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Matthew 5:7 — Word Study

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N1904Μακάριοι οἱ ἐλεήμονες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ ἐλεηθήσονται.¶

BSABlessed [are]makarios [happy, supremely fortunate] theho merciful,eleēmōn [showing compassion, having pity] forhoti they themselvesautos will receive mercy.eleeō [obtain, receive, kindness, forgiveness, divine compassion]

Word
Listen & take awayMatthew 5
English ↓ Download MP3 The Berean Standard Bible chapter audio already hosted for the site's Bible section — verse 7 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 (eleeō) — no per-word recordings of the Greek exist to link to.
Take it away
Matthew 5:7quick helps
In a sentenceJesus declares that those who show mercy will themselves receive mercy.
Who is speakingJesus, teaching His followers during the Sermon on the Mount.
Where we areThe Beatitudes — a series of blessings at the beginning of Jesus' teaching.
The hard wordἐλεήμονες
Take awayMercy is essential in the life of a follower of Christ.
8 commentators on this verse Gill, Jamieson, Poole, Trapp & more — read them › clause subjectμακάριος verbἐλεέω 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 5:7

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 Beatitudesgenerated

6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

Matthew 5:7 is part of the Beatitudes, where Jesus describes the characteristics of those who are blessed in the Kingdom of Heaven. Here, He emphasizes the importance of mercy, indicating that those who are merciful will receive mercy in return. This teaching reflects the heart of Jesus' message about compassion and forgiveness, which is central to His ministry.


Cross References

ReferenceText (BSB)
1Matthew 6:14–15For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
2Matthew 18:33–35Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on you?’
32 Samuel 22:26To the faithful You show Yourself faithful, to the blameless You show Yourself blameless;
4Job 31:16–22If I have denied the desires of the poor or allowed the widow’s eyes to fail,
5Psalm 18:25To the faithful You show Yourself faithful, to the blameless You show Yourself blameless;

The Key Word ἐλεήμονες, eleēmōngenerated

The word ἐλεήμων (transliterated as *eleēmōn*) is an adjective meaning 'merciful' or 'compassionate.' It describes someone who shows kindness and pity to others, reflecting God's own mercy. This term appears only twice in the New Testament, emphasizing its significance in the context of Jesus' teachings.

In this verse, it highlights the character of those who follow Jesus, suggesting that true followers will embody mercy in their interactions with others, just as God shows mercy to humanity.


How Translations Differ — measured against the Berean Standard Biblegenerated

In this study, we compare the verse as rendered in the Berean Standard Bible with other translations. The BSB uses the phrase shown mercy, which is also found in the WEB and MSB.

The KJV and ASV opt for obtain mercy, while the YLT translates it as find kindness, reflecting a different nuance of the original Greek.


Sentence Structuregenerated

The main clause is introduced by the finite verb μακάριοι, blessed, which serves as the predicate. The subject is indicated by the noun phrase οἱ ἐλεήμονες, the merciful, and the clause continues with the conjunction ὅτι, for, leading to the verb phrase ἐλεηθήσονται, will receive mercy.

This structure emphasizes the relationship between being merciful and the resulting mercy one will receive, illustrating a cause-and-effect dynamic in Jesus' teaching.


Septuagint Backgroundgenerated

ἐλεήμων is used in the Septuagint to translate Hebrew words that convey the idea of mercy and compassion, such as חֶ֫סֶד (H2617) meaning 'goodness' or 'kindness'. This connection shows that the concept of mercy is deeply rooted in the biblical tradition.

The use of ἐλεέω in the Septuagint aligns with the New Testament's emphasis on God's mercy, reinforcing the continuity of this theme throughout Scripture.


In plain words — the whole versegenerated

Matthew 5:7 teaches that those who are merciful will be shown mercy. This means that when we show kindness and compassion to others, we can expect to receive the same in return. Jesus emphasizes the importance of mercy in our lives as His followers.


Frequently Asked Questionsgenerated

What does it mean to be merciful?

To be merciful means to show compassion and kindness to others, especially those in need, reflecting the mercy that God shows to us.

How can I practice mercy in my daily life?

You can practice mercy by forgiving others, helping those who are struggling, and showing kindness to those who may not deserve it, just as Jesus taught.

Why is mercy important in the Christian faith?

Mercy is important because it reflects the character of God and is a fundamental aspect of Jesus' teachings. It is through mercy that we experience God's grace.

What does it mean that the merciful will receive mercy?

It means that those who actively show mercy to others will themselves be recipients of God's mercy, highlighting a reciprocal relationship in the Kingdom of Heaven.


Reflection Questionsgenerated

  1. In what ways can I show mercy to those around me?
  2. How have I experienced God's mercy in my own life?
  3. What challenges do I face in being merciful, and how can I overcome them?
  4. How does understanding mercy shape my view of others?

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

Early church writers reflect on the significance of mercy in the Christian life, drawing from this verse to emphasize the relationship between justice and mercy.

Glossa Ordinariaord. 12th c.
Justice and mercy are so united, that the one ought to be mingled with the other; justice without mercy is cruelty; mercy without justice, profusion—hence He goes on to the one from the other. (ap.
Early Church Fathers on Matthew 5 →
Clement of RomeClement's First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 13 d. c. 99
Let us therefore, brethren, be of humble mind, laying aside all haughtiness, and pride, and foolishness, and angry feelings;
Early Church Fathers on Matthew 5 →
Hilary of PoitiersCatena Aurea by Aquinas c. 310–367
So greatly is God pleased with our feelings of benevolence towards all men, that He will bestow His own mercy only on the merciful.
Early Church Fathers on Matthew 5 →

Commentators on this verse — 8 expositors, verse by verse

Each of these wrote on Matthew 5:7 itself, not merely on the chapter around it.

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

Blessed are the merciful,.... Who show mercy to the bodies of men, to those that are poor, indigent, and miserable, in their outward circumstances; by both sympathizing with them, and distributing

Read John Gill on Matthew 5 →
Robert Jamieson1802–1880Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the merciful, [ eleeemones (G1655) = chªciydiym (H2623)]: for they shall obtain mercy. Beautiful is the connection between this and the preceding beatitude.

