What does κληρονόμος (klēronómos) mean in the Bible?
G2818 names an heir or one who receives an inheritance. Fifteen forms occur in fourteen verses across eight books.
Greek · G2818
κληρονόμος
Heir
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κληρονόμος G2818
Pronunciation klēronómos
What does κληρονόμος (klēronómos) mean in the Bible?
G2818 names an heir or one who receives an inheritance. Fifteen forms occur in fourteen verses across eight books.
Reader summary
Full entry for κληρονόμος (G2818) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G2818?
The BSB source-word alignment has 15 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include heir (7), heirs (4), [and] heirs (1), [are] heirs (1), an heir (1).
Where does κληρονόμος (klēronómos) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 21:38. Its strongest book concentrations include Romans (4), Galatians (3), Hebrews (3), James (1).
What This Word Actually Means
G2818 names an heir or one who receives an inheritance. Fifteen forms occur in fourteen verses across eight books. In Jesus's tenant parable, the son is the heir whom the tenants kill in an attempt to seize the inheritance. Romans connects Abraham and those of faith with promise, and calls believers heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ while joining glory to suffering. Galatians develops heirship through belonging to Christ, adoption, and promise. Hebrews names the Son heir of all things and speaks of heirs of promise; James and Titus apply inheritance language to the kingdom and hope of eternal life.
The noun does not make every inheritance statement identical. The parable's narrative role, Christ's unique status, Abrahamic promise, believers' adoption, suffering, hope, and perseverance must remain distinct. Teachers should name the inheritance only as broadly as the immediate passage and its book argument allow.
How the Bible Uses It
G2818 appears in the tenant parable, Abraham-and-promise arguments, adoption and co-heirship passages, descriptions of the Son, and statements about inheriting promise, kingdom, and hope. Its fifteen forms occur in fourteen verses across eight books, and each passage defines the heir and inheritance.
- Gal.4.7
So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, you are also an heir through God.
The logical culmination of Galatians 4:1-7: the movement from slave to son to heir. Heirship is here grounded in sonship, and sonship in God's act ('through God' — this is divine initiative, not human achievement). The verse crystallizes the entire argument: those who were under bondage to the elemental principles are now heirs — which means the inheritance that was always the goal of the promise is now theirs in Christ.
- Gal.3.29
And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.
The conclusion of the Galatians 3 argument: identity in Christ (belonging to him) is what makes someone both Abraham's seed and an heir. The phrase 'according to the promise' (kat' epangelian) is the key — inheritance flows from the promise, not from ethnic descent or legal performance. This verse is the direct link between epangelia (Session 178) and kleronomos: the promise produces heirs.
- Rom.8.17
And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him.
Romans 8:17 gives the most expansive statement of Christian heirship: co-heirs with Christ himself. What Christ inherits — the glory of God, the new creation, the fullness of the Father's love — is shared with those who are in him. The suffering clause is not a condition of heirship but a descriptor of the path: co-heirs with Christ follow the same pattern of suffering-then-glory that he walked.
- Heb.1.2
But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.
Hebrews opens by naming Christ as the heir of all things — the natural, appointed heir of the entire creation. This is the christological ground of everything that follows in the NT inheritance language: believers are co-heirs with the one who is heir of all things, which means their inheritance is nothing less than everything the Father has given the Son.
- Rev.21.7
The one who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son.
Revelation's eschatological statement of inheritance reaches its fullest form: 'inherit all things' and 'I will be his God, and he will be My son.' The kleronomos-huiothesia pair (inheritance and adoption) appear together in their final form: heirship is sonship fully expressed, and sonship is God himself as the inheritance. The covenant formula 'I will be his God' is the content of the inheritance — not just a blessing from God but God himself.
