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Matthew 13:3 — Word Study

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N1904καὶ ἐλάλησεν αὐτοῖς πολλὰ ἐν παραβολαῖς λέγων· ἰδοὺ ἐξῆλθεν σπείρων τοῦ σπείρειν.

BSAAndkai He spokelaleō [spoke, shared] to themautos many thingspolus [much, a great amount] inen parablesparabolē [stories that teach, comparisons] saying;legō Beholdhoraō went outexerchomai [came forth, departed] the [one]ho sowingspeirō [sower, one who scatters seed] <the>ho to sow.speirō [scatter seed, plant, the message of God, spiritual truth]

Word
Listen & take awayMatthew 13
English ↓ Download MP3 The Berean Standard Bible chapter audio already hosted for the site's Bible section — verse 3 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 (speirō) — no per-word recordings of the Greek exist to link to.
Take it away
Matthew 13:3quick helps
In a sentenceJesus uses parables to teach important truths, starting with the story of a farmer sowing seed.
Who is speakingJesus, addressing a large crowd gathered to hear Him.
Where we areThe beginning of a series of parables, with this verse introducing the first.
The hard wordπαραβολή
Take awayThe stories Jesus tells are meant to convey deeper spiritual truths.
8 commentators on this verse Gill, Jamieson, Poole, Trapp & more — read them › clause subjectλέγω verbλαλέω 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 — Matthew 13:3

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 — The Parables of Jesusgenerated

2Such large crowds gathered around Him that He got into a boat and sat down, while all the people stood on the shore.
3And He told them many things in parables, saying, “A farmer went out to sow his seed.
4And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.
5Some fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow.

Matthew 13:3 introduces a significant teaching moment where Jesus shares many parables with the crowd. This method of teaching allows Him to convey complex spiritual truths through relatable stories. The parable of the sower is the first in this series, illustrating how different responses to God's word can lead to varied outcomes, as elaborated in the following verses.


Cross References

ReferenceText (BSB)
1Matthew 13:10–13Then the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Why do You speak to the people in parables?”
2Matthew 22:1Once again, Jesus spoke to them in parables:
3Matthew 24:32Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its branches become tender and sprout leaves, you know that summer is near.
4Judges 9:8–20One day the trees set out to anoint a king for themselves. They said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’
52 Samuel 12:1–7Then the LORD sent Nathan to David, and when he arrived, he said, “There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor.

The Key Word παραβολή, parabolēgenerated

The word παραβολαῖς (parabolais) is the plural form of παραβολή and refers to stories that illustrate moral or spiritual lessons. It is derived from the root meaning 'to place beside' or 'to compare', indicating how these stories draw parallels to deeper truths.

In this context, the parables serve to engage listeners and provoke thought, allowing them to reflect on their own lives in relation to the lessons being taught. Jesus often used this teaching style to reach a diverse audience, ensuring that His messages were accessible yet profound.


How Translations Differ — measured against the Berean Standard Biblegenerated

This study uses the Berean Standard Bible (BSB) as the baseline, which states, "And He told them many things in parables, saying, 'A farmer went out to sow his seed.'" The KJV and ASV also mention the act of speaking in parables, but differ slightly in wording.

Where translations differ is primarily in the rendering of ἐξῆλθεν — the BSB uses went out, while the ASV and others prefer went forth. Additionally, the term σπείρων is translated as sower in several versions, while the BSB and others use sow.


Sentence Structuregenerated

The main clause of the verse is governed by the finite verb ἐλάλησεν, He spoke, which is followed by two phrases: an indirect object αὐτοῖς (to them) and a noun phrase πολλὰ (many things). This structure emphasizes the act of speaking and the content being delivered.

The participial phrase λέγων (saying) introduces the direct speech of Jesus, while the verb ἐξῆλθεν (went out) describes the action of the farmer, linking the narrative flow of the parable to the teaching context.


Septuagint Backgroundgenerated

παραβολαῖς has roots in the Septuagint, where it translates the Hebrew word for proverb or parable, such as מָשָׁל (māšāl), which conveys similar meanings of comparison and moral instruction. This connection highlights the continuity of teaching methods from the Old Testament to the New.

The use of parables in both the Old and New Testaments serves to illustrate complex ideas through relatable stories, making spiritual truths more accessible to the audience.


In plain words — the whole versegenerated

Matthew 13:3 introduces the parable of the sower, where Jesus tells a story about a farmer who went out to sow seed. This parable teaches important lessons about how different people respond to God's message, illustrating the various outcomes based on their reception of it.


Frequently Asked Questionsgenerated

What is the purpose of Jesus using parables?

Jesus uses parables to convey spiritual truths in a way that is relatable and understandable, allowing listeners to reflect on their own lives.

Why does the farmer in the parable sow seed?

The farmer sows seed to illustrate the act of sharing God's word and the different responses it can receive from people.

What can we learn from the parable of the sower?

The parable of the sower teaches us about the importance of how we receive and respond to God's message, highlighting that not everyone will respond in the same way.

How does this parable relate to our lives today?

This parable encourages us to examine our own hearts and responses to God's word, prompting us to be receptive and fruitful in our faith.


Reflection Questionsgenerated

  1. In what ways can I be more receptive to God's word in my life?
  2. How can I share the message of God with others, like the farmer in the parable?
  3. What are some obstacles that prevent people from responding positively to God's message?
  4. How can I encourage others to understand and accept the teachings of Jesus?

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

Early church Fathers comment on this parable, noting its significance in teaching and the various responses to God's word.

TertullianScorpiace c. 155–220
In the parable also of the withering of the word after the green blade had sprung up, He is drawing a picture with reference to the burning heat of persecutions.
Early Church Fathers on Matthew 13 →
JeromeCOMMENTARY ON Matthew 2.13.3 c. 347–420
The crowd is not of a single mentality, for each person has a different frame of mind. He therefore speaks to them in many parables so they may receive different teachings depending on their frame of mind.
Early Church Fathers on Matthew 13 →
JeromeCOMMENTARY ON Matthew 2.13.3 c. 347–420
He was indoors, staying at the house, where he spoke to the disciples about that which is holy. He who sows the word of God then went out of his house that he might sow among the crowds.
Early Church Fathers on Matthew 13 →

Commentators on this verse — 8 expositors, verse by verse

Each of these wrote on Matthew 13:3 itself, not merely on the chapter around it.

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

And he spake many things unto them in parables,.... For the parables of the sower, and the different sorts of ground the seed fell in, of the wheat and tares, of the grain of mustard seed, of the

Read John Gill on Matthew 13 →
Robert Jamieson1802–1880Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary

And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying ... These parables are SEVEN in number; and it is not

Read Robert Jamieson on Matthew 13 →
Matthew Poole1624–1679Matthew Poole's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ver. 1-3. Mark saith, , He began again to teach by the seaside: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land. Luke, , saith no more than, when much people were gathered together, and were come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable. Two evangelists agree that this sermon of our Saviour’ s was preached out of a ship, to multitudes that stood on the shore. The occasion of his going into a ship was the throng of people, both for his own and their convenience. It is here said that he sat; this, we observed before, was the usual gesture of the teacher amongst the Jews. This…

Read Matthew Poole on Matthew 13 →
John Trapp1601–1669Trapp's Complete Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; Ver. 3. And he spake many things to them in parables] A parable, saith Suidas, is διηγημακαιομοιωσιςπραγματων, a setting forth of the matter by way of similitude from something else that differs in kind, and yet in some sort resembleth and illustrateth it. Christ, the prince of preachers, varieth his kind of teaching according to the nature and necessity of his audience, speaking as they could hear, as they could bear, saith St Mark. Ministers, in like sort, must turn themselves, as it were, into all shapes and fashions both of spirit and speech, to win people to God. Behold, a sower went forth] Our…

Read John Trapp on Matthew 13 →
Charles John Ellicott1819–1905Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) A sower.—Literally, the sower—the man whose form and work were so familiar, in the seed-time of the year, to the peasants of Galilee. The outward frame-work of the parable requires us to remember the features in which Eastern tillage differs from our own. The ground less perfectly cleared—the road passing across the field—the rock often cropping out, or lying under an inch or two of soil—the patch of good ground rewarding, by what might be called a lucky chance rather than skill of husbandry, the labour of the husbandman.

Read Charles John Ellicott on Matthew 13 →
AdamClarkeAdam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible

Verse 3. He spake many things unto them in parables] Parable, from παρα, near, and βαλλω, I cast, or put. A comparison or similitude, in which one thing is compared with another, especially spiritual things with natural, by which means these spiritual things are better understood, and make a deeper impression on an attentive mind. Or, a parable is a representation of any matter accommodated, in the way of similitude, to the real subject, in order to delineate it with the greater force and perspicuity. See more on this subject at the conclusion of this chapter. No scheme, says Dr. Lightfoot, of Jewish rhetoric was more familiarly used than that of parables; which, perhaps, creeping in from…

Read AdamClarke on Matthew 13 →
CambridgeThe Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. in parables] Up to this time Jesus had preached repentance, proclaiming the kingdom, and setting forth the laws of it in direct terms. He now indicates by parables the reception, growth, characteristics, and future of the kingdom. The reason for this manner of teaching is given below, Matthew 13:10-15. A parable (Hebr. mashal) = “a likeness” or “comparison.” Parables differ from fables in being pictures of possible occurrences—frequently of actual daily occurrences,—and in teaching religious truths rather than moral truths.

Read Cambridge on Matthew 13 →
Albert Barnes1798–1870Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In parables - The word “parable” is derived from a Greek word signifying “to compare together,” and denotes a similitude taken from a natural object to illustrate a spiritual or moral subject.

Read Albert Barnes on Matthew 13 →

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

And He told them many things in parables, saying, “A farmer went out to sow his seed.

WEBWorld English Bible2000

He spoke to them many things in parables, saying, “Behold, a farmer went out to sow.

MSBMajority Standard Bible2022

And He told them many things in parables, saying, “A farmer went out to sow his seed.

NETBNew English Translation2006

He told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow.

Tyndale line

KJVKing James Version1611

And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;

ASVAmerican Standard Version1901

And he spake to them many things in parables, saying, Behold, the sower went forth to sow;

RVARevised Version, American1894

And he spake to them many things in parables, saying, Behold, the sower went forth to sow;

NWBWebster's Bible1833

And he spoke many things to them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;

GNVGeneva Bible1599

Then he spake many things to them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sowe.

Strictly literal

DBYDarby Translation1890

And he spoke to them many things in parables, saying, Behold, the sower went out to sow:

YLTYoung's Literal Translation1862

and he spake to them many things in similes, saying: 'Lo, the sower went forth to sow,

LSVLiteral Standard Version2020

and He spoke to them many things in allegories, saying, “Behold, the sower went forth to sow,

ULBUnlocked Literal Bible2017

Then Jesus said many things to them in parables. He said, “Behold, a farmer went out to sow seed.

From the Latin

DRADouay-Rheims (Challoner)1899

And he spoke to them many things in parables, saying: Behold the sower went forth to sow.

Simplified

FBVFree Bible Version2020

He explained many things to them, using stories as illustrations. “The sower went out to sow,” he began.

BBEBible in Basic English1949

And he gave them teaching in the form of a story, saying, A man went out to put seed in the earth;

Word by word, the decisions they made

ἐξῆλθενexerchomai went out G1831 2 different renderings
went forthASV DRA GNV KJV LSV NWB RVA YLT
went outBBE BSB DBY FBV MSB NETB ULB WEB
σπείρωνspeirō sowing G4687 2 different renderings
sowerASV DBY DRA FBV GNV KJV LSV NETB NWB RVA YLT
sowBSB MSB ULB 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.

clauseκαὶAndclauseverbἐλάλησενHe spokeindirect objectαὐτοῖςto themobjectπολλὰmany thingsprepositional phrase · adverbialἐνinπαραβολαῖςparablesclause · adverbialclauseverbλέγωνsayingclauseverbἸδοὺBeholdclauseverbἐξῆλθενwent outnoun phrase · subjectthe [one]clauseverbσπείρωνsowingnoun phrase · adverbialτοῦ-clauseverbσπείρεινto sow

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


The earliest translations — Latin and Syriac

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

Latin VulgateAD 382–405

et locutus est eis multa in parabolis, dicens : Ecce exiit qui seminat, seminare.

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

ܘܣܓܝ ܡܡܠܠ ܗܘܐ ܥܡܗܘܢ ܒܦܠܐܬܐ ܘܐܡܪ ܗܐ ܢܦܩ ܙܪܘܥܐ ܕܢܙܪܘܥ

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

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


The Greek editions compared — what the manuscripts actually say

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

Nestle-Aland 28th edition2012 · Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft

καὶ ἐλάλησεν αὐτοῖς πολλὰ ἐν παραβολαῖς λέγων· ἰδοὺ ἐξῆλθεν σπείρων τοῦ σπείρειν.

The standard critical text of the New Testament.

Nestle-Aland 27th edition1993 · Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft

καὶ ἐλάλησεν αὐτοῖς πολλὰ ἐν παραβολαῖς λέγων· ἰδοὺ ἐξῆλθεν σπείρων τοῦ σπείρειν.

The previous edition, still widely cited.

SBL Greek New Testament2010 · Michael Holmes

καὶ ἐλάλησεν αὐτοῖς πολλὰ ἐν παραβολαῖς λέγων· ἰδοὺ ἐξῆλθεν σπείρων τοῦ σπείρειν.

The Society of Biblical Literature edition, freely licensed.

Westcott–Hort1881 · Westcott and Hort

καὶ ἐλάλησεν αὐτοῖς πολλὰ ἐν παραβολαῖς λέγων· ἰδοὺ ἐξῆλθεν σπείρων τοῦ σπείρειν.

The edition that turned scholarship toward the earliest manuscripts.

Tregelles1857–1879 · Samuel Prideaux Tregelles

καὶ ἐλάλησεν αὐτοῖς πολλὰ ἐν παραβολαῖς λέγων· ἰδοὺ ἐξῆλθεν σπείρων τοῦ σπείρειν.

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

Tyndale House Greek NT2017 · Tyndale House, Cambridge

καὶ ἐλάλησεν αὐτοῖς πολλὰ ἐν παραβολαῖς λέγων· ἰδοὺ ἐξῆλθεν σπείρων τοῦ σπείρειν.

A recent critical edition following documentary evidence closely.

Byzantine majority text2018 · Robinson–Pierpont

καὶ ἐλάλησεν αὐτοῖς πολλὰ ἐν παραβολαῖς λέγων· ἰδοὺ ἐξῆλθεν σπείρων τοῦ σπείρειν.

The reading of the majority of surviving manuscripts.

Textus Receptus1550/1894 lineage

καὶ ἐλάλησεν αὐτοῖς πολλὰ ἐν παραβολαῖς λέγων· ἰδοὺ ἐξῆλθεν σπείρων τοῦ σπείρειν.

The printed tradition behind the King James Version.