Read Robert Jamieson on Matthew 5 →
Matthew Poole1624–1679Matthew Poole's Commentary on the Holy Bible

The men of the world bless themselves if they can take care of themselves, let others do what they will, and as well as they can: but I tell you, that those alone are the blessed men, who are touched with a true sense and feeling of the wants and miseries of others, and that not out of a mere goodness and tenderness of nature, but out of a true obedience to the will of God, and a sense of his love to them, and faith in his promises; and, moved from these principles, do not only pity and compassionate them, and wish them well, but extend their helping hand to them, suitably to their miseries: for these men shall obtain mercy, and that not only from men, if they come into straits and…

Read Matthew Poole on Matthew 5 →
John Trapp1601–1669Trapp's Complete Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Ver. 7. Blessed are the merciful, ελεημονες] They that from a compassionate heart (melting with sense of God’ s everlasting mercy to itself, and yearning over the miseries of others) extend and exercise spiritual and corporal mercy. The former, which teacheth a man to warn the unruly, comfort the feeble minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men, &c., 1 Thessalonians 5:14. The schoolmen thus, Consule, castiga, solare, remitte, fer, ora, usually excel and exceed the latter, which stirs a man up to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, &c., Matthew 25:35-36. " Visito, poto, cibo, redimo, tego, colligo, condo." 1.…

Read John Trapp on Matthew 5 →
Charles John Ellicott1819–1905Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) The merciful.—The thought is the same as that afterwards embodied in the Lord’s Prayer. They who are pitiful towards men their brethren are ipso facto the objects of the divine pity. The negative aspect of the same truth is presented in James 2:13. In this case, the promised blessing tends to perpetuate and strengthen the grace which is thus rewarded. No motive to mercy is so constraining as the feeling that we ourselves needed it and have found it.

Read Charles John Ellicott on Matthew 5 →
AdamClarkeAdam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible

Verse 7. The merciful] The word mercy, among the Jews, signified two things: the pardon of injuries, and almsgiving. Our Lord undoubtedly takes it in its fullest latitude here. To know the nature of mercy, we have only to consult the grammatical meaning of the Latin word misericordia, from which ours is derived. It is composed of two words: miserans, pitying, and cor, the heart; or miseria cordis, pain of heart. Mercy supposes two things: 1. A distressed object: and, 2. A disposition of the heart, through which it is affected at the sight of such an object. This virtue, therefore, is no other than a lively emotion of the heart, which is excited by the discovery of any creature's misery; and…

Read AdamClarke on Matthew 5 →
CambridgeThe Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. they shall obtain mercy] This principle in the divine Government that men shall be dealt with as they deal with their fellow-men is taught in the parable of the Unmerciful Servant, ch. 18, and underlies the fifth petition in the Lord’s Prayer, ch. Matthew 6:12.

Read Cambridge on Matthew 5 →
Albert Barnes1798–1870Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Blessed are the merciful - That is, those who are so affected by the sufferings of others as to be disposed to alleviate them.

Read Albert Barnes on Matthew 5 →

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

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

WEBWorld English Bible2000

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

MSBMajority Standard Bible2022

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

NETBNew English Translation2006

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Tyndale line

KJVKing James Version1611

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

ASVAmerican Standard Version1901

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

RVARevised Version, American1894

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

NWBWebster's Bible1833

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

GNVGeneva Bible1599

Blessed are the mercifull: for they shall obteine mercie.

Strictly literal

DBYDarby Translation1890

Blessed the merciful, for they shall find mercy.

YLTYoung's Literal Translation1862

'Happy the kind — because they shall find kindness.

LSVLiteral Standard Version2020

Blessed the kind—because they will find kindness.

ULBUnlocked Literal Bible2017

Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy.

From the Latin

DRADouay-Rheims (Challoner)1899

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

Simplified

FBVFree Bible Version2020

Blessed are those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

BBEBible in Basic English1949

Happy are those who have mercy: for they will be given mercy.

Word by word, the decisions they made

Μακάριοιmakarios Blessed [are] G3107 2 different renderings
blessedASV BSB DBY DRA FBV GNV KJV LSV MSB NETB NWB RVA ULB WEB
happyBBE
ἐλεηθήσονται.¶eleeō will receive mercy. G1653 3 different renderings
obtainASV DRA KJV NWB RVA ULB WEB
shown mercyBSB FBV MSB NETB
kindnessLSV YLT

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.

clauseclausepredicateμακάριοιBlessed [are]noun phrase · subjectοἱtheἐλεήμονεςmercifulclauseὅτιforclausesubjectαὐτοὶtheyverbἐλεηθήσονταιwill receive mercy

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

Beati misericordes : quoniam ipsi misericordiam consequentur.

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

ܛܘܒܝܗܘܢ ܠܡܪܚܡܢܐ ܕܥܠܝܗܘܢ ܢܗܘܘܢ ܪܚܡܐ

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

Μακάριοι οἱ ἐλεήμονες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ ἐλεηθήσονται.¶

The standard critical text of the New Testament.

Nestle-Aland 27th edition1993 · Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft

Μακάριοι οἱ ἐλεήμονες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ ἐλεηθήσονται.¶

The previous edition, still widely cited.

SBL Greek New Testament2010 · Michael Holmes

Μακάριοι οἱ ἐλεήμονες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ ἐλεηθήσονται.¶

The Society of Biblical Literature edition, freely licensed.

Westcott–Hort1881 · Westcott and Hort

Μακάριοι οἱ ἐλεήμονες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ ἐλεηθήσονται.¶

The edition that turned scholarship toward the earliest manuscripts.

Tregelles1857–1879 · Samuel Prideaux Tregelles

Μακάριοι οἱ ἐλεήμονες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ ἐλεηθήσονται.¶

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

Tyndale House Greek NT2017 · Tyndale House, Cambridge

Μακάριοι οἱ ἐλεήμονες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ ἐλεηθήσονται.¶

A recent critical edition following documentary evidence closely.

Byzantine majority text2018 · Robinson–Pierpont

Μακάριοι οἱ ἐλεήμονες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ ἐλεηθήσονται.¶

The reading of the majority of surviving manuscripts.

Textus Receptus1550/1894 lineage

Μακάριοι οἱ ἐλεήμονες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ ἐλεηθήσονται.¶

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 5:7μακάριοςBlessed [arBlessed [are]μακάριοςthetheἐλεήμωνmerciful,merciful,ἐλεήμωνὅτιforforὅτιαὐτόςthey themsethey themselvesαὐτόςἐλεέωwill receivwill receive meἐλεέωἐλεέωv. I pity,v. I pity, haveἐλεέωἔλεοςn.m. & n.nn.m. & n.n. pitἔλεοςὅστιςRel.pr. whRel.pr. whosoevὅστιςἀήρn.m. airn.m. airἀήρἑαυτοῦRefl.pr. hRefl.pr. himselἑαυτοῦπεινάωv. I am huv. I am hungry,πεινάωπτωχόςAdj poor, Adj poor, destiπτωχόςοἶδαv. I know,v. I know, remeοἶδαγινώσκωv. I come v. I come to knγινώσκωἐπερωτάωv. I interv. I interrogatἐπερωτάωΔαυίδProp.n. DaProp.n. DavidΔαυίδ
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 5:7

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.

