What does ὑπακοή (hypakoḗ) mean in the Bible?
G5218 names obedience, a responsive submission to what is heard. Romans opens and closes with the "obedience of faith," joining gospel trust to allegiance among the nations.
Greek · G5218
ὑπακοή
Obedience
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ὑπακοή G5218
Pronunciation hypakoḗ
What does ὑπακοή (hypakoḗ) mean in the Bible?
G5218 names obedience, a responsive submission to what is heard. Romans opens and closes with the "obedience of faith," joining gospel trust to allegiance among the nations.
Reader summary
Full entry for ὑπακοή (G5218) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G5218?
The BSB source-word alignment has 15 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include obedience (8), obedient (3), to obedience (2), [to the] obedience (1), make it obedient (1).
Where does ὑπακοή (hypakoḗ) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Romans 1:5. Its strongest book concentrations include Romans (7), 1 Peter (3), 2 Corinthians (3), Hebrews (1).
What This Word Actually Means
G5218 names obedience, a responsive submission to what is heard. Romans opens and closes with the "obedience of faith," joining gospel trust to allegiance among the nations. Romans 5 places the saving center outside believers: the many are made righteous through the obedience of the one man, Jesus Christ. Christian obedience follows grace and union with Christ; it does not purchase justification or complete what His obedience lacked.
The word can also describe a church's response to apostolic instruction and thoughts brought under Christ's lordship. Those settings do not give every leader unlimited authority. Obedience to Christ governs all lesser obedience, and Scripture tests every human command. Teachers must never use G5218 to demand secrecy, suppress questions, excuse abuse, or bind consciences beyond God's Word. Gospel obedience is willing, truth-shaped, whole-person discipleship. It includes repentance, faith, renewed thinking, embodied action, love for others, and courage to refuse commands that contradict the Lord.
How the Bible Uses It
G5218 moves from gospel response to Christ's representative obedience and then to the disciplined obedience of the church.
- Rom.1.5
Through Him and on behalf of His name, we received grace and apostleship to call all those among the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.
Romans 1 links grace, apostleship, the nations, and the obedience that comes from faith.
- Rom.5.19
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
Romans 5 contrasts Adam's disobedience with Christ's obedience, grounding salvation in the representative work of Christ.
- 2Cor.10.5
We demolish arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Second Corinthians 10 extends obedience to every thought taken captive to Christ, showing that gospel obedience reaches the mind.
Passage context
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It obedience 8× Romans 5:19, Romans 16:19, Romans 16:26, 2 Corinthians 10:6
obedient 3× Romans 6:16, 2 Corinthians 7:15, 1 Peter 1:14
to obedience 2× Romans 6:16, Romans 15:18
[