γερδίου χάριν τοῦ

P.Cair. Masp. 3 67312AntinoopolisAD 567

καταλειφθησομένων παρʼ ἐμοῦ πραγμάτων καὶ ἀγωγῶν καὶ ἐνοχῶν καὶ παντὸς δικαίου, ἀπὸ πολυτελοῦς μέχρι ἐλαχίστου καὶ ἀσσαρίου ἑνὸς, ἐπὶ τῇ ἑξῆς ἐφʼ ἑκάστῳ τῶν εἰρημένων κληρονόμων προελευσομένῃ παρʼ ἐμοῦ

P.Cair. Masp. 2 67162AntinoopolisAD 568

νομῷ, τοποθεσίας Πινδάρου, ἐξ ἧς καὶ ὁρμωμένου, χαίρειν. ὁμολογῶ ἐγὼ ὁ προγεγραμμένος Ἰωάννης Κύρου ἐλάχιστος διάκονος τοῦ προειρημένου ἁγίου τόπου, διὰ ταύτης μου τῆς ἐγγράφου ἀσφαλείας, ἐσχηκέναι καὶ δεδανεῖσθαι

If then not even [the] least you are able [to do], why about the rest are you anxious?
δύνασθε,dunamai you are able [to do], G1410 Verb · present · no voice stated · indicative · second person · plural
209× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Luke as anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
To be able or have power, as in Matthew 6:24 and Mark 2:7, meaning to have the capability or strength to do something.
Amplified meaning
are not able, lack the power
Tyndale gloss
be able
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

δύναμαι, transliterated as dunamai, means 'to be able' or 'to have power.' It can refer to personal ability, permission, or opportunity. In the New Testament, it appears in various contexts, such as in Matthew 6:24 and Mark 2:7. The lexicons indicate that it can be used with an infinitive or an accusative, but there is some variation in the forms and usages noted in different sources.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

δύναμαι, depon.,

[in LXX chiefly for יָכֹל ;]

to be able, have power, whether by personal ability, permission, or opportunity: c. inf. (M, Pr., 205; WM, § 44, 3) pres., Mt 6:24, Mk 2:7, Jo 3:2, I Co 10:21, al.; c. inf. aor., Mt 3:9, Mk 1:45, Jo 3:3, 4 Ro 8:39, al.; c. acc., to be able to do something: Mk 9:22, Lk 12:26; II Co 13:8; absol., to be able, capable, powerful: Read the full entry →

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

δύναμαι, depon. verb, pres. indic. 2 pers. sing. δύνασαι and, acc. to a rarer form occasional in the poets and fr. Polyb. on to be met with in prose writ. also (cf. Lob. ad Phryn. p. 359; [ WH. App. p.168; W.§ 18, 2b.; Veitch 8. v.]), δύνῃ (Mk. ix. 22 sq. L T Tr WH; [Lk. xvi. 2 T WH Tr txt. ]; Rey. ii. 2); impf. ἐδυνάμην and Attic ἠδυνάμην, between which forms the Mss. and editions are almost everywhere divided, [in Mk. vi. 19; xiv. 5; Lk. Vili. 19; xix. 3; Jn. ix. 33; xii. 39 all edd. read 78., so RG in Mt. xxvi. 9; Lk. i. 22; Jn. xi. 37; Rev. xiv. 3; on the other hand, in Mt. xxii. 46; Lk. i. 22; Jn. xi. 37; Rey. xiv. 3, L T Tr WH all read ἐδ., so T WH in Mt. xxvi. 9; RGin Mt. xxii. 46. Cf. WH. App. p. 162; W. § 12, 1b.; B. 83 (29) ]; fut. δυνήσομαι ; 1 aor. ἠδυνήθην and (in Mk. vii. 24 T WH, after codd. 8B only; in Mt. xvii. 16 cod. B) ἠδυνάσθην (cf. [WH τι. 5. and p. 169]; Kiihner §…

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

δύναμαι. The following exx. of this common verb may be cited— P Par 471° (c. B.C. 153) (= Selections, p. 22) ἐνβέβληκαν (sc. οἱ θεοὶ) ὑμᾶς εἰς ὕλην μεγάλην Kal οὗ δυνάμεθα ἀποθανεῖν, ““they have cast us into a great forest, where we may possibly die,” P Oxy IV. 743% (B.c. 2) οὐκ ἠδυνάσθην συντυχεῖν ᾿Α., “1 was unable to meet A.,” 26. 7γ4413 (B.c. 1) [ΞΞ Selections, p. 33) πῶς δύναμαί σε ἐπιλαθεῖν ; ‘how can I forget you?”, P Lond 144™ (?i/a.p.) (ΞΞ 11. p. 253) ἵνα δυνηθῇ τὸ παιδάριόν μου ἐλθεῖν mpd[s ple, P Oxy LIT. 47218 (4 A.D. 130) οὐ δύναται γὰρ κεκλέφθαι τὸ μηδ᾽ ἀρχὴν γενόμενον μὴ δυνατὸν δ᾽ εἶναι, ‘for it is impossible for that to have been stolen which neither ever existed at all nor could exist” (Edd.). It takes an ace. ve? (as in Lk 1255) in P Ryl IL. 7758 (A.p. 192) οὐ yap δύναμαι κοσμητείαν. In P Leid {50 (ii/B.c.) ἔφη δύνασθαι τὰ ἔργα πάντα ἐπιτελέσιν ἐν ἡλι (?—was ὀλίγαις…

Read the full entry →
Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

δύναμαι (dunamai) — be able.

δύνᾰμαι [ῠ],

2nd pers. singular δύνασαι [Refs 8th c.BC+]; Aeolic dialect and Doric dialect δύνᾳ [Refs 7th c.BC+]; δύνῃ is subjunctive, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; Ionic dialect 3rd.pers. plural δυνέαται [Refs 5th c.BC+]; subjunctive δύνωμαι, Ionic dialect 2nd pers. singular δύνηαι [Refs 8th c.BC+]: imperfect 2nd pers. singular ἐδύνω [Refs 5th c.BC+]; Ionic dialect 3rd.pers. plural ἐδυνέατο [Refs 5th c.BC+]: future δυνήσομαι [Refs 8th c.BC+]; Doric dialect δυνᾱσοῦμαι [Refs 4th c.BC+]: aorist ἐδυνησάμην [Refs 8th c.BC+], Epic dialect δυν- [Refs]; subjunctive δυνήσωνται [Refs 7th c.BC+], never in good Attic dialect, falsa lectio in [Refs 4th c.BC+]passive forms, Epic dialect, Ionic dialect, Lyric poetry, ἐδυνάσθην or δυνάσθην [Refs 8th c.BC+]; Trag. and Attic dialect Prose ἐδυνήθην [Refs 5th c.BC+]: perfect δεδύνημαι [Refs 4th c.BC+] —The double…

Read the full entry →
Strong's Greek Dictionary

δύναμαι

dunamai

of uncertain affinity; to be able or possible:--be able, can (do, +

-not), could, may, might, be possible, be of power.