Blessed [are] the merciful, for they themselves will receive mercy.
Μακάριοιmakarios Blessed [are] G3107 Adjective · nominative · plural · masculine
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
Blessed or happy, as in Matthew 5:3 and John 20:29. It describes a state of supreme bliss or good fortune, often used to congratulate someone. This word is used to express joy or congratulations.
Amplified meaning
happy, supremely fortunate
Tyndale gloss
blessed
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word μακάριος (transliterated as *makarios*) means 'blessed' or 'happy.' It is derived from a poetic form and is used in various contexts, including blessings in the New Testament, where it often describes those who receive divine favor. The term can also imply prosperity or well-being, and it appears frequently in both classical literature and biblical texts.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

μακάριος, -α, -ον

(collat. form of poët. μάκαρ, in Hom., Hes., chiefly of the gods and the departed),

[in LXX for אַשְׁרֵי;]

blessed, happy (DCG, i, 177, 213): θεός (δυνάστης), I Ti 1:11 6:15; ἐλπίς, Tit 2:13; esp. in congratulations, usually with the omission of the copula (M, Pr., 180; B1., § 30, 3), μ. ὁ, Mt 5:3 ff., Lk 6:20 ff., Jo 20:29, Re 1:3, al.; seq. ptcp., Lk 1:45, al.; ὅς, Mt 11:6, Lk 7:23,

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

μακάριος, -a, -ov, (poetic μάκαρ). [ fr. Pind., Plat. down], blessed, happy: joined to names of God, 1 Tim. i. 11; vi. 15 (cf. μάκαρες θεοί in Hom. and Hes.); ἐλπίς, Tit. ii. 13; as a predicate, Acts xx. 35; 1 Pet. iii. 14; iv. 14; ἡγοῦμαί τινα pax. Acts xxvi. 2; μακάρ. ἔν τινι, Jas. i. 25. In congratulations, the reason why one is to be pronounced blessed is expressed by a noun or by a ptep. taking the place of the subject, μακάριος ὁ ete. (Hebr. “3 > WR, Ps. i.1; Deut. xxxiii. 29, ete.) blessed the man, who ete. [W. 551 (512 sq.)]: Mt. v. 3-11; Lk. vi. 2022; Jn. xx. 29; Rev. i. 3; xvi.15; xix.9; xx.6; xxii. 14; by the addition to the noun of a ptep. which takes the place of a predicate, Lk. i. 45; x. 23; xi. 27 sq.; Rev. xiv. 13; foll. by és with a finite verb, Mt. xi. 6; LK. vii. 23; xiv. 15; Ro. iv. 7 sq.; the subject noun intervening, Lk. xii. 37,43; xxiii. 29; Jas.i.12; pax....…

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

μακάριος is used in the LXX for "WN (Ps 1, a/.), ‘Oh, the happi- | nessof. .. !’’, and in Ilebrew thought denotes a state of true well-being : hence Mt 53, a7, In 1 Tim 1, 6%, it is applied to God: with the latter passage cf. Philo de Sacrtfits Abelis et Caini, p. 147 περὶ θεοῦ τοῦ ἀγεννήτου καὶ ἀφθάρτου kal ἀτρέπτου καὶ ἁγίου kal μόνου μακαρίου (cited by White 2GT7 κα 1.), and the passages cited by Dibelius HZNT ad τ. The absence of early exx. of this common prose word is curious, but it is frequent in the New Comedy, and late exx. may be quoted from the papyri, as PSI III. 17615 (v/A.D.) Φλα(ύιος) Μηνᾶς στρατηλατιανὸς vids τοῦ μακαρίου Δωροθέου ὑπέγραψα κτλ., and the Christian P Giss | I. 55° (vi/A.D.) π]αρὰ τοὺ τῆς μ[αἸκαρίας μνήμης Φοιβαδίου τοῦ ἐπισκ[όπου. From the inscrr. we may cite Cagnat IV. 8085 ( Hierapolis) εἰς τὴν εὐτυχῆ καὶ μακαρίαν ὑπατί 5 OGIS 519° (c. A.D. 245) ἐν τοῖς…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

μακάριος (makarios) — blessed.

μᾰκᾰρ-ιος, α, ον,

also ος, ον [Refs 5th c.BC+], mostly used in Prose, but also in Poets, as [Refs 5th c.BC+],

1. mostly of men, blessed, happy, [Refs 5th c.BC+]: frequently in phrases such as μ. ὅστις.. νοῦν ἔχει [Refs 4th c.BC+] W.: superlative, [Refs] my good sir, my dear sir, [Refs 5th c.BC+] O happy you for.., [Refs 5th c.BC+]; ὦ μ. σὺ τά τε ἄλλα καὶ αὐτὸ τοῦτο ὅτι.. [Refs 5th c.BC+]

2. prosperous, οἱ μ., opposed to οἱ ἐνδεεῖς, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

3. of the dead, like{μακαρίτης}, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

II. of states, qualities, etc., μ. λέχος [Refs 5th c.BC+]; βίος [Refs 5th c.BC+]; τὸ μακάριον bliss, [Refs 4th c.BC+]

III. adverb -ίως [Refs 5th c.BC+]: superlative -ώτατα [Refs 5th c.BC+]

Strong's Greek Dictionary

μακάριος

makarios

a prolonged form of the poetical makar (meaning the same); supremely

blest; by extension, fortunate, well off:-- blessed, happy(X -ier).

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

μακάριος, α, ον

Adj

happy, blessed

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

μακάριος makarios 50x

happy, blessed, as a noun it can depict someone who receives divine favor, Mt. 5:3, 4, 5, 7; Lk. 1: 45

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

μακάριος μα^κ^άριος, η, ον longer form of μάκαρ of men, blessed, happy, Pind., Eur., etc.:—in addresses, ὦ μακάριε, like ὦ θαυμάσιε, my good sir, my dear sir, Plat.:—c. gen., ὦ μ. τῆς τύχης happy you for your good fortune! Ar.

οἱ μακάριοι, like οἱ ὄλβιοι, the rich and better educated, Plat., Arist.

adv. -ίως, Eur., Ar.

