Gardener
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G2780 names a gardener or keeper of a garden. Its only New Testament form occurs in John 20:15, where Mary Magdalene supposes that the risen Jesus is the gardener and asks whether he has carried Jesus's body away.
Reader summary
Full entry for κηπουρός (G2780) · Open the biblical lexicon
G2780 names a gardener or keeper of a garden. Its only New Testament form occurs in John 20:15, where Mary Magdalene supposes that the risen Jesus is the gardener and asks whether he has carried Jesus's body away.
The BSB source-word alignment has 1 aligned row for this entry. Common renderings include gardener (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at John 20:15. Its strongest book concentrations include John (1).
G2780 names a gardener or keeper of a garden. Its only New Testament form occurs in John 20:15, where Mary Magdalene supposes that the risen Jesus is the gardener and asks whether he has carried Jesus's body away. John 19:41 has already located the tomb in a garden, so the mistaken identification fits the narrated place. It ends when Jesus addresses Mary by name in the next verse.
The noun records Mary's perception; it is not a title John gives Jesus. Garden or Eden typology may be explored as separately labeled synthesis, but the single word cannot prove that symbolism. Teachers should preserve Mary's grief, her concern for the body, the garden setting, and the movement from nonrecognition to recognition without treating the mistake as spiritual failure.
G2780 appears only in Mary Magdalene's mistaken identification of Jesus in John 20:15. The nearby garden location explains the role she assigns to the man she does not yet recognize; Eden connections remain separately labeled typological synthesis.
“Woman, why are you weeping?” Jesus asked. “Whom are you seeking?” Thinking He was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried Him off, tell me where you have put Him, and I will get Him.”
John 20:15 records Mary Magdalene mistaking the risen Jesus for the gardener, a natural assumption in the garden setting John has already described.
Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
John 20:16 immediately corrects the mistake: Jesus speaks Mary's name, and she recognizes him at once, turning a case of mistaken identity into one of the Gospel's most intimate recognition scenes.
Now there was a garden in the place where Jesus was crucified, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.
John 19:41 has already noted that the tomb was located 'in a garden' near the crucifixion site, giving Mary's assumption a concrete, immediate basis in the setting rather than presenting it as an unexplained error.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. One who tends and guards a garden; emphasizes stewardship care rather than mere cultivation.
One who tends and guards a garden; emphasizes stewardship care rather than mere cultivation.
(κῆπος + οὖρος, a watcher) a gardener: Jhn.20:15.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
1 Greek text appearance shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a gardener
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 1 case and number pattern. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
κηπουρός is built from this root:
John 20:15 captures a moment of real, understandable human confusion. Mary is grieving, the setting is dim, and a man standing in a garden near a tomb is not an unreasonable thing to mistake for its keeper. John does not treat her mistake as failure; it simply precedes the personal, unmistakable recognition that follows when Jesus speaks her name. Preachers can use this word to show that recognizing the risen Jesus in John's Gospel is relational rather than automatic, drawing near through a personal word rather than through unmistakable outward appearance alone.
This word opens a teaching doorway on personal recognition of the risen Christ: Mary's honest mistake, taking Jesus for the gardener, dissolves the instant he speaks her name, showing that resurrection faith in John's Gospel is relational and personal rather than a matter of unaided visual recognition. It gives teachers a tender, realistic picture of how grief can cloud perception even in the presence of good news.
It corrects readings that expect instant, automatic recognition of the risen Jesus; John presents an honest case of mistaken identity resolved through a personal word, not through unaided sight. Frame κηπουρός as Mary's understandable, temporary mistake in a garden setting John has already established, resolved through Jesus' personal address rather than through appearance alone.
John.20.15
The sole governed form, κηπουρός, is a nominative masculine singular noun. It supplies the role Mary supposes for the unidentified man before Jesus speaks her name. The grammar supports gardener or garden keeper and no wider symbolic sense.
John 19:41 supplies the immediate garden setting, and John 20:16 resolves Mary's mistaken identification when Jesus calls her by name. Genesis garden connections are possible typological synthesis, not a lexical claim carried by G2780.
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