A maiden; by implication, an unmarried daughter
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G3933 is a noun for a virgin and, in some settings, an unmarried or betrothed person. Its fifteen governed forms occur in Jesus' birth narratives, the parable of the ten virgins, Philip's unmarried daughters, Paul's counsel about marriage and singleness, a metaphor for the church's fidelity to Christ, and Revelation's symbolic vision.
Reader summary
Full entry for παρθένος (G3933) · Open the biblical lexicon
G3933 is a noun for a virgin and, in some settings, an unmarried or betrothed person. Its fifteen governed forms occur in Jesus' birth narratives, the parable of the ten virgins, Philip's unmarried daughters, Paul's counsel about marriage and singleness, a metaphor for the church's fidelity to Christ, and Revelation's symbolic vision.
The BSB source-word alignment has 15 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include virgin (5), virgins (5), a virgin (2), betrothed (1), unmarried (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 1:23. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Corinthians (6), Matthew (4), Luke (2), 2 Corinthians (1).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
G3933 is a noun for a virgin and, in some settings, an unmarried or betrothed person. Its fifteen governed forms occur in Jesus' birth narratives, the parable of the ten virgins, Philip's unmarried daughters, Paul's counsel about marriage and singleness, a metaphor for the church's fidelity to Christ, and Revelation's symbolic vision. The noun can describe women or men, literal social status or figurative purity, so its referent must be established from grammar and context. It does not by itself define moral worth, prove physical history, or rank celibacy over marriage.
Matthew 1:23 and Luke 1:27 place G3933 in the confession of Jesus' conception and birth. The Greek form supports the Evangelists' presentation of Mary as a virgin, but the noun alone does not settle every question about Isaiah's Hebrew wording or Mary's marital life after Jesus' birth. Matthew 25 uses the plural for ten young women in a wedding parable. The contrast is readiness and lack of preparation, not a ranking of sexual histories. Acts 21:9 describes Philip's four unmarried daughters who prophesied; the verse recognizes their prophetic activity and must not be used to erase women's Spirit-given ministry or place them under coercive family control.
First Corinthians 7 applies the term across difficult counsel about unmarried or betrothed people during a present distress. The passage explicitly says that marriage is not sin and honors both marriage and undivided devotion. Its debated syntax requires humility. It cannot license forced marriage, forced celibacy, parental ownership of an adult, or a church leader's control of another person's intimate future. In 2 Corinthians 11:2 Paul uses a pure virgin metaphor for the congregation's fidelity to Christ, not for sexual shaming. Revelation 14:4 applies a masculine plural in contested apocalyptic symbolism. It must not be used to demean women, marriage, or marital sexuality, or to construct a spiritually superior male celibate class.
Fifteen governed forms in fourteen verses move from Jesus' birth and a wedding parable through singleness, marriage, prophetic ministry, congregational fidelity, and apocalyptic symbolism.
To a virgin pledged in marriage to a man named Joseph
The verse contains two governed forms and locates Mary's virginity inside the annunciation narrative.
If a virgin marries, she has not sinned
Paul explicitly refuses to classify marriage as sin. Advice about singleness must retain this protection.
To present you as a pure virgin to Christ
The singular image addresses the congregation corporately and concerns covenant fidelity to Christ.
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. A virgin or unmarried maiden; emphasizes sexual purity and unmarried status, not merely youth.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
14 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a virgin
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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 7 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.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 5 selected witnesses from 15 lexical occurrence verses.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G3933 does not carry one flat application across the New Testament. The Gospels use it in Jesus' birth and a readiness parable. Acts names unmarried women who prophesy. Paul gives careful counsel during distress, explicitly saying that marriage is not sin, and later uses a virgin metaphor for the whole church's loyalty to Christ. Revelation's masculine plural belongs to symbolic vision.
These passages can honor chastity and singleness without turning sexual history into a worth test. A person's dignity is not medically measurable, erased by assault, restored by shame, or owned by a parent or leader. Christian fidelity is formed through truthful, freely chosen obedience to Christ.
Luke.1.27
The fifteen governed forms include feminine singulars and plurals plus one masculine plural in Revelation 14:4. Luke 1:27 contains two accusative singular tokens. Grammatical gender and number identify each textual referent but do not create a hierarchy of spiritual value.
The birth narratives receive Israel's promises, while biblical marriage, singleness, covenant fidelity, and holiness supply broader context. The Greek noun alone cannot settle the full semantic range of Hebrew almah or every doctrinal question attached to Isaiah 7:14.
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