While is more violent, to seize or remove))
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G2983 is a common verb for receiving, taking, accepting, obtaining, or taking hold of someone or something. Its 258 governed forms include receptive and active actions: people receive Christ, power, grace, testimony, instruction, and reward; they also take bread, seize persons, collect objects, and assume responsibilities.
Reader summary
Full entry for λαμβάνω (G2983) · Open the biblical lexicon
G2983 is a common verb for receiving, taking, accepting, obtaining, or taking hold of someone or something. Its 258 governed forms include receptive and active actions: people receive Christ, power, grace, testimony, instruction, and reward; they also take bread, seize persons, collect objects, and assume responsibilities.
The BSB source-word alignment has 258 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include took (16), receives (11), vvv (10), receive (9), He took (7).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 5:40. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (53), John (46), Acts (29), Revelation (23).
This entry includes 3 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
G2983 is a common verb for receiving, taking, accepting, obtaining, or taking hold of someone or something. Its 258 governed forms include receptive and active actions: people receive Christ, power, grace, testimony, instruction, and reward; they also take bread, seize persons, collect objects, and assume responsibilities. The English gloss receive must not make every occurrence passive, gracious, saving, or approving, while take must not make every occurrence forceful.
Even similar grammatical forms can describe sharply different relationships. The subject, object, voice, modifiers, source, manner, and passage determine whether the action is welcome, appropriation, arrest, acquisition, transmission, acceptance, or refusal.
A total of 258 exact G2983 rows spans 243 verses in 21 books. Matthew supplies fifty-three forms, John forty-six, Acts twenty-nine, Revelation twenty-three, Luke twenty-one, and Mark twenty.
But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God,
Receiving Him is paired with believing in His name and followed by God's gift of filial authority.
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, spoke a blessing and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is My body.”
Taking describes both Jesus' handling of bread and the disciples' commanded action within the meal.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
The verse joins received power to the Spirit's coming and the commission to witness.
How much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
Receiving belongs to Paul's Adam-Christ contrast and names grace and righteousness as gifts.
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you:
Paul presents the instruction as received and transmitted before recounting the supper tradition.
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.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. To take or receive, with metaphorical extension to receiving intangible things like words, testimony, or eternal life.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 262 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I receive, take
Read verseI receive, take
Read verseI receive, take
Read verseI receive, take
Read verseI receive, take
Read verseI receive, take
Read verseI receive, take
Read verseI receive, take
Read verseI receive, take
Read verseI receive, take
Read verseI receive, take
Read verseI receive, take
Read verseI receive, take
Read verseI receive, take
Read verseI receive, take
Read verseI receive, take
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 mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
How this verb appears across 257 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 5 selected witnesses from 258 lexical occurrence verses.
λαμβάνω is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G2983 gains its force from what is received or taken and from who performs the action. John joins receiving the Word with believing in His name. Acts joins received power with the Holy Spirit's coming and the commission to witness. Romans names grace and righteousness as gifts received through Jesus Christ. First Corinthians speaks both of teaching received and transmitted and of bread physically taken.
Other passages use the same verb for lawsuits, arrests, possessions, testimony, authority, and rewards. The word therefore resists a single spiritualized paraphrase. Faithful teaching identifies the object and source, asks whether the action is welcomed or imposed, and lets the passage determine whether the result is gift, responsibility, possession, rejection, or judgment.
John.1.12
The governed forms span forty-five parsing patterns. The verb may describe active taking or receptive acceptance, and its direct object often decides the English rendering. Voice and tense do not by themselves determine whether the action is gracious, forceful, or saving.
Biblical gift, inheritance, covenant reception, and taking language provide canonical context. Those themes should be traced through the specific object and passage rather than attached to every G2983 form.
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