ἀδελφός
brother
‘brother’ is one of 6 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
From Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Where this word appears
See every Accusative-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
- Vocative
- The case of direct address (“O Lord”).
- Nominative
- The case of the subject (and the predicate nominative).
- 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.”
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Plural
- More than one.
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where G80 appears in the Book of 1 John — 13 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.
1 John
- 1 John 2:9 ἀδελφὸν n acc sg masc He who says he is in the light and hates his brother, is in the darkness even until now.
- 1 John 2:10 ἀδελφὸν n acc sg masc He who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no occasion for stumbling in him.
- 1 John 2:11 ἀδελφὸν n acc sg masc But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and doesn't know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
- 1 John 3:10 ἀδελφὸν n acc sg masc In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil. Whoever doesn't do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who doesn't love his brother.
- 1 John 3:12 ἀδελφὸν ἀδελφοῦ n acc sg masc n gen sg masc unlike Cain, who was of the evil one, and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his works were evil, and his brother's righteous.
- 1 John 3:13 ἀδελφοί n voc pl masc Don't be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.
- 1 John 3:14 ἀδελφούς n acc pl masc We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. He who doesn't love his brother remains in death.
- 1 John 3:15 ἀδελφὸν n acc sg masc Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him.
- 1 John 3:16 ἀδελφῶν n gen pl masc By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
- 1 John 3:17 ἀδελφὸν n acc sg masc But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and closes his heart of compassion against him, how does the love of God remain in him?
- 1 John 4:20 ἀδελφὸν ἀδελφὸν n acc sg masc n acc sg masc If a man says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who doesn't love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
- 1 John 4:21 ἀδελφὸν n acc sg masc This commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother.
- 1 John 5:16 ἀδελφὸν n acc sg masc If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life for those who sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death. I don't say that he should make a request concerning this.
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.
αδελφος (adelphós) is a Greek noun most often rendered “brother.” Its English rendering has broadened — “brethren” classically, “brothers” (Berean Standard Bible) in modern versions; see the renderings breakdown. Spanning 317 verses in 25 books, it ranks among the common words of the Greek New Testament. It first appears in Matthew 1:2. Its lexical range runs to 6 senses. 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 G80 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 →
- 317
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 317 distinct verses.
- 25 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 25 of 27 New Testament books.
- #52
- by frequency
- Top 100 most frequent Greek words (rank 52 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 317 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Acts 56 verses 18%
- 1 Corinthians 36 verses 11%
- Matthew 31 verses 10%
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 317 distinct verses.
- Pauline corpus 127 verses · 40%
- Gospels 82 verses · 26%
- Lukan (Luke–Acts) 76 verses · 24%
- General (Catholic) Epistles 37 verses · 12%
- Johannine 35 verses · 11%
- Hebrews 10 verses · 3%
- Revelation 5 verses · 2%
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: Brethren 224×, Brother 113×, Brother's 6×
- American Standard Version: Brethren 215×, Brother 112×, To 5×
- Berean Standard Bible: Brothers 223×, Brother 101×, Brother’s 6×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Brothers 223×, Brother 120×, Of 9×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G80 across 346 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.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders G80 across 354 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.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders G80 across 335 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. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 8 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders G80 across 369 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 6 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.
- a brother, whether born of the same two parents or only of the same father or mother
- having the same national ancestor, belonging to the same people, or countryman
- any fellow or man
- a fellow believer, united to another by the bond of affection
- an associate in employment or office
- brethren in Christ
Word origin
Derived from Α (A) (G1) — alpha.
Forms in the corpus
The 14 distinct written forms G80 takes in the Greek New Testament, most frequent first — each parse links to that case’s occurrences in the concordance.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| ἀδελφοί adelphoí | Noun, Vocative, Plural, Masculine | Acts 1:16 | 109 |
| ἀδελφὸν adelphòn | Noun, Accusative, Singular, Masculine | Matthew 4:18 | 33 |
| ἀδελφοὶ adelphoì | Noun, Nominative, Plural, Masculine | Matthew 12:46 | 29 |
| ἀδελφοὺς adelphoùs | Noun, Accusative, Plural, Masculine | Matthew 1:2 | 28 |
| ἀδελφὸς adelphòs | Noun, Nominative, Singular, Masculine | Matthew 10:2 | 28 |
| ἀδελφῶν adelphō̂n | Noun, Genitive, Plural, Masculine | Matthew 20:24 | 21 |
| ἀδελφοῖς adelphoîs | Noun, Dative, Plural, Masculine | Matthew 28:10 | 17 |
| ἀδελφοῦ adelphoû | Noun, Genitive, Singular, Masculine | Matthew 7:3 | 17 |
| ἀδελφός adelphós | Noun, Nominative, Singular, Masculine | Matthew 5:23 | 15 |
| ἀδελφῷ adelphō̂ | Noun, Dative, Singular, Masculine | Matthew 5:22 | 14 |
| ἀδελφούς adelphoús | Noun, Accusative, Plural, Masculine | Matthew 4:18 | 11 |
| ἀδελφόν adelphón | Noun, Accusative, Singular, Masculine | Matthew 18:15 | 8 |
| Ἀδελφοί Adelphoí | Noun, Vocative, Plural, Masculine | Romans 10:1 | 7 |
| ἀδελφέ adelphé | Noun, Vocative, Singular, Masculine | Luke 6:42 | 6 |
Same root — word family
Other Thayer's entries built from the same root as G80, 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
- αγνοεω agnoéō G50 to be ignorant
- αγνωσια agnōsía G56 ignorance
- αγνωστος ágnōstos G57 unknown
- αγραμματος agrámmatos G62 unlearned
- αγρυπνεω agrypnéō G69 to watch
- αδαπανος adápanos G77 free
- 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 αδελφος appears 648 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 582 verses in 32 books.
- 648
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 582
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 32 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 32 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Genesis 4:2 ἀδελφός
- Exodus 1:6 ἀδελφός
- Leviticus 10:4 ἀδελφός
- Numbers 6:7 ἀδελφός
- Deuteronomy 1:16 ἀδελφός
- Joshua 1:14 ἀδελφός
- Judges 1:3 ἀδελφός
- Ruth 4:3 ἀδελφός
- 1 Samuel 14:3 ἀδελφός
- 2 Samuel 1:26 ἀδελφός
- 1 Kings 1:9 ἀδελφός
- 2 Kings 1:18 ἀδελφός
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G80) appears in the Greek Septuagint — showing the first 50 of 582. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context; the Greek form is the matched word — the English is not keyword-highlighted.
- Genesis 4:2 ἀδελφός Again she gave birth, to Cain's brother Abel. Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
- Genesis 4:8 ἀδελφός Cain said to Abel, his brother, "Let's go into the field." It happened, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him.
- Genesis 4:9 ἀδελφός Yahweh said to Cain, "Where is Abel, your brother?" He said, "I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?"
- Genesis 4:10 ἀδελφός Yahweh said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground.
- Genesis 4:11 ἀδελφός Now you are cursed because of the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
- Genesis 4:21 ἀδελφός His brother's name was Jubal, who was the father of all who handle the harp and pipe.
- Genesis 9:5 ἀδελφός I will surely require your blood of your lives. At the hand of every animal I will require it. At the hand of man, even at the hand of every man's brother, I will require the life of man.
- Genesis 9:22 ἀδελφός Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.
- Genesis 9:25 ἀδελφός He said, "Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants will he be to his brothers."
- Genesis 10:21 ἀδελφός To Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, to him also were children born.
- Genesis 10:25 ἀδελφός To Eber were born two sons. The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days was the earth divided. His brother's name was Joktan.
- Genesis 12:5 ἀδελφός Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother's son, all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls who they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan. Into the land of Canaan they came.
- Genesis 13:8 ἀδελφός Abram said to Lot, "Please, let there be no strife between me and you, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are relatives.
- Genesis 13:11 ἀδελφός So Lot chose the Plain of the Jordan for himself. Lot traveled east, and they separated themselves the one from the other.
- Genesis 14:12 ἀδελφός They took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who lived in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.
- Genesis 14:13 ἀδελφός One who had escaped came and told Abram, the Hebrew. Now he lived by the oaks of Mamre, the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner; and these were allies of Abram.
- Genesis 14:14 ἀδελφός When Abram heard that his relative was taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued as far as Dan.
- Genesis 14:16 ἀδελφός He brought back all the goods, and also brought back his relative, Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.
- Genesis 16:12 ἀδελφός He will be like a wild donkey among men. His hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him. He will live opposite all of his brothers."
- Genesis 19:7 ἀδελφός He said, "Please, my brothers, don't act so wickedly.
- Genesis 20:5 ἀδελφός Didn't he tell me, 'She is my sister?' She, even she herself said, 'He is my brother.' In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands have I done this."
- Genesis 20:13 ἀδελφός It happened, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said to her, 'This is your kindness which you shall show to me. Everywhere that we go, say of me, "He is my brother."'"
- Genesis 20:16 ἀδελφός To Sarah he said, "Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. Behold, it is for you a covering of the eyes to all that are with you. In front of all you are vindicated."
- Genesis 22:20 ἀδελφός It happened after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, "Behold, Milcah, she also has borne children to your brother Nahor:
- Genesis 22:21 ἀδελφός Uz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram,
- Genesis 22:23 ἀδελφός Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham's brother.
- Genesis 24:15 ἀδελφός It happened, before he had done speaking, that behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher on her shoulder.
- Genesis 24:27 ἀδελφός He said, "Blessed be Yahweh, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his loving kindness and his truth toward my master. As for me, Yahweh has led me in the way to the house of my master's relatives."
- Genesis 24:29 ἀδελφός Rebekah had a brother, and his name was Laban. Laban ran out to the man, to the spring.
- Genesis 24:48 ἀδελφός I bowed my head, and worshiped Yahweh, and blessed Yahweh, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me in the right way to take my master's brother's daughter for his son.
- Genesis 24:53 ἀδελφός The servant brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and clothing, and gave them to Rebekah. He gave also to her brother and to her mother precious things.
- Genesis 24:55 ἀδελφός Her brother and her mother said, "Let the young lady stay with us a few days, at least ten. After that she will go."
- Genesis 25:18 ἀδελφός They lived from Havilah to Shur that is before Egypt, as you go toward Assyria. He lived opposite all his relatives.
- Genesis 25:26 ἀδελφός After that, his brother came out, and his hand had hold on Esau's heel. He was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.
- Genesis 27:6 ἀδελφός Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, "Behold, I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying,
- Genesis 27:11 ἀδελφός Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, "Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.
- Genesis 27:23 ἀδελφός He didn't recognize him, because his hands were hairy, like his brother, Esau's hands. So he blessed him.
- Genesis 27:29 ἀδελφός Let peoples serve you, Nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, Let your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, Blessed be everyone who blesses you."
- Genesis 27:30 ἀδελφός It happened, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob had just gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.
- Genesis 27:35 ἀδελφός He said, "Your brother came with deceit, and has taken away your blessing."
- Genesis 27:37 ἀδελφός Isaac answered Esau, "Behold, I have made him your lord, and all his brothers have I given to him for servants. With grain and new wine have I sustained him. What then will I do for you, my son?"
- Genesis 27:40 ἀδελφός By your sword will you live, and you will serve your brother. It will happen, when you will break loose, That you shall shake his yoke from off your neck."
- Genesis 27:41 ἀδελφός Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. Esau said in his heart, "The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then I will kill my brother Jacob."
- Genesis 27:42 ἀδελφός The words of Esau, her elder son, were told to Rebekah. She sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him, "Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you.
- Genesis 27:43 ἀδελφός Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban, my brother, in Haran.
- Genesis 27:45 ἀδελφός until your brother's anger turn away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send, and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?"
- Genesis 28:2 ἀδελφός Arise, go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother's father. Take a wife from there from the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.
- Genesis 28:5 ἀδελφός Isaac sent Jacob away. He went to Paddan Aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, Rebekah's brother, Jacob's and Esau's mother.
- Genesis 29:1 ἀδελφός Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the children of the east.
- Genesis 29:4 ἀδελφός Jacob said to them, "My relatives, where are you from?" They said, "We are from Haran."
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G80) 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.