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

A-NPM Part of Speech: Adjective Case: Nominative Number: Plural Gender: Masculine

Bible dictionarieson the English sense
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

bles'-ed (barukh): Where God is referred to, this word has the sense of "praise," as in 1Sa 25:32, "Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel." But where man is in mind it is used in the sense of "happy" or "favored," and most frequently so in the Psalms and the Gospels, as for example, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked" (Ps 1:1); "Blessed art thou among women" (Lu 1:42); "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Mt 5:3).

See BEATITUDES.

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
96%blessed
blessed96% · 48×fortunate2% · 1×more blessed2% · 1×

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

What it does in the sentencefrom the Nestle 1904 treebank
predicate92%object4%second object2%subject2%

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
καίand, even, also, nam
αὐτός
λέγωI say, speak
λέγωI say, speak
αὐτόςἴδιοςone’s own, priva
Article the
δόξαhonor, renown, gδείκνυμιI point out, shoπροσδέχομαιI expect, welcom
γράφωI write
λέγωI say, speakἐγώ
μακάριοςBlessed [are]50×
what comes after →
Article the
δοῦλος (II)πτωχόςpoor, destituteπεινάωI am hungry, nee
εἰμίI am, exist
ὅτανwhen, whensoeverὅςΣίμωνSimon
ἀνήρa male human being,
ὅς
καίand, even, also, nam
μόνοςonly, solitary, ἅγιοςset apart, holy,
ὅστις
ἐσθίωI eat

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

Concordanceμακάριος · 50× in the New Testament
Luke Matthew Revelation Romans 1 Peter 1 Timothy Acts James John 1 Corinthians Titus
Across the New Testament11 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

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

Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
Philo of Alexandria Clement of Rome The Shepherd of Hermas Josephus Polycarp
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 172c. AD 40

ὁ δὴ ταῦτα μὴ ἀκοῇ μᾶλλον ἢ διανοίᾳ προμαθὼν καὶ ἐν τῇ αὑτοῦ ψυχῇ σφραγισάμενος θαυμάσια καὶ περιμάχητα εἴδη, καὶ ὅτι ἔστι καὶ ὑπάρχει θεὸς καὶ ὅτι εἷς ὁ ὢν ὄντως ἐστὶ καὶ ὅτι πεποίηκε τὸν κόσμον καὶ πεποίηκεν ἕνα, ὡς ἐλέχθη, κατὰ τὴν μόνωσιν…

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 1.42c. AD 75–95

οἰόμενος δὲ συμφορᾷ περιπεσεῖσθαι παρακούσαντας ἀναπείθει κακοήθως τὴν γυναῖκα γεύσασθαι τοῦ φυτοῦ τῆς φρονήσεως ἐν αὐτῷ λέγων εἶναι τήν τε τἀγαθοῦ καὶ τοῦ κακοῦ διάγνωσιν, ἧς γενομένης αὐτοῖς μακάριον καὶ μηδὲν ἀπολείποντα τοῦ θείου διάξειν βίον.

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 10.10c. AD 100

λαμβάνει δὲ τῶν αὐτῶν τριῶν δογμάτων γνῶσιν Δαυείδ καὶ λέγει: Μακάριος ἀνήρ, ὃς οὐκ ἐπορεύθη ἐν βουλῇ ἀσεβῶν, καθὼς καὶ οἱ ἰχθύες πορεύονται ἐν σκότει εἰς τὰ βάθη: καὶ ἐν ὁδῷ ἁμαρτωλῶν οὐκ ἔστη, καθὼς οἱ δοκοῦντες φοβεῖσθαι τὸν κύριον ἁμαρτάνουσιν…

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
6th c. AD 7th c. AD 4th c. AD 5th c. AD 8th c. AD
P.Col. 7 151Karanis (Arsinoites)AD 343

Ἀτεισίου ὑπὲρ ἐκκαιδεκάτης ἰνδικτίονος κωμητῶν Καρανίδος πυροῦ καθαροῦ ἀρτάβας ἑξήκοντα ἕξ, ἀρτάβας ξϛ μόνας. Μακάριος καὶ Οὐράνιος διʼ ἐμοῦ Κυρίλλου σεσημειώμεθα ἀρτάβας ἑξήκοντα ἓξ μόνας . Θὼθ ι. παρήνεγκεν

P.Lond. 2 p. 286-287 no. 234Philadelphia? (Arsinoites)AD 345–AD 350

r Φλαούιος Μακάριος διασημότατος ἐπίτροπος δεσποτικῶν κτήσεων Φλαουίῳ Ἀμιννέῳ πραιφέκτῳ κάστρων Διονυσιάδος χαίρειν. ἡ ἐξουσία τοῦ κυρίου

P.Col. 7 187Karanis (Arsinoites)AD 375

Αὐρήλιοι Μακάριος καὶ Ἰσίων … … τῷ καὶ Ν … … χαίρειν· ἐπληρώθημεν παρὰ σοῦ ἃ

Blessed [are] the merciful, for they themselves will receive mercy.
οἱho the G3588 Article · nominative · plural · 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-NPM — Article · nominative · plural · masculine
nominative — the one doing it — the subject.
Agrees with anything else marked plural masculine.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

T-NPM Part of Speech: definite arTicle Case: Nominative Number: Plural Gender: Masculine

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

THE, an adjective or definitive adjective.

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

This he calls the preaching of the cross.

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

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

Th' adorning thee with so much art,

Is but a barb'rous skill.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

τοῦ κόσμου σύστασις καὶ διάταξις τῶν στοιχείων.

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

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

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

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

P.Adl. 11Pathyris99 BC

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

P.Grenf. 2 35Pathyris99 BC

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

Blessed [are] the merciful, for they themselves will receive mercy.
ἐλεήμονες,eleēmōn merciful, G1655 Adjective · nominative · plural · masculine
2× 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
Merciful, like God in Matthew 5:7. It describes someone who shows compassion and forgiveness to others, like Jesus did throughout his ministry.
Amplified meaning
showing compassion, having pity
Tyndale gloss
merciful
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word ἐλεήμων (i.e., *eleēmōn*) means merciful or compassionate. It is derived from the root meaning to show pity. The term appears in the New Testament in Matthew 5:7 and Hebrews 2:17. It is often used in the Septuagint to describe God's mercy, though it also applies to humans in a few instances.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

ἐλεήμων, -ον

[in LXX chiefly for חַנּוּן ;]

merciful: Mt 5:7, He 2:17.†

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

ἐλεήμων, -ov, merciful: Mt. v. 7; Heb. ii. 17. Hom. Od. 5, 191 on; Sept.]* [ἐλεινός, see eNeewwos. |

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

ἐλεήμων. P Leid Wvi-27 (ii/iii A.D.) ἐλεήμων ἐν ὥραις βιαίος (/. —ats). Inthe NT the adj. is confined to Mt 57, Heb 217: in the LXX it is frequent of God, but of men only in Ps 111 (112) and 2εγ in Prov.

Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

ἐλεήμων (eleēmōn) — merciful.

ἐλε-ήμων, ον,

genitive ονος, pitiful, merciful, [NT+8th c.BC+]; of God, [LXX+5th c.BC+] adverb -μόνως, condemned by [Refs 2nd c.AD+]

Strong's Greek Dictionary

ἐλεήμων

eleemon

from 1653; compassionate (actively):--merciful.

see GREEK for 1653

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

ἐλεήμων, ον

Adj

full of pity, merciful

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

ἐλεήμων eleēmōn 2x

merciful, pitiful, compassionate, Mt. 5:7; Heb. 2:17*

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

ἐλεήμων ἐλεήμων, ονος, ἐλεέω pitiful, merciful, compassionate, Od., Dem.

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

A-NPM Part of Speech: Adjective Case: Nominative Number: Plural Gender: Masculine

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
100%merciful
merciful100% · 2×

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

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
Article the
μακάριοςhappy, blessed
ἵναin order that, so th
ὁμοιόωI make like, lik
ἐλεήμωνmerciful,
what comes after →
ὅτιthat, since, because
αὐτός
γίνομαιI come into being, a
καίand, even, also,

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

Concordanceἐλεήμων · 2× in the New Testament
Hebrews Matthew
Across the New Testament2 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 12 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 Polycarp The Didache
The DidacheThe Didache 3.8c. AD 100

γίνου μακρόθυμος καὶ ἐλεήμων καὶ ἄκακος καὶ ἡσύχιος καὶ ἀγαθὸς καὶ τρέμων τοὺς λόγους διὰ παντός, οὓς ἤκουσας.

PolycarpPolycarp to the Philippians 6.1c. AD 110

Καὶ οἱ πρεσβύτεροι δὲ εὔσπλαγχνοι, εἰς πάντας ἐλεήμονες, ἐπιστρέφοντες τὰ ἀποπεπλανημένα, ἐπισκεπτόμενοι πάντας ἀσθενεῖς, μὴ ἀμελοῦντες χήρας ἢ ὀρφανοῦ ἢ πένητος ἀλλὰ προνοοῦντες ἀεὶ τοῦ καλοῦ ἐνώπιον θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων, ἀπεχόμενοι πάσης ὀργῆς,…

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
4th c. AD
P.Lond. 6 1917Herakleopolites bzw. KynopolitesAD 330–AD 340

ἀποστερήσωσί με καὶ μὴ ἐ … ωσί με, ἀλλὰ ᾧ ὁ θεὸς οἰκτίρμων καὶ ἐλεήμων οὕτως καὶ ὑμεῖς οἰκτίρμονες καὶ ἐλεήμονες γίγνεσθε διὰ ἐμοῦ σποδαζόμενοι πρὸς τὸν θεόν. πᾶν

Blessed [are] the merciful, for they themselves will receive mercy.
ὅτιhoti for G3754 Conjunction
1,293× 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 Greek word means 'that' or 'because', used to introduce a reason or explanation. It appears in the New Testament, such as in Matthew 3:9 and Romans 8:38. It helps to show cause and effect in sentences.
Tyndale gloss
that/since: that
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word ὅτι (hoti) is a conjunction primarily meaning 'that' or 'because.' It introduces objective clauses, often following verbs of perception or declaration, and can also serve as a causal particle. The New Testament frequently employs it in this way, such as in Matthew 5:4-12. There is some variation in how lexicons describe its usage, particularly regarding its pleonastic function in direct discourse.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

ὅτι,

conjc. (prop. neut. of ὅστις).

As conjc, introducing an objective clause, that;

after verbs of seeing, knowing, thinking, saying, feeling: Mt 3:9 6:32 11:25, Mk 3:28, Lk 2:49, Jo 2:22, Ac 4:13, Ro 1:13 8:38 10:9, Phl 4:15, Ja 2:24, al.; elliptically, Jo 6:46, Phl 3:12, al.

After εἶναι (γίνεσθαι): defining a demonstr. or pers. pron., Jo 3:19 16:19, Ro 9:6, I Jo 3:16 al.; c. pron. interrog., Mt 8:27, Mk 4:41,

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

ὅτι [properly neut. of ὅστις], a conjunction [fr. Hom. down], (Lat. quod [ef. W. § 53,8 b.; B. § 139, 51; § 149, 87), marking I. the substance or contents (of a statement), that; 1. joined to verbs of saying and declaring (where the ace. and infin. is used in Lat.) : ἀναγγέλλειν, Acts xiv. 27; διηγεῖσθαι, Acts ix. 273; εἰπεῖν, Mt. xvi. 20; xxviii. 7,13; Jn. vii. 42; xvi. 15; 1Co.i.15; λέγειν, Mt. iii. 9; vill. 11; Mk. iii. 28; Lk. xv.7; Jn. xvi. 20; Ro. iv. 9 [T Tr WH om. L br. ὅτι}; ix. 2, and very often; προεἰρηκέναι, 2 Co. vii. 3; before the ὅτι in Acts xiv. 22 supply λέγοντες, contained in the preceding παρακαλοῦντες [ef. B. §151, 11]; ὅτι after γράφειν, 1 Co. ix.10; 1 Jn. 11. 12-14; μαρτυρεῖν, Mt. xxiii. 31; Jn. i. 34; iii. 28; iv. 44; ὁμολογεῖν, Heb. xi. 13; δεικνύειν, Mt. xvi. 21; δηλοῦν, 1 Co. i. 11; διδάσκειν, 1 Co. xi. 14. after ἐμφανίζειν. Heb. xi. 14; δῆλον (ἐστίν), 1 Co.…

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

οτι. (1) For ὅτι, ‘‘that,” introducing an objective clause after verbs of knowing, saying, etc., cf. P Tebt II. 4098 (A.D. 5) εἰδὼ[ς ὅ]τι ἐξίι)ουσίαν αὐτῶν ἔχει kal Λυσίμαχος kal σύ, ΚΕ knew that both you and Lysimachus had plenty of them” (Edd.), P Fay 109° (early i/A.D.) νομίσας ὅτι (cf. Mt 517) κιχρᾷς por αὐτούς, ““ consider that you are lending them (sc. staters) to me’’ (Edd.), BGU III. 8464* (ii/a.p.) (= Selections, p. 93) γεινώσκειν σαι θέλω, ὅτι οὐχ [HA] Lov, ὅτι ἀναβένις (1. ἀναβαίνεις) els τὴν μητρόπολιν, “1 wish you to know that I had no hope that you were coming up to the metropolis,” 74.9 αἴγραψά σοι, ὅτι γυμνός εἰμει, “1 wrote you that I am naked,” and P Tebt II. 420+ (iii/A.D.) οἴδατε ὅτι ἀπὸ ζημίας ἠμί, ‘‘ You know that I am blameless.” Ὅτι, however, is frequently omitted, e.g. BGU IIL. 8153(ii/a.p.) γεινόσκιν σε θέλω [τὴ]ν ἐπιστολήν σου ἔλαβε (corrected by another hand…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

ὅτι (hoti) — that/since: that.

ὅτῐ,

Epic dialect ὅττῐ (both in [Refs 8th c.BC+]: conjunction, to introduce an objective clause, that, after Verbs of seeing or knowing, thinking or saying; in [Refs 8th c.BC+] —Usage:

I. when ὅτι introduces a statement of fact:

I. a in [Refs 8th c.BC+] always with indicative, the tense following the same rules as in English, ἤγγειλ᾽ ὅττι ῥά οἱ πόσις ἔκτοθι μίμνε πυλάων [Refs 8th c.BC+]

I. b in Attic dialect, ὅτι takes indicative after primary tenses, indicative or optative after secondary tenses, e.g. ἐνδείκνυμαι ὅτι οὐκ ἔστι σοφός [Refs 5th c.BC+] news came that Megara had (literal has) revolted, [Refs 5th c.BC+]: sometimes optative and indicative are found in the same sentence, ἔλεγον, ὅτι Κῦρος μὲν τέθνηκεν, Ἀριαῖος δὲ πεφευγὼς.. εἴη [Refs 5th c.BC+].. and the accusative with infinitive…

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

ὅτι

hoti

neuter of 3748 as conjunction; demonstrative, that (sometimes

redundant); causative, because:--as concerning that, as though,

because (that), for (that), how (that), (in) that, though, why.

see GREEK for 3748

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

ὅτι

Cj.

that, since, because

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

ὅτι hoti 1x

originally was the neuter of ὅστις, that, Mt. 2:16, 22, 23; 6:5, 16; often used pleonastically in reciting another’s words, Mt. 9:18; Lk. 19:42; Acts 5:23; as a causal particle, for that, for, because, Mt. 2:18; 5:3, 4, 5; 13:13; because, seeing that, since, Lk. 23:40; Acts 1:17

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

Bible dictionarieson the English sense
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

for (ki (conjunction), le, from 'el (preposition), and various other words. In the New Testament also the words are various, chiefly gar, kai gar, hoti (conjunctions); anti apo eis dia (accusative), epi (dative and accusative), peri (genitive), pros (genitive and accusative), huper (genitive) (prepositions)): the English Revised Version and the American Standard Revised Version give in many cases more literal or more accurate renderings than those in the King James Version.

In the New Testament the most important preps. from a doctrinal point of view are anti, "face to face," "over against," "instead," "on behalf of," peri, "around," "about," "concerning," huper, "over," "on behalf of." The first has been claimed as stating the substitutionary nature of Christ's sacrifice as contrasted with huper and peri, more frequently used of it. But, although anti in the New Testament often means…

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
64%that
that64% · 856×because19% · 252×for16% · 209×other renderings1% · 12×

1,329 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 8 different ways. The commonest English word for it is not its meaning — it is one translator's decision, repeated.

What it does in the sentencefrom the Nestle 1904 treebank
adverbial16%object4%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 1,293 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
σύ
λέγωI say, speakγάρforδέbut, on the othe
λέγωI say, speak
αὐτόςσύδέbut, on the othe
οἶδαI know, remember
οὐNegκαίand, even, also,ἐγώ
αὐτός
λέγωI say, speakμαθητήςa learner, disciπερί
γινώσκωI come to know, lear
οὗτοςκαίand, even, also,αὐτός
ὅτιfor1293×
what comes after →
Article the
θεόςGod, a godκύριοςlord, Lord, mastπατήρfather, Father,
οὐNeg
εἰμίI am, existοἶδαI know, rememberδύναμαιI am powerful, a
ἐγώ
εἰμίI am, existοὐNegArticle the
οὗτος
εἰμίI am, existArticle theποιέωI do, make
πᾶςall, the whole, ever
Article theῥῆμαa thing spokenζητέωI seek, search f

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

Concordanceὅτι · 1,293× in the New Testament
John Luke Matthew Acts Mark 1 John Revelation 1 Corinthians Romans 2 Corinthians Galatians Philippians

2 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
Philo of Alexandria Josephus The Shepherd of Hermas The Epistle of Barnabas Clement of Rome
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 8c. AD 40

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

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

ὅτι τῶν ἐθνῶν ἕκαστον ἀπὸ τῶν οἰκισάντων προσηγορεύθη.

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 1.3c. AD 100

ὅτι ἀληθῶς βλέπω ἐν ὑμῖν ἐκκεχυμένον ἀπὸ τοῦ πλουσίου τῆς πηγῆς κυρίου πνεῦμα ἐφ̓ ὑμᾶς.

