ἀγνοέω
to be ignorant
‘to be ignorant’ is one of 3 main senses fuller range ↓
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).
- Imperfect
- Continuous or repeated action in past time (“was writing”).
- Aorist
- Action viewed as a simple whole, without regard to duration — often past (perfective aspect).
Voice
- Active
- The subject performs the action.
- Passive
- The subject receives the action.
Mood
- Infinitive
- A verbal noun (“to write”), unmarked for person or number.
- Indicative
- States a fact or asks a factual question (the mood of reality).
- Participle
- A verbal adjective (“writing,” “having written”).
Case
- Nominative
- The case of the subject (and the predicate nominative).
- Dative
- The case of the indirect object, means, or location — “to / for / with / in.”
Person
- 3rd person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 2nd person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 1st person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Plural
- More than one.
- Singular
- One.
Grammatical forms 13 distinct
- Verb, Present, Active, Infinitive 6 times (27%)
- Verb, Imperfect, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Plural 2 times (9%)
- Verb, Present, Active, Indicative, 2nd person, Plural 2 times (9%)
- Verb, Present, Active, Participle, Nominative, Plural, Masculine 2 times (9%)
- Verb, Present, Active, Participle, Nominative, Singular, Masculine 2 times (9%)
- Verb, Aorist, Active, Participle, Nominative, Plural, Masculine 1 time (5%)
- Verb, Present, Active, Indicative, 1st person, Plural 1 time (5%)
- Verb, Present, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Plural 1 time (5%)
+5 more forms (5 occurrences)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (Robinson–Tischendorf, public domain), counted across 22 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where G50 appears — 21 distinct verses across 11 books. 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 1 verse
Luke 1 verse
Acts 2 verses
- Acts 13:27 ἀγνοήσαντες aor act ptcp nom pl masc For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they didn't know him, nor the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him.
- Acts 17:23 ἀγνοοῦντες pres act ptcp nom pl masc For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I announce to you.
Romans 6 verses
- Romans 1:13 ἀγνοεῖν pres act inf Now I don't desire to have you unaware, brothers, that I often planned to come to you, and was hindered so far, that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.
- Romans 2:4 ἀγνοῶν pres act ptcp nom sg masc Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
- Romans 6:3 ἀγνοεῖτε pres act ind 2pl Or don't you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
- Romans 7:1 ἀγνοεῖτε pres act ind 2pl Or don't you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives?
- Romans 10:3 ἀγνοοῦντες pres act ptcp nom pl masc For being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn't subject themselves to the righteousness of God.
- Romans 11:25 ἀγνοεῖν pres act inf For I don't desire, brothers, to have you ignorant of this mystery, so that you won't be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in,
1 Corinthians 3 verses
- 1 Corinthians 10:1 ἀγνοεῖν pres act inf Now I would not have you ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
- 1 Corinthians 12:1 ἀγνοεῖν pres act inf Now concerning spiritual things, brothers, I don't want you to be ignorant.
- 1 Corinthians 14:38 ἀγνοεῖ ἀγνοεῖται pres act ind 3sg pres pass ind 3sg But if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant.
2 Corinthians 3 verses
- 2 Corinthians 1:8 ἀγνοεῖν pres act inf For we don't desire to have you uninformed, brothers, concerning our affliction which happened to us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, so much that we despaired even of life.
- 2 Corinthians 2:11 ἀγνοοῦμεν pres act ind 1pl that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.
- 2 Corinthians 6:9 ἀγνοούμενοι pres pass ptcp nom pl masc as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and not killed;
Galatians 1 verse
1 Thessalonians 1 verse
1 Timothy 1 verse
Hebrews 1 verse
2 Peter 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.
“to be ignorant” is the headline sense of the Greek verb αγνοεω (agnoéō). First canonically at Mark 9:32, it enters the text early. It appears 21 verses across 11 books of the Greek New Testament, among its uncommon vocabulary. More than a quarter of its appearances fall in Romans. Lexicons map it across 3 senses. See the sense tree, 21-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's G50 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 →
- 21
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 21 distinct verses.
- 11 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 11 of 27 New Testament books.
- #586
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Greek words (rank 586 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 21 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Romans 6 verses 29%
- 1 Corinthians 3 verses 14%
- 2 Corinthians 3 verses 14%
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 21 distinct verses.
