περιστερά
dove
Full lexicon entry — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
From Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Case
- Accusative
- The case of the direct object and of extent.
- Genitive
- The case of source, possession, or “of” — answers “whose / from what.”
- Nominative
- The case of the subject (and the predicate nominative).
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Plural
- More than one.
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where G4058 appears in the Book of Mark — 2 distinct verses. 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.
Mark
- Mark 1:10 περιστερὰν n acc sg fem Immediately coming up from the water, he saw the heavens parting, and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.
- Mark 11:15 περιστερὰς n acc pl fem They came to Jerusalem, and Jesus entered into the temple, and began to throw out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of those who sold the doves.
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.
περιστερα (peristerá) is a Greek noun most often rendered “dove.” Debuting at Matthew 3:16, it then recurs through the corpus. With 10 verses in 4 books, it is an uncommon word in the Greek New Testament. It concentrates in Matthew, which alone accounts for 30% of its uses. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's G4058 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 →
- 10
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 10 distinct verses.
- 4 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 4 of 27 New Testament books.
- #1,056
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Greek words (rank 1,056 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 10 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 10 distinct verses.
- Gospels 10 verses · 100%
- Johannine 3 verses · 30%
- Lukan (Luke–Acts) 2 verses · 20%
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: Doves 5×, Dove 4×
- American Standard Version: Doves 5×, Dove 4×
- Berean Standard Bible: Doves 5×, Dove 4×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Dove 4×, Doves 3×, Pigeons 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G4058 across 10 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders G4058 across 10 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders G4058 across 10 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears 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 G4058 across 10 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
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.
- a dove
Word origin
Origin: of uncertain derivation
Of uncertain derivation; a pigeon : - dove pigeon.
— Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (1890), public domain.
Forms in the corpus
The 5 distinct written forms G4058 takes in the Greek New Testament, most frequent first — each parse links to that case’s occurrences in the concordance.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| περιστερὰν peristeràn | Noun, Accusative, Singular, Feminine | Matthew 3:16 | 4 |
| περιστερὰς peristeràs | Noun, Accusative, Plural, Feminine | Mark 11:15 | 3 |
| περιστεράς peristerás | Noun, Accusative, Plural, Feminine | Matthew 21:12 | 1 |
| περιστεραί peristeraí | Noun, Nominative, Plural, Feminine | Matthew 10:16 | 1 |
| περιστερῶν peristerō̂n | Noun, Genitive, Plural, Feminine | Luke 2:24 | 1 |
Septuagint usage
The same Greek word περιστερα appears 35 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 35 verses in 11 books.
- 35
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 35
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 11 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 11 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Genesis 8:8 περιστερά
- Leviticus 1:14 περιστερά
- Numbers 6:10 περιστερά
- 2 Kings 6:25 περιστερά
- Psalms 54:7 περιστερά
- Song of Solomon 1:15 περιστερά
- Isaiah 38:14 περιστερά
- Jeremiah 31:28 περιστερά
- Hosea 7:11 περιστερά
- Nahum 2:8 περιστερά
- Zephaniah 3:1 περιστερά
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G4058) 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 8:8 περιστερά He sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the surface of the ground,
- Genesis 8:9 περιστερά but the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him into the ark; for the waters were on the surface of the whole earth. He put forth his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ark.
- Genesis 8:10 περιστερά He stayed yet another seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark.
- Genesis 8:11 περιστερά The dove came back to him at evening, and, behold, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.
- Genesis 8:12 περιστερά He stayed yet another seven days, and sent forth the dove; and she didn't return to him any more.
- Genesis 15:9 περιστερά He said to him, "Take me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon."
- Leviticus 1:14 περιστερά "'If his offering to Yahweh is a burnt offering of birds, then he shall offer his offering of turtledoves, or of young pigeons.
- Leviticus 5:7 περιστερά "'If he can't afford a lamb, then he shall bring his trespass offering for that in which he has sinned, two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, to Yahweh; one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering.
- Leviticus 5:11 περιστερά "'But if he can't afford two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, then he shall bring his offering for that in which he has sinned, the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering. He shall put no oil on it, neither shall he put any frankincense on it, for it is a sin offering.
- Leviticus 12:6 περιστερά "'When the days of her purification are completed, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the door of the Tent of Meeting, a year old lamb for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon, or a turtledove, for a sin offering:
- Leviticus 12:8 περιστερά If she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves, or two young pigeons; the one for a burnt offering, and the other for a sin offering: and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean.'"
- Leviticus 14:22 περιστερά and two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, such as he is able to afford; and the one shall be a sin offering, and the other a burnt offering.
- Leviticus 14:30 περιστερά He shall offer one of the turtledoves, or of the young pigeons, such as he is able to afford,
- Leviticus 15:14 περιστερά "'On the eighth day he shall take two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, and come before Yahweh to the door of the Tent of Meeting, and give them to the priest:
- Leviticus 15:29 περιστερά On the eighth day she shall take two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, and bring them to the priest, to the door of the Tent of Meeting.
- Numbers 6:10 περιστερά On the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the door of the Tent of Meeting.
- 2 Kings 6:25 περιστερά There was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until a donkey's head was sold for eighty [pieces] of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove's dung for five [pieces] of silver.
- Psalms 54:7 περιστερά For he has delivered me out of all trouble. My eye has seen triumph over my enemies.
- Psalms 67:14 περιστερά
- Song of Solomon 1:15 περιστερά Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are doves. Beloved
- Song of Solomon 2:10 περιστερά My beloved spoke, and said to me, Rise up, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.
- Song of Solomon 2:13 περιστερά The fig tree ripens her green figs. The vines are in blossom; They give forth their fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, And come away. Lover
- Song of Solomon 2:14 περιστερά My dove in the clefts of the rock, In the hiding places of the mountainside, Let me see your face. Let me hear your voice; For your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.
- Song of Solomon 4:1 περιστερά Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is as a flock of goats, That descend from Mount Gilead.
- Song of Solomon 5:2 περιστερά I was asleep, but my heart was awake. It is the voice of my beloved who knocks: Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; For my head is filled with dew, My hair with the dampness of the night.
- Song of Solomon 5:12 περιστερά His eyes are like doves beside the water brooks, Washed with milk, mounted like jewels.
- Song of Solomon 6:9 περιστερά My dove, my perfect one, is unique. She is her mother's only daughter. She is the favorite one of her who bore her. The daughters saw her, and called her blessed, The queens and the concubines, and they praised her.
- Isaiah 38:14 περιστερά Like a swallow [or] a crane, so did I chatter; I did moan as a dove; my eyes fail [with looking] upward: Lord, I am oppressed, be my collateral.
- Isaiah 59:11 περιστερά We roar all like bears, and moan sore like doves: we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
- Isaiah 60:8 περιστερά Who are these who fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?
- Jeremiah 31:28 περιστερά It shall happen that, like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant, says Yahweh.
- Hosea 7:11 περιστερά "Ephraim is like an easily deceived dove, without understanding. They call to Egypt. They go to Assyria.
- Hosea 11:11 περιστερά They will come trembling like a bird out of Egypt, And like a dove out of the land of Assyria; And I will settle them in their houses," says Yahweh.
- Nahum 2:8 περιστερά But Nineveh has been from of old like a pool of water, yet they flee away. "Stop! Stop!" they cry, but no one looks back.
- Zephaniah 3:1 περιστερά Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted, the oppressing city!
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G4058) 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.