Passage contextBook contextCanonical parallel
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It heir 7× Matthew 21:38, Mark 12:7, Luke 20:14, Romans 4:13
heirs 4× Romans 8:17, Titus 3:7, Hebrews 6:17
[and] heirs 1× Galatians 3:29
[are] heirs 1× Romans 4:14
an heir 1× Galatians 4:7
to inherit 1× James 2:5
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 21:38 κληρονόμος to heir Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular Mark 12:7 κληρονόμος to heir Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular Luke 20:14 κληρονόμος to heir Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular Romans 4:13 κληρονόμον to heir Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular Romans 4:14 κληρονόμοι to [are] heirs Noun - Nominative Masculine Plural Romans 8:17 κληρονόμοι to heirs Noun - Nominative Masculine Plural Romans 8:17 κληρονόμοι to heirs Noun - Nominative Masculine Plural Galatians 3:29 κληρονόμοι to [and] heirs Noun - Nominative Masculine Plural Galatians 4:1 κληρονόμος to heir Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular Galatians 4:7 κληρονόμος to an heir Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Matthew 21:38
Aligned rows 15
Books represented 8
Matthew 1 Mark 1 Luke 1 Romans 4 Galatians 3 Titus 1 Hebrews 3 James 1
Source forms
κληρονόμος 6x klēronomos Matthew 21:38, Mark 12:7, Luke 20:14, Galatians 4:1
κληρονόμοι 5x klēronomoi Romans 4:14, Romans 8:17, Galatians 3:29, Titus 3:7
κληρονόμον 2x klēronomon Romans 4:13, Hebrews 1:2
κληρονόμοις 1x klēronomois Hebrews 6:17
κληρονόμους 1x klēronomous James 2:5
Parsing patterns
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular 6x Matthew 21:38, Mark 12:7, Luke 20:14, Galatians 4:1
Noun - Nominative Masculine Plural 5x Romans 4:14, Romans 8:17, Galatians 3:29, Titus 3:7
Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular 2x Romans 4:13, Hebrews 1:2
Noun - Accusative Masculine Plural 1x James 2:5
Noun - Dative Masculine Plural 1x Hebrews 6:17
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- The language of being 'heirs of God' (Rom. 8:17) and inheriting 'all things' (Rev. 21:7) describes the eschatological inheritance at the resurrection and new creation, not present material circumstances. Preaching on kleronomos should be careful not to imply that believers should currently be experiencing the fullness of the inheritance — the NT consistently treats the full inheritance as future (1 Pet. 1:4 — 'reserved in heaven'). Present experience includes the Spirit as a down-payment (Eph. 1:14), not the full delivery. The heir who knows an estate is coming lives differently — with hope, not with entitlement to early distribution.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that being an 'heir of God' means believers have access to God's power or divine attributes in a way that blurs the Creator-creature distinction — the inheritance is God's gift of himself in covenant relationship and the fullness of the new creation, not an ontological absorption into divinity or the acquisition of divine capacities.
- Do not claim that Galatians 3:29's identification of believers as 'heirs according to the promise' means that physical, ethnic Israel has been permanently replaced in all respects by the church — Paul's argument is that Gentiles in Christ join the inheritance-stream alongside Israel, not that Israel is excluded; Romans 11 shows Paul's view that ethnic Israel retains a role in the eschatological fulfilment.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Heir who inherits God's kingdom promises; applied to Christ and believers as sons of God.
