γεννάω
gennáō · G1080 · Greek · 97 occurrences
Meanings
-
to be the father of, to procreate, to beget
The male role in causing the conception and birth of a child
ExamplesMatthew 1:2 Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers.
Matthew 1:3 Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez fathered Hezron, and Hezron fathered Ram.
Matthew 1:4 Ram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon, and Nahshon fathered Salmon.
-
to bear, to give birth
To give birth to a child
ExamplesMatthew 1:16 Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.
Matthew 2:1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
Matthew 2:4 And gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.
-
to cause to be born, to be born of
(A figurative extension of meaning of γεννάω ‘to give birth,’) To cause to experience a radical change, with the implication of involvement of the total personality
ExamplesJohn 3:5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
John 3:6 “That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit.
John 3:8 “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”
-
to cause, to produce, to give rise to
To cause to happen, with the implication of the result of existing circumstances
ExamplesGalatians 4:24 This is speaking allegorically, for these women are two covenants: one coming from Mount Sinai giving birth to children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar.
2 Timothy 2:23 But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels.
-
to be born again, to experience new birth, rebirth
(An idiom, literally: to be born again) To experience a complete change in one’s way of life to what it should be, with the implication of return to a former state or relation
How it’s used In 10 roles
Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.
the word studied the word it goes with
Who or what does itSubject
97 occurrences in 59 groups
- Not stated (participle) 17
- Not stated: he, she or it 8
- ἐγώI, we 7
- ἄνθρωποςman, person, people 4
- Other words · 55 groups that occur once or twice (61) 61
What it acts on, or what is saidObject
50 occurrences in 45 groups
- σύyou 4
- υἱόςson 3
- Other words · 43 groups that occur once or twice (46) 46
To or for whomIndirect object
1 occurrences in 1 groups
- σύyou 1
With prepositionsPrepositional phrases
37 occurrences in 30 groups
- ἐκfrom+ θεόςGod 7
- ἐκfrom+ πνεῦμαspirit 3
- Other words · 28 groups that occur once or twice (31) 31
With adverbsAdverbs
19 occurrences in 10 groups
- οὐnot 5
- σήμερονtoday 3
- Other words · 8 groups that occur once or twice (12) 12
Named alongside itApposition
7 occurrences in 7 groups
- γῆearth 1
- διάλεκτοςlanguage 1
- εὐνοῦχοςeunuch 1
- κοιλίαbelly, internal organs, womb 1
- ΜαρίαMary 1
- τέκνονchild, offspring 1
What it doesIt is the subject
6 occurrences in 6 groups
- δέωto bind, to tie 1
- διώκωto persecute, to pursue 1
- ἁμαρτάνωto sin, to do wrong 1
- νικάωto conquer, to overcome 1
- ποιέωto do, to make 1
- τηρέωto keep, to obey, to guard 1
What is done to itIt is the object
12 occurrences in 8 groups
- ἀγαπάωto love 3
- εἴδωto know 2
- ἔπωto say 2
- γινώσκωto know 1
- δύναμαιcan 1
- ἀλληγορέωto speak allegorically 1
What it is said to bePredicate
5 occurrences in 4 groups
- πνεῦμαspirit 2
- οὕτωso, thus, in this way 1
- σάρξflesh, body, physical body 1
- υἱόςson 1
In phrases “… of it”It is the genitive
1 occurrences in 1 groups
- ὀφθαλμόςeye 1
When two words share a role, as in “Paul and Barnabas said”, the verse appears under each, so a section’s counts can add up to more than the number of occurrences.
MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
Near synonyms 2 words
- τεκνογονέω teknogonéō · G5041 · to bear, to give birth
- While both terms describe bringing forth offspring, γεννάω serves as the standard Greek verb for procreation across a wide range of contexts (both literal and figurative), whereas τεκνογονέω appears only once in the New Testament and specifically emphasizes the maternal aspect of childbearing. The former is the unmarked, general term; the latter is register-specific and mother-focused.
- τίκτω tíktō · G5088 · to bear, to give birth, to grow
- Both terms describe the generative process of bringing forth offspring, but τίκτω typically refers to the mother's act of physically bearing and giving birth, while γεννάω properly denotes the father's act of begetting, though it extends by usage to include the mother's role. The terms occupy complementary aspects of the same semantic field rather than serving as fully interchangeable synonyms.
In the other Testament 1 word
- יָלַד yâlad · H3205 · to bear, to father, to beget
- Hebrew יָלַד denotes the physical act of bearing/begetting offspring (with both maternal and paternal senses), while Greek γεννάω extends this core procreative meaning to include figurative spiritual regeneration; the two overlap in their literal birth/begetting sense across the vast majority of NT contexts drawing on OT procreation language.
Semantic domains 5 entries
- To cause, to produce, to give rise to13.129
- Used causatively of bringing something about, drawn from the same broad range of meaning as the birth-related entries around it.
- To cause to be born, to be born of13.56
- Used within the genealogical formula of one generation causing the birth of the next, as of Abraham fathering Isaac in Matthew 1:2 and the successive fatherings listed through Matthew 1:6.
- To bear, to give birth23.52
- Used of a mother giving birth, drawn from the same broad range of meaning as the causative genealogical sense above.
