Fulfillment
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G4138 names fullness, completion, a full amount, or what fills a space or measure. Its seventeen governed forms describe a patch that fills a tear, basketfuls of fragments, the earth's contents, the fullness of a people, law fulfilled through love, a full blessing, the fullness of time, God's plan for the times, the church and maturity, and fullness related to Christ and deity.
Reader summary
Full entry for πλήρωμα (G4138) · Open the biblical lexicon
G4138 names fullness, completion, a full amount, or what fills a space or measure. Its seventeen governed forms describe a patch that fills a tear, basketfuls of fragments, the earth's contents, the fullness of a people, law fulfilled through love, a full blessing, the fullness of time, God's plan for the times, the church and maturity, and fullness related.
The BSB source-word alignment has 17 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include fullness (7), . . . (2), [new] piece (1), [the] fulfillment (1), [the] fullness (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 9:16. Its strongest book concentrations include Ephesians (4), Romans (4), Mark (3), Colossians (2).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
G4138 names fullness, completion, a full amount, or what fills a space or measure. Its seventeen governed forms describe a patch that fills a tear, basketfuls of fragments, the earth's contents, the fullness of a people, law fulfilled through love, a full blessing, the fullness of time, God's plan for the times, the church and maturity, and fullness related to Christ and deity. The shared noun does not make those referents interchangeable.
John speaks of receiving grace from the Word's fullness. Colossians says that all fullness was pleased to dwell in Christ and that all the fullness of deity dwells in him bodily. These claims establish Christ's sufficiency and embodied identity; they do not describe deity as a divisible substance, imply that Christ was previously deficient, or teach that believers become divine in essence. Ephesians uses fullness for God's plan, the church, knowing Christ's love, and mature conformity to Christ, each within its own argument.
Romans uses the noun for Israel's fullness, the full number of Gentiles, love as the law's fulfillment, and the fullness of Christ's blessing. Romans 9 through 11 forbids Gentile boasting and sustains hope in God's mercy, so fullness language must not support anti-Jewish contempt or simple replacement claims. Love fulfilling the law does not erase truth, justice, or moral boundaries. Fullness of blessing does not promise wealth, health, control, or a hardship-free ministry.
Seventeen governed forms range from patches, basketfuls, contents, time, number, and completion to Christological, ecclesial, and maturity language.
Love is the fulfillment of the law
Neighbor-love fulfills rather than injures. It does not turn preference into the measure of love or remove the law's concern for justice and faithfulness.
When the fullness of time had come
God's sending of the Son gives this completed time its redemptive content.
All the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form
The fullness claim belongs uniquely to Christ and affirms deity together with bodily dwelling.
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. Fullness or completion achieved through filling; what has been made complete or filled up.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 17 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
fullness, fulfillment, completion
Read versefullness, fulfillment, completion
Read versefullness, fulfillment, completion
Read versefullness, fulfillment, completion
Read versefullness, fulfillment, completion
Read versefullness, fulfillment, completion
Read versefullness, fulfillment, completion
Read versefullness, fulfillment, completion
Read versefullness, fulfillment, completion
Read versefullness, fulfillment, completion
Read versefullness, fulfillment, completion
Read versefullness, fulfillment, completion
Read versefullness, fulfillment, completion
Read versefullness, fulfillment, completion
Read versefullness, fulfillment, completion
Read versefullness, fulfillment, completion
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 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.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 17 lexical occurrence verses.
πλήρωμα is built from this root:
Refers to the completion of Gentile inclusion. Colossians 1:15–20
Affirms that the fullness of divine presence resides in Christ. Colossians 2:6–15
Affirms total divine essence dwelling in Christ. Romans 11:25-32
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G4138 teaches contextual fullness. A patch fills a tear, baskets contain fragments, time reaches its appointed completion, peoples come toward a full measure, love fulfills the law, and the church grows toward maturity. John and Colossians then make claims about fullness in Christ that no lexical shortcut can transfer to another subject. All divine fullness dwells bodily in him, and believers receive from him and are filled in relation to him.
This centers grace and maturity on Christ without turning fullness into a substance, erasing the Creator-creature distinction, dismissing the church's ordinary disciplines, promising prosperity, or using Gentile inclusion to boast against Israel.
Col.2.9
Five neuter morphology labels account for the seventeen forms. The distribution begins with seven nominatives, followed by four accusatives and three genitives in the singular; two plural accusatives and one singular dative complete the set. Case and number mark sentence role, while the referent decides whether the noun concerns material contents, a completed measure, a group, time, maturity, blessing, or divine fullness.
The earth's fullness language in 1 Corinthians 10:26 cites Psalm 24:1. Themes of God's dwelling, appointed times, covenant mercy, and abundant provision may illuminate other passages, but each New Testament writer establishes the connection through a specific argument.
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