μαρτυρέω
to testify
Full lexicon entry — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
From Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Where this word appears
See every Present-tense verb in the Greek New Testament →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Tense
- Present
- Ongoing or general action in present time (imperfective aspect).
- Aorist
- Action viewed as a simple whole, without regard to duration — often past (perfective aspect).
- Perfect
- A completed past action with continuing present results.
- Future
- Action expected in future time.
- Imperfect
- Continuous or repeated action in past time (“was writing”).
Voice
- Active
- The subject performs the action.
- Passive
- The subject receives the action.
Mood
- Indicative
- States a fact or asks a factual question (the mood of reality).
- Participle
- A verbal adjective (“writing,” “having written”).
- Subjunctive
- Expresses probability, purpose, or possibility (the mood of contingency).
- Infinitive
- A verbal noun (“to write”), unmarked for person or number.
- Imperative
- Expresses a command or request.
Case
- Nominative
- The case of the subject (and the predicate nominative).
- Genitive
- The case of source, possession, or “of” — answers “whose / from what.”
- Dative
- The case of the indirect object, means, or location — “to / for / with / in.”
- Accusative
- The case of the direct object and of extent.
Person
- 3rd person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 1st person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 2nd person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
- Neuter
- Grammatically neuter.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one.
8 verses where G3140 appears in the Aorist tense in the Book of John. 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.
John
- John 1:7 μαρτυρήσῃ aor act subj 3sg The same came as a witness, that he might testify about the light, that all might believe through him.
- John 1:8 μαρτυρήσῃ aor act subj 3sg He was not the light, but was sent that he might testify about the light.
- John 1:32 ἐμαρτύρησεν aor act ind 3sg John testified, saying, "I have seen the Spirit descending like a dove out of heaven, and it remained on him.
- John 2:25 μαρτυρήσῃ aor act subj 3sg and because he didn't need for anyone to testify concerning man; for he himself knew what was in man.
- John 4:44 ἐμαρτύρησεν aor act ind 3sg For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.
- John 13:21 ἐμαρτύρησεν aor act ind 3sg When Jesus had said this, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, "Most assuredly I tell you that one of you will betray me."
- John 18:23 μαρτύρησον aor act impv 2sg Jesus answered him, "If I have spoken evil, testify of the evil; but if well, why do you beat me?"
- John 18:37 μαρτυρήσω aor act subj 1sg Pilate therefore said to him, "Are you a king then?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this reason I have been born, and for this reason I have come into the world, that I should testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice."
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.
“to testify” is the headline sense of the Greek verb μαρτυρεω (martyréō). Translators differ — “bear witness” in the King James Version, then “testify” (Berean Standard Bible), as the renderings breakdown shows. It turns up in 72 verses across 14 books, a moderately common footprint. It concentrates in John, which alone accounts for 43% of its uses. It first appears in Matthew 23:31. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's G3140 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 →
- 72
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 72 distinct verses.
- 14 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 14 of 27 New Testament books.
- #225
- by frequency
- Top 250 most frequent Greek words (rank 225 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 72 occurrences in the concordance →
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 72 distinct verses.
- Johannine 44 verses · 61%
- Gospels 33 verses · 46%
- Lukan (Luke–Acts) 12 verses · 17%
- General (Catholic) Epistles 9 verses · 13%
- Pauline corpus 8 verses · 11%
- Hebrews 7 verses · 10%
- Revelation 4 verses · 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: Bear witness 9×, Bare record 5×, Testify 5×
- American Standard Version: Bear witness 13×, Witness 8×, Beareth witness 6×
- Berean Standard Bible: Testify 15×, Testified 7×, Testifies 6×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Testify 13×, Testifying 8×, Testified 5×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G3140 across 86 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 44 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 G3140 across 85 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 33 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 G3140 across 75 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 36 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders G3140 across 80 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 36 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.
- to be a witness…
Word origin
Derived from μαρτυς (mártys) (G3144) — witness.
From G3144 ; to be a witness that is testify (literally or figuratively): - charge give [evidence] bear record have (obtain of) good (honest) report be well reported of testify give (have) testimony (be bear give obtain) witness.
— Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (1890), public domain.
Forms in the corpus
The 41 distinct written forms G3140 takes in the Greek New Testament, most frequent first — each parse links to that tense’s occurrences in the concordance.
Same root — word family
Other Thayer's entries built from the same root as G3140, 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
- μαρτυρια martyría G3141 testimony
- μαρτυριον martýrion G3142 testimony
- μαρτυρομαι martýromai G3143 to call to witness
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 μαρτυρεω appears 10 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 8 verses in 5 books.
- 10
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 8
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 5 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 5 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Genesis 31:46 μαρτυρέω
- Numbers 35:30 μαρτυρέω
- Deuteronomy 19:15 μαρτυρέω
- 2 Chronicles 28:10 μαρτυρέω
- Lamentations 2:13 μαρτυρέω
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G3140) 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.
- Genesis 31:46 μαρτυρέω Jacob said to his relatives, "Gather stones." They took stones, and made a heap. They ate there by the heap.
- Genesis 31:48 μαρτυρέω Laban said, "This heap is witness between me and you this day." Therefore it was named Galeed
- Numbers 35:30 μαρτυρέω Whoever kills any person, the murderer shall be slain at the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person that he die.
- Deuteronomy 19:15 μαρτυρέω One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established.
- Deuteronomy 19:18 μαρτυρέω and the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother;
- Deuteronomy 31:21 μαρτυρέω It shall happen, when many evils and troubles are come on them, that this song shall testify before them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed: for I know their imagination which they frame this day, before I have brought them into the land which I swore.
- 2 Chronicles 28:10 μαρτυρέω Now you purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondservants and bondmaids to you: [but] aren't there even with you trespasses of your own against Yahweh your God?
- Lamentations 2:13 μαρτυρέω What shall I testify to you? what shall I liken to you, daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare to you, that I may comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion? For your breach is great like the sea: who can heal you?
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G3140) 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.