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

δύναμαι

v.

I am powerful, am able

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

δύναμαι dynamai 210x

to be able, either intrinsically and absolutely, which is the ordinary signification; or, for specific reasons, Mt. 9:15; Lk. 16:2 See ability; (be) able; can.

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

δύναμαι decl. in pres. and imperf. like ἵσταμαι Dep.

to be able, capable, strong enough to do, c. inf., Hom., etc.; but the inf. is often omitted, Ζεὺς δύναται ἅπαντα [sc. ποιεῖν] Od.; so also, μέγα δυνάμενος very powerful, mighty, id. Od.; οἱ δυνάμενοι men of power, Eur., Thuc.; δυνάμενος παρά τινι having influence with him, Hdt., etc.

to be able, i. e. to dare or bear to do a thing, οὐδὲ ποιήσειν δύναται Od.; οὐκέτι ἐδύνατο βιοτεύειν Thuc.

with ὡς and a Sup., ὡς ἐδύναντο ἀδηλότατα as secretly as they could, id. Thuc.; ὡς δύναμαι μάλιστα as much as I possibly can, Plat.; or simply ὡς ἐδύνατο in the best way he could, Xen.

to pass for, i. e.

Read the full entry →
Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Verb-PNI-2P — Verb · present · no voice stated · indicative · second person · plural
present no voice stated indicative — an action in progress.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

V-PNI-2P Part of Speech: Verb Tense: Present Voice: middle or passive depoNent Mood: Indicative Person: second Number: Plural

Bible dictionarieson the English sense
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

a'-b'-l: The Greek dunamai, "to have power," may refer either to inherent strength, or to the absence of in external obstacles, or to what may be allowable or permitted. The Greek ischuo, as in Lu 13:24; Joh 21:6, refers always to the first of the above meanings. The use of the word as an adjective the King James Version of 2Co 3:6, is misleading, and has been properly changed in the Revised Version (British and American) into "sufficient as ministers," i.e. "hath fitted us to be ministers."

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
38%able
able38% · 78×you are able12% · 24×being able10% · 21×he is able5% · 10×you able3% · 7×be able3% · 7×will be able3% · 6×they were able3% · 6×other renderings23% · 48×

207 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 33 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 209 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
οὐNeg
καίand, even, also,σύὅτιthat, since, bec
μήNeg
καίand, even, also,ἸησοῦςJesusὥστεso that, therefo
οὐδείςno one, none, nothin
καίand, even, also,οὐκέτιNegἐν
Article the
πρόςμᾶλλονmore, ratherοὐρανόςthe sky, the hea
πῶς
αὐτόςλέγωI say, speakDisj
δύναμαιyou are able [to do],209×
what comes after →
Article the
υἱόςa son, descendenθεόςGod, a godπροσέρχομαιI come near, con
αὐτός
θεραπεύωI care for, atteμηδέNegδέωI bind
σῴζωI save, heal
βασιλεύςa king, ruler, eαὐτόςArticle the
ἔρχομαιI come, go
πρόςκαίand, even, also,
ἐγώ
καθαρίζωI make cleanποιέωI do, makeνῦνnow, already, at

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

Concordanceδύναμαι · 209× in the New Testament
John Mark Matthew Luke Acts 1 Corinthians Revelation Hebrews James Ephesians Romans 1 Timothy

Every reference is on the Strong's page.

Across the New Testament19 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 159 Old Testament verses where this Greek word stands: which Hebrew word keeps standing there too. A correspondence of verses rather than a word-by-word alignment, so read the percentage as strength of evidence, not as a claim about any single verse.

Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
Philo of Alexandria Josephus The Shepherd of Hermas Clement of Rome Ignatius of Antioch
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 21c. AD 40

οὗ χάριν τῆς ἀρίστης αὑτοῦ φύσεως οὐκ ἐφθόνησεν οὐσίᾳ μηδὲν ἐξ αὑτῆς ἐχούσῃ καλόν, δυναμένῃ δὲ πάντα γίνεσθαι.

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 1.215c. AD 75–95

Σάρρα δὲ γεννηθέντα τὸν Ἰσμαῆλον ἐκ τῆς δούλης αὐτῆς Ἀγάρης τὸ μὲν πρῶτον ἔστεργεν οὐδὲν ἀπολείπουσα τῆς πρὸς ἴδιον υἱὸν εὐνοίας, ἐτρέφετο γὰρ ἐπὶ τῇ τῆς ἡγεμονίας διαδοχῇ, τεκοῦσα δʼ αὐτὴ τὸν Ἴσακον οὐκ ἠξίου παρατρέφεσθαι τούτῳ τὸν Ἰσμαῆλον ὄντα…

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 4.1c. AD 100

Δεῖ οὖν ἡμᾶς περὶ τῶν ἐνεστώτων ἐπιπολὺ ἐραυνῶντας ἐκζητεῖν τὰ δυνάμενα ἡμᾶς σώζειν.

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 3rd c. BC 6th c. AD
P.Edg. $1Syrien253 BC

τε ἐπιμελόμενος ἵνα ὑγιαίνηις καὶ ἡμῖν γράφων ἐάν τί σοι βούληι γίνεσθαι ὧν ἡμεῖς δυνάμεθα. καλῶς δʼ ἂν ποιήσαις ἀγοράσας ἡμῖν ἵνα ὡς ἂν παραγενώμεθα ἔχωμεν μέλιτος τοῦ βελτίστου

P.Cair. Zen. 3 59330Philadelphia? (Arsinoites)249 BC

φόρωι τοῦ λζ ἔτους, συνφωνήσας Ἡρακλείδης μετὰ Θοτέως αὐτοὶ ἄνευ ἡμῶν διελογίσαντο καὶ οὐ δυνάμεθα παρακολουθῆσαι τί πεποιήκασιν ἕως τοῦ νῦν, οὐδὲ αἰτούμενοι τὸν λόγον ἐτόλμησαν ἡμῖν δοῦναι. καὶ

τι καταπεφύτευκεν ἀμπέλωι, κατεγνωκὼς τῶι γυναῖκας ἡμᾶς εἶναι καὶ ἑτέρωι τόπωι κατοικούσας μὴ εὐχερῶς δύνασθαι ἐπιβαλεῖν ἐπὶ τὴν σημαινομένην κτῆσιν. Διὸ καταπεφευγυῖαι ἐπὶ σὲ, ἀξιοῦμεν, ἐὰν φαίνηται, μεταπεμψάμενον αὐτὸν