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

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

Word by word, across the editions

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


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

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

Matthew 13:3καίAndAndκαίλαλέωHe spokeHe spokeλαλέωαὐτόςto themto themαὐτόςπολύςmany thingsmany thingsπολύςἐνininἐνπαραβολήparablesparablesπαραβολήλέγωsaying;saying;λέγωιδουBeholdBeholdιδουἐξέρχομαιwent outwent outἐξέρχομαιthe [one]the [one]σπείρωsowingsowingσπείρω<the><the>σπείρωto sow.to sow.σπείρωσπάωv. I draw v. I draw (as aσπάωἐκPrep. fromPrep. from out,ἐκπαραβάλλωv. I compav. I compare, aπαραβάλλωλέγωv. I say, v. I say, speakλέγωἀήρn.m. airn.m. airἀήρἑαυτοῦRefl.pr. hRefl.pr. himselἑαυτοῦεἰςPrep. intoPrep. into, in,εἰςφημίv. I sayv. I sayφημίοἶδαv. I know,v. I know, remeοἶδαθερίζωv. I reap,v. I reap, gathθερίζωγλῶσσαn.f. the tn.f. the tongueγλῶσσαπαρρησίαn.f. freedn.f. freedom, cπαρρησίαἐπερωτάωv. I interv. I interrogatἐπερωτάωπλῆθοςn.n. a muln.n. a multitudπλῆθοςπάσχωv. I am acv. I am acted uπάσχωσυναγωγήn.f. an asn.f. an assemblσυναγωγήἔρημοςAdj desertAdj deserted, dἔρημοςσυκῆn.f. a fign.f. a fig-treeσυκῆ
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 Matthew 13:3

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

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

And He spoke to them many things in parables saying; Behold went out the [one] sowing <the> to sow.
καὶkai And G2532 Conjunction
8,978× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Matthew as anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
And or also, a connecting word used to join ideas or words, like in Matthew 2:18 and Hebrews 1:1.
Tyndale gloss
and
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

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

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

καί,

conj.,

and.

Copulative.

Connecting single words;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

καί (kai) — and.

καί,

conjunction, copulative, joining words and sentences,

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

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

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

καί

kai

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

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

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

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

yet.

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

καί

Cj.

and, even, also, namely

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

καί kai 9x

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

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

CONJ CONJunction or conjunctive particle

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

9,477 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 42 different ways. The commonest English word for it is not its meaning — it is one translator's decision, repeated.

What it does in the sentencefrom the Nestle 1904 treebank
adverbial16%subject13%object10%predicate3%verb2%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 8,978 occurrences — a word inside a phrase counts towards whatever that phrase is doing.

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
αὐτός
ἐνἐπίπρός
σύ
χάριςgrace, favor, kiπρόςπατήρfather, Father,
ἐγώ
πατήρfather, Father, πρόςθεόςGod, a god
εἰμίI am, exist
αὐτόςArticle theἐγώ
θεόςGod, a god
Article theθέλημαwill, wish, desiδέbut, on the othe
καίAnd8978×
what comes after →
Article the
ἀδελφόςa brotherπατήρfather, Father, μήτηρa mother
λέγωI say, speak
αὐτόςArticle theπρός
οὐNeg
εἰμίI am, existμήNegδύναμαιI am powerful, a
ὁράωI see, look upon, ex
Article theαὐτόςἀνήρa male human bei
ἐν
Article theπᾶςall, the whole, ὅλοςall, the whole,

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

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

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

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

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

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

ἡ τοῦ κόσμου σύστασις καὶ διάταξις τῶν στοιχείων.

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

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

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
2nd c. AD 3rd c. AD 4th c. AD 1st c. AD 6th c. AD
P.Stras. 2 89Pathyris100 BC

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

P.Adl. 11Pathyris99 BC

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

P.Grenf. 2 35Pathyris99 BC

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

And He spoke to them many things in parables saying; Behold went out the [one] sowing <the> to sow.
ἐλάλησενlaleō He spoke G2980 Verb · aorist · active · indicative · third person · singular
298× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Matthew as anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
To speak or talk, as in Matthew 9:33 and 12:46, where Jesus speaks to the crowds. It can also mean to utter words, like in Revelation 4:1. This word is often translated as preach, say, or tell in the KJV.
Amplified meaning
spoke, shared
Tyndale gloss
to speak
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

λαλέω (laleo) means to talk or speak, often implying a vocal utterance. It can refer to both human speech and the sounds made by animals or inanimate objects. The New Testament uses it in various contexts, such as to convey messages or make declarations (e.g., Matthew 9:33). Notably, it differs from λέγω (lego), which focuses more on the meaning of what is said.

Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament — λαλέω, λέγω, λαλιά, λόγος from a scan

In dealing with synonyms of the N. T. we plainly need not concern ourselves with such earlier, or even contemporary, uses of the words which we are discriminating, as lie altogether outside of the N. T. sphere, when these uses do not illustrate, and have not affected, their Scriptural employment. It follows from this that all those contemptuous uses of λαλεῖν as to talk at random, as one ἀθυρόστομος, or with no door to his lips, might do; of λαλιά, as chatter («Kpacia λόγου ἄλογος, Plato, Defin. 416)—for I cannot believe that we are to find this at John iv. 42—may be dismissed and set aside. The antithesis in the line of Eupolis (Meineke, /ragm. Com. Gr. p. 174), Λαλεῖν ἄριστος, ἀδυνατώτατος λέγειν, does little or nothing to illustrate the matter in hand. The distinction which indeed exists between the words may in this way be made clear. There are two leading aspects under which speech…

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Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

λαλέω, -ῶ,

[in LXX chiefly for דּבר pi., also for אמר, etc.;]

to utter: of inanimate things, Re 4:1 10:4; metaph., He 11:4 12:24.

to talk, speak, say: absol., Mt 9:33 12:46, Mk 5:35, Lk 8:49; seq. ὡς, I Co 13:11, Re 13:11; εἰς, I Co 14:9; ἐκ, Mt 12:34; c. acc. rei, Mt 10:19, Mk 11:32, Jo…

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

λαλέω, -@; impf. 3 pers. sing. ἐλάλει, plur. ἐλάλουν; fut. AaAjow; 1 aor. ἐλάλησα; pf. λελάληκα; Pass., pres. λαλοῦμαι; pf. λελάλημαι; 1 aor. ἐλαλήθην; 1 fut. λαληθήcopa; [ἴτ. Soph. down]; found in bibl. Grk. much more freq. than in prof. auth., in Sept. times without number for 739 or 135, more rarely for V8; prop. to uller a sound (ef. [onomatop. /a-/a, ete.] Germ. lallen), to emit a voice, make one’s self heard ; hence to utter or form words with the mouth, to speak, haying reference to the sound and pronunciation of the words and in general the form of what is uttered, while λέγω refers to the meaning and substance of what is spoken; hence λαλεῖν is employed not only of men, esp. when chatting and prattling, but also of animals (of birds, Mosch. 3, 47 ; of locusts, Theoer. 5, 34; λαλοῦσι μέν, οὐ φράζουσι δέ, of dogs and apes, Plut. mor. ii. p. 909 a.), and so of inanimate things (as…

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

λαλέω. In P Amh II. 1315 (early ii/A.D.) a brother writes to his sister with reference to the management of certain family property, stating that he will remain where he is until he learns that all is safely settled, and adding—eédml{w δὲ θεῶν θελόντων ἐκ τῶν λαλουμένων διαφεύξεσθαι Kal μετὰ τὴν πεντεκαιδεκάτην ἀναπλεύσειν, “ but I hope, if the gods will, to escape from the talking and after the fifteenth to return home.’”’ See also P Oxy I. 1198 (ii/iii A.D.) (= Selections, p- 103) where the naughty boy writes to his father— οὐ θέλις ἀπενέκκειν μετ᾽ ἐσοῦ els ᾿Αλεξανδρίαν, od μὴ γράψω σε ἐπιστολήν, οὔτε λαλῶ σε, οὔτε υἱγένω σε εἶτα, “if you refuse to take me along with you to Alexandria, I won’t write you a letter, or speak to you, or wish you health henceforth,” P Fay 1264 (ii/iii A.D.) ἤκουσα φίλον Tod πατρός μου λαλοῦνTos περὶ σοῦ ὅτι πεμψεν (/. ἔπεμψεν) ἐπὶ τὴν πενθερά (/.—pav) σου…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

λαλέω (laleō) — to speak.

λᾰλ-έω,

talk, chat, prattle, ἕπου καὶ μὴ λάλει [Refs 5th c.BC+]: with dative, talk to one, λαλῶν ἐν ταῖς ὁδοῖς σεαυτῷ [Refs 5th c.BC+]; opposed to λέγω, λαλεῖν ἄριστος, ἀδυνατώτατος λέγειν [Refs 5th c.BC+]; λαλῶν μὲν.., λέγων δέ.. [Refs 4th c.BC+]

__b generally, talk, speak, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

2. talk of, τινα [Refs 3rd c.BC+]:—passive, πρᾶγμα κατ᾽ ἀγορὰν λαλούμενον [Refs 5th c.BC+]

3. in later writers, ={λέγω}, speak, λαλεῖ οὐθὲν τῶν ἄλλων ζῴων πλὴν ἀνθρώπου [NT+5th c.BC+]; χειρσὶν ἅπαντα λαλήσας, of a pantomime, [NT+3rd c.BC+]passive, λαληθήσεταί σοι ὅ τι σε δεῖ ποιεῖν it shall be told thee.., [NT]

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

λαλέω

laleo

a prolonged form of an otherwise obsolete verb; to talk, i.e. utter

words:--preach, say, speak (after), talk, tell, utter. Compare 3004.

see GREEK for 3004

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

λαλέω

v.

I speak, say

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

λαλέω laleō 296x

to make vocal utterance; to babble, to talk; in NT absol. to exercise the faculty of speech, Mt. 9:33; to speak, Mt. 10:20; to hold converse with, to talk with, Mt. 12:46; Mk. 6:50; Rev. 1:12; to discourse, to make an address, Lk. 11:37; Acts 11:20; 21:39; to make announcement, to make a declaration, Lk. 1:55; to make mention, Jn. 12:41; Read the full entry →

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

λαλέω λαλός to talk, chat, prattle, babble, Ar., etc.:—generally, to talk, say, Soph.

c. acc. to talk of, Theocr.

in late Gr., just like λέγω, to speak, NTest., Thuc.:—Pass., λαληθήσεταί σοι it shall be told thee, NTest.

the proper sense, to chatter, is sometimes opp. to articulate speech, as of monkeys, λαλοῦσι μὲν φράζουσι δὲ οὔ Plut.; of locusts, to chirp, Theocr.

of musical sounds, αὐλῶι λαλεῖν id. Theocr.

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Verb-AAI-3S — Verb · aorist · active · indicative · third person · singular
aorist active indicative — a completed action, viewed as a whole.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

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

Bible dictionarieson the English sense
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

spok (1Ki 7:33).

See SEA, THE MOLTEN.

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
20%speaking
speaking20% · 61×speak13% · 39×spoke9% · 27×he was speaking4% · 12×i speak3% · 10×speaks3% · 10×he spoke3% · 8×we speak3% · 8×other renderings41% · 123×

298 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 81 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
verb98%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 298 occurrences — a word inside a phrase counts towards whatever that phrase is doing.

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
Article the
εἰμίI am, existκαίand, even, also,σύ
αὐτός
ἔτιstill, yet, evenοὗτοςδέbut, on the othe
καίand, even, also, nam
αὐτόςθύραa door, opportunθεόςGod, a god
ὅς
πᾶςall, the whole, λόγοςa word, speech, ἀργόςidle, lazy, thou
οὗτος
ὥραan hour, seasonποιέωI do, makeὡςas, like as, how
λαλέωHe spoke298×
what comes after →
Article the
λόγοςa word, speech, ἸησοῦςJesusἑπτάIndec
αὐτός
Article theὁράωI see, look uponκαίand, even, also,
καίand, even, also, nam
Article theὅςβλέπωI look, see
σύ
ἵναin order that, sArticle theἔτιstill, yet, even
ἐν
Article theσύΠέργηPerga

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

Concordanceλαλέω · 298× in the New Testament
Acts John 1 Corinthians Luke Matthew Mark Hebrews Revelation 2 Corinthians 1 Thessalonians Ephesians James

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 661 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 The Shepherd of Hermas Ignatius of Antioch The Epistle of Barnabas Clement of Rome
Philo of AlexandriaAllegorical Interpretation of Genesis 3.101c. AD 40

διὰ τοῦτο Μωυσῆν ἀνακέκληκε καὶ ἐλάλησεν αὐτῷ ὁ θεός.

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 5.349c. AD 75–95

καὶ τοῦ θεοῦ φθεγξαμένου πάλιν ἀκούσας ἠξίου λαλεῖν ἐπὶ τοῖς χρωμένοις·

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
2nd c. AD 6th c. AD 4th c. AD 7th c. AD 3rd c. AD
BGU 3 822ArsinoitesAD 105

ἀπαιτεῖς τὴν ἐνμένουσαν ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ σου τὸ ἐνοίκιον. ἵνα εὕρωμεν καὶ ἡμεῖς εὔλογον λαλῆσαι αὐτῇ, γράψον Κουπανηοῦτι ἐπιστολήν, προστάξας, ἵνα εὕρῃ εὔλογον πρὸς αὐτὴν λαλῆσαι. θερμῶς ἀσπάζεταί σε

P.Mil.Vogl. 1 24Tebtynis (Arsinoites)AD 117

περὶ ἀργυρωματίων σὺν Κέρτῳ. εὔχομαί σε ἰσχύειν. περὶ Πτολλαρίωνος ἡ μήτηρ μέμφεται. οὐκ ἐμοὶ λαλεῖ, ἀλλὰ καὶ φεύγει με ἐὰν ἴδῃ, ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἐμοῖς ἀπομέμφεται αὐτόν. ἐγὼ ἐπιτιμῶ Πτολλαρίωνι·

P.Wisc. 2 73OxyrhynchitesAD 122–AD 123

περὶ τῶν ὀσπριδίων. περὶ τούτου οὐδὲν τετέλεσται. τὴν γὰρ ἀτιμίαν Θέων σοι κατʼ ὄψιν λαλήσει. ταχέως οὖν σπεῦσον, ὡς ἔγραψας, πρὸς ἡμᾶς γενέσθαι. ἀσπάζονταί σε οἱ ἐν οἴκωι πάντες.

And He spoke to them many things in parables saying; Behold went out the [one] sowing <the> to sow.
αὐτοῖςautos to them G846 Personal pronoun · dative · plural · masculine
5,550× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Matthew as anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
This pronoun refers to a person or thing, like 'he', 'she', or 'it'. It is used in the Bible to emphasize a person or thing, like in John 2:25 where it says 'he himself knew'.
Tyndale gloss
it/s/he
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

αὐτός is a pronoun meaning 'self' or 'the same,' used to emphasize distinction or opposition. It can function as a reflexive pronoun and appears frequently in the New Testament, often in contexts that highlight contrast or identity, such as in Luke 5:37 and John 2:25. The entries indicate that it can also be used in various grammatical constructions, including with articles to denote sameness.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

αὐτός, -ή, -ό,

determinative pron., in late Gk. much more freq. than in cl. (WM, 178 f.; Jannaris, HGG, §1399).

Emphatic (so always in nom. exc. when preceded by the art., v. infr., iii);

self (ipse), expressing opposition, distinction, exclusion, etc., αὐ. ἐκχυθήσεται, Lk 5:37; αὐ. ἐγινώσκεν, Jo 2:25; αὐ. ὑμεῖς, Jo 3:28; καὶ αὐ. ἐγώ, Ro 15:14; αὐ. Ἰησοῦς, Jo 2:24; αὐ. καὶ οἱ μετ’ αὐτοῦ, Mk 2:25; ὑμεῖς αὐ., Mk 6:31; esp. (as freq in cl.) αὐ. ὁ, Mt 3:4, Mk 6:17, Jo 16:27, I Th 3:11, al.; in late Gk., sometimes…

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

αὐτός, -7, -d, pron. (“derived from the particle αὖ with the added force of a demonstrative pronoun. In itself it signifies nothing more than again, applied to what has either been previously mentioned or, when the whole discourse is looked at, must necessarily be .upplied.” Klotz ad Devar. ii. p. 219; [see Vaniéek p. 268]). It is used by the bibl. writ. both of the O. T. and of the N. T. far more frequently than the other pronouns; and in this very frequent and almost inordinate use of it, they deviate greatly from prof. auth.; cf. B. § 127, 9. [On classic usage ef. Hermann, Opusce. i. 308 sqq., of which dissertation a summary is given in his edition of Viger pp- 732-736.] I. self, as used (in all persons, genders, numbers) to distinguish a person or thing from or contrast it with another, or to give him (it) emphatic prominence. ik When used to express Opposition or Distinction, it is…

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

αὐτός. The weakening of the old distinction between αὐτὸς 6 and ὁ αὐτός, especially in Luke, is noted in Proleg. p. 91, and paralleled from Hellenistic. We may add (cf. Linleitung p. 145f.) Sy// 8071 (ii/A.D.) αὐταῖς ταῖς ἡμέραις, where Dittenberger remarks ‘‘expectaveris ταῖς αὐταῖς," OG/S 383! (Antiochus of Commagene, i/8.c.) τὴν αὐτήν τε κρίσιν, for which Ditt. desiderates ταύτην τὴν κρίσιν, P Iib I. 30° (B.c. 265) αὐτὸς Ὧρος “the said H.,’’ P Lille I. 238 (B.C, 221) οὗ μ[ισ]θωτὴς Ἡρώδ[ης] ὁ αὐτός “ce méme L.,”’ P Oxy VI. 892% (A.D. 338) τῆς αὐτῆς πόλεως, 26. VIII. 1105 (A.D. 254) τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἀμφοδογραμματέως “the said a.’’: all these seem to be practically identical, with αὐτός differing little from ἐκεῖνος. The combination αὐτὸ τοῦτο may be illustrated by P Grenf I. 114 (literary, ii/B.c.) “ for this reason ” (Ed.) as in 2 Pet 1°, P Ryl 11. 77°9 (a.p. 192) καὶ αὐτὰ ταῦτα ἀσφαλίσομαι…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

αὐτός (autos) — it/s/he.

αὐτός

(Cretan dialect ἀϝτός [Refs] (also αὐτόν[Refs], reflexive pronoun, self:—in oblique cases used for the personal pronoun, him, her, it:—with Article, ὁ αὐτός, ἡ αὐτή, τὸ αὐτό (also ταὐτόν), etc., the very one, the same.

I. self, myself, thyself, etc., accusative to the person of the Verb: frequently joined with ἐγώ, σύ, etc. (see. below 10),

I.1. one's true self, the soul, not the body, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; reversely, body, not soul, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; oneself, as opposed to others who are less prominent, as king to subject, [Refs]; man to wife and children, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; warrior to horses, [Refs 8th c.BC+], or to weapons, [Refs]; shepherd to herd, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; seamen to ships, [Refs]: generally, whole to parts,[Refs 5th c.BC+]: absolutely, the Master, as in the [Refs 4th c.BC+]…

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

αὐτός

autos

from the particle au (perhaps akin to the base of 109 through the idea

of a baffling wind) (backward); the reflexive pronoun self, used

(alone or in the comparative 1438) of the third person , and (with the

proper personal pronoun) of the other persons:--her, it(-self), one,

the other, (mine) own, said, (self-), the) same, ((him-, my-, thy-

)self, (your-)selves, she, that, their(-s), them(-selves), there(-at,

- by, -in, -into, -of, -on, -with), they, (these) things, this (man),

those, together, very, which. Compare 848.

see GREEK for 109

see GREEK for 1438

see GREEK for 848

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

αὐτός, αὐτή, αὐτό

Pers.pr.

he, she, it, they, them, same

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

αὐτός autos 5x

self, very; alone, Mk. 6:31; 2 Cor. 12:13; of one’s self, of one’s own motion, Jn. 16:27; used also in the oblique cases independently as a personal pron. of the third person; ὁ αὐτός, the same; unchangeable, Heb. 1:12; κατὰ τὸ αὐτό, at the same time, together, Acts 14:1; ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό, in one and the same place, Mt. 22:34; at the same time, together, Acts 3:1

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

αὐτός self, Lat. ipse:— in the oblique cases simply for the personal Pron., him, her, it:— with the Artic. ὁ αὐτός, ἡ αὐτή, τὸ αὐτό (or ταὐτόν), etc., the very one, the same.

self, myself, thyself, etc., acc. to the person of the Verb., Hom., etc.:

oneself, one's true self, the soul, not the body, Od.; or opp. to others, as king to subjects, parent to children, man to wife, etc., Hom.; hence absol. for the master, τίς οὗτος;—Αὐτός, i. e. Socrates, Ar.; similarly in neut. αὐτὸ δείξει the result will shew, Eur.

of oneself, of one's own accord, Lat. sponte, Hom., Soph.

by oneself, alone, αὐτός περ ἐών although alone, Il.; αὐτοί ἐσμεν we are by ourselves, i. e. among friends, Ar.

in Plat., τὸ δίκαιον αὐτό right in itself, the idea of right, etc.; cf. αὐτοάνθρωπος.

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Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Pron-DPM — Personal pronoun · dative · plural · masculine
dative — to, for, with — the one it is done to or by.
Agrees with anything else marked plural masculine.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

P-DPM Part of Speech: Personal pronoun Case: Dative Number: Plural Gender: Masculine

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
52%him
him52% · 3025×them25% · 1488×it6% · 323×her4% · 250×other renderings10% · 587×other renderings3% · 188×

5,861 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 92 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
object33%adverbial28%indirect object19%subject18%predicate3%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 5,561 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
λέγωI say, speak
καίand, even, also,δέbut, on the otheἸησοῦςJesus
πρός
λέγωI say, speakἔρχομαιI come, goδέbut, on the othe
ἐν
Article theαὐτόςεὑρίσκωI find
δέbut, on the other ha
λέγωI say, speakοὗτοςὁράωI see, look upon
καίand, even, also, nam
αὐτόςσύθεόςGod, a god
αὐτόςto them5550×
what comes after →
Article the
ἸησοῦςJesusμαθητήςa learner, disciθεόςGod, a god
καίand, even, also, nam
Article theλέγωI say, speakαὐτός
λέγωI say, speak
αὐτόςτίςIrgκύριοςlord, Lord, mast
ἐν
Article theαὐτόςὅς
εἰς
Article theδικαιοσύνηjustice, justnesἹεροσόλυμαJerusalem

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

Concordanceαὐτός · 5,550× in the New Testament
Luke Matthew John Mark Acts Revelation Romans Hebrews 1 John 1 Corinthians Ephesians 2 Corinthians

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

Across the New Testament27 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The company it keepswords that stand beside it more often than chance
Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
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

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

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
2nd c. AD 3rd c. AD 6th c. AD 4th c. AD 1st c. AD
P.Stras. 2 89Pathyris100 BC

Πακοίβιος ἱερεὺς Σούχου καὶ Ἀφροδίτης ὡς ἐτῶν μ εὐμεγέθης μελίχρως μακροπρόσωπος εὐθύριν τὴν ὑπάρχουσαν αὐτῷ μερίδα γῆς σιτοφόρου ἐν τῷ περὶ Παθῦρειν πεδίωι σφραγίδων τεσσάρων , ἣν καὶ αὐτὸς

P.Adl. 11Pathyris99 BC

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

P.Grenf. 2 35Pathyris99 BC

ὡς ἐτῶν νε μέσος ἢ ἐλάσσων μελίχρως μακροπρόσωπος εὐθύριν ὑπόσκνιφος, καὶ Πετεαρσοῆρις Σχώτου τῶν αὐτῶν ἱερέων ὡς ἐτῶν ν μέσος ἢ ἐλασσων μελίχρως μακροπρόσωπος εὐθύριν ὑπόσκνιφος, ἀπὸ τοῦ ὑπάρχοντος

And He spoke to them many things in parables saying; Behold went out the [one] sowing <the> to sow.
πολλὰpolus many things G4183 Adjective · accusative · plural · neuter
413× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Matthew as anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
This word means much or many, and is used to describe things like large crowds, as in Mark 5:24, or a great amount of time, as in Matthew 25:19. It emphasizes the magnitude of something.
Amplified meaning
much, a great amount
Tyndale gloss
much
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

πολύς (polus) means much or many, covering a range of contexts from quantity to degree and value. It appears as an adjective and can also function as a noun or adverb. In the New Testament, it is used to describe large numbers of people or things, as seen in verses like Matthew 9:37 and John 6:10. The lexicons do not show significant disagreement on its meanings.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

πολύς, πολλή, πολύ,

[in LXX chiefly for רַב and cognate forms;]

as adj., much, many, great, of number, space, degree, value, time, etc.: ἀριθμός, Ac 11:21; ὄχλος, Mk 5:24; θερισμός, Mt 9:37; χόρτος, Jo 6:10; χρόνος, Mt 25:19; γογγυσμός, Jo 7:12; πόνος, Col 4:13; δόξα, Mt 24:30; σιγή, Ac 21:40; pl., προφῆται, Mt 13:17; ὄχλοι, Mt 4:25; δαιμόνια, Read the full entry →

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

πολύς, πολλή (fr. an older form πολλός, found in Hom., Hes., Pind.), πολύ; [(cf. Curtius § 375)]; Sept. chiefly for 39; much; used a. of multitude, number, etc., many, numerous, great: ἀριθμός, Acts xi. 21; λαός, Acts xviii. 10; ὄχλος, Mk. v. 24; vi. 34; [viii.1 LT Tr WH]; Lk. vii. 11; viii. 4; Jn. vi. 2,5; Rev. vii. 9; xix. 6, etc.; πλῆθος, Mk. iii. 7sq.; Lk. v. 6; Acts xiv. 1, ete.; 1. q. abundant, plenteous [A. V. often much], καρπός, Jn. xii. 24; xv. 5,8; θερισμός, (the harvest to be gathered), Mt. ix. 37; Lk. x. 2; γῆ, Mt. xiii. 5; Mk. iv. 5; χόρτος, Jn. vi. 10; οἶνος, 1 Tim. iii. 8; plur. πολλοὶ τελῶναι, Mt. ix. 10; Mk. ii. 15; πολλοὶ προφῆται, Mt. xiii. 17; Lk. x. 24; σοφοί, 1 Co. i. 26; πατέρες, 1 Co. iv. 15; δυνάμεις, Mt. vii. 22; xiii. 58, ete.; ὄχλοι, Mt. iv. 25; viii. 1; xii. 15 [but here L TWH om. Trbr. ὄχ.7; Lk. v. 15, ete.; δαιμόνια, Mk.i. 34; and in many otherexx.; with…

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

πολύς, “much,” plur. ‘‘many’’: P Petr I. 2905 (iii/B.c.) χάρις τοῖς θεοῖς πολλὴ εἰ ὑγιαίνεις, ‘‘much thanks to the gods if you are well,” P Ryl II. 2435 (ii/A.D.) τοῦτο οὐ μόνον ἡμεῖν yevapevov ἀλλὰ Kal πολλοῖς, ‘this has happened not to us only but to many ” (Edd.), and 16. 238* (A.p. 262) διὰ πολλὰς χρείας, “for various needs’ (Edd.). The word is very conimon in epistolary greetings (πολλὰ χαίρειν : exx. from B.C. 118 to ili/iv A.D. in Exler Eprstolography p. 27 f.) and in rhetorical prefaces (Sirach proem.), and consequently, as Cadbury suggests (in Jackson and Lake Beginnings of Christianity Part I. Vol. ii. p. 492 f.), πολλοί must not be pressed to mean “ἡ Ac 243, 10, For the adverbial πολλά, which ‘‘ lies between πολύ and πολλάκις : it is ‘much’ with the idea of plurality and repetition introduced’’ (Hort ad Jas 32), cf. P Heid 622 (iv/a.p.) (= Selections, p. 127) πολλὰ…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

πολύς (polus) — much.

πολύς,

Attic dialect πολλή, πολ; genitive πολλοῦ, ῆς, ou=; dative πολλῷ, ῇ, ; accusative πολύν, πολλήν, πολύ:—Ionic dialect πολλός [Refs 6th c.BC+], πολλή, πολλόν [Refs 6th c.BC+]; also in Trag., [Refs 5th c.BC+]; accusative πολλόν, πολλήν, πολλόν: [Refs 5th c.BC+] uses the Ionic dialect forms, but codices have πολύν [Refs 1st c.AD+]:—both sets of forms are found in Epic dialect, also genitive singular πολέος [Refs 8th c.BC+], once contraction πολεῖς [Refs]; dative πολέσι [Refs 8th c.BC+]; accusative πολέας (trisyllable) [Refs 8th c.BC+] (frequently with variant{πολεῖς} [Refs 8th c.BC+]; in later Epic dialect πολέες is used as feminine, [Refs 3rd c.BC+]:—Epic dialect also have πουλύς (once in [Refs 8th c.BC+]; these forms are found in codices of [Refs 5th c.BC+] — Lyric poetry and Trag. (Lyric poetry) sometimes use Epic dialect forms, dative singular…

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Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

πολύς, πολλή, πολύ

Adj

much, many, often

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

πολύς polys 416x

great in magnitude or quantity, much, large, Mt. 13:5; Jn. 3:23; 15:8; pl. many, Mt. 3:7; in time, long, Mt. 25:19; Mk. 6:35; Jn. 5:6; οἱ πολλοί, the many, the mass, Rom. 5:15; 12:5; 1 Cor. 10:33; τὸ πολύ, much, 2 Cor. 8:15; πολύ, as an adv., much, greatly, Mk. 12:27; Lk. 7:47; of…

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Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

πολύς the ionic declension πολλός, ή, όν is retained by the attic in all cases, except the nom. and acc. masc. and neut. Hom. uses both ionic and attic forms. of Number, many, opp. to ὀλίγος, Hom., etc.;— with nouns of multitude, πουλὺς ὅμιλος Od.; πολλὸν πλῆθος Hdt., etc.:—also of anything often repeated, πολλὸν ἦν τοῦτο τὸ ἔπος id. Hdt.; πολλὸς αἰνεόμενος id. Hdt.; τούτῳ πολλῷ χρήσεται τῷ λόγῳ often, Dem.

of Size, Degree, Force, much, mighty, great, Il., etc.; π. ὕπνος deep sleep, Od.; π. ὑμέναιος a loud song, Il., etc.:—rarely of a single person, μέγας καὶ πολλὸς ἐγένεο Hdt.; ἢν πολλῇ ῥυῇ if she flow with full stream, metaph. from a river, Eur.; πολλῷ ῥέοντι Dem.; from the wind, πολὺς ἔπνει was blowing strong, id. Dem.; often with a Partic., πολλὸς ἦν λισσόμενος…

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

A-APN Part of Speech: Adjective Case: Accusative Number: Plural Gender: Neuter

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
52%many
many52% · 196×great17% · 66×much17% · 65×many things6% · 21×other renderings6% · 23×other renderings2% · 7×

378 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 20 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
subject36%adverbial29%object22%predicate10%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 354 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,ὅςεἰς
καίand, even, also, nam
αὐτόςἀπώλειαdestruction, ruiἀπέρχομαιI come or go awa
ὄχλοςa crowd
αὐτόςὁράωI see, look uponκαίand, even, also,
δέbut, on the other ha
Article theὁράωI see, look uponμετά
αὐτός
παρακαλέωI summon, entreaἀκολουθέωI accompany, attλαλέωI speak, say
πολύςmany things413×
what comes after →
Article the
δέbut, on the otheπρῶτοςfirst, beforeσυναναβαίνωI go up with
καίand, even, also, nam
ὡςas, like as, howθεραπεύωI care for, atteεὐθέωςimmediately, soo
δέbut, on the other ha
εἰμίI am, existἐκτέραςa wonder, porten
γάρfor
ἔρχομαιI come, goεἰμίI am, existπάσχωI am acted upon,
μᾶλλονmore, rather
Article theκράζωI cry aloud, shrσύ

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

Concordanceπολύς · 413× in the New Testament
Acts Luke Mark Matthew John 2 Corinthians 1 Corinthians Romans Revelation Hebrews 1 Timothy 1 Thessalonians

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

Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
Josephus Philo of Alexandria The Shepherd of Hermas Clement of Rome Ignatius of Antioch
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 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 1.1c. 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 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
2nd c. AD 4th c. AD 3rd c. AD 6th c. AD 3rd c. BC
P.Grenf. 1 38Pathyrites171 BC

τῶι προγεγραμμένωι ἱερῶι, ὁ ἐνκεκλημένος προσπηδήσας μοι ἐνώπιόν τινων ἔτυπτεν ἧι εἶχεν ῥάβδωι πληγαῖς πλειόσιν εἰς τὸ τυχὸν μέρος τοῦ σώματός μου. ὅ τε περιεβλήμην, ὀθόνιον κατέρηξεν, περὶ ὦν

P.Grenf. 1 42Diospolis Parva170 BC–169 BC

νυνὶ παρεφεδρευόντων ἐν Διὸς πόλει τῆι μικρᾶι ἀπὸ τῶν ἐν τῶι ἐν Πτολεμαίδι ὑπαίθρωι. πολλὰς χρείας μισθοφόρων ἱππέων παρεσχημένων ἡμῶν ἤδη πολλάκις κατὰ τὸν πόλεμον καὶ κινδύνους μεγάλους

μέρους ἡμίσους ἀπὸ ἐδάφους ἀμπελῶνος ἀρουρῶν β ἡμίσους ἢ ὅσαν ἂν ἦι ἐπὶ τὸ πλεῖον καὶ τοῦ ἀπὸ ἀπηλιώτου αὐτοῦ παραδείσου καὶ φρεάτων καὶ ἐποικίων καὶ ληνῶνος καὶ γῆς

And He spoke to them many things in parables saying; Behold went out the [one] sowing <the> to sow.
ἐνen in G1722 Preposition
2,743× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Matthew as anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
This word is a preposition that means in, on, or among something. It's used in many places, like Matthew 7:3 and Luke 7:37, to describe a location or relationship. It can also mean by, with, or during.
Tyndale gloss
in/on/among
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The most frequent preposition in the New Testament, 2,752 occurrences. In, on, at, among, within — its force comes almost entirely from the word it is attached to. What it does here is put the events inside a community rather than at a distance: they were fulfilled among us.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

ἐν,

prep, (the most freq. of all in NT), c. dat. (= Heb. בְּ, Lat. in, c. abl.).

Of place, c. dat. rei, pers., in, within, on, at, by, among: ἐν τ. πόλει, Lk 7:37; τ. οφθαλμῷ, Mt 7:3; τ. κοιλίᾳ, Mt 12:40; τ. ὄρει, II Pe 1:18; τ. θρόνῳ, Re 3:21; τ. δεξιᾷ τ. θεοῦ, Ro 8:34; ἐν ἡμῖν , Lk 1:1; of books, ἐν τ. βιβλίῳ, Ga 3:10; τ. νόμῳ, Mt 12:5, al.; ἐν τοῖς τ. Πατρός, in my Father's house (RV; cf. M, Pr., 103)…

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

ἐν Χριστῷ, ἐν Χριστῷ ᾿Ιησοῦ, ἐν κυρίῳ, (οἴ. Fritzsche, Com. on Rom. vol. ii. p. 82 544.; W. 389 (364); Weiss, Bibl. Theol. des N. T. §§ 84 b., 149 c.), ingrafied as it were in Christ, in fellowship and union with Christ, with the Lord: Ro. iii. 24; vi. 11, 23; viii. 39; 1Co.i.4; 2 Co. iii. 14; Gal. ii. 4; iii. 14, 26, 28; v. 6; Eph.i. 3 [Rec. om. ἐν]; ii. 6 sq. 10,13; 1 Tim.i.14; 2 Tim.i. 1,13; ii-1; 1 Pet. iii. 16; v.10; στήκειν ἐν κυρίῳ, Phil. iv. 1; iva εὑρεθῶ ἐν αὐτῷ, that I may be found (by God and Christ) most intimately united to him, Phil. iii. 9; εἶναι ἐν Χριστῷ "Inc. 1 Co. i. 30; οἱ ἐν Xp. "Ina. Ro. viii. 1; 1 Pet. v. 14; κοιμᾶσθαι ἐν Χριστῷ, θνήσκειν ἐν κυρίῳ, to fall asleep, to die, mindful of relationship to Christ and confiding in it [W. u.s.], 1 Co. xv. 18; Rey. xiv. 13. Since such union with Christ is the basis on which actions and virtues rest, the expression is…

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

ἐν 210 contract—time of Augustus) ἱμάτια γυναικεῖα ἐν apyv(plov) δραχμαῖς ἑκατόν, P Oxy IV. 7247 (A.D. 155) ἐξ ὧν ἔσχες τὴν πρώτην δόσιν ἐν δραχμαῖς τεσσαράκοντα, 70. I. 565 (A.D. 211) δανειζομένη. .. ἀργύριον ἔντοκον ἐν δραχμαῖς ἑξακισχειλίαις, and P Grenf II. 778 (iii/iv a.p.) (=Selections, Pp. 120) το]ὺς μισθοὺς. . ὄντας ἐν δραχμαῖς τριακοσίαις τεσσαράκοντα. Similar are P Oxy IV. 7084 (a.p. 188) yopou . . ἐν (1vpod)(apraBats) ’B, BGU 1. 724 (a.p. 191) ἐξέκοψαν πλεῖστον τόπον ἐν ἀρούραις πέντε: with which may be compared Eph 2!° τὸν νόμον τῶν ἐντολῶν ἐν δόγμασιν, “consisting in.” In P Lond 9215 (ii/iii a.p.) (ΞΞ 111. P- 134) γεγονέναι ἐν ἀμπέλῳ = ‘to be planted with vines.” A predicative use of ἐν is seen in P Hib I. 421° (B.c. 262) δώσομεν Λευκίωι ἐν ὀφειλήματι, ‘asa debt,” P Petr I. 1215 (cf. II. p. 22) ὅσα δὲ ᾿Αξιοθέα προσενήνεγκται ἐμ φερνῆι, “ἐᾷς dowry,” and P Tebt I. 120 135…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

ἐν (en) — in/on/among.

ἐν,

poetry ἐνί, εἰν, εἰνί [Refs 8th c.BC+], forms used by Epic dialect and Lyric Poets as the metre requires, but only as falsa lectio in Trag., εἰν [Refs 5th c.BC+] ἰν [Refs]

__PREP. WITH DAT. AND ACC. Radical sense, in, into.

__A WITH DAT.

__A.I OF PLACE,

__A.I.1 in, νήσῳ ἐν ἀμφιρύτῃ [Refs 8th c.BC+]; with names of cities or islands, as ἐν Ἀθήνῃς, ἐν Τροίῃ, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; where ἐν is used, it = in the district of.., ὲν Ἐλευσῖνι [Refs] in my arms, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; ἐν αὑτῷ εἶναι to be in one's senses, be oneself, ἔτ᾽ ἐν σαυτῷ (variant -τοῦ) γενοῦ [Refs 5th c.BC+]

__A.I.1.b ἐν τοῖς ἰχθύσιν in the fish-market, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; so ἐν τοῖν δυοῖν ὀβολοῖν ἐθεώρουν ἄν in the two-obol seats, [Refs 4th…

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

ἐν

en

a primary preposition denoting (fixed) position (in place, time or

state), and (by implication) instrumentality (medially or

constructively), i.e. a relation of rest (intermediate between 1519

and 1537); "in," at, (up-)on, by, etc.:--about, after, against, +

almost, X altogether, among, X as, at, before, between, (here-)by (+

all means), for (... sake of), + give self wholly to, (here-)in(-to,

-wardly), X mightily, (because) of, (up-)on, (open-)ly, X outwardly,

one, X quickly,

X shortly, (speedi-)ly, X that, X there(-in, -on),

through(-out), (un-)to(-ward), under, when, where(-with), while,

with(-in). Often used in compounds, with substantially the same

import; rarely with verbs of motion, and then not to indicate

direction, except (elliptically) by a separate (and different)

preposition.

see GREEK for 1519

see GREEK for 1537

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

ἐν

Prep.

in, on, among

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

ἐν en 2x

followed by the dat., in, Mt. 8:6; Mk. 12:26; Rev. 6:6,; upon, Lk. 8:32; among, Mt. 11:11; before, in the presence of, Mk. 8:38; in the sight, estimation of, 1 Cor. 14:11; before, judicially, 1 Cor. 6:2; in, of state, occupation, habit, Mt. 21:22; Lk. 7:25; Rom. 4:10; in the case of, Read the full entry →

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

ἐν

e)nprepe)ni/prep ei)nprep ei)ni/prep in, among. c. dat.

Lat. in.

PREP. WITH DAT.:

OF PLACE

in, ἐν νήσῳ, ἐν Τροίῃ, etc., Hom., etc.:—elliptic, ἐν Ἀλκινόοιο (sc. οἴκῳ) Od.; εἰν Ἀΐδαο Il.; ἐν παιδοτρίβου at the school of the training master, Ar.

in, upon, ἐν οὔρεσι Hom., etc.

in the number of, amongst, ἐν Δαναοῖς, etc., Hom.; and with Verbs of ruling, ἄρχειν, ἀνάσσειν ἐν πολλοῖς to be first or lord among many, i. e. over them, id. Hom.; cf. ὁ, τό B. III. 3.

in one's hands, within one's reach or power, Lat. penes, Hom., etc.; ἐν σοὶ γάρ ἐσμεν Soph.; ἐν τῷ θεῷ τὸ τέλος ἦν Dem.

in respect of, ἐν γήρᾳ in point of age, Soph.

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

PREP PREPosition

Bible dictionarieson the English sense
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

A principal thing to notice about this preposition, which in the King James Version represents about 16 Hebrew and as many Greek words and prepositions, is that, in hundreds of cases (especially in the Old Testament, but frequently also in the New Testament) in the Revised Version (British and American) the rendering is changed to more exact forms ("to," "unto," "by," "upon," "at," "with," "among," "for," "throughout," etc.; compare e.g. Ge 6:16; 13:8; 17:7,9,12; 18:1; Ex 8:17; Le 1:9, etc.); while, nearly as often, "in" is substituted for divergent forms of the King James Version (e.g. Ge 2:14; 17:11; 31:54; 40:7; 49:17; Ex…

Across the New Testament27 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
And He spoke to them many things in parables saying; Behold went out the [one] sowing <the> to sow.
παραβολαῖςparabolē parables G3850 Noun · dative · plural · feminine
50× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in Matthew than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
A parable is a story that teaches a moral lesson by comparing two things. Jesus often used parables in his teachings, like the parable of the fig tree in Matthew 24:32.
Amplified meaning
stories that teach, comparisons
Tyndale gloss
parable
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word παραβολή (i.e., *parabolē*) means a placing beside or a comparison. It is often used in the New Testament to refer specifically to parables—fictitious narratives that convey moral or religious lessons, as seen in passages like Matthew 13:3 and Mark 4:2. The term can also denote proverbs or aphorisms, reflecting its broader use in literature.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

παραβολή, -ῆς, ἡ

(< παραβάλλω),

[in LXX (cf. McNeile, Mt., 185): Nu 23:7, De 28:37, Ps 43 (44):14, Pr 1:6, Ez 12:22, al. (מָשָׁל), Si 47:17 (חִידָה), al. mutt. in Si, Wi 5:3;]

a placing beside, juxtaposition (Polyb., al.).

a comparing, comparison (Plat., Arist., al.).

a comparison, illustration, analogy, figure (Arist., al.): Mt 24:32, Mk 3:23, He 9:9 11:19; specif. of the pictures and narratives drawn from nature and human life which are characteristic of the synoptic teaching of our Lord, a parable: Mt 13:3, 10, Mk 4:2, 10, Lk 8:4, 9-11…

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

παραβολή, -ῆς, ἡ, (παραβάλλω, q. v.), Sept. for own ; 1. a placing of one thing by the side of another, juxtaposition, as of ships in battle, Polyb. 15, 2, 13; Diod. 14, 60. 2. metaph. a comparing, comparison of one thing with another, likeness, similitude, (Plat., Isocr., Polyb., Plut.): univ., Mt. xxiv. 32; Mk. xiii. 28; an example by which a doctrine or precept is illustrated, Mk. iii. 23; Lk. xiv. 7; a thing serving as a figure of something else, Heb. ix. 9; this meaning also very many interpreters give the word in Heb. xi. 19, but see 5 below; spec. a narrative, fictitious but agreeable to the laws and usages of human life, by which either the duties of men or the things of God, particularly the nature and history of God’s kingdom, are figuratively portrayed (cf. B. Ὁ. s. vv. Fable, Parable, (and reff. there ; add Aristot. rhet. 2, 20, 2 sqq. and Cope’s notes) ]: Mt. xiii. 3, 10…

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

παραβολή. Our sources throw no special light upon this word which in the NT is found only in the Synoptics = ‘* parable,” “*similitude,” and 67s in Heb (9%, 1119) = ‘‘ figure,” ‘‘ type.” For Heb 11*, where Isaac’s restoration was to Abraham a sort of resurrection, Moffatt (7CC ad 1) cites Aelian Var. Hist. ili. 33 describing Satyrus the flautist—tpémoy twa τὴν τέχνην ἐκφαυλιίζων παραβολῇ τῇ πρὸς φιλοσοφίαν. According to Quintil. v. 11. 23 “᾿ παραβολή, quam Cicero collationem vocat, longius res quae comparentur repetere solet.”’ See further, especially for the Biblical usage, Hatch, Essay\, p. 64 ff. In P Flor ΠῚ. 384°% (v/A.p. ?) τὰς τοῦ μηχανοστασίου παραβολάς, the editor understands π᾿ as = “ riparazioni.’

Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

παραβολή (parabolē) — parable.

παραβολ-ή, ἡ,

juxtaposition, comparison, τῶν βίων [Refs 5th c.BC+]; ἐν παραβολῇ by juxtaposition, [Refs 4th c.BC+]

2. comparison, illustration, analogy, τὴν π. ἀπρεπῆ πεποιῆσθαι [Refs 5th c.BC+]; π. δὲ τὰ Σωκρατικά (distinguished from λόγος, apologue) [Refs 4th c.BC+]

3. NT, parable, [NT]; type, Ep. Hebrew 9.9, 11.19.

4. by-word, proverb, [LXX+NT]; in bad sense, εἰς π. ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσι [LXX]

5. objection to an argument, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

II. moving side by side, ἐκ παραβολῆς [νεῶν] μάχεσθαι to fight a sea-fight broadside to broadside, [Refs 2nd c.BC+]

III. sidelong direction, obliquity, διὰ πολλῶν ἑλιγμῶν καὶ π. [Refs 1st c.AD+]

IV. venture, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

παραβολή

parabole

from 3846; a similitude ("parable"), i.e. (symbolic) fictitious

narrative (of common life conveying a moral), apothegm or

adage:--comparison, figure, parable, proverb.

see GREEK for 3846

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

παραβολή, ῆς, ἡ

n.f.

a parable, comparison

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

παραβολή parabolē 50x

a placing one thing by the side of another; a comparing; a parallel case cited in illustration; a comparison, simile, similitude, Mk. 4:30; Heb. 11:19; a parable, a short relation under which something else is figured, or in which that which is fictitious is employed to represent that which is real, Mt. 13:3, 10, 13, 18, 24, 31, 33, 34, 36, 53; 21:33, 45; 22:1; 24:32; in NT a type, pattern, emblem, Heb. 9:9; a sentiment, grave and significant precept, maxim, Lk. 14:7; an obscure and enigmatical saying, anything expressed in remote and ambiguous terms, Read the full entry →

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

παραβολή παραβολή, ἡ, παραβάλλω juxta-position, comparison, Plat.

a comparison, illustration, analogy, Arist.

a parable, i. e. a fictitious narrative by which some religious or moral lesson is conveyed, NTest.

a by-word, proverb, id. NTest.

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Noun-DPF — Noun · dative · plural · feminine
dative — to, for, with — the one it is done to or by.
Agrees with anything else marked plural feminine.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

N-DPF Part of Speech: Noun Case: Dative Number: Plural Gender: Feminine

Bible dictionarieson the English sense
Nave's Topical Bible

→ Of the trees Jud 9:8-15

→ Of the lamb 2Sa 12:1-6

→ Of the woman of Tekoa 2Sa 14:5-12

→ Of the garment which was torn in pieces 1Ki 11:30-32

→ Of the prisoner of war 1Ki 20:39-41

→ Of the thistle and cedar 2Ki 14:9

→ Of a vine of Egypt Ps 80:8-16

→ Of the vineyard Isa 5:1-7; 27:2,3

→ Of the husbandman Isa 28:23-29

Torrey's New Topical Textbook

- Remarkable Parables of the Old Testament

Jud 9:8-15; 2Sa 12:1-4; 14:5-7

- PARABLES OF CHRIST

. Wise and foolish builders

Mt 7:24-27

. Children of the bride chamber

Mt 9:15

. New cloth and old garment

Mt 9:16

. New wine and old bottles

Mt 9:17

. Unclean spirit

Mt 12:43

. Sower

Mt 13:3-23; Lu 8:5-15

. Tares

Mt 13:24-30,36-43

. Mustard-seed

Thompson Chain Reference topics

(1) Of the Old Testament

Of Jotham

Jud 9:7

Of Nathan

2Sa 12:1

Of Woman of Tekoa

2Sa 14:15

Of a Prophet

1Ki 20:39

Of Joash

2Ki 14:9; 2Ch 25:18

Of the Prophets

Isa 5:1; Jer 13:1; Eze 17:3; 19:2,3; 24:3

(2) Of Christ

I. In One Gospel Only

Mt. Mr. Lu.

The Barren Fig Tree.................. -- -- 13

The Draw Net......................... 13 -- --

The Friend at Midnight............... -- -- 11

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
60%parable
parable60% · 30×parables34% · 17×symbol2% · 1×simile2% · 1×proverb2% · 1×

50 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
object56%adverbial34%second object4%subject4%predicate2%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 50 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
ἐγώαὐτόςμανθάνωI learn, ascerta
ἐν
αὐτόςπολύςmuch, many, ofteτίςIrg
ἄλλοςother, another, diff
δέbut, on the other ha
λέγωI say, speakχωρίςapart from, with
καίand, even, also, nam
δέbut, on the othe
παραβολήparables50×
what comes after →
οὗτος
λέγωI say, speakμεταίρωI change my posiκαίand, even, also,
αὐτός
λαλέωI speak, sayγινώσκωI come to know, λέγωI say, speak
Article the
σπείρωI sow, spread, sὄχλοςa crowdστόμαthe mouth, speec
λέγωI say, speak
ὁράωI see, look uponαὐτόςκαίand, even, also,
λαλέωI speak, say
αὐτόςἀμπελώνa vineyard

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

Concordanceπαραβολή · 50× in the New Testament
Luke Matthew Mark Hebrews
Across the New Testament4 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
The Shepherd of Hermas The Epistle of Barnabas Josephus Philo of Alexandria
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Confusion of Tongues 99c. AD 40

παγκάλως δ’ ἔχει τὸ ἐν παραβολῆς εἴδει φάναι τὸν κόσμον ὡς εἶδος πλίνθου·

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 8.44c. AD 75–95

καθʼ ἕκαστον γὰρ εἶδος δένδρου παραβολὴν εἶπεν ἀπὸ ὑσσώπου ἕως κέδρου, τὸν αὐτὸν δὲ τρόπον καὶ περὶ κτηνῶν καὶ τῶν ἐπιγείων ἁπάντων ζῴων καὶ τῶν νηκτῶν καὶ τῶν ἀερίων·

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 6.10c. AD 100

εὐλογητὸς ὁ κύριος ἡμῶν, ἀδελφοί, ὁ σοφίαν καὶ νοῦν θέμενος ἐν ἡμῖν τῶν κρυφίων αὐτοῦ: λέγει γὰρ ὁ προφήτης παραβολὴν κυρίου: τίς νοήσει, εἰ μὴ σοφὸς καὶ ἐπιστήμων καὶ ἀγαπῶν τὸν κύριον αὐτοῦ;

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
3rd c. BC 5th c. AD 8th c. AD
P.Enteux. 2Krokodilopolis (Arsinoites219 BC

πεντώβολον χαλκοῦς 2, οὓς συνηγόρακα Ἀμύνται ὥστε … … … ειαν ἀπὸ τῆς βασιλικῆς παραβολῆς, καὶ λαβὼν παρʼ ἐμοῦ ἀρραβῶνα δραχμὰς οϛ, ἐφʼ ὧι τὸ λοιπὸν … ἀποδώσω αὐτῶι

P.Flor. 3 384AlexandriaAD 489

ἀλληλεγγύων ποιουμένων τὴν τοῦ αυ … τ … ουχυλ ἐπισκευὴν καὶ τὰς τοῦ μηχανοστασίου παραβολὰς, χυλ … … ντος δὲ καὶ τὰ σχοινία καὶ τοὺς κάδους καὶ τὰς

SB 20 14444HermopolitesAD 710

Γεωργίου χρυσουποδέκτῃ ἀπὸ πόλεως Ἡρακλέους· ἐτάγη διὰ σοῦ ἐκ τοῦ εὑρεθέντος κατὰ σοῦ κατὰ παραβολὴν ἀρίθμια νομισμάτια ϛ, ἓξ μόνα· ἐγράφη μηνὸς Θὼθ θ ἰνδικτίονος η ὀγδόης ἔτους ϙα

And He spoke to them many things in parables saying; Behold went out the [one] sowing <the> to sow.
λέγων·legō saying; G3004 Verb · present · active · participle · nominative · singular · masculine
2,255× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Matthew as anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
This word means to say or speak, and it is used by Jesus and others in the New Testament to share teachings and tell stories. It appears in Matthew 9:34 and John 1:29.
Tyndale gloss
to say
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

λέγω (legō) is a primary Greek verb meaning 'to say' or 'to speak.' It encompasses a range of uses, including expressing thoughts, making declarations, and narrating events. The New Testament frequently employs it in direct speech and as a way to convey meaning, such as in Matthew 27:11. Abbott-Smith notes its distinction from similar verbs like λαλέω.

Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament — λαλέω, λέγω, λαλιά, λόγος from a scan

In dealing with synonyms of the N. T. we plainly need not concern ourselves with such earlier, or even contemporary, uses of the words which we are discriminating, as lie altogether outside of the N. T. sphere, when these uses do not illustrate, and have not affected, their Scriptural employment. It follows from this that all those contemptuous uses of λαλεῖν as to talk at random, as one ἀθυρόστομος, or with no door to his lips, might do; of λαλιά, as chatter («Kpacia λόγου ἄλογος, Plato, Defin. 416)—for I cannot believe that we are to find this at John iv. 42—may be dismissed and set aside. The antithesis in the line of Eupolis (Meineke, /ragm. Com. Gr. p. 174), Λαλεῖν ἄριστος, ἀδυνατώτατος λέγειν, does little or nothing to illustrate the matter in hand. The distinction which indeed exists between the words may in this way be made clear. There are two leading aspects under which speech…

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Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

λέγω,

[in LXX very freq., chiefly for אמר; λέγει for נְאֻם, Ge 22:16, al.;]

in Hom., to pick out, gather, reckon, recount.

In Hdt. and Att., to say, speak, affirm, declare: absol., Ac 13:15 24:10; seq. orat. dir., Mt 9:34, Mk 3:11, Jo 1:29, al.; seq. ὅτι recit., Mk 3:21, Lk 1:24, Jo 6:14, al.; acc. et. inf., Lk 11:18, Jo 12:29, al.; after another verb of speaking, προσφωνεῖν κ. λέγειν, Mt 11:17, al.; ἀπεκρίθη (ἐλάλησεν) λέγων (καὶ λέγει; Dalman…

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

λέγω (in the N. T. only the pres. and impf. act. and pres. pass. are in use; 3 pers. plur. impf. ἔλεγαν, Jn. xi. 56 Tdf. [ef. ἔχω, init.]): I. in its earliest use in Hom. to lay (like Lat. lego, Germ. legen; οἵ. J. G. Miiller in Theol. Stud. u. Krit. for 1835, p. 127 sqq.; Curtius § 538) ; to cause to lie down, put to sleep; 1. to collect, gather; to pick out. 2. lo lay with, count with; to enumerate, recount, narrate, describe; [οἷ. Eng. tale, Germ. ztihlen). II. to put word to word in speaking, join words together, i. e. to say (how it differs fr. λαλεῖν, see under that word ad init.) ; once so by Hom. in 1]. 2, 222 [yet ef. Schmidt, Syn. i. ch. 1, §§ 20; 48, 2; L. and S. s. vy. B. II. 2]; often in Pind., and by far the most com. use in Attic; Sept. more than thirteen hundred times for 728; often also for D8} (saying, dictum); very rarely for 1393; and soin N.T. 1. univ. a. absol. to…

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

λέγω. (1). “‘I say, speak”: see e.g. P Par 47 {= Selections, Ῥ- 21 ff.), ¢. B.C. 153, which is addressed on the verso—mpds τοὺς τὴν ἀλήθεαν λέγοντες (—-as), P Fay 12378 (c. A.D. 100) γνώσομαι yap εἰ ἀληθῶς λέγι, “1 will find out whether he is speaking the truth,” P Ryl 11. 7615 (late li/A.D.) ἃ καὶ ἀναγνώσομαι λεγομένου τοῦ [π]ράγματος, “1 will read them when the case is argued” (Edd.), P Flor II. 1327 (A.D. 257) ἔλεζξ]αν πεποιηκέναι ταῦτα ἀγνοίᾳ, ‘they said they had done this in ignorance,” and the magical P Par 5741238 (iii/A.D.) (= Selectzons, p. 113) λόγος λεγόμενος ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς αὐτοῦ, ‘ invocation to be uttered over the head (of the possessed one).”” For the phrase τὸ αὐτὸ λέγειν, cf. I Cor 11°, Weiss (Meyer 15 ad 1) cites a sepulchral inscr. of husband and wife from Rhodes, /J/Ae 149 (ii/B.c.) ταὐτὰ λέγοντες ταὐτὰ φρονοῦντες ἤλθομεν τὰν ἀμέτρητον ὁδὸν εἰς ᾿Αἴδαν. (2). Closely…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

λέγω (legō) — to say.

λέγω,

__B pick up, etc.: tenses for signification 1 and 11, future λέξω [Refs 8th c.BC+]: aorist ἔλεξα [Refs 4th c.BC+]:—middle, future in passive sense λέξομαι [Refs 5th c.BC+]: aorist ἐλεξάμην [Refs 8th c.BC+]; Epic dialect ἐλέγμην [Refs 8th c.BC+]:—passive, aorist ἐλέχθην [Refs 8th c.BC+]-; post-[Refs 8th c.BC+]perfect εἴλοχα (κατ-, συν-), passive εἴλεγμαι, in these senses rarely λέλεγμαι (see. the compounds); also future λεγήσομαι (συλ-): aorist 2 ἐλέγην (κατ-, συν-):—gather, pick up, ὀστέα.. λέγωμεν [Refs 8th c.BC+]; αἱμασιάς τε λέγων picking out stones for building walls, [Refs 8th c.BC+]:—middle, gather for oneself, ἐπὶ δὲ ξύλα πολλὰ λέγεσθε [Refs 8th c.BC+]

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

λέγω

lego

a primary verb; properly, to "lay" forth, i.e. (figuratively) relate

(in words (usually of systematic or set discourse; whereas 2036 and

5346 generally refer to an individual expression or speech

respectively; while 4483 is properly to break silence merely, and 2980

means an extended or random harangue)); by implication, to mean:--ask,

bid, boast, call, describe, give out, name, put forth, say(-ing, on),

shew, speak, tell, utter.

see GREEK for 2036

see GREEK for 5346

see GREEK for 4483

see GREEK for 2980

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

λέγω

v.

I say, speak

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

λέγω legō 2x

to lay, to arrange, to gather; to say, Mt. 1:20; to speak, make an address or speech, Acts 26:1; to say mentally, in thought, Mt. 3:9; Lk. 3:8; to say in written language, Mk. 15:28; Lk. 1:63; Jn. 19:37; to say, as distinguished from acting, Mt. 23:3; to mention, speak of, Mk. 14:71; Lk. 9:31; Read the full entry →

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

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

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
35%saying
saying35% · 480×says13% · 175×i say12% · 164×he says9% · 122×say5% · 70×he was saying3% · 42×they say2% · 31×other renderings17% · 225×other renderings4% · 48×

1,357 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 107 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
verb98%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 2,255 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
αὐτόςἸησοῦςJesusἀποκρίνομαιI answer, reply
αὐτός
πρόςμαθητήςa learner, disciἀποκρίνομαιI answer, reply
δέbut, on the other ha
Article theοὗτοςἐγώ
ἸησοῦςJesus
Article theδέbut, on the otheγόνυa knee
ἀμήνHebr
ἀμήνHebrαὐτόςλέγωI say, speak
λέγωsaying;2255×
what comes after →
αὐτός
Article theτίςIrgκύριοςlord, Lord, mast
Article the
μαθητήςa learner, disciἸησοῦςJesusΠέτροςPeter
σύ
ὅτιthat, since, becοὐNegἐάνCond
δέbut, on the other ha
Article theπρόςαὐτός
ὅτιthat, since, because
Article theοὗτοςσύ

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

Concordanceλέγω · 2,255× in the New Testament
Luke John Matthew Mark Acts Revelation Hebrews Romans 1 Corinthians 2 Corinthians James Galatians

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

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

Counted over the 1,290 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 5c. AD 40

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

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

ὅπως Ἅβραμος ὁ πρόγονος ἡμῶν ἐξελθὼν ἐκ τῆς Χαλδαίων γῆς κατέσχε τὴν τότε μὲν Χαναναίαν νῦν δὲ Ἰουδαίαν λεγομένην.

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

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

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
2nd c. AD 3rd c. AD 6th c. AD 1st c. AD 4th c. AD
P.Grenf. 2 33Pathyris101 BC

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

P.Stras. 2 89Pathyris100 BC

ἑτερᾶς· νότου γῆ Τακοίμιος, βορρᾶ γῆ Χενσθώτου, ἀπηλιώτου Ἀείους, λιβὸς περίχωμα, τῆς δʼ ἄλλης λεγομένης Πκρώ· νότου γῆ Σενπελαίας, βορρᾶ γῆ Πανᾶτος ἀπηλιώτου ποταμός, λιβὸς Ἀραμείους, ἢ οἳ ἂν

P.Adl. 16Pathyris100 BC

οἱ Φίβιος τοῦ Πανεχάτου υἱοί, ἀπηλιώτου ὁδὸς βασιλική, λιβὸς γῆ Ψεμμώνθου τοῦ Πανεχάτου, ἄλλης λεγομένης Φαμούνιος νότου γῆ Παθώτου τοῦ Πατοῦτος, βορρᾶ γῆ Πατσεοῦτος τοῦ Φίβιος, ἀπηλιώτου ποταμός, λιβὸς

And He spoke to them many things in parables saying; Behold went out the [one] sowing <the> to sow.
ἰδοὺhoraō Behold G2400 Verb · second aorist · middle · imperative · second person · singular
605× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
In plain English
Tyndale gloss
to see: see
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

ἰδού,

[in LXX chiefly for הִנֵּה,]

prop. imperat. 2 aor. mid. of ὁράω, used as a demonstrative particle, with frequency much greater in LXX and NT than in cl. (v. M, Pr., 11),

lo, behold, see: Mt 10:16 11:8 13:3, Mk 3:32, Lk 2:48, I Co 15:51, Ja 5:9, Ju 14, Re 1:7, al.; after gen. absol., Mt 1:20 2:1, 13 12:46, al.; καὶ ἰδού, Mt 2:9 (and freq.), Lk 1:20 10:25, Ac 12:7, al.; in elliptical…

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

ἰδού, a demonstrative particle, [in Grk. writ. fr. Soph. down], found in the N. T. esp. in the Gospels of Matthew and of Luke, used very often in imitation of the Hebr. nan, and giving a peculiar vivacity to the style by bidding the reader or hearer to attend to what is said: behold! see! lo! It is inserted in the discourse after a gen. absol., Mt. i. 20; ii. 1, 13; ix. 18; xii. 46; xvii. 5; Xxvi.47; xxviii. 11. καὶ ἰδού is used, when at the close of a narrative something new is introduced, Mt. ii. 9; ili. 16; iv. 11; viii. 2, 24, 29,32, 34; ix. 2 54. 20; xii. 10; KV 224 ΧΥΙ- Ss) KIX. 10... eva. 91; ΧΧΥΪ. 51: ΧΧΥΤΙ ὦ, 7; Lk. i. 20, 31, 36; ii. 9[R GL Tr br. ], 25; ix. 30, 38 sq.; x. 25; xiv. 2; xxiv.13; Acts xii.7; xvi.1; when a thing is specified which is unexpected yet sure, 2 Co. vi. 9 (καὶ ἰδοὺ ζῶμεν, and nevertheless we live), cf. Mt. vii. 4; when a thing is specified which seems…

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

ἰδού. Moulton (Pro/eg. p. 11) has shown that the frequency with which ἰδού (originally the imper. of εἰδόμην and accented ἰδοῦ) is used by certain NT writers is due to the fact that they were accustomed to the constant use of an equivalent interjection in their own tongue: cf. Wellhausen £ini.* p. 22. As showing, however, that the interjection was used in the Kou where no Hebraistic influence is predicable, we may cite P Oxy VII. 10665 (iii/A.p.) εἰδ[ο]ὺ οὖν ἀπέστιλά σοι αὐτήν, with reference to the return of a file, 76. 10691 (very illiterate—iii/a.p.) εἰδοὺ γὰρ kal τὸ πορφύρειν μετὰ τῶν συ[ν]έργων κεῖντε, “see, the purple is put with the tools” (cf. 1.5), 74. X. 12917 (A.D. 30) οὐδ[εί]ς μοι ἤνεγκεν ἐπιστολήν περὶ ἄρτων, ἀλλ᾽ εὐθέως, ἡ (-- εἰ) ἔπεμψας διὰ ἸΚολλούθου ἐπιστολήν, εἰδοὺ ἀρτάβηι σοι γίνεται, ‘“‘no one has brought me a letter about the bread, but if you send a letter by…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

ἰδού (idou) — look!.

ἰδοῦ

(ἴδου Hdn.Gr. cited in [Refs 4th c.AD+]aorist 2 imperative middle of ὁρά; but,

II. ἰδού (on the accent see Hdn.Gr.[Refs] adverb, lo! behold! (even with words of hearing, ἰδοὺ δοῦπον αὖ κλύω τινά [Refs 5th c.BC+]

II.1. with Nouns and Prons., ἰ. χελιδών Klein [Refs 6th c.BC+], etc.; ἰ. ἐγώ here am I, [LXX+NT]; οὐκ ἰ. Ἀαρώ; [LXX]

II.2. with Verbs,

II.2. a in the imperative, ἰ. θεᾶσθε [Refs 5th c.BC+]; especially in offering a thing, take it! ἰ. δέχου παῖ [Refs 5th c.BC+]

II.2. b in indicative of all tenses, ἰ. πείθομαι [NT+5th c.BC+] with past tenses, [LXX+NT]; in the middle of a sentence, [NT]

II.3. with questions, ἰ., τί ἔστι; [Refs 5th c.BC+]

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

ἰδού

idou

second person singular imperative middle voice of 1492; used as

imperative lo!; --behold, lo, see.

see GREEK for 1492

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

ἰδού

v.

See! Lo! Behold! Look!

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

ἰδού idou 200x

aorist middle imperative of εἶδον used as an interjection, Look! See! Lo! Mt. 1:23; Lk. 1:38; Acts 8:36

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

ἰδού 2nd sg mid imperat of εἰδόμην, as adv. lo! behold! see there! Soph.; ἰδού, δέχου there! take it! Lat. en tibi! id. Soph., etc.:— well, as you please! Ar.

in repeating another's words quizzingly, ἰδού γ᾽ ἄκρατον oh yes, wine, id. Ar.

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Verb-2AMM-2S — Verb · second aorist · middle · imperative · second person · singular
second aorist middle imperative — a completed action, viewed as a whole.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

V-2AMM-2S Part of Speech: Verb Tense: second Aorist Voice: Middle Mood: iMperative Person: second Number: Singular

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
100%behold
behold100% · 207×other renderings0% · 1×

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

The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 603 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.

And He spoke to them many things in parables saying; Behold went out the [one] sowing <the> to sow.
ἐξῆλθενexerchomai went out G1831 Verb · second aorist · active · indicative · third person · singular
217× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Matthew as anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
To go out or come out of a place, as in Matthew 10:11 and Mark 1:35, where Jesus and his disciples went out to preach. This word is also used in John 13:30, where Judas went out into the night. It can also mean to spread out or proceed from a place.
Amplified meaning
came forth, departed
Tyndale gloss
to go out
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word ἐξέρχομαι, transliterated as exerchomai, is built from the prefix ἐξ meaning 'out of' and the root ἔρχομαι meaning 'to come' or 'to go.' It generally means to go or come out of a place, and can also refer to escaping, departing, or proceeding. In the New Testament, it appears in various contexts, including the expulsion of demons and the release of prisoners.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

ἐξ-έρχομαι,

[in LXX chiefly and very freq. for יצא, also for עלה ,בֹּוא, etc. ;]

depon.,

to go, or come out of: Mt 10:11, Mk 1:35, Jo 13:30, al.; c. inf., Mt 11:8, Mk 3:21, Lk 7:25, 26 Ac 20:8; id. seq. ἐπί, Mt 26:55, al.; εἰς, Mk 1:38; ἵνα, Re 6:2; ἐ. seq. ἐκ (cl. c. gen. loc.), Mk 5:2, Jo 4:30, al.; ἔξω, c. gen.,

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

ἐξέρχομαι ; impf. eEnpyounv; fut. ἐξελεύσομαι; 2 aor. ἐξῆλθον, plur. 2 pers. ἐξήλθετε, 3 pers. ἐξῆλθον, and in LT Tr WH the Atex. forms (see ἀπέρχομαι, init.) ἐξήλGare (Mt. xi. 7, 8,9; xxvi.55; Mk. xiv. 48, ete.), ἐξῆλθαν (1 Jn. ii. 19; 2Jn. 7 [here Tdf. -Ao0v; 3 Jn. 7, ete.]); pe. ἐξελήλυθα;: plpf. ἐξεληλύθειν (Lk. viii. 38, ete.) ; Sept. for N¥? times without number ; to go or come out of; 1. properly; a. with mention of the place out of which one goes, or of the point from which he departs; a. of those who leave a place of their own accord: with the gen. alone, Mt. x.14 (1, Τ Tr WH insert ἔξω) ; Acts xvi. 39RG. foll. by ἐκ : Mk. v. 2; vii. 31; Jn. iv. 30; viii. 59; Acts vii. 3 sq.; 1 Co. v. 10; Rev. xviii. 4, ete. foll. by ἔξω with gen. — with addition of εἰς and ace. of place, Mt. xxi. 17; Mk. xiv. 68; or παρά with ace. of place, Acts xvi. 13; or πρός twa, ace. of pers., Heb. xiii.…

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

ἐξέρχομαι. For this verb in its ordinary sense it is sufficient to cite P Oxy II. 282" (a complaint against a wife—a.D. 30-35) kata πέρ[α]ς ἐξῆλθε] kal ἀπηνέκαντο (/. —éyKavto) τὰ ἡμέτερα, ‘finally she left the house and they carried off my belongings,” 26. III. 472! (c. A.D. 130) ἀπὸ τῆς ἐκείνου οἰκίας ἐξεληλύθει, 25. 5287 (ii/a.D.) ἀφ᾽ ὡς ἐκξῆλθες (1. €E—) ἀπ᾽ ἐμοῦ πένθος ἡγούμην, ‘‘ever since you Jeft me I have been in mourning” (Edd.): cf. for the constr. with ἀπό, Lk 55. P Oxy I. 1128 (iii/iv A.D.) δήλωσόν por ἢ πλοίῳ éépx [et] ἢ ὄνῳ shows the verb followed by the instrumental dat.: cf. Jn 21%. For ἐξέρχομαι of the driving forth of demons, as in Mk 178 a/., cf. the magical P Par 5741248 (ili/A.D.) (= Selections, p. 114) ἔξελθε, Satpov,. . . Kal ἀπόστηθι ἀπὸ τοῦ 8(e)i(va), and for the verb followed by ἔπί cf. P Tebt 11. 283° (B.c. 93 or 60) ἐξελήλυθεν ἐπὶ τὴν + + μητέρα pov, “‘made…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

ἐξέρχομαι (exerchomai) — to go out.

ἐξέρχομαι,

future -ελεύσομαι (but in Attic dialect ἔξειμι (A) supplies the future, also imperfect ἐξῄειν): aorist 2 ἐξῆλθον, the only tense used in [Refs 8th c.BC+]:— go or come out of, with genitive loci, τείχεος, πυλάων, πόληος, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; ἐ. δωμάτων, χθονός, etc., [Refs 5th c.BC+]; of an actor, come out on the stage, [Refs 5th c.BC+]: absolutely, come forth, ἐ. καὶ ἀμῦναι [Refs 8th c.BC+]

__b rarely with accusative, ἐξῆλθον τὴν Περσίδα χώραν [LXX+5th c.BC+]

__c absolutely, march out, go forth, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

__d of an accused person, withdraw from the country to avoid trial, opposed to φεύγω, [Refs 4th c.BC+]

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

ἐξέρχομαι

exerchomai

from 1537 and 2064; to issue (literally or figuratively):--come

(forth, out), depart (out of), escape, get out, go (abroad, away,

forth, out, thence), proceed (forth), spread abroad.

see GREEK for 1537

see GREEK for 2064

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

ἐξέρχομαι

v.