- Pauline corpus 15 verses · 71%
- Lukan (Luke–Acts) 3 verses · 14%
- Gospels 2 verses · 10%
- Hebrews 1 verse · 5%
- General (Catholic) Epistles 1 verse · 5%
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: Ignorant 5×, Be ignorant 2×, Have 2×
- American Standard Version: Ignorant 8×, Have 2×, Or are ye ignorant 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Be unaware 3×, Be uninformed 2×, They did not understand 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Be ignorant 5×, Knowing 3×, Do you not know 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G50 across 25 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 8 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 G50 across 26 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 14 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 G50 across 22 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 13 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 G50 across 23 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 11 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 3 senses 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 ignorant, not to know
- not to understand, unknown
- to err or sin through mistake, to be wrong
Word origin
Derived from Α (A) (G1) — alpha.
Forms in the corpus
The 12 distinct written forms G50 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 G50, 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
- αβαρης abarḗs G4 light
- αβυσσος ábyssos G12 abyss
- αγαμος ágamos G22 unmarried
- αγενεαλογητος agenealógētos G35 without genealogy
- αγενης agenḗs G36 ignoble
- αγναφος ágnaphos G46 unprocessed
- αγνωσια agnōsía G56 ignorance
- αγνωστος ágnōstos G57 unknown
- αγραμματος agrámmatos G62 unlearned
- αγρυπνεω agrypnéō G69 to watch
- αδαπανος adápanos G77 free
- αδελφος adelphós G80 brother
- αδηλος ádēlos G82 obscure
- αδης háidēs G86 hell
- αδιακριτος adiákritos G87 clear
- αδιαλειπτος adiáleiptos G88 continual
- αδικος ádikos G94 unjust
- αδοκιμος adókimos G96 unapproved
- αδολος ádolos G97 guileless
- αδυνατος adýnatos G102 weak
- αζυμος ázymos G106 unleavened
- αθανασια athanasía G110 immortal
- αθεμιτος athémitos G111 unlawful
- αθεος átheos G112 godless
+149 more words share this root (not shown).
Derived from this word
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 178 — not the complete family. 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint usage
The same Greek word αγνοεω appears 9 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 9 verses in 7 books.
- 9
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 9
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 7 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 7 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Genesis 20:4 ἀγνοέω
- Leviticus 4:13 ἀγνοέω
- Numbers 12:11 ἀγνοέω
- 1 Samuel 14:24 ἀγνοέω
- 2 Chronicles 16:9 ἀγνοέω
- Daniel 9:15 ἀγνοέω
- Hosea 4:15 ἀγνοέω
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G50) 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 20:4 ἀγνοέω Now Abimelech had not come near her. He said, "Lord, will you kill even a righteous nation?
- Leviticus 4:13 ἀγνοέω "'If the whole congregation of Israel sins, and the thing is hidden from the eyes of the assembly, and they have done any of the things which Yahweh has commanded not to be done, and are guilty;
- Leviticus 5:18 ἀγνοέω He shall bring a ram without blemish from of the flock, according to your estimation, for a trespass offering, to the priest; and the priest shall make atonement for him concerning the thing in which he sinned and didn't know it, and he will be forgiven.
- Numbers 12:11 ἀγνοέω Aaron said to Moses, Oh, my lord, please don't lay sin on us, for that we have done foolishly, and for that we have sinned.
- 1 Samuel 14:24 ἀγνοέω The men of Israel were distressed that day; for Saul had adjured the people, saying, Cursed be the man who eats any food until it be evening, and I be avenged on my enemies. So none of the people tasted food.
- 1 Samuel 26:21 ἀγνοέω Then said Saul, I have sinned: return, my son David; for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day: behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly.
- 2 Chronicles 16:9 ἀγνοέω For the eyes of Yahweh run back and forth throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein you have done foolishly; for from henceforth you shall have wars.
- Daniel 9:15 ἀγνοέω Now, Lord our God, who has brought your people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have gotten you renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
- Hosea 4:15 ἀγνοέω "Though you, Israel, play the prostitute, Yet don't let Judah offend; And don't come to Gilgal, Neither go up to Beth Aven, Nor swear, 'As Yahweh lives.'
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G50) 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.
