To divine
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G3132 is a verb for practicing divination or fortune-telling. Its one governed New Testament form is a participle in Acts 16:16, where Luke describes an enslaved girl who has a spirit of divination and earns income for her owners through fortune-telling.
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Full entry for μαντεύομαι (G3132) · Open the biblical lexicon
G3132 is a verb for practicing divination or fortune-telling. Its one governed New Testament form is a participle in Acts 16:16, where Luke describes an enslaved girl who has a spirit of divination and earns income for her owners through fortune-telling.
The BSB source-word alignment has 1 aligned row for this entry. Common renderings include by fortune-telling (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Acts 16:16. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (1).
G3132 is a verb for practicing divination or fortune-telling. Its one governed New Testament form is a participle in Acts 16:16, where Luke describes an enslaved girl who has a spirit of divination and earns income for her owners through fortune-telling. The word identifies her activity in this scene. The surrounding narrative says she follows Paul and his companions, makes a religiously accurate-sounding announcement, and continues for many days before Paul commands the spirit to leave in the name of Jesus Christ.
Her owners then react to the loss of their expected profit. This single occurrence supports careful distinctions among the divining practice, the spirit named by Luke, the girl's exploitation, her spoken content, and her owners' economic interest. It does not make the exploited girl morally equivalent to those profiting from her, turn every unusual statement into divination, or supply a complete doctrine or method of spiritual warfare.
One exact G3132 form occurs in Acts 16:16. The present-middle participle describes the enslaved girl's fortune-telling activity within a narrative of spiritual oppression and economic exploitation.
One day as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl with a spirit of divination, who earned a large income for her masters by fortune-telling.
The single form must remain attached to the girl's enslaved condition, the spirit Luke names, and the owners' profit.
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. to divine
(μαντίς, a seer, diviner), [in LXX for קָסַם, Deu.18:10, al. ;] to divine, practise divination: Act.16:16.
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.
I practice soothsaying
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.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 1 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)
μαντεύομαι 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.
G3132 appears where spiritual activity and financial exploitation meet in the life of an enslaved girl. Luke does not invite curiosity about technique. He shows the girl being used, a spirit being confronted in Jesus Christ's name, and owners becoming hostile when their anticipated income disappears. Her announcement in the following verse should not be treated as proof that every true-sounding sentence comes from God, nor should the single lexical form make every unusual experience occult.
A faithful church should test spiritual claims, refuse profit from human bondage, protect vulnerable people from spectacle, and seek wise, accountable care. The passage centers Christ's authority without providing a universal diagnostic or ministry formula.
Acts.16.16
The only governed form is the present-middle participle μαντευομένη in Acts 16:16. One participle cannot establish a full taxonomy of occult activity, spiritual oppression, or pastoral response.
The wider canon distinguishes the Lord's revelation from forbidden divination, but those connections must be studied in their own passages and cannot enlarge this one-form witness by themselves.
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