I go out, come out

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

ἐξέρχομαι exerchomai 218x

to go or come out of; to come out, Mt. 5:26; 8:34; to proceed, emanate, take rise from, Mt. 2:6; 15:18; 1 Cor. 14:36; to come abroad, 1 Jn. 4:1; to go forth, go away, depart, Mt. 9:31; Lk. 5:8; to escape, Jn. 10:39; to pass away, come to an end, Acts 16:19

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

ἐξέρχομαι fut. -ελεύσομαι in attic ἔξειμι supplies the fut., as also the imperf. ἐξῄειν aor2 ἐξῆλθον Dep.:— to go or come out of, c. gen. loci, Hom., Hdt., etc.; of an actor, to come out on the stage, Ar.:—also c. acc., ἐξ. τὴν χώρην Hdt.:—absol. to go away, march off, Il.: also, to march out, go forth, ἐπί τινα Hdt.:—c. acc. cogn. to go out on an expedition, Xen.: to go through a work, Soph.

ἐξ. εἰς ἔλεγχον to stand forth and come to the trial, Eur.: to turn out so and so, Soph.

c. acc. rei, to execute, Thuc.

of Time, to come to an end, expire, Hdt., Soph.

of prophecies, dreams, events, to be accomplished, come true, Hdt.; ὀρθὸν ἐξ. to come out right, Soph.; μὴ ἐξέλθῃ σαφής lest he turn out a true prophet, id. Soph.

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Verb-2AAI-3S — Verb · second aorist · active · indicative · third person · singular
second aorist active indicative — a completed action, viewed as a whole.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

V-2AAI-3S Part of Speech: Verb Tense: second Aorist Voice: Active Mood: Indicative Person: third Number: Singular

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
12%having gone out
having gone out12% · 27×went out11% · 24×having gone forth6% · 13×he went forth5% · 11×he went out3% · 7×went forth3% · 7×came forth3% · 6×going out2% · 5×other renderings55% · 120×

220 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 85 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
verb87%adverbial12%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 217 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
αὐτόςφιμόωI muzzle, silencεἰσέρχομαιI go in, come in
αὐτός
παράκαταλείπωI leave behind, γάρfor
δέbut, on the other ha
Article theαὐτόςπάλινagain, further,
σύ
δέχομαιI take, receive,λόγοςa word, speech, ἐπιτάσσωI give order, co
τίςIrg
ἀλλάbut, exceptἸωάννηςJohn
ἐξέρχομαιwent out217×
what comes after →
Article the
ἸησοῦςJesusσπείρωI sow, spread, sΦαρισαῖοςa Pharisee
ἐκ
Article theαὐτόςμέσοςmiddle, in the m
εἰς
Article theὑπάντησιςa meetingΜακεδονίαMacedonia
καίand, even, also, nam
ἔρχομαιI come, goἀπέρχομαιI come or go awaγίνομαιI come into bein
δέbut, on the other ha
Article theεἰςεὑρίσκωI find

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

Concordanceἐξέρχομαι · 217× in the New Testament
Luke Matthew Mark John Acts Revelation Hebrews 2 Corinthians 1 Corinthians 1 John 1 Thessalonians 2 John

Every reference is on the Strong's page.

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

Counted over the 332 Old Testament verses where this Greek word stands: which Hebrew word keeps standing there too. A correspondence of verses rather than a word-by-word alignment, so read the percentage as strength of evidence, not as a claim about any single verse.

Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
Josephus Philo of Alexandria Clement of Rome The Shepherd of Hermas The Epistle of Barnabas
Philo of AlexandriaAllegorical Interpretation of Genesis 2.59c. AD 40

"ἔξελθε ἐκ τῆς γῆς σου καὶ ἐκ τῆς συγγενείας σου“ (Gen.

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

ὅπως Ἅβραμος ὁ πρόγονος ἡμῶν ἐξελθὼν ἐκ τῆς Χαλδαίων γῆς κατέσχε τὴν τότε μὲν Χαναναίαν νῦν δὲ Ἰουδαίαν λεγομένην.

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 11.8c. AD 100

νῦν δὲ ὅ λέγει: τὰ φύλλα οὐκ ἀπορυήσεται, τοῦτο λέγει: ὅτι πᾶν ῥῆμα, ὃ ἐὰν ἐξελεύσεται ἐξ ὑμῶν διὰ τοῦ στόματος ὑμῶν ἐν πίστει καὶ ἀγάπῃ, ἔσται εἰς ἐπιστροφὴν καὶ ἐλπίδα πολλοῖς.

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
2nd c. AD 6th c. AD 3rd c. AD 4th c. AD 7th c. AD
O.Claud. 4 876Mons ClaudianusAD 150–AD 154

Σωκράτης Ἀθηνοδώρῳ καὶ Ἀμμωνίῳ ἀμφοτέροις χαίρειν. καλῶς ποιήσετε ἐξελθόντες εἰς Τιβεριανὴν στομώσαντες τὰ σιδήρια τῶν σκληρουργῶν. ἄχρηστα γὰρ πάντα τὰ σιδήρια ἅπαξ ἵνα

O.Claud. 4 877Mons ClaudianusAD 150–AD 154

τιμιωτάτοις χαίρειν. καλῶς ποιήσετε ἐπεὶ οἱ σκληρουργοὶ λέγουσίν μοι ὅτι οὐχ εἰσερχόμεθα ἔσω στομῶντες ἐξελθόντες στομώσατε. καὶ γράφετε ἡμᾶς ἀργεῖν. ἐκ δύο τὸ … ἓν δρᾶ, ἵνα στομώσητε ἢ

O.Claud. 4 887Mons ClaudianusAD 150–AD 154

σφῆνας εὐχαριστοῦμεν αὐτοῖς. βέβληται καὶ ἐπιβεβλήμεθα … τὴν πλάκα. εἰ οὖν θέλεις ἵνα ἀπαρτισθῇ, ἔξελθε στομώσειν αὐτοῖς καὶ ἆρον αὐτῶν τὴν πρόφασιν μετὰ δύο σφυροκόπων Μα … Μωνισπος

And He spoke to them many things in parables saying; Behold went out the [one] sowing <the> to sow.
ho the [one] G3588 Article · nominative · singular · masculine
19,783× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Matthew as anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
The Greek word for 'the' or 'this', used to point out a specific person or thing, like in Acts 17:28. It can also mean 'he', 'she', or 'it'.
Tyndale gloss
the/this/who
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

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

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

ὁ, ἡ, τό,

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

As demonstr. pron.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

ὁ (ho) — the/this/who.

ὁ,

ἡ, τό, is, when thus written,

__A demonstrative Pronoun.

__B in Attic dialect, definite or prepositive Article.

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

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

ὁ ἡ τό

ho

he hay, and the neuter

to to

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

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

he, she, it, etc.

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

ὁ, ἡ, τό

Article

the

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

ὁ ho 19x

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

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

ὁ the, that

ὁ, ἡ, τό, is

demonstr. Pronoun.

the definite Article.

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

DEMONSTR. PRONOUN:

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

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

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

Bible dictionarieson the English sense
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

wun.

See NUMBER.

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

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

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

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

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
καίand, even, also, nam
αὐτόςεἰμίI am, existἐγώ
ἐν
καίand, even, also,αὐτόςArticle the
εἰς
αὐτόςεἰσέρχομαιI go in, come inἔρχομαιI come, go
αὐτός
λέγωI say, speakδέbut, on the otheπρός
εἰμίI am, exist
οὗτοςσύἐγώ
the [one]19783×
what comes after →
θεόςGod, a god
Article theκαίand, even, also,ἐγώ
δέbut, on the other ha
λέγωI say, speakἸησοῦςJesusἀποκρίνομαιI answer, reply
ἸησοῦςJesus
λέγωI say, speakκαίand, even, also,Article the
κύριοςlord, Lord, master,
ἐγώἸησοῦςJesusArticle the
πατήρfather, Father, ance
ἐγώσύαὐτός

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

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

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

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

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

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

τοῦ κόσμου σύστασις καὶ διάταξις τῶν στοιχείων.

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

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

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

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

P.Adl. 11Pathyris99 BC

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

P.Grenf. 2 35Pathyris99 BC

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

And He spoke to them many things in parables saying; Behold went out the [one] sowing <the> to sow.
σπείρωνspeirō sowing G4687 Verb · present · active · participle · nominative · singular · masculine
53× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in Matthew than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
To sow means to scatter seed, either literally or figuratively. Jesus uses this term in parables, like in Matthew 13:3-4 and Mark 4:3-4.
Amplified meaning
sower, one who scatters seed
Tyndale gloss
to sow
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word σπείρω (*speirō*) means 'to sow' and is used in various contexts, including agricultural and metaphorical senses. It can refer to sowing seed, begetting offspring, or scattering in a broader sense. The New Testament employs this term in passages like Matthew 6:26 and 13:3-4, often in parables about sowing seeds of faith or instruction.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

* σπείρω

[in LXX chiefly for זרע ;]

to sow (seed): absol., Mt 6:26 13:3, 4, 18 25:24, 26, Mk 4:3, 4, Lk 8:5 12:24, Jo 4:36, II Co 9:10; c. acc. rei, Mt 13:24, 27, 37, 39, Mk 4:32, Lk 8:5, I Co 15:36, 37; seq. εἰς, Mt 13:22, Mk 4:18; ἐν, Mt 13:24, 31; ἐπί, c. gen., Read the full entry →

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

σπείρω ; [impf. 2 pers. sing. ἔσπειρες, Mt. xiii. 27 Tr]; 1 aor. ἔσπειρα; Pass., pres. σπείρομαι; pf. pass. ptep. éorappévos; 2 aor. ἐσπάρην ; [derived fr. the quick, jerky, motion of the hand; cf. our spurn (of the foot); Curtius § 389]; fr. Hesiod down; Sept. for p11; to sow, scatter seed; a. prop.: absol., Mt. vi. 26; xiii. 3 sq. 18sq.; Mk. iv. 3sq. 14; Lk. viii. 5; xii. 24; [Jn. v. 36 sq. (see in b.)]; 2Co.ix.10; with an ace. of the thing, as σπέρμα, ζιζάνια, κόκκον, [ef. B. §131, 5]: Mt. xiii. 24 sq. [but in 25 L T Tr WH have ἐπισπ.], 27, 37,39; Mk. iv. 32; Lk. viii.5; 1 Co.xv. 36sq.; with specifications of place: εἰς τὰς ἀκάνθας, Mt. xiii. 22; Mk. iv. 18; ἐν τῷ ἀγρῷ, Mt. xiii. 24, [31]; ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, MK. iv. 31; ἐπί ν΄. an ace. of place, Mt. xiii. 20, 23; Mk. iv. 16, 20; mapa τὴν ὁδόν, Mt. xiii. 19. absol., Mt. xxv. 24,26; Lk. xix. 21 sq.; Jn. ἵν. 31; 2Co. ix. 6; τί, Gal. vi. 7…

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

σπείρω, “ρον ἦ: cf. P Hamb I. 247 (B.c. 222) ἐσπαρκέναι ἐν τῶι ἰδίωι [κλήρωι, P Oxy II. 277° (B.C. 19) ὥστε σπεῖραι εἰς τὸ δωδέκατον ἔτος πυρῶι, ὁ. 2801" (A.D. 88-0) σπεῖραι καὶ ξυλαμῆσαι (“‘reap”), BGU I. 1017 (A.D. 114-5) σπείρειν καὶ καρπίζεσθαι kal ἀποφέρειν εἰς τὸ ἴδιον, P Ry! II. 2439 (ii/A.D.) ἐλπίζοντες σὺν θεῷ τὸ πεδείον σπαρῆναι, P Fay 339 (ii/A.D.) ἐσπίαρμένου) ἐδ(άφους), P Flor I. 2115 (A.D. 239) εἰς THY ἐν TupH σπειρομέν[η]ν γῆν, and the late 76. 13127 (vi/vii A.D.) καθ᾽ ἐνιαυτὸν σπείρω τὴν οὐσίαν pov.

Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

σπείρω (speirō) — to sow.

σπείρω,

Aeolic dialect σπέρρω[Refs]: Ionic dialect imperfect σπείρεσκον [Refs 5th c.BC+]: future σπερῶ [Refs 5th c.BC+]; Aeolic dialect σπέρσω [Refs 5th c.BC+]: aorist ἔσπειρα [Refs 5th c.BC+]: perfect ἔσπαρκα [Refs 2nd c.AD+]:—middle, aorist infinitive σπείρασθαι [Refs 3rd c.BC+]; aorist 2 σπαρέσθαι uncertain reading in [Refs 2nd c.AD+]:—passive, future σπᾰρήσομαι [LXX+1st c.BC+]aorist ἐσπάρην [ᾰ] [Refs 5th c.BC+]: perfect ἔσπαρμαι [Refs 5th c.BC+]:— sow,

I. sow seed, with accusative, [κέγχρους] [Refs 8th c.BC+]; of Cadmus, σ. γηγενῆ στάχυν [Refs] (so in middle, σπείρασθαι ὀδόντας [Refs 3rd c.BC+]: absolutely, sow, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; opposed to θερίζω, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; καρπὸν ὧν ἔσπειρε θερίζειν [Refs 5th c.BC+]; σ. κατὰ πετρῶν, i.e. εἰς…

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

σπείρω

speiro

probably strengthened from 4685 (through the idea of extending); to

scatter, i.e. sow (literally or figuratively):--sow(- er), receive

seed.

see GREEK for 4685

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

σπείρω

v.

I sow, spread, scatter

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

σπείρω speirō 52x

to sow seed, Mt. 6:26; 13:3, 4, 18, 24, 25, 27, 37, 3

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

σπείρω to sow:

to sow seed, Hes., attic

to sow children, to engender, beget them, Soph.:—Pass. to be born, id. Soph., Eur.

to scatter like seed, strew, throw about, χρυσὸν καὶ ἄργυρον Hdt.; δρόσον Eur.:—to spread abroad, as Virgil spargere voces, Soph.:—Pass. to be scattered, dispersed, Eur., Thuc.

to sow a field, Hes., Hdt., etc.: Pass., ἡ σπειρομένη Αἴγυπτος the arable part of Egypt, Hdt.

proverb., πόντον σπείρειν, of lost labour, Theogn.

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

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

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
29%sowing
sowing29% · 15×having been sown12% · 6×sown10% · 5×it is sown8% · 4×you sow6% · 3×sow6% · 3×having sown6% · 3×sowed4% · 2×other renderings21% · 11×

52 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 16 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
verb98%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 53 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
ἐξέρχομαιI go out, come oἐνσπείρωI sow, spread, s
οὐNeg
ὅπουwhere, whitherὅςὅτιthat, since, bec
πετρώδηςrocky, stony
Article the
ἄκανθαa thorn-bush
Article the
ἄνθρωποςa man, one of the hu
οὐρανόςthe sky, the heaλαμβάνωI receive, take
σπείρωsowing53×
what comes after →
Article the
σπείρωI sow, spread, sλόγοςa word, speech, καλόςbeautiful, good,
ἐν
Article theφθοράcorruption, destἀτιμίαdisgrace, dishon
οὗτος
εἰμίI am, exist
καίand, even, also, nam
συνάγωI gather togetheἄλλοςother, another, ἄρτοςbread, a loaf, f
αὐτός
ὅςεἰμίI 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

Concordanceσπείρω · 53× in the New Testament
Matthew Mark 1 Corinthians Luke 2 Corinthians Galatians John James
Across the New Testament8 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 46 Old Testament verses where this Greek word stands: which Hebrew word keeps standing there too. A correspondence of verses rather than a word-by-word alignment, so read the percentage as strength of evidence, not as a claim about any single verse.

Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
Philo of Alexandria Josephus Clement of Rome Ignatius of Antioch
Philo of AlexandriaAllegorical Interpretation of Genesis 1.45c. AD 40

τὴν οὖν ἐπίγειον ἀρετὴν σπείρει καὶ φυτεύει τῷ θνητῷ γένει ὁ θεὸς μίμημα καὶ ἀπεικόνισμα οὖσαν τῆς οὐρανίου·

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 4.228c. AD 75–95

εἶναι δὲ καθαρὰ τὰ σπέρματα καὶ ἀνεπίμικτα, καὶ μὴ σύνδυο καὶ τρία σπείρειν·

Clement of RomeFirst Clement 24.5c. AD 96

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

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
2nd c. AD 3rd c. AD 6th c. AD 7th c. AD 1st c. AD
P. Lond. 2 p. 98-99 no. 256 Ro aPtolemais Euergetis bzw. Lysimachis (Arsinoites)AD 15

, ἧς παράσημος ἶβις, διὰ ἐπίπλου Σέκτος Ἀτίνιος κεντυρίας Ἀρίου λεγιῶνος δευτέρας καὶ εἰκοστῆς σπείρας δευτέρας Ἀκουσιλάῳ σιτολόγῳ δημοσίῳ Λυσιμαχίδων β τῷ παρὰ Λουκίου Μαρίου ἀπελευθέρου … του Σεβαστοῦ

P.Fam.Tebt. 5ArsinoitesAD 98

Ἑρμῆι Διδύμου. παρὰ Πολέμωνος τοῦ Εὑρήμωνος Πέρσου τῆς ἐπιγονῆς. βούλομαι μισθώσασθαι παρά σου τὸν ἐσπαρμένον ὑπό σου ἐν τῶι ἐνεστῶτι δευτέρωι ἔτει Αὐτοκράτορος Καίσαρος Νέρουα Τραιανοῦ Σεβαστοῦ Γερμανικοῦ ἐν

P.Hamb. 1 64Euhemeria (Arsinoites)AD 103

δύο ἀνυπολόγων καὶ ἀκινδύνων. καὶ ἐπιτελέσω τὰ κατʼ ἔτος τοῦ κλήρου γεωργικὰ ἔργα πάντα σπείρων κατʼ ἔτος οἷς ἐὰν αἱρῶμαι πλὴν κνήκου. τὰ δὲ κατʼ ἔτος ἐκφόρια ἀποδώσω ἐν

And He spoke to them many things in parables saying; Behold went out the [one] sowing <the> to sow.
τοῦho <the> G3588 Article · genitive · singular · neuter
19,783× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in Matthew as anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
The Greek word for 'the' or 'this', used to point out a specific person or thing, like in Acts 17:28. It can also mean 'he', 'she', or 'it'.
Tyndale gloss
the/this/who
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

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

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

ὁ, ἡ, τό,

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

As demonstr. pron.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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…

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

ὁ ἡ τό

ho

he hay, and the neuter

to to

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

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

he, she, it, etc.

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

ὁ, ἡ, τό

Article

the

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

ὁ ho 19x

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

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

ὁ the, that

ὁ, ἡ, τό, is

demonstr. Pronoun.

the definite Article.

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

DEMONSTR. PRONOUN:

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

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

T-GSN Part of Speech: definite arTicle Case: Genitive Number: Singular Gender: Neuter

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

THE, an adjective or definitive adjective.

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

This he calls the preaching of the cross.

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

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

Th' adorning thee with so much art,

Is but a barb'rous skill.

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

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

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

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

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
καίand, even, also, nam
αὐτόςεἰμίI am, existἐγώ
ἐν
καίand, even, also,αὐτόςArticle the
εἰς
αὐτόςεἰσέρχομαιI go in, come inἔρχομαιI come, go
αὐτός
λέγωI say, speakδέbut, on the otheπρός
εἰμίI am, exist
οὗτοςσύἐγώ
<the>19783×
what comes after →
θεόςGod, a god
Article theκαίand, even, also,ἐγώ
δέbut, on the other ha
λέγωI say, speakἸησοῦςJesusἀποκρίνομαιI answer, reply
ἸησοῦςJesus
λέγωI say, speakκαίand, even, also,Article the
κύριοςlord, Lord, master,
ἐγώἸησοῦςJesusArticle the
πατήρfather, Father, ance
ἐγώσύαὐτός

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

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

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

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

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

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

τοῦ κόσμου σύστασις καὶ διάταξις τῶν στοιχείων.

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

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

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

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

P.Adl. 11Pathyris99 BC

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

P.Grenf. 2 35Pathyris99 BC

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

And He spoke to them many things in parables saying; Behold went out the [one] sowing <the> to sow.
σπείρειν.speirō to sow. G4687 Verb · present · active · infinitive
53× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in Matthew than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
To sow means to scatter seed, either literally or figuratively. Jesus uses this term in parables, like in Matthew 13:3-4 and Mark 4:3-4.
Amplified meaning
scatter seed, plant, the message of God, spiritual truth
Tyndale gloss
to sow
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word σπείρω (*speirō*) means 'to sow' and is used in various contexts, including agricultural and metaphorical senses. It can refer to sowing seed, begetting offspring, or scattering in a broader sense. The New Testament employs this term in passages like Matthew 6:26 and 13:3-4, often in parables about sowing seeds of faith or instruction.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

* σπείρω

[in LXX chiefly for זרע ;]

to sow (seed): absol., Mt 6:26 13:3, 4, 18 25:24, 26, Mk 4:3, 4, Lk 8:5 12:24, Jo 4:36, II Co 9:10; c. acc. rei, Mt 13:24, 27, 37, 39, Mk 4:32, Lk 8:5, I Co 15:36, 37; seq. εἰς, Mt 13:22, Mk 4:18; ἐν, Mt 13:24, 31; ἐπί, c. gen., Read the full entry →

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

σπείρω ; [impf. 2 pers. sing. ἔσπειρες, Mt. xiii. 27 Tr]; 1 aor. ἔσπειρα; Pass., pres. σπείρομαι; pf. pass. ptep. éorappévos; 2 aor. ἐσπάρην ; [derived fr. the quick, jerky, motion of the hand; cf. our spurn (of the foot); Curtius § 389]; fr. Hesiod down; Sept. for p11; to sow, scatter seed; a. prop.: absol., Mt. vi. 26; xiii. 3 sq. 18sq.; Mk. iv. 3sq. 14; Lk. viii. 5; xii. 24; [Jn. v. 36 sq. (see in b.)]; 2Co.ix.10; with an ace. of the thing, as σπέρμα, ζιζάνια, κόκκον, [ef. B. §131, 5]: Mt. xiii. 24 sq. [but in 25 L T Tr WH have ἐπισπ.], 27, 37,39; Mk. iv. 32; Lk. viii.5; 1 Co.xv. 36sq.; with specifications of place: εἰς τὰς ἀκάνθας, Mt. xiii. 22; Mk. iv. 18; ἐν τῷ ἀγρῷ, Mt. xiii. 24, [31]; ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, MK. iv. 31; ἐπί ν΄. an ace. of place, Mt. xiii. 20, 23; Mk. iv. 16, 20; mapa τὴν ὁδόν, Mt. xiii. 19. absol., Mt. xxv. 24,26; Lk. xix. 21 sq.; Jn. ἵν. 31; 2Co. ix. 6; τί, Gal. vi. 7…

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

σπείρω, “ρον ἦ: cf. P Hamb I. 247 (B.c. 222) ἐσπαρκέναι ἐν τῶι ἰδίωι [κλήρωι, P Oxy II. 277° (B.C. 19) ὥστε σπεῖραι εἰς τὸ δωδέκατον ἔτος πυρῶι, ὁ. 2801" (A.D. 88-0) σπεῖραι καὶ ξυλαμῆσαι (“‘reap”), BGU I. 1017 (A.D. 114-5) σπείρειν καὶ καρπίζεσθαι kal ἀποφέρειν εἰς τὸ ἴδιον, P Ry! II. 2439 (ii/A.D.) ἐλπίζοντες σὺν θεῷ τὸ πεδείον σπαρῆναι, P Fay 339 (ii/A.D.) ἐσπίαρμένου) ἐδ(άφους), P Flor I. 2115 (A.D. 239) εἰς THY ἐν TupH σπειρομέν[η]ν γῆν, and the late 76. 13127 (vi/vii A.D.) καθ᾽ ἐνιαυτὸν σπείρω τὴν οὐσίαν pov.

Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

σπείρω (speirō) — to sow.

σπείρω,

Aeolic dialect σπέρρω[Refs]: Ionic dialect imperfect σπείρεσκον [Refs 5th c.BC+]: future σπερῶ [Refs 5th c.BC+]; Aeolic dialect σπέρσω [Refs 5th c.BC+]: aorist ἔσπειρα [Refs 5th c.BC+]: perfect ἔσπαρκα [Refs 2nd c.AD+]:—middle, aorist infinitive σπείρασθαι [Refs 3rd c.BC+]; aorist 2 σπαρέσθαι uncertain reading in [Refs 2nd c.AD+]:—passive, future σπᾰρήσομαι [LXX+1st c.BC+]aorist ἐσπάρην [ᾰ] [Refs 5th c.BC+]: perfect ἔσπαρμαι [Refs 5th c.BC+]:— sow,

I. sow seed, with accusative, [κέγχρους] [Refs 8th c.BC+]; of Cadmus, σ. γηγενῆ στάχυν [Refs] (so in middle, σπείρασθαι ὀδόντας [Refs 3rd c.BC+]: absolutely, sow, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; opposed to θερίζω, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; καρπὸν ὧν ἔσπειρε θερίζειν [Refs 5th c.BC+]; σ. κατὰ πετρῶν, i.e. εἰς…

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

σπείρω

speiro

probably strengthened from 4685 (through the idea of extending); to

scatter, i.e. sow (literally or figuratively):--sow(- er), receive

seed.

see GREEK for 4685

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

σπείρω

v.

I sow, spread, scatter

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

σπείρω speirō 52x

to sow seed, Mt. 6:26; 13:3, 4, 18, 24, 25, 27, 37, 3

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

σπείρω to sow:

to sow seed, Hes., attic

to sow children, to engender, beget them, Soph.:—Pass. to be born, id. Soph., Eur.

to scatter like seed, strew, throw about, χρυσὸν καὶ ἄργυρον Hdt.; δρόσον Eur.:—to spread abroad, as Virgil spargere voces, Soph.:—Pass. to be scattered, dispersed, Eur., Thuc.

to sow a field, Hes., Hdt., etc.: Pass., ἡ σπειρομένη Αἴγυπτος the arable part of Egypt, Hdt.

proverb., πόντον σπείρειν, of lost labour, Theogn.

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Verb-PAN — Verb · present · active · infinitive
present active infinitive — an action in progress.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

V-PAN Part of Speech: Verb Tense: Present Voice: Active Mood: iNfinitive TVM equivalent: G5721

Bible dictionarieson the English sense
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

sou.

See SWINE.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

[SWINE]

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
29%sowing
sowing29% · 15×having been sown12% · 6×sown10% · 5×it is sown8% · 4×you sow6% · 3×sow6% · 3×having sown6% · 3×sowed4% · 2×other renderings21% · 11×

52 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 16 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
verb98%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 53 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
ἐξέρχομαιI go out, come oἐνσπείρωI sow, spread, s
οὐNeg
ὅπουwhere, whitherὅςὅτιthat, since, bec
πετρώδηςrocky, stony
Article the
ἄκανθαa thorn-bush
Article the
ἄνθρωποςa man, one of the hu
οὐρανόςthe sky, the heaλαμβάνωI receive, take
σπείρωto sow.53×
what comes after →
Article the
σπείρωI sow, spread, sλόγοςa word, speech, καλόςbeautiful, good,
ἐν
Article theφθοράcorruption, destἀτιμίαdisgrace, dishon
οὗτος
εἰμίI am, exist
καίand, even, also, nam
συνάγωI gather togetheἄλλοςother, another, ἄρτοςbread, a loaf, f
αὐτός
ὅςεἰμίI 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

Concordanceσπείρω · 53× in the New Testament
Matthew Mark 1 Corinthians Luke 2 Corinthians Galatians John James
Across the New Testament8 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 46 Old Testament verses where this Greek word stands: which Hebrew word keeps standing there too. A correspondence of verses rather than a word-by-word alignment, so read the percentage as strength of evidence, not as a claim about any single verse.

Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
Philo of Alexandria Josephus Clement of Rome Ignatius of Antioch
Philo of AlexandriaAllegorical Interpretation of Genesis 1.45c. AD 40

τὴν οὖν ἐπίγειον ἀρετὴν σπείρει καὶ φυτεύει τῷ θνητῷ γένει ὁ θεὸς μίμημα καὶ ἀπεικόνισμα οὖσαν τῆς οὐρανίου·

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 4.228c. AD 75–95

εἶναι δὲ καθαρὰ τὰ σπέρματα καὶ ἀνεπίμικτα, καὶ μὴ σύνδυο καὶ τρία σπείρειν·

Clement of RomeFirst Clement 24.5c. AD 96

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

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
2nd c. AD 3rd c. AD 6th c. AD 7th c. AD 1st c. AD
P. Lond. 2 p. 98-99 no. 256 Ro aPtolemais Euergetis bzw. Lysimachis (Arsinoites)AD 15

, ἧς παράσημος ἶβις, διὰ ἐπίπλου Σέκτος Ἀτίνιος κεντυρίας Ἀρίου λεγιῶνος δευτέρας καὶ εἰκοστῆς σπείρας δευτέρας Ἀκουσιλάῳ σιτολόγῳ δημοσίῳ Λυσιμαχίδων β τῷ παρὰ Λουκίου Μαρίου ἀπελευθέρου … του Σεβαστοῦ

P.Fam.Tebt. 5ArsinoitesAD 98

Ἑρμῆι Διδύμου. παρὰ Πολέμωνος τοῦ Εὑρήμωνος Πέρσου τῆς ἐπιγονῆς. βούλομαι μισθώσασθαι παρά σου τὸν ἐσπαρμένον ὑπό σου ἐν τῶι ἐνεστῶτι δευτέρωι ἔτει Αὐτοκράτορος Καίσαρος Νέρουα Τραιανοῦ Σεβαστοῦ Γερμανικοῦ ἐν

P.Hamb. 1 64Euhemeria (Arsinoites)AD 103

δύο ἀνυπολόγων καὶ ἀκινδύνων. καὶ ἐπιτελέσω τὰ κατʼ ἔτος τοῦ κλήρου γεωργικὰ ἔργα πάντα σπείρων κατʼ ἔτος οἷς ἐὰν αἱρῶμαι πλὴν κνήκου. τὰ δὲ κατʼ ἔτος ἐκφόρια ἀποδώσω ἐν

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

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