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
2nd c. AD 3rd c. AD 4th c. AD 3rd c. BC 6th c. AD
C.Erbstreit14Diospolis Magna (Theben)187 BC

καὶ τὴν εἰκοστὴν τοῦ ἐγκυκλίου καὶ τὰ ἄλλα τὰ καθήκοντα. … ται Προῖτος, καθʼ ὅτι πρόκειται … ἑξήκοντα ἓξ τετρωβόλου καὶ τῆς … … τοπογραμματέως τοῦ Παθυρίτου … ἀρουρῶν

P.Grenf. 1 10 p. 24Hermonthis149 BC

ι τοῖς ἐνκαλουμένοις τὸ ἀντίγραφον τῆς ἐντεύξεως λαβεῖν παρ … τ … … πίστιν ὅτι ἀπαντησα … ἐπὶ τὸ ἐν τῆι αὐλῆι κριτήριον ἐν ἡμέραις λ οὐκ ο

P.Bour. 10Pathyris89 BC

δʼ ἐπιχειροῦντας μὴ ὑπακούειν σου … υτέραι στάσει ἐχομένους ἀσφαλισάμενος μέχρι τοῦ καὶ ἡμᾶς ὅτι τάχος ἐπιβαλεῖν πρὸς σέ. ἔρρωσοἔρρωσο ἔτους κϛ Φαμενὼθ ιϛ

Blessed [are] the merciful, for they themselves will receive mercy.
αὐτοὶautos they themselves G846 Personal pronoun · nominative · 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-NPM — Personal pronoun · nominative · plural · masculine
nominative — the one doing it — the subject.
Agrees with anything else marked plural masculine.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

P-NPM Part of Speech: Personal pronoun Case: Nominative 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
αὐτόςthey themselves5550×
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

Blessed [are] the merciful, for they themselves will receive mercy.
ἐλεηθήσονται.¶eleeō will receive mercy. G1653 Verb · future · passive · indicative · third person · plural
32× 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 have mercy or show compassion, like God does in Romans 9:16. It means to feel sorry for someone and want to help them.
Amplified meaning
obtain, receive, kindness, forgiveness, divine compassion
Tyndale gloss
to have mercy
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

The Greek word ἐλεέω (i.e., eleeo) means to have pity or show mercy. It can be used absolutely or with an accusative object. The New Testament uses it in various contexts, including Matthew 5:7 and Romans 9:15. It is related to the noun ἔλεος (i.e., eleos), which means mercy.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

ἐλεέω

(in Ro 9:16, Ju 22, -άω, q.v.), -ῶ (< ἔλεος),

[in LXX (Hex, Pss, Pr) chiefly for חָנַן, also freq. in Proph. for רָחַם, etc. ;]

to have pity or mercy on, to show mercy: absol., Ro 9:16 12:8; c. acc, Mt 9:27 15:22 17:15 18:33 20:30, 31, Mk 5:19 10:47, 48, Lk 16:24 17:13 18:38, 39, Ro 9:15, 18 11:32, Phl 2:27, Ju 22. Pass., to have pity or mercy shown one (EV, obtain mercy): Mt 5:7, Ro 11:30, 31,

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

ἐλεέω, -ῶ; fut. ἐλεήσω; 1 aor. ἠλέησα; Pass., 1 aor. ἠλεήθην ; 1fut.eenOjoouac; pf. ptep. ἠλεημένος ; (ἔλεος) ; fr. Hom. down; Sept. most freq. for [271 to be gracious, also for DM to have mercy; several times for Son to spare, and DM) to console; to have mercy on: twa |W. § 32, 1b. a.], to succor one afflicted or seeking aid, Mt. ix. 27; xv. 22; xvii. 15; xvili. 33; xx. 30 sq.; Mk. v. 19 [here, by zeugma (W. § 66, 2 e.), the ὅσα is brought over with an adverbial force (W. 463 (431 sq.), how]; x. 47sq.; Lk. xvi. 24; xvii. 13; xviii. 38 sq.; Phil. 11. 27; Jude 22 Rec.; absol. to succor the afflicted, to bring help to the wretched, [A. V. to show mercy], Ro. xii. 8; pass. to experience [ A. V. obtain] mercy, Mt. v. 7. Spee. of God granting even to the unworthy favor, benefits, opportunities, and particularly salvation by Christ: Ro. ix. 15,16 R G (see ἐλεάω), 18; xi. 32; pass., Ro. xi. 30…

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

ἐλεέω (—aw) is found in the interesting but obscure letter written to a man in money difficulties BGU IV. 1079%8 (a.p. 41) (= Selections, p. 40) ἐρώτα αὐτὸν καθ᾽ ἡμέραν' τάχα δύναταί σε ἐλεῆσαι, ‘Cask him daily: perhaps he can have pity on you”: cf. P Fay 106% (c. a.p. 140) ἐξησθένησα[. ... 7 κύριε, ὅθεν ἀξιῶ σαὶ τὸν σω[τῆρα] ἐλεῆσαί pe, “1 became very weak, my lord; wherefore I entreat you my preserver to have pity on me,’ P Oxy VI. 904? (v/A.D.) (cited s.z. γηράσκω), and from the inscrr. $y// 41888. (A.D. 238) ἵνα ἐλεηθέντες διὰ τὴν θείαν σου πρόνοιαν KTA. For a Christian use, see the prayer P Oxy III. 407% (iii/iv A.p.) βοήθησόν μοι ἐλέησόν pe ἐξάλιψόν μοι τὰς ἁμαρτίας. For a suggestion that ‘‘ Ayrve e/etson was a common Jewish prayer formula, which was adopted by Christians,’’ see 7715 xvi. p. 548f. Sharp (#fzct. p. 4) cites in illustration of Mt 20%0f Epict. ii. 7. 12 τὸν θεὸν…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

ἐλεέω (eleeō) — to have mercy.

ἐλε-έω,

imperfect ἠλέουν [Refs 4th c.BC+]aorist ἠλέησα, Epic dialect ἐλέησα (see. below):—passive, perfect ἠλέημαι [Refs 4th c.BC+]: (ἔλεος):—to have pity on, show mercy to, ὁ δ᾽ ἐρύσατο καί μ᾽ ἐλέησεν [Refs 8th c.BC+] Eph.5.4:—passive, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

2. absolutely,feel pity, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

Strong's Greek Dictionary

ἐλεάω ἐλεέω

eleeo

from 1656; to compassionate (by word or deed, specially, by divine

grace):--have compassion (pity on), have (obtain, receive, shew) mercy

(on).

see GREEK for 1656

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

ἐλεέω

v.

I pity, have mercy on

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

ἐλεέω eleeō 28x

also formed as ἐλεάω   4x, to pity, have compassion on; pass. to receive pity, experience compassion, Mt. 5:7; 9:27; 15:22; to be gracious to any one, show gracious favor and saving mercy towards; pass. to be an object of gracious favor and saving mercy, Rom. 11:30, 31; spc. to obtain pardon and forgiveness, 1 Tim. 1:13, 16

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

ἐλεέω ἔλεος like ἐλεαίρω to have pity on, shew mercy upon, c. acc., Od., attic:—Pass. to be pitied, have pity or mercy shewn one, Plat.

absol. to feel pity, Ar.

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Verb-FPI-3P — Verb · future · passive · indicative · third person · plural
future passive indicative — an action still to come.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

V-FPI-3P Part of Speech: Verb Tense: Future Voice: Passive Mood: Indicative Person: third Number: Plural

Bible dictionarieson the English sense
Easton's Bible Dictionary

Mercy

Compassion for the miserable. Its object is misery. By the atoning sacrifice of Christ a way is open for the exercise of mercy towards the sons of men, in harmony with the demands of truth and righteousness (Gen. 19:19; Ex. 20:6; 34:6, 7; Ps. 85:10; 86:15, 16). In Christ mercy and truth meet together. Mercy is also a Christian grace (Matt. 5:7; 18:33-35).

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

The divine goodness exercised towards the wretched and the guilty, in harmony with truth and justice, Ps 85:10. The plan by which God is enabled to show saving mercy to men, for Christ’s sake, is the most consummate work of infinite wisdom and love. The soul that has truly experienced the mercy of God will be merciful like him, Lu 6:36, compassionate to the wretched, Ps 41:1,2, and forgiving towards all, Mt 5:7 18:33.

Nave's Topical Bible

→ General scriptures concerning 2Sa 22:26; Ps 18:25; 37:25,26; 85:10; Pr 3:3,4; 11:17; 12:10; 14:21,22,31; 20:28; 21:21; Ho 4:1; 12:6; Mic 6:8; Mt 5:7; 23:23; Lu 6:36; Ro 12:8; Col 3:12,13; Jas 2:13

→ See GOD, MERCY OF

→ See KINDNESS

→ INSTANCES OF

The prison keeper, to Joseph Ge 39:21-23

Torrey's New Topical Textbook

- After the example of God

Lu 6:36

- Enjoined

2Ki 6:21-23; Ho 12:6; Ro 12:20,21; Col 3:12

- To be engraved on the heart

Pr 3:3

- Characteristic of saints

Ps 37:26; Isa 57:1

- SHOULD BE SHOWN

. With cheerfulness

Ro 12:8

. To our brethren

Zec 7:9

. to those that are in distress

Lu 10:37

. To the poor

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
34%do have mercy on
do have mercy on34% · 11×showing mercy6% · 2×received mercy6% · 2×i was shown mercy6% · 2×i will show mercy to3% · 1×i may show mercy3% · 1×he shows mercy3% · 1×shown mercy3% · 1×other renderings34% · 11×

32 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 19 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
verb91%predicate9%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 32 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,κράζωI cry aloud, shrγάρfor
κύριοςlord, Lord, master,
λέγωI say, speak
ΔαυίδProp
υἱόςa son, descenden
δέbut, on the other ha
νῦνnow, already, atὅς
σύ
καίand, even, also,κἀγώ
ἐλεέωwill receive mercy.32×
what comes after →
ἐγώ
υἱόςa son, descendenκύριοςlord, Lord, mastArticle the
Article the
σύνδουλοςa fellow servantοὗτος
ὅς
ἄνDisjδέbut, on the othe
ἐν
ἱλαρότηςcheerfulnessφόβοςfear, terror, re
σύ

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

Concordanceἐλεέω · 32× in the New Testament
Matthew Romans Luke Mark 1 Peter 1 Timothy Jude 1 Corinthians 2 Corinthians Philippians
Across the New Testament10 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 63 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 Ignatius of Antioch Polycarp
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain 121c. AD 40

μήποτε δὲ καὶ δόγμα εἰσηγεῖται σφόδρα ἀναγκαῖον, ὅτι πᾶς σοφὸς λύτρον ἐστὶ τοῦ φαύλου, μηδ’ ἂν πρὸς ὀλίγον χρόνον ἐξαρκέσαντος, εἰ μὴ ἐλέῳ καὶ προμηθείᾳ χρώμενος ἐκεῖνος προὐνόει τῆς διαμονῆς αὐτοῦ, καθάπερ ἰατρὸς τοῦ νοσοῦντος ἀντιτεταγμένος τοῖς…

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 5.25c. AD 75–95

κτείνειν μέντοι πάνθʼ ὁντινοῦν εἰ λάβοιεν παρεκελεύετο καὶ μήτε κάμνοντας ἀποστῆναι τοῦ φόνου τῶν πολεμίων, μήτʼ ἐλέῳ παραχωρήσαντας μήτε περὶ ἁρπαγὴν γινομένους περιορᾶν φεύγοντας τοὺς ἐχθρούς·

Clement of RomeFirst Clement 13.2c. AD 96

οὕτως γὰρ εἶπεν: Ἐλεᾶτε, ἵνα ἐλεηθῆτε: ἀφίετε, ἵνα ἀφεθῇ ὑμῖν: ὡς ποιεῖτε, οὕτω ποιηθήσεται ὑμῖν: ὡς δίδοτε, οὕτως δοθήσεται ὑμῖν: ὡς κρίνετε, οὕτως κριθήσεσθε: ὡς χρηστεύεσθε, οὕτως χρηστευθήσεται ὑμῖν: ᾧ μέτρῳ μετρεῖτε, ἐν αὐτῷ μετρηθήσεται ὑμῖν.

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
6th c. AD 7th c. AD 5th c. AD 2nd c. AD 3rd c. AD
PapCongr. XVI (New York 1980) p. 357-361Karanis (?) (Arsinoites)AD 130

Σωτῆρα καὶ Εὐεργέτην ἐλεῆσαι ἡμᾶς καὶ τὸν ἡμέτερον θεὸν Σόξειν καὶ ἐπιτρέψαι καὶ ἡμῖν ἃς ποιούμεθα ὑπὲρ τοῦ

P.Fay. 106Bakchias (Arsinoites)AD 139–AD 142

ἤδη χρόνωι ἐν τῇ χρείαι πονούμενος ἐξησθένησα ὅλως, κύριε, ὅθεν ἀξιῶ σε τὸν σωτῆρα ἐλεῆσαί με καὶ κελεῦσαι ἤδη με ἀπολυθῆναι τῆς χρείας ὅπως δυνηθῶ ἐμαυτὸν ἀνακτήσασθαι ἀπὸ τῶν

P.Ross.Georg. 2 20Arsinoites (?)AD 146

ὕβρεις μοι παρέχει σὺν τοῖς συνεργοῦσιν αὐτῷ ἀδελφοῖς καὶ ἑτέροις, ἀξιῶ σε τὸν κύριον ἐλεῆσαί με ἀδικουμένην ὑπὸ τῶν κακοπραγμόνων ἀνθρώπων δι … … οὐκ ἐμμενόντων τοῖς κριθεῖσι καὶ

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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