ζῆλος
zeal
Full lexicon entry — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
From Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Where this word appears
See every Nominative-case word in the Greek New Testament →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Case
- Nominative
- The case of the subject (and the predicate nominative).
- Accusative
- The case of the direct object and of extent.
- Dative
- The case of the indirect object, means, or location — “to / for / with / in.”
- Genitive
- The case of source, possession, or “of” — answers “whose / from what.”
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Neuter
- Grammatically neuter.
Number
- Singular
- One.
2 distinct verses where G2205 appears in the Dative case, across 2 books. Filtered view — show all forms. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Greek form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Greek New Testament; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences of this word are not indexed here.
Romans 1 verse
2 Corinthians 1 verse
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
At its core, ζηλος (zēlos) means “zeal.” The King James Version usually renders it “zeal,” while modern versions prefer “jealousy” (Berean Standard Bible) — see the renderings breakdown. Spanning 16 verses in 9 books, it ranks among the uncommon words of the Greek New Testament. Its uses concentrate in 2 Corinthians (31% of all occurrences). Scripture first uses it in John 2:17. Dig into 16-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's G2205 catalogs a Greek word from the Greek New Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Greek New Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 16
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 16 distinct verses.
- 9 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 9 of 27 New Testament books.
- #726
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Greek words (rank 726 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 16 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- 2 Corinthians 5 verses 31%
- Acts 2 verses 13%
- Romans 2 verses 13%
By section of the New Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Some books belong to more than one corpus (Luke is in both the Gospels and the Lukan corpus, and so on), so these shares overlap and need not total 100%. Each figure is a share of the word’s 16 distinct verses.
- Pauline corpus 10 verses · 63%
- Lukan (Luke–Acts) 2 verses · 13%
- General (Catholic) Epistles 2 verses · 13%
- Gospels 1 verse · 6%
- Johannine 1 verse · 6%
- Hebrews 1 verse · 6%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Zeal 6×, Envying 4×, Indignation 2×
- American Standard Version: Jealousy 8×, Zeal 6×
- Berean Standard Bible: Jealousy 9×, Zeal 5×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Jealousy 9×, Zeal 7×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G2205 across 17 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 5 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders G2205 across 17 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders G2205 across 16 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders G2205 across 18 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in Thayer's
The 1 sense Thayer's distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- excitement of mind, ardour, fervour of spirit
Word origin
Derived from ζεω (zéō) (G2204) — to boil.
From G2204 ; properly heat that is (figuratively) zeal (in a favorable sense ardor ; in an unfavorable one jealousy as of a husband [figuratively of God] or an enemy malice ): - emulation envy (-ing) fervent mind indignation jealousy zeal.
— Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (1890), public domain.
Forms in the corpus
The 4 distinct written forms G2205 takes in the Greek New Testament, most frequent first — each parse links to that case’s occurrences in the concordance.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| ζῆλος zē̂los | Noun, Nominative, Singular, Masculine | John 2:17 | 8 |
| ζῆλον zē̂lon | Noun, Accusative, Singular, Masculine | Romans 10:2 | 4 |
| ζήλου zḗlou | Noun, Genitive, Singular, Masculine | Acts 5:17 | 2 |
| ζήλῳ zḗlō | Noun, Dative, Singular, Masculine | Romans 13:13 | 2 |
Same root — word family
Other Thayer's entries built from the same root as G2205, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 5 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint usage
The same Greek word ζηλος appears 30 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 29 verses in 12 books.
- 30
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 29
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 12 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 12 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Numbers 25:11 ζῆλος
- Deuteronomy 29:19 ζῆλος
- 2 Kings 19:31 ζῆλος
- Job 5:2 ζῆλος
- Psalms 36:1 ζῆλος
- Proverbs 6:34 ζῆλος
- Ecclesiastes 4:4 ζῆλος
- Song of Solomon 8:6 ζῆλος
- Isaiah 9:6 ζῆλος
- Ezekiel 5:13 ζῆλος
- Zephaniah 1:18 ζῆλος
- Zechariah 1:14 ζῆλος
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G2205) appears in the Greek Septuagint. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context; the Greek form is the matched word — the English is not keyword-highlighted.
- Numbers 25:11 ζῆλος Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I didn't consume the children of Israel in my jealousy.
- Deuteronomy 29:19 ζῆλος and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to destroy the moist with the dry.
- 2 Kings 19:31 ζῆλος For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of Mount Zion those who shall escape: the zeal of Yahweh shall perform this.
- Job 5:2 ζῆλος For resentment kills the foolish man, And jealousy kills the simple.
- Psalms 36:1 ζῆλος An oracle is within my heart about the disobedience of the wicked: "There is no fear of God before his eyes."
- Psalms 68:10 ζῆλος Your congregation lived therein. You, God, prepared your goodness for the poor.
- Psalms 78:5 ζῆλος For he established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which he commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children;
- Psalms 118:139 ζῆλος
- Proverbs 6:34 ζῆλος For jealousy arouses the fury of the husband. He won't spare in the day of vengeance.
- Proverbs 27:4 ζῆλος Wrath is cruel, And anger is overwhelming; But who is able to stand before jealousy?
- Ecclesiastes 4:4 ζῆλος Then I saw all the labor and achievement that is the envy of a man's neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
- Ecclesiastes 9:6 ζῆλος Also their love, their hatred, and their envy has perished long ago; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun.
- Song of Solomon 8:6 ζῆλος Set me as a seal on your heart, As a seal on your arm; For love is strong as death. Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol; Its flashes are flashes of fire, A very flame of Yahweh.
- Isaiah 9:6 ζῆλος For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be on his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
- Isaiah 11:13 ζῆλος The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and those who vex Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.
- Isaiah 26:11 ζῆλος Yahweh, your hand is lifted up, yet they don't see: but they shall see [your] zeal for the people, and be disappointed; yes, fire shall devour your adversaries.
- Isaiah 37:32 ζῆλος For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of Mount Zion those who shall escape. The zeal of Yahweh of Hosts will perform this.
- Isaiah 42:13 ζῆλος Yahweh will go forth as a mighty man; he will stir up [his] zeal like a man of war: he will cry, yes, he will shout aloud; he will do mightily against his enemies.
- Isaiah 63:15 ζῆλος Look down from heaven, and see from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory: where are your zeal and your mighty acts? the yearning of your heart and your compassion is restrained toward me.
- Ezekiel 5:13 ζῆλος Thus shall my anger be accomplished, and I will cause my wrath toward them to rest, and I shall be comforted; and they shall know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in my zeal, when I have accomplished my wrath on them.
- Ezekiel 16:38 ζῆλος I will judge you, as women who break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy.
- Ezekiel 16:42 ζῆλος So will I cause my wrath toward you to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from you, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.
- Ezekiel 23:25 ζῆλος I will set my jealousy against you, and they shall deal with you in fury; they shall take away your nose and your ears; and your residue shall fall by the sword: they shall take your sons and your daughters; and your residue shall be devoured by the fire.
- Ezekiel 36:6 ζῆλος Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and tell the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my wrath, because you have borne the shame of the nations:
- Ezekiel 38:19 ζῆλος For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
- Zephaniah 1:18 ζῆλος Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh's wrath, but the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy; for he will make an end, yes, a terrible end, of all those who dwell in the land.
- Zephaniah 3:8 ζῆλος "Therefore wait for me," says Yahweh, "until the day that I rise up to the prey, for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour on them my indignation, even all my fierce anger, for all the earth will be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.
- Zechariah 1:14 ζῆλος So the angel who talked with me said to me, "Proclaim, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh of Hosts: "I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.
- Zechariah 8:2 ζῆλος Thus says Yahweh of Hosts: "I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath."
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G2205) in the Septuagint — not a translation of any one Hebrew word. The store carries no word-level Hebrew↔Greek alignment, so no Hebrew original is asserted here. Counts come from the recovered LXX Strong's tagging — high-frequency vocabulary is well covered, while rare or late forms may be untagged — so they reflect tagged occurrences and may slightly undercount.