- To be the father of, to procreate, to beget23.58
- Used specifically of the male role in the genealogical chain, as in the repeated fathering formula throughout Matthew's genealogy in Matthew 1:2-6.
- To be born again, to experience new birth, rebirth41.53
- Used figuratively of spiritual regeneration, as of Jesus telling Nicodemus that unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God in John 3:3 and the repeated discussion of being born again in John 3:4-8.
Word family 29 words
Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon γέννω; future γεννήσω; 1 aorist ἐγέννησα; perfect γεγέννηκά; (passive, present γεννάομαι,…
1. properly: of men begetting children, Mt 1:1-16; Acts 7:8, Acts 7:29; followed by ἐκ with the genitive of the mother, Mt 1:3, Mt 1:5, Mt 1:6; more rarely of women giving birth to children, Lk 1:13, Lk 1:57; Lk 23:29; Jn 16:21; εἰς δουλείαν to bear a child unto bondage, that will be a slave, Gal 4:24 ((Xenophon, de rep. Lac. 1, 3); Lucian, de sacrif. 6; Plutarch, de liber. educ. 5; others; the Sept. Isa 66:9; Isa 66:4 Macc. 10:2, etc.). Passive, to be begotten: τό ἐν αὐτῇ γεννηθέν that which is begotten in her womb, Mt 1:20; to be born: Mt 2:1, Mt 2:4 (Winers Grammar, 266 (250); Buttmann, 203 (176)); Mt 19:12; ; Mk 14:21; Lk 1:35; Jn 3:4; (Acts 7:20); Rom 9:11; Heb 11:23; with the addition εἰς τόν κόσμον, Jn 16:21; followed by ἐν with the dative of place, Acts 22:3; ἀπό τίνος, to spring from one as father, Heb 11:12 (L WH marginal reading ἐγεννήθησαν see Tdf. at the passage); ἐκ τίνος to be born of a mother, Mt 1:16; ἐκ πορνείας, Jn 8:41; ἐξ αἱμάτων, ἐκ θελήματος ἀνδρός, Jn 1:13; ἐκ τῆς σαρκός, Jn 3:6 (Rec.elz γεγενημένον); ἐν ἁμαρτίαις ὅλος, Jn 9:34 (see ἁμαρτία, 2 a.); εἰς τί, to be born for something, Jn 18:37; 2 Pet 2:12 (Tdf. γεγενημένα so Rec.st bez); with an adjective: τυφλός γεγέννημαι, Jn 9:2, Jn 9:19f, 32; Ῥωμαῖος to be supplied, Acts 22:28; τῇ διαλέκτῳ, ἐν ἡ ἐγεννήθημεν, Acts 2:8; γεννηθείς κατά σάρκα begotten or born according to (by) the working of natural passion; κατά πνεῦμα according to (by) the working of the divine promise, Gal 4:29, cf. Gal 4:23.
2. metaphorically,
a. universally, to engender, cause to arise, excite: μάχας, 2 Tim 2:23 (βλαβην, λύπην, etc. in Greek writings).
b. in a Jewish sense, of one who brings others over to his way of life: ὑμᾶς ἐγέννησα I am the author of your Christian life, 1 Cor 4:15; Phm 1:10 (Sanhedr. fol. 19, 2 "If one teaches the son of his neighbor the law, the Scripture reckons this the same as though he had begotten him"; (cf. Philo, leg. ad Gaium § 8)).
c. after Ps 2:7, it is used of God making Christ his son;
a. formally to show him to be the Messiah (υἱόν τοῦ Θεοῦ), viz. by the resurrection: Acts 13:33.
b. to be the author of the divine nature which he possesses (but compare the commentaries on the passages that follow): Heb 1:5; Heb 5:5.
d. peculiarly, in the Gospel and First Epistle of John, of God conferring upon men the nature and disposition of his sons, imparting to them spiritual life, i. e. by his own holy power prompting and persuading souls to put faith in Christ and live a new life consecrated to himself; absolutely 1 Jn 5:1; mostly in passive, ἐκ Θεοῦ or ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐγεννήθησαν, γεγέννηται, γεγεννημένος, etc.: Jn 1:13; 1 Jn 2:29 (Rec.st γεγένηται); 1 Jn 3:9; 1 Jn 4:7; 1 Jn 5:1, 1 Jn 5:4, 1 Jn 5:18; also ἐκ τοῦ πνεύματος γέννασθαι, Jn 3:6 (Rec.elz γεγενημένον), ; ἐξ ὕδατος καί πνεύματος (because that moral generation is effected in receiving baptism ((?) cf. Schaff's Lange, Godet, Westcott, on the words, and references under the word βάπτισμα, 3)), Jn 3:5; ἄνωθεν γέννασθαι, Jn 3:3, Jn 3:7 (see ἄνωθεν, c.) equivalent to τέκνον Θεοῦ γίνεσθαι, . (Compare: ἀναγεννάω.)
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (1889), public domain
Topical studies with this word 4 entries
Meanings adapted from the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament, © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0 and the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (from the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew), © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0; MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
Sources
eRhema lexical overview, based on the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (© United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Macula Hebrew and Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0); released under CC BY-SA 4.0
New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org.