If then not even [the] least you are able [to do], why about the rest are you anxious?
τίtis why G5101 Interrogative pronoun · accusative · singular · neuter
562× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Luke as anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
This interrogative pronoun is used to ask questions like who, which, or what, as seen in Matthew 3:7 and Mark 11:28. It seeks information about a person or thing. This term is essential in direct and indirect questions.
Tyndale gloss
which?
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

τίς is an interrogative pronoun meaning 'who,' 'which,' or 'what,' used in both direct and indirect questions. It can function as a substantive, adjective, or adverb, appearing in various contexts throughout the New Testament, such as in Matthew 3:7 and John 18:23. The neuter form τί also means 'what' or 'which.' There are instances where τίς may be used interchangeably with other pronouns like ποῖος.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

τίς, neut., τί, gen., τίνος, interrog. pron., [in LXX for מָה ,מִי ;] in masc. and fem.,

who, which, what?; in neut., which, what?, used both in direct and in indirect questions.

As subst.,

masc., fem.: τίς; who, what?, Mt 3:7 26:68; Mk 11:28, Lk 9:9, al. mult.; c. gen. partit., Ac 7:52, He 1:5, al; seq. ἐκ (= gen. partit.), Mt 6:27, Lk 14:28, Jo 8:46; = ποῖος, Mk 4:41 6:2, Lk 19:3,

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

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

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

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

Read the full entry →
Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

τίς (tis) — which?.

τίς

__B Interrog. pronoun τίς, Elean and Laconian dialect τίρ (which see), τί:—genitive Epic dialect and Ionic dialect τέο [Refs 8th c.BC+]; Trag. and Attic dialect τοῦ [Refs 5th c.BC+]; Ionic dialect, Trag., and Attic dialect τίνος [Refs 5th c.BC+]; dative Ionic dialect τέῳ [Refs 5th c.BC+]; no dative in [Refs 8th c.BC+]; Trag. and Attic dialect τῷ [Refs 5th c.BC+]; Aeolic dialect τίῳ [Refs 7th c.BC+]; τίνι first in [NT+8th c.BC+]; genitive Epic dialect τέων [Refs 8th c.BC+], and as monosyllable [Refs]; Trag. and Attic dialect τίνων [Refs 5th c.BC+]; dative τίσι first in [Refs 8th c.BC+]; Ionic dialect τέοισι [Refs 5th c.BC+]; Aeolic dialect τίοισι [Refs 7th c.BC+]; Boeotian dialect τά [Refs 5th c.BC+]; Megarian dialect σά [Refs 5th c.BC+]: of the plural [Refs 8th c.BC+] with genitive τέω; ποῖος (what? which?) is sometimes preferred (especially in neuter…

Read the full entry →
Strong's Greek Dictionary

τίς

tis

probably emphatic of 5100; an interrogative pronoun, who, which or

what (in direct or indirect questions):--every man, how (much), +

no(-ne, thing), what (manner, thing), where (-by, -fore, -of, -unto, -

with, -withal), whether, which, who(-m, -se), why.

see GREEK for 5100

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

τίς, τί

Irg.pr.

who, which, what

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

Τίτιος Titios 1x

Titius, pr. name, Acts 18:7*

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

τίς in direct questions, who? which? neut. what? which? Lat. quis, quae, quid?, Hom., etc.: relating to other words in the same case, τίς δ᾽ οὗτος ἔρχεαι; who art thou that comest? Il.; τίν᾽ ὄψιν σὴν προσδέρκομαι; what face is this I see of thine? Eur.:— τίς ἄν or κεν, with the opt., expresses doubt, who could, who would do so? Hom.: —in double questions, τί λαβόντα τί δεῖ ποιεῖν; what has one received and what must one do? Dem.; so, τίς πόθεν εἶς ἀνδρῶν; who and whence art thou? Od.

τίς with Particles: τίς γάρ; Lat. quisnam? why who? who possibly? Il., etc.; τίς δή; who then? Theogn.; τίς δῆτα; Soph.; τίς ποτε; who in the world? who ever? Xen.

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

I-ASN Part of Speech: Interrogative pronoun Case: Accusative Number: Singular Gender: Neuter

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
48%what
what48% · 273×who21% · 117×why18% · 101×which5% · 29×whom5% · 29×other renderings3% · 19×

568 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
object30%adverbial25%predicate24%subject21%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 561 occurrences — a word inside a phrase counts towards whatever that phrase is doing.

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
αὐτός
λέγωI say, speakπρόςἐπερωτάωI interrogate, q
λέγωI say, speak
αὐτόςἸησοῦςJesusκαίand, even, also,
καίand, even, also, nam
εἰμίI am, existοὗτοςθεόςGod, a god
διά
αὐτόςλέγωI say, speakεἶπονI say, speak
Disj
ἐσθίωI eatπῶςποιέωI do, make
τίςwhy562×
what comes after →
εἰμίI am, exist
Article theοὗτοςκύριοςlord, Lord, mast
Article the
πνεῦμαwind, breath, spσημεῖονa sign, miracle,μαθητήςa learner, disci
ἐγώ
καίand, even, also,λέγωI say, speakδιώκωI pursue, persec
ποιέωI do, make
Article theἵναin order that, sὅτιthat, since, bec
οὖνtherefore, then
εἶπονI say, speakποιέωI do, makeεἰμίI am, exist

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

Concordanceτίς · 562× in the New Testament
Luke Matthew John Mark Acts Romans 1 Corinthians Revelation 2 Corinthians Hebrews Ephesians Galatians

Every reference is on the Strong's page.

Across the New Testament20 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 601 Old Testament verses where this Greek word stands: which Hebrew word keeps standing there too. A correspondence of verses rather than a word-by-word alignment, so read the percentage as strength of evidence, not as a claim about any single verse.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BGU 6 1260Pathyris102 BC

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

If then not even [the] least you are able [to do], why about the rest are you anxious?
περὶperi about G4012 Preposition
333× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Luke as anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
The Greek word for about or around, used in various contexts such as place, cause, or time. It is often translated as 'about' or 'concerning' in the KJV, and appears in many passages, including Matthew 2:8 and John 16:26.
Tyndale gloss
about
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

One of the workhorse prepositions, standing 333 times. With the genitive it means about, concerning, with reference to. There is no hidden depth here, and it would be a mistake to look for one: its usefulness is that it marks the subject a sentence is circling. In this verse it points at what the earlier accounts were about.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

περί, prep. c. gen., acc. (in cl. also c. dat.; cf. M, Pr., 105f.),

with radical sense round about (as distinct from ἀμφί, on both sides).