Strong's G2818
Lexical occurrences 15 verses Greek text appearances 15 times Word forms 5 forms 15 references Verse guides 0 guides
Source Gloss
heir
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
15 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Matthew 21:38 Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
κληρονόμος· klhronomov
an heir, inheritor
Read verse Mark 12:7 Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
κληρονόμος· klhronomov
an heir, inheritor
Read verse Luke 20:14 Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
κληρονόμος· klhronomov
an heir, inheritor
Read verse Romans 4:13 Noun Accusative Singular Masculine
κληρονόμον klhronomon
an heir, inheritor
Read verse Romans 4:14 Noun Nominative Plural Masculine
κληρονόμοι, klhronomoi
an heir, inheritor
Read verse Romans 8:17 Noun Nominative Plural Masculine
κληρονόμοι· klhronomoi
an heir, inheritor
Read verse Romans 8:17 Noun Nominative Plural Masculine
κληρονόμοι klhronomoi
an heir, inheritor
Read verse Galatians 3:29 Noun Nominative Plural Masculine
κληρονόμοι. klhronomoi
an heir, inheritor
Read verse Galatians 4:1 Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
κληρονόμος klhronomov
an heir, inheritor
Read verse Galatians 4:7 Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
κληρονόμος klhronomov
an heir, inheritor
Read verse Titus 3:7 Noun Nominative Plural Masculine
κληρονόμοι klhronomoi
an heir, inheritor
Read verse Hebrews 1:2 Noun Accusative Singular Masculine
κληρονόμον klhronomon
an heir, inheritor
Read verse Hebrews 6:17 Noun Dative Plural Masculine
κληρονόμοις klhronomoiv
an heir, inheritor
Read verse Hebrews 11:7 Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
κληρονόμος. klhronomov
an heir, inheritor
Read verse James 2:5 Noun Accusative Plural Masculine
κληρονόμους klhronomouv
an heir, inheritor
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.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 5 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Form patterns 5 Aligned forms 15 Case pattern Nominative (11) Number pattern Singular (8)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · Masculine Matt 21:38 · Mark 12:7 · Luke 20:14 · Gal 4:1 · Gal 4:7 · Heb 11:7 6×
Nominative · Plural · Masculine Rom 4:14 · Rom 8:17 · Gal 3:29 · Titus 3:7 5×
Dative · Plural · Masculine Heb 6:17 1×
Accusative · Singular · Masculine Rom 4:13 · Heb 1:2 2×
Accusative · Plural · Masculine Jas 2:5 1×
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Witnesses
Luke 20:9–19 κληρονόμος klēronómos
Heir
Showing 1 selected witness from 15 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
κληρονόμος is built from these roots:
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
Kleronomos names the standing of every believer before the full eschatological reality of what God has promised in Christ — and the preacher's task is to help people inhabit that standing rather than living below it. The heir of a great estate does not need to work to earn the estate; he needs to know that the estate is his and to live accordingly. Paul's argument in Galatians 3-4 is pastoral precisely at this point: the Galatians are behaving like people who think they must earn what they have already been given.
They are returning to law-performance as though the promise had never been made, as though they were not already heirs. The preacher who holds kleronomos in full will press two things simultaneously. First, the certainty of the inheritance: it is received by promise (Gal. 3:29), through Christ (Gal. 4:7), confirmed by the Spirit (Eph. 1:13-14 — the Spirit as the 'down-payment' of the inheritance), and reserved in heaven (1 Pet.
1:4). Second, the magnitude of the inheritance: co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17) means sharing in everything the Father has given the Son, including glory. This is not a modest promise — it is the most extravagant promise imaginable, and preaching it with full force requires letting its scope land before qualifying it with the suffering clause that accompanies it (Rom.
8:17B).
Anchor passage
Gal.4.7
Doctrinal connections
- G5206 Huiothesia — adoption; Gal 4:7 links the two directly: son therefore heir; adoption is the ground of inheritance
- G1860 Epangelia — promise; Gal 3:29 — heirs 'according to the promise'; inheritance flows from promise, not law
- G4690 Sperma — seed; Gal 3:29 — those in the Seed are heirs; the promise-seed-heir chain in Galatians 3
- H3423 Yāraš — to inherit/possess (Hebrew); the OT inheritance vocabulary for Israel receiving the land as covenant gift
- H5159 Naḥălāh — inheritance (Hebrew); the land and God's presence as Israel's inheritance, which Paul reads as the type of the new creation
- 1Pet.1.4 — 'an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven'; the NT's fullest description of what the heir receives
Across the governed witness, G2818 uses five masculine inflectional patterns: nominative singular and plural, accusative singular and plural, plus one dative plural. Fifteen forms occupy fourteen verses because Romans 8:17 contains two plural forms. Related inheritance words may clarify a passage, but their meanings should not be imported into this noun without checking the local construction.
From Old to New Testament
Romans 4 ties Abraham's heirship to the promise received through the righteousness of faith. Galatians 3:29 calls those who belong to Christ Abraham's seed and heirs according to promise. Hebrews distinguishes the Son as heir of all things from believers described as heirs of promise. These connections share inheritance language while preserving each passage's subject and scope.
Canonical parallel
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain