To increase
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G4121 is a verb for increasing, growing, becoming abundant, or being made to increase. Its nine governed forms describe the increase of trespass, sin, grace, love, thanksgiving, equality-related provision, fruit credited to an account, faith, and fruitful knowledge.
Reader summary
Full entry for πλεονάζω (G4121) · Open the biblical lexicon
G4121 is a verb for increasing, growing, becoming abundant, or being made to increase. Its nine governed forms describe the increase of trespass, sin, grace, love, thanksgiving, equality-related provision, fruit credited to an account, faith, and fruitful knowledge.
The BSB source-word alignment has 9 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include cause you to increase (1), continue to grow [in them] (1), had no excess (1), increased (1), is increasing (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Romans 5:20. Its strongest book concentrations include Romans (3), 2 Corinthians (2), 1 Thessalonians (1), 2 Peter (1).
G4121 is a verb for increasing, growing, becoming abundant, or being made to increase. Its nine governed forms describe the increase of trespass, sin, grace, love, thanksgiving, equality-related provision, fruit credited to an account, faith, and fruitful knowledge. Increase is therefore not automatically good or bad. The subject, object, agent, and argument determine what is growing and how the passage evaluates it.
Romans 5:20 says that trespass and sin increased while grace abounded still more. Romans 6:1 immediately rejects the inference that believers should remain in sin so grace may increase. Grace is greater than sin, but grace cannot be used to bless deliberate harm or evade repentance and accountability. In Thessalonian texts, the Lord causes love to increase and Paul gives thanks because faith and mutual love are growing. These are gifts and practices of life in Christ, not numerical rankings by which churches compare spiritual worth.
Second Corinthians speaks of grace reaching more people, thanksgiving increasing, and the one who had much not possessing excess. Philippians 4:17 speaks of fruit increasing to the givers' account, while 2 Peter 1:8 joins abundant qualities to fruitful knowledge of Christ. These texts may inform generosity and formation, but they do not promise financial multiplication, authorize fundraising pressure, or make visible growth the measure of holiness.
Nine governed forms describe increases in sin, grace, love, thanksgiving, provision, credited fruit, faith, and fruitful knowledge.
Where sin increased, grace increased all the more
The two forms heighten Paul's contrast, while the following question and answer reject continuing in sin as a strategy for magnifying grace.
Cause you to increase and overflow with love
The Lord is asked to enlarge love within the community and toward everyone.
The fruit that may be credited increasingly to your account
Paul distinguishes the partners' spiritual fruit from a self-interested demand for their gift.
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 superabound or overflow excessively; often of grace or spiritual qualities multiplying beyond ordinary measure
To superabound or overflow excessively; often of grace or spiritual qualities multiplying beyond ordinary measure
(πλέον), [in LXX for עֲדַף, רָבָה, etc. ;]
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
9 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I abound, increase
Read verseI abound, increase
Read verseI abound, increase
Read verseI abound, increase
Read verseI abound, increase
Read verseI abound, increase
Read verseI abound, increase
Read verseI abound, increase
Read verseI abound, increase
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 7 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 9 lexical occurrence verses.
πλεονάζω 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.
G4121 teaches discernment about growth. Sin can increase, and grace surpasses it without making sin harmless. Love and faith can grow through the Lord's work among ordinary believers. Thanksgiving can multiply as grace reaches people. Material provision can be discussed in terms of sufficiency rather than excess, and generous partnership can bear fruit without becoming an investment scheme.
The verb never blesses growth merely because it is measurable. Christian increase is evaluated by the gospel, love of neighbor, truth, justice, gratitude, and fruitful knowledge of Christ. This protects people from numerical boasting and prosperity pressure while leaving room to recognize quiet maturity, costly love, and faithful endurance that an institution may never count.
Rom.5.20
Seven morphology labels account for the nine governed forms. Romans 5:20 contains both a subjunctive and an indicative form, and the corpus also includes participles, an optative prayer, and other indicative and subjunctive forms. Inflection marks grammatical role; context identifies the thing increasing and its moral evaluation.
Paul's citation of the manna distribution connects increase and sufficiency with Exodus 16. That specific scriptural use supports equitable provision, while broader claims about abundance must be established from their own passages.
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