σοφία
wisdom
Full lexicon entry — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
From Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Where this word appears
See every Genitive-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
- Accusative
- The case of the direct object and of extent.
- 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.”
- Nominative
- The case of the subject (and the predicate nominative).
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
2 verses where G4678 appears in the Genitive case in the Book of James. 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.
James
- James 1:5 σοφίας n gen sg fem But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him.
- James 3:13 σοφίας n gen sg fem Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by his good conduct that his deeds are done in gentleness of wisdom.
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, σοφια (sophía) means “wisdom.” It first appears in Matthew 11:19. It turns up in 49 verses across 12 books, a moderately common footprint. The word gravitates to 1 Corinthians (31%), then Luke and Colossians. It clusters with σοφος and σοφιζω under a shared root. 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 G4678 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 →
- 49
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 49 distinct verses.
- 12 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 12 of 27 New Testament books.
- #309
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Greek words (rank 309 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 49 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- 1 Corinthians 15 verses 31%
- Luke 6 verses 12%
- Colossians 6 verses 12%
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 49 distinct verses.
- Pauline corpus 26 verses · 53%
- Gospels 10 verses · 20%
- Lukan (Luke–Acts) 10 verses · 20%
- General (Catholic) Epistles 5 verses · 10%
- Johannine 4 verses · 8%
- Revelation 4 verses · 8%
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: Wisdom 50×
- American Standard Version: Wisdom 46×, 's wisdom 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Wisdom 49×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Wisdom 50×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G4678 across 51 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 G4678 across 50 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.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders G4678 across 51 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 G4678 across 54 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 4 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.
- wisdom, broad and full of intelligence; used of the knowledge of very diverse matters
Word origin
Derived from σοφος (sophós) (G4680) — wise.
From G4680 ; wisdom (higher or lower worldly or spiritual): - wisdom.
— Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (1890), public domain.
Forms in the corpus
The 5 distinct written forms G4678 takes in the Greek New Testament, most frequent first — each parse links to that case’s occurrences in the concordance.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| σοφίαν sophían | Noun, Accusative, Singular, Feminine | Matthew 12:42 | 13 |
| σοφίας sophías | Noun, Genitive, Singular, Feminine | Luke 2:40 | 13 |
| σοφία sophía | Noun, Nominative, Singular, Feminine | Matthew 11:19 | 12 |
| σοφίᾳ sophía | Noun, Dative, Singular, Feminine | Luke 2:52 | 12 |
| Σοφίαν Sophían | Noun, Accusative, Singular, Feminine | 1 Corinthians 2:6 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other Thayer's entries built from the same root as G4678, 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
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint usage
The same Greek word σοφια appears 142 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 135 verses in 14 books.
- 142
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 135
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 14 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 14 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Exodus 31:3 σοφία
- Deuteronomy 4:6 σοφία
- 2 Samuel 14:20 σοφία
- 1 Kings 2:6 σοφία
- 1 Chronicles 22:12 σοφία
- 2 Chronicles 1:10 σοφία
- Ezra 7:25 σοφία
- Job 4:21 σοφία
- Psalms 36:30 σοφία
- Proverbs 1:2 σοφία
- Ecclesiastes 1:13 σοφία
- Isaiah 10:13 σοφία
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G4678) appears in the Greek Septuagint — showing the first 50 of 135. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context; the Greek form is the matched word — the English is not keyword-highlighted.
- Exodus 31:3 σοφία and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,
- Exodus 35:26 σοφία All the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun the goats' hair.
- Exodus 35:31 σοφία He has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship;
- Exodus 35:33 σοφία in cutting of stones for setting, and in carving of wood, to work in all kinds of skillful workmanship.
- Exodus 35:35 σοφία He has filled them with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of workmanship, of the engraver, of the skillful workman, and of the embroiderer, in blue, in purple, in scarlet, and in fine linen, and of the weaver, even of those who do any workmanship, and of those who make skillful works.
- Exodus 36:1 σοφία "Bezalel and Oholiab shall work with every wise-hearted man, in whom Yahweh has put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all the work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that Yahweh has commanded."
- Exodus 36:2 σοφία Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab, and every wise-hearted man, in whose heart Yahweh had put wisdom, even everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to the work to do it:
- Deuteronomy 4:6 σοφία Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.
- 2 Samuel 14:20 σοφία to change the face of the matter has your servant Joab done this thing: and my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth.
- 2 Samuel 20:22 σοφία Then the woman went to all the people in her wisdom. They cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and threw it out to Joab. He blew the trumpet, and they were dispersed from the city, every man to his tent. Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king.
- 1 Kings 2:6 σοφία Do therefore according to your wisdom, and don't let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace.
- 1 Kings 2:35 σοφία The king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his room over the host; and Zadok the priest did the king put in the room of Abiathar.
- 1 Kings 5:9 σοφία My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon to the sea; and I will make them into rafts to go by sea to the place that you shall appoint me, and will cause them to be broken up there, and you shall receive them; and you shall accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household.
- 1 Kings 5:14 σοφία He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses; a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home; and Adoniram was over the men subject to forced labor.
- 1 Kings 5:26 σοφία
- 1 Chronicles 22:12 σοφία May Yahweh give you discretion and understanding, and put you in charge of Israel; that so you may keep the law of Yahweh your God.
- 1 Chronicles 28:21 σοφία Behold, there are the divisions of the priests and the Levites, for all the service of the house of God: and there shall be with you in all manner of work every willing man who has skill, for any manner of service: also the captains and all the people will be entirely at your command.
- 2 Chronicles 1:10 σοφία Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can judge this your people, that is so great?
- 2 Chronicles 1:11 σοφία God said to Solomon, Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked riches, wealth, or honor, nor the life of those who hate you, neither yet have asked long life; but have asked wisdom and knowledge for yourself, that you may judge my people, over whom I have made you king:
- 2 Chronicles 1:12 σοφία wisdom and knowledge is granted to you; and I will give you riches, and wealth, and honor, such as none of the kings have had who have been before you; neither shall there any after you have the like.
- 2 Chronicles 9:3 σοφία When the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built,
- 2 Chronicles 9:5 σοφία She said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in my own land of your acts, and of your wisdom.
- 2 Chronicles 9:6 σοφία However I didn't believe their words, until I came, and my eyes had seen it; and, behold, the half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told me: you exceed the fame that I heard.
- 2 Chronicles 9:7 σοφία Happy are your men, and happy are these your servants, who stand continually before you, and hear your wisdom.
- 2 Chronicles 9:22 σοφία So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.
- 2 Chronicles 9:23 σοφία All the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.
- Ezra 7:25 σοφία You, Ezra, after the wisdom of your God who is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges, who may judge all the people who are beyond the River, all such as know the laws of your God; and teach you him who doesn't know them.
- Job 4:21 σοφία Isn't their tent-cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.'
- Job 11:6 σοφία That he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.
- Job 12:2 σοφία "No doubt, but you are the people, And wisdom shall die with you.
- Job 12:12 σοφία With aged men is wisdom, In length of days understanding.
- Job 12:13 σοφία "With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding.
- Job 13:5 σοφία Oh that you would be completely silent! Then you would be wise.
- Job 15:8 σοφία Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
- Job 26:3 σοφία How have you counseled him who has no wisdom, And plentifully declared sound knowledge!
- Job 28:12 σοφία "But where shall wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding?
- Job 28:18 σοφία No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal: Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies.
- Job 28:20 σοφία Whence then comes wisdom? Where is the place of understanding?
- Job 28:28 σοφία To man he said, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.'"
- Job 32:7 σοφία I said, 'Days should speak, And multitude of years should teach wisdom.'
- Job 32:13 σοφία Beware lest you say, 'We have found wisdom, God may refute him, not man:'
- Job 33:33 σοφία If not, listen to me: Hold your peace, and I will teach you wisdom."
- Job 38:36 σοφία Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the mind?
- Job 38:37 σοφία Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the bottles of the sky,
- Job 39:17 σοφία Because God has deprived her of wisdom, Neither has he imparted to her understanding.
- Psalms 36:30 σοφία
- Psalms 48:4 σοφία For, behold, the kings assembled themselves, They passed by together.
- Psalms 50:8 σοφία I don't rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me.
- Psalms 89:12 σοφία The north and the south, you have created them. Tabor and Hermon rejoice in your name.
- Psalms 103:24 σοφία
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G4678) 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.