C. gen.,

of place, about (poët.).

Causal, about, on account of, concerning, in reference to: Mt 2:8, Mk 1:44, Lk 4:38, Jo 16:26, Ac 28:21, al. mult.; τὰ περί, c. gen., the things concerning one, one's state or case: Mk 5:27, Ac 1:3 28:15, Eph 6:22, al.; at the beginning of a sentence, περί, regarding, as to, I Co 7:1, al.…

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

περί, (akin to πέρα. πέραν ; [Curtius § 359]), prep., joined in the N. T. with the gen. and the ace. (in class. Grk. also with the dat.), and indicating that the person or thing relative to which an act or state is predicated is as it were encompassed by this act or state ; Lat. circum, circa; around, about. I. with the GeniTIve it denotes that around which an act or state revolves ; about, concerning, as touching, ete., (Lat. de, quod attinet ad, causa w. a gen., propter) [ef. W. 372 sq. (349)]. a. about, concerning, (Lat. de; in later Lat. also circa): after verbs of speaking, teaching, writing, ete., see under ἀναγγέλλω, ἀπαγγέλλω, ἀπολογοῦμαι, γογγύζω, γράφω, Sydow, διαβεβαιοῦμαι, διαγνωρίζω, διαλέγομαι, διδάσκω. διηγοῦμαι (Heb. xi. 32), διήγησις, εἶπον and προεῖπον, ἐπερωτάω and ἐρωτάω, κατηχέω, λαλέω, λέγω, λόγον αἰτέω. λόγον ἀποδίδωμι, λόγον δίδωμι, μαρτυρέω, μνεία, μνημονεύω…

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

περί τροπὴν δέδωκα, “1 have entrusted to him the care of the whole matter” (Edd.), 7. XII. 15831! (ii/A.D.) γράψον μοι περὶ τῶν ὄντων, ‘ write me revarding the present state of affairs,” and ΒΟῸΣ II. 63218 (ii/a.p.) (= ZAZ, p. 173) ο[ὐ]χ ὀκνῶ σοι γράψαι περὶ THs] σωτηρίας pov καὶ τῶν ἐμῶν, “T am not delaying to write you regarding the health of me and mine.” In P Par 488 (B.c. 153) (= Witkowski Zp.” p- 91) ἀκούσαντες... τὰ περὶ σου συνβεβηκότα, we have a mixture of ἀκούσαντες περὶ σοῦ and ἀκούσαντες τά (σοι) συνβεβηκότα ΠΕερί, ‘‘ with regard to,” at the beginning of a new clause (as in 1 Cor 71) may be illustrated from the headings in the Mysteries inscr, from Andania Sy// 653 (=*736)} (B.c. 91) περὶ ἱε]ρῶν Kal ἱερᾶν, α΄. See also P Eleph 134! (B.c, 223-2) περὶ δὲ τῶν εἴκοσι δραχμῶν οὔπω ἐκεκόμιστο Φίλων . περὶ δὲ τοῦ οἰναρίου ΤΙραξιάδης οὔπω εἰσελήλυθεν ἐξ ἀγροῦ, BGU IV. 1097° (time of…

Read the full entry →
Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

περί (peri) — about.

περί,

Thess., Delph. περ [Refs 5th c.BC+], also Aeolic dialect, see below [Refs 4th c.BC+] V; Elean παρ [Refs]: preposition with genitive, dative, and accusative:—round about, all round (properly different from ἀμφί, on both sides). (Cogn. with Sanskrit pári 'round about'.)

__A WITH GENITIVE,

__A.I of Place, sometimes in Poets, round about, around, τετάνυστο π. σπείους ἡμερίς [Refs 8th c.BC+], on both sides, see at {περιβαίνω} [Refs]

__A.I.2 about near, π. σοῦ πάντα γένοιτο ῥόδα [Refs]

__A.II to denote the object about or for which one does something:

__A.II.1 with Verbs of fighting or contending, π. τινός for an object—from the notion of the thing's lying in the middle to be fought about, π. τῶνδε for these prizes, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; δόλους καὶ μῆτιν ὕφαινον, ὥς τε π. ψυχῆς since it…

Read the full entry →
Strong's Greek Dictionary

περί

peri

from the base of 4008; properly, through (all over), i.e. around;

figuratively with respect to; used in various applications, of place,

cause or time (with the genitive case denoting the subject or occasion

or superlative point; with the accusative case the locality, circuit,

matter, circumstance or general period):--(there-)about, above,

against, at, on behalf of, X and his company, which concern, (as)

concerning, for, X how it will go with, ((there-, where-)) of, on,

over, pertaining (to), for sake, X (e-)state, (as) touching,

(where-)by (in), with. In comparative, it retains substantially the

same meaning of circuit (around), excess (beyond), or completeness

(through).

see GREEK for 4008

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

περί

Prep.

about, concerning, around

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

περί peri 333x

pr. of place, (1) gen., about, around; about, concerning, respecting, Mt. 2:8; 11:10; 22:31; Jn. 8:18; Rom. 8:3, et al. freq.; (2) acc., of place, about, around, round about, Mt. 3:4; Mk. 3:34; Lk. 13:8; οἱ περί τινα, the companions of a person, Lk. 22:49; a person and his companions, Acts 13:13; simply a person, Jn. 11:19; τὰ περί τινα, the condition, circumstances of any one, Read the full entry →

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

περί around, round about with gen., dat., and acc.

prep. with gen., dat., and acc.: Radical sense, round about, all round, whereas ἀμφί properly means on both sides.

WITH GENITIVE:

of Place, round about, around, Lat. circum, Od.

about, near, ἑσδόμεναι περὶ σεῖο Mosch.

Causal, to denote the object about or for which one does something:

with Verbs of fighting or contending, μάχεσθαι περὶ πτόλιος Il.; περὶ Πατρόκλοιο θανόντος id. Il.; so, τρέχειν περὶ ἑωυτοῦ, περὶ τῆς ψυχῆς Hdt.

about, for, on account of, μερμηρίζειν περί τινος Il.; φροντίζειν περί τινος Hdt.

with Verbs of hearing, knowing, speaking, about, concerning, Lat. circa, de, περὶ νόστου ἄκουσα Od., etc.

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

Bible dictionarieson the English sense
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

a-bout': The use of this word as a preposition, in the sense of "around," is confined to the Old Testament. In the New Testament, generally an adverb, for Greek hos or "hosei." The Revised Version (British and American) adopts it in several idiomatic translations of mello, referring to what is about to be, i.e. on the point of occurring, or immediately impending, amending the King James Version, in Ac 5:35; 27:2; Re 12:4, etc.

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
59%concerning
concerning59% · 199×about16% · 55×for13% · 45×around6% · 19×of3% · 9×other renderings3% · 9×

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

What it does in the sentencefrom the Nestle 1904 treebank
adverbial86%object8%subject4%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 333 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
δέbut, on the otheκαίand, even, also,ἀκούωI hear, listen
αὐτός
λέγωI say, speakλαλέωI speak, sayἐρωτάωI ask, question,
καίand, even, also, nam
αὐτόςἁμαρτίαa sinἀλλάbut, except
μαρτυρέωI witness, testify
Article theἐγώἵναin order that, s
σύ
μέλειit is a care, itγράφωI writeΦαρισαῖοςa Pharisee
περίabout333×
what comes after →
Article the
ἸησοῦςJesusβασιλείαkingship, sovereτράχηλοςthe neck
αὐτός
καίand, even, also,ὅτιthat, since, becοὐαίindcl
ἐγώ
καίand, even, also,ἵναin order that, sArticle the
σύ
ὅτιthat, since, becἀδελφόςa brotherArticle the
πᾶςall, the whole, ever
ὅςArticle theοὗτος

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

Concordanceπερί · 333× in the New Testament
Acts John Luke Matthew Hebrews Mark 1 Corinthians 1 John 1 Thessalonians Romans 1 Peter Jude

Every reference is on the Strong's page.

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

Counted over the 297 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 The Epistle of Barnabas Clement of Rome
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 15c. AD 40

περιέχει γὰρ τὸν νοητὸν κόσμον ἐξαίρετον, ὡς ὁ περὶ αὐτῆς λόγος μηνύει.

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

περὶ τοῦ γένους Ἀδάμου καὶ τῶν ἀπ' αὐτοῦ δέκα γενεῶν τῶν μέχρι τοῦ κατακλυσμοῦ.

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 1.5c. AD 100

λογισάμενος οὖν τοῦτο, ὅτι ἐὰν μελήσῃ μοι περὶ ὑμῶν τοῦ μέρος τι μεταδοῦναι ἀφ̓ οὗ ἔλαβον, ὅτι ἔσται μοι τοιούτοις πνεύμασιν ὑπηρετήσαντι εἰς μισθόν, ἐσπούδασα κατὰ μικρὸν ὑμῖν πέμπειν, ἵνα μετὰ τῆς πίστεως ὑμῶν τελείαν ἔχητε τὴν γνῶσιν.

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 1st c. AD
P.Grenf. 2 33Pathyris101 BC

καὶ μὴ ἐπελεύσεσθαι μήτʼ αὐτὸν Ψενενοῦπιν ἐπὶ τὸν Ἁρσιῆσιν μήτʼ ἄλλον μηδένα ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ περὶ τοῦ διασαφουμένου μέρους γῆς τρόπῳ μηδενί. εἰ δὲ μή, ἀποτεισάτω Ἁρσιήσει ἐπίτιμον παραχρῆμα χαλκοῦ

P.Stras. 2 89Pathyris100 BC

ἐτῶν μ εὐμεγέθης μελίχρως μακροπρόσωπος εὐθύριν τὴν ὑπάρχουσαν αὐτῷ μερίδα γῆς σιτοφόρου ἐν τῷ περὶ Παθῦρειν πεδίωι σφραγίδων τεσσάρων , ἣν καὶ αὐτὸς ἐωνήσατο παρὰ Πανοβχούνιος τοῦ Τοτόηους ἐν

P.Lond. 3 p. 18 no. 678Krokodilopolis (Pathyrites)100 BC–99 BC

νδ ἐλάσσων μελίχρως μακροπρόσωπος εὐθύριν ἀδύνατος ὄμμασι τὴν ὑπάρχουσαν αὐτῶι ἐν τῶι ἄνω πεδίωι περὶ Πάθυριν γῆν ἤπειρον σιτοφόρον ἀρουρῶν … ἧς γείτονες νότουπλατεῖαὁδός, βορρᾶ … περίχωμα … προπεπρα

If then not even [the] least you are able [to do], why about the rest are you anxious?
τῶνho the G3588 Article · genitive · plural · neuter
19,783× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Luke 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.

Read the full entry →
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…

Read the full entry →
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…

Read the full entry →
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…

Read the full entry →
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.

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

T-GPN Part of Speech: definite arTicle Case: Genitive Number: Plural 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

If then not even [the] least you are able [to do], why about the rest are you anxious?
λοιπῶνloipos rest G3062 Adjective · genitive · plural · neuter
55× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Luke as anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
The remaining ones refer to those who are left, as in Matthew 25:11 and Acts 2:37. This term is used to describe people or things that still exist. It can also mean the rest or the others.
Amplified meaning
the remaining things, what is left
Tyndale gloss
remaining
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

λοιπός (loipos) means 'remaining' or 'the rest.' It can refer to what is left behind or the remainder of a group, as seen in various New Testament contexts. The word can also function adverbially, indicating time or transition, such as 'henceforth' or 'for the rest.' While the lexicons are consistent in its meanings, they highlight its use in both substantive and adverbial forms.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

λοιπός, -ή, -όν

(< λείπω),

[in LXX chiefly for יֶתֶר, also for שְׁאָר, etc.;]

the remaining, the rest,

pl., οἱ λ.: c. subst., Mt 25:11, Ac 2:37, Ro 1:13, al.; absol., Mt 22:6, Mk 16:[13], Lk 24:10, al.; οἱ λ. οἱ (Bl., § 47, 8), Ac 28:9, I Th 4:13, Re 2:24; οἱ λ. τ. ἀνθρώπων (LS, s.v., ad. init.), Re 9:20; τὰ λ., Mk 4:19, Re 3:2

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

λοιπός, -7, -dv, (λείπω, λέλοιπα), [fr. Pind. and Hdt. down], Sept. for 7}, VI, Ww, left; plur. the remaining, the rest: with substantives, as οἱ λοιποὶ ἀπόστολοι, Acts ii. 37; 1 Co.ix.5; add, Mt. xxv.11; Ro.i.13; 2 Co. xii. 13; Gal. ii. 13; Phil. iv. 3; 2 Pet. iii. 16; Rev. viii. 13; absol. ‘he rest of any number or class under consideration: simply, Mt. xxii. 6; xxvii. 49; Mk. xvi. 13; Lk. xxiv. 10; Acts xvii. 9; xxvii. 44; with a description added: of λοιποὶ of ete., Acts xxviii. 9; 1 Th. iv. hs; Rev. ii. 24; of λοιποὶ πάντες, 2 Co. xiii. 2; Phil. i. 13; πᾶσι τοῖς A. Lk. xxiv. 9; with a gen.: of λοιποὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, Rev. ix. 20; τοῦ σπέρματος, ib. xii. 17; τῶν νεκρῶν, ib. xx. 5; with a certain distinction and contrast, the rest, who are not of the specified class or number: Lk. vill. 10; xviii. 9; Acts v.13; Ro. xi. 7; 1 Co. vii. 12; 1 Th. v.6; 1 Tim. v. 20; Rev. xi. 13; xix.21; τὰ…

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

λοιπός. For λουπός with a subst. cf. P Oxy II. 24218 (A.D. 77) τὰ λυπὰ (λ λοιπὰ) μέρη περιτειχίζειν, 2b. 2709 (A.D. 94) ταῖς λοιπαῖς ἀρούραις. It is used absolutely in P Ryl II. 2201 (A.D. 38) τοῦ λοιπ(οῦ) τῆς τιμῆ(ς) τοῦ χόρτου, ‘the rest of the price for the hay,” P Giss I. 78% (ii/a.p.) καλῶς δὲ ποιήσεις Kal περὶ τὰ λοιπὰ ἐνεργήσασα. For τοῖς λοιποῖς πᾶσι ἴῃ Phil 11%, ‘‘apparently a vague phrase = everywhere else,” Kennedy (2G7 ad 7.) compares C/G I. 1770 ἐπεὶ καὶ ἐν τοῖς λοιποῖς πᾶσιν φανερὰν πεποήκαμεν THY τε ἰδίαν Kal τοῦ δήμου τοῦ Ρωμαίων προαίρεσιν. The neut. sing. is frequently used adverbially, sometimes with the idea of time “henceforth” (2 Tim 48), as in P Oxy I. 1198 (ii/iii A.D.) (= Selections, p. 103) Av δὲ ἔλθῃς εἰς ᾿Αλεξανδρίαν, od μὴ λάβω χεῖραν παρά [c]ov, οὔτε πάλι χαίρω σε λυπόν (1 λοιπόν), ‘Sand if you do go to Alexandria, I won’t take your hand, or greet you again…

Read the full entry →
Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

λοιπός (loipos) — remaining.

λοιπός, ή, όν,

(λείπω) remaining over, not in [Refs 8th c.BC+]; also λοιποί descendants, [Refs] either agrees with the Noun or takes a dependent genitive, αἱ λ. τῶν νεῶν [Refs 5th c.BC+]; τὴν λοιπὴν (i.e. ὁδὸν) πορευσόμεθα [Refs 5th c.BC+]

2. λοιπόν [ἐστι] with infinitive, it remains to show, etc., ἀποδεικνύναι, διελέσθαι, etc., [Refs 5th c.BC+] what remains for us is to.., [Refs]infinitive, ὃ δὲ λ. quod superest, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

3. frequently of Time, ὁ λ. χρόνος the future, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; τὸν λ. χρόνον for the future, [Refs 5th c.BC+] substantive in neuter, τὸ λ. henceforward, hereafter, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; also τοῦ λ. [Refs 5th c.BC+]; καθεύδετε τὸ λ. sleep now.., [NT]; ἑσπέρα δὲ ἦν λ. καὶ.. it was now evening, [Refs 4th…

Read the full entry →
Strong's Greek Dictionary

λοιπός

loipoy

masculine plural of a derivative of 3007; remaining ones:--other,

which remain, remnant, residue, rest.

see GREEK for 3007

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

λοιπός, ή, όν

Adj

left, left behind, the remainder

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

λοιπός loipos 55x

remaining; the rest, remainder, Mt. 22:6; as an adv., οῦ λοιποῦ, henceforth, Gal. 6:17; τὸ λοιπόν, or λοιπόν, henceforward, Mt. 26:45; 2 Tim. 4:8; Acts 27:20; as to the rest, besides, 1 Cor. 1:16; finally, Eph. 6:10; ὁ δὲ λοιπόν, but, now, furthermore, 1 Cor. 4:2

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

A-GPN Part of Speech: Adjective Case: Genitive Number: Plural Gender: Neuter

Bible dictionarieson the English sense
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

(nuach, menuchah, "cessation from motion," "peace," "quiet," etc.; anapausis, [@katapausis): "Rest" in the above sense is of frequent occurrence, and is the translation of several words with various applications and shades of meaning, chiefly of the words given above. It is applied to God as ceasing from the work of creating on the 7th day (Ge 2:2 f) ; as having His place of rest in the midst of His people in the temple (1Ch 28:2; Ps 132:8,14); as resting in His love among His people (Ze 3:17, the Revised Version margin "Hebrew, `be silent' "). The 7th day was to be one of rest (Ex 16:23; 31:15; see SABBATH); the land also was to have its rest in the 7th year (

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Rest

(1.) Gr. katapausis, equivalent to the Hebrew word noah (Heb. 4:1).

(2.) Gr. anapausis, “rest from weariness” (Matt. 11:28).

(3.) Gr. anesis, “relaxation” (2 Thess. 1:7).

(4.) Gr. sabbatismos, a Sabbath rest, a rest from all work (Heb. 4:9; R.V., “sabbath”), a rest like that of God when he had finished the work of creation.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

In Ac 9:31, refers to the respite from persecution enjoyed by the Christians in Palestine, after the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, during the last two years of Caligula’s short reign, A. D. 39 and 40, when the Jews were so harassed by the attempts of the emperor to force them to worship him as a god, that they forbore to afflict the followers of Christ.

Nave's Topical Bible

→ Divine institutions for

See SABBATH

→ Days of Ex 23:12; 34:21

→ The annual feasts, added rest days Le 23:7,8,21,25,28,30,31,35,36; Nu 28:18,25,26; 29:1,7,12,35

→ Recommended by Jesus Mr 6:31,32; with Mt 8:18,24

→ HEAVENLY 2Th 1:7

→ SPIRITUAL Mt 11:29; Heb 4:1-11

See PEACE, SPIRITUAL

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
68%rest
rest68% · 28×other12% · 5×other things5% · 2×others5% · 2×rest of2% · 1×that remain2% · 1×remaining2% · 1×other women2% · 1×

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

What it does in the sentencefrom the Nestle 1904 treebank
subject48%adverbial23%indirect object15%object13%predicate3%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 40 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,περίκαθεύδωI sleep, am slee
δέbut, on the other ha
Article the
καθεύδωI sleep, am sleeping
αὐτός
ἐπίκειμαιI lie upon, am insis
ὀλίγος& Adv
οἶκοςa house, household
ΣτεφανᾶςStephanas
λοιπόςrest55×
what comes after →
Article the
ἄνθρωποςa man, one of thἐνπαραβολήa parable, compa
ἀδελφόςa brother
χαίρωI rejoice, am glἐγώὅσος
καίand, even, also, nam
ἀναπαύωI make to rest,
λέγωI say, speak
ἀφίημιI send away, relἐγώ
ἀπόστολοςan apostle, a messen
τίςIrgκαίand, 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

Concordanceλοιπός · 55× in the New Testament
Revelation 1 Corinthians Acts Luke Matthew Philippians 1 Thessalonians 2 Corinthians Mark Ephesians Galatians Romans
Across the New Testament17 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 23 Old Testament verses where this Greek word stands: which Hebrew word keeps standing there too. A correspondence of verses rather than a word-by-word alignment, so read the percentage as strength of evidence, not as a claim about any single verse.

Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
Josephus The Shepherd of Hermas Philo of Alexandria Clement of Rome Ignatius of Antioch
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 110c. AD 40

ὑφαιρεθέντων γὰρ τῶν ἕξ, τὰ λοιπὰ δύο τρίτον ἐστὶ τοῦ πρώτου·

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 1.96c. AD 75–95

Νῶχος δὲ φοβούμενος, μὴ καθʼ ἕκαστον ἔτος ἐπικλύζῃ τὴν γῆν ὁ θεὸς φθορὰν ἀνθρώπων καταψηφισάμενος, ἱερὰ καύσας ἐδεῖτο τὸν θεὸν τοῦ λοιποῦ ἐπὶ τῆς πρώτης μένειν εὐταξίας καὶ μηδὲν ἔτι τοιοῦτον ἐπενεγκεῖν πάθος, ὑφʼ οὗ κινδυνεύσει πᾶν ἀπολέσθαι τὸ τῶν…

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 10.5c. AD 100

Καὶ οὐ φάγῃ, φησίν, σμύραιναν οὐδὲ πολύποδα οὐδὲ σηπίαν: οὐ μή, φησίν, ὁμοιωθήσῃ κολλώμενος ἀνθρώποις τοιούτοις, οἵτινες εἰς τέλος εἰσὶν ἀσεβεῖς καὶ κεκριμένοι ἤδη τῷ θανάτῳ, ὡς καὶ ταῦτα τὰ ἰχθύδια μόνα ἐπικατάρατα ἐν τῷ βυθῷ νήχεται, μὴ κολυμβῶντα…

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 1st c. AD 2nd c. BC
BGU 3 999Pathyris100 BC

ἐν ταύτῃ κατάγαιον ἧς γείτονες· νότου οἰκία Ὀρσηοῦς τοῦ Ὥρου βορρᾶ καὶ ἀπηλιώτου τὸ λοιπὸν τῆς Εὐνόου οἰκίας λιβὸς ῥύμη ἐφ ᾧ ἀνοίξει τὴν θύραν εἰς τὴν Ὀρσηοῦς οἰκίαν

P.Adl. 17Krokodilopolis (Pathyrites)100 BC

Ἑρμίου τοῦ Σ … … … ος, βορρᾶ γῆ Σχώτου τοῦ Τρύφωνος, ἀπηλιώτου τὸ λοιπὸν τῆς γῆς, λιβὸς ἡ φέρουσα εἰς τὸ Κρόνειον ὁδός, ἢ οἳ ἂν ὦσι γείτονες

P.Adl. 20Poinkoris (Diopolites)99 BC

γῆ Πετεσούχου τοῦ Ἑρμίου , βόρρᾶ γῆ Βελλέους καὶ τῶν ἀδελφῶν ?, ἀπηλιώτου τὸ λοιπὸν τῆς σφραγῖδος, λιβὸς γῆ Ὥρου τοῦ Νεχούθου τοῦ ὠνουμένου· ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν

If then not even [the] least you are able [to do], why about the rest are you anxious?
μεριμνᾶτε;¶merimnaō are you anxious? G3309 Verb · present · active · indicative · second person · plural
19× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in Luke than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
To worry or be anxious about something, as seen in Matthew 6:25-31 where Jesus tells us not to worry about our needs. It can also mean to care for something or someone, like the apostle Paul caring for the churches.
Amplified meaning
are anxious, have concern
Tyndale gloss
to worry
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

μεριμνάω means to be anxious or to care for something, derived from μέριμνα. It covers a range of meanings from being troubled with cares to actively caring for others. The New Testament uses it in contexts like worrying about tomorrow (Mt 6:34) and being concerned for others (Phil 2:20). Some lexicons note a distinction in the nuance of anxiety, particularly in relation to over-anxiety.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

μεριμνάω, -ῶ

(< μέριμνα),

[in LXX: Ps 37 (38):18 (דּאג), etc.;]

to be anxious: absol., Mt 6:27, 31, Lk 12:25; μηδὲν μ., Phl 4:6; c. dat. rei, Mt 6:25, Lk 12:22; seq. περί, Mt 6:28, Lk 10:41 12:26; πῶς, Mt 10:19, Lk 12:11; εἰς τὴν αὔριον, Mt 6:34.

to care for: c. acc., τὰ τ. κυριου, I Co 7:32-34; τὰ τ. κόσμου, I Co 7:34; τὰ περί ὑμῶν, Phl 2:20; seq. ὑπέρ,

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

μεριμνάω, -@; fut. μεριμνήσω; 1 aor. subj. 2 pers. plur. μεριμνήσητε; (μέριμνα) ; a. to be anxious; to be troubled with cares: absol., Mt. vi. 27, 31; Lk. xii. 25; μηδὲν pep. be anxious about nothing, Phil. iv. 6; with dat. of the thing for the interests of which one is solicitous [οἷ W. § 31, 1 b.]: τῇ ψυχῇ» about sustaining life, τῷ σώματι, Mt. vi. 25; Lk. xii. 22; thing, Mt. vi. 28; Lk. xii. 26; εἰς τὴν αὔριον, for the morrow, i.e. about what may be on the morrow, Mt. vi. 34; foll. by an indir. quest. πῶς ἢ τί, Mt. x.19; Lk. xii. 11 [here Tr mrg. om. Tr txt. WH br. ἢ τί] ; joined with τυρβάζεσθαι (θορυβάζ.) foll. by περὶ πολλά, Lk. x. 41 [WH mrg. om. | b. tocare for, look out for, (athing) ; to seek to promote one’s interests: τὰ ἑαυτῆς, Mt. vi. 34 Ree. ; περί τινος, about a τὰ τοῦ κυρίου, 1 Co. vii. 32-34; τὰ τοῦ κόσμου, 1 Co. vii. 34; ἑαυτῆς, Mt. vi. 34 LT Tr WH (a usage unknown to…

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

μεριμνάω. The idea of ‘‘ over-anxiety,” which readily attaches to this verb, asin Mt 625, LXX Ps 3719 αἱ, is well seen in P Tebt ΤΙ. 315 (ii/A.D.) νῦν δὲ [μετὰ σ]π[ο]υδῆς γράφω ὅπως [μὴ μερ]ιμνῇς, ἐγὼ γάρ σε ἄσκυλ[τον] πο[ι]ήσω, “1 am now writing in haste to prevent your being anxious, for I will see that you are not worried” (Edd.): see also P Iand 139 (iv/A.D.) where a father writes to his βοη--βέλησον οἷν, [τέκνον, δηλῶσαι ἡμεῖν τὸ τῆς καταστάσεώς σου, καὶ με]ριμνείσεις (1. μεριμνήσεις) ἅπαντα τὰ κατὰ σὲ [δηλῶσαι, ἵνα] ἀμεριμνέσωμεν (1. ἀμεριμνήσωμεν). 866 αἴΞο the citations σεῦ, ἀμέριμνος, and add for the subst. ἀμεριμνία P Oxy XIV. 162779 (A.D. 342) πρὸς δὲ ἀμεριμνίαν cov τήνδε τὴν ὁμολογίαν σοι ἐξεδόμην, ‘and for your security I have issued to | you this contract.’’ On the force of the participle in Mt 627, see Moulton Proleg. p. 230. The verb sometimes means merely “am occupied…

Read the full entry →
Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

μεριμνάω (merimnaō) — to worry.

μεριμν-άω,

care for, be anxious about, meditate upon, ἔργον μεριμνῶν ποῖον..; [Refs 5th c.BC+]; especially of philosophers, τὰ <μὲν ἀ>φανῆ μ. [Refs 5th c.BC+]; πολλὰ μ. to be cumbered with many cares, [NT+5th c.BC+]: c.infinitive, to be careful to do, ὁ μεριμνήσας τὰ δίκαια λέγειν [NT+5th c.BC+]:—passive, to be treated with anxious care, [Refs 2nd c.AD+]; ἔννοια, ἀμφισβήτησις μ., [Refs 6th c.AD+]

Strong's Greek Dictionary

μεριμνάω

merimnao

from 3308; to be anxious about:--(be, have) care(-ful), take thought.

see GREEK for 3308

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

μεριμνάω

v.

I am anxious, distracted

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

μεριμνάω merimnaō 19x

to be anxious, or solicitous, Phil. 4:6; to expend careful thought, Mt. 6:27, 28, 31, 34a; 10:19; Lk. 10:41; 12:11, 22, 25, 26; to concern one’s self, Mt. 6:25; 1 Cor. 12:25; to have the thoughts occupied with, 1 Cor. 7:32, 33, 34; to feel an interest in, Phil. 2:20*

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

μεριμνάω μεριμνάω, φυτ. -ήσω to care for, be anxious about, think earnestly upon, scan minutely, Lat. meditari, Soph., Xen.; πολλὰ μ. to be cumbered with many cares, Xen.:—c. inf. to be careful to do, Dem.

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Verb-PAI-2P — Verb · present · active · indicative · second person · plural
present active indicative — an action in progress.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

V-PAI-2P Part of Speech: Verb Tense: Present Voice: Active Mood: Indicative Person: second Number: Plural

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
11%cares for
cares for11% · 2×being anxious11% · 2×you anxious?11% · 2×shall you be anxious11% · 2×may be anxious11% · 2×he cares for5% · 1×she cares for5% · 1×may have concern5% · 1×other renderings32% · 6×

19 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
verb90%adverbial11%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 19 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
μήNeg
σύἐξουσίαpower, authority
σύ
ἐκπερί
οὖνtherefore, then
μήNeg
γαμέωI marry
δέbut, on the othe
τίςIrg
ἔνδυμαa garment, raime
μεριμνάωare you anxious?19×
what comes after →
Article the
Article theψυχήthe soul, life, μέλοςa limb, member
δύναμαιI am powerful, am ab
προστίθημιI put to, add, dἐπί
πῶς
Disj
καταμανθάνωI understand, consid
Article the
λέγωI say, speak
τίςIrg

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

Concordanceμεριμνάω · 19× in the New Testament
Matthew 1 Corinthians Luke Philippians
Across the New Testament4 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
The Shepherd of Hermas
The Shepherd of HermasThe Shepherd of Hermas 3.11.3c. AD 140

ὥσπερ γὰρ οἱ πρεσβύτεροι, μηκέτι ἔχοντες ἐλπίδα τοῦ ἀνανεῶσαι, οὐδὲν ἄλλο προσδοκῶσιν εἰ μὴ τὴν κοίμησιν αὐτῶν, οὕτως καὶ ὑμεῖς μαλακισθέντες ἀπὸ τῶν βιωτικῶν πραγμάτων παρεδώκατε ἑαυτοὺς εἰς τὰς ἀκηδίας καὶ οὐκ ἐπερίψατε ἑαυτῶν τὰς μερίμνας ἐπὶ τὸν…

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 5th c. AD 6th c. AD
P.Mich. 8 473Alexandria (?)AD 101–AD 125

Μηνᾷ. καὶ αὐτὸν φονεύσας εἶπέ γε ἐμοὶ μὴ πονεῖν, εἶπα Σατορνείλῳ ὅτι μὴ καθεῦδον μεριμνῶν. ὡς ἔβλαψάς με χιλίας διακοσίας δραχμάς, περίψημά μου τοῦ υἱοῦ ἀπέλθωσιν. καὶ κατέβην εἰς

P.Giss. 1 22Apollonopolites HeptakomiasAD 113–AD 120

εὐσεβείας μου ἀπολαμβανούσης σε ἀπρόσκοπον καὶ ἱλαρώτατον. ταῦτά μοι ἡ πᾶσα εὐχή ἐστι καὶ μέριμνα. ταῦτα καὶ θεοῖς ἀρέσκει διει … ε μοῦ καὶ νι… εαος εὐσεβεία.

P.Iand. 6 115AD 201–AD 300

πάντων εὔχομαί σε ὑγιαίνειν καὶ ὁλοκληρεῖν παρʼ οἷς ἐπιξενοῦμαι θεοῖς. ἐπεὶ μακράν σου γέγονα, μεριμνᾷς περὶ τῆς φιλίας ἡμῶν. ἐγὼ δὲ οὐδὲν πέπονθα εἰς ὄνομα τῆς φιλίας ἡμῶν· ἐὰν

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.

Everything we make is available for free because of a generous community of supporters.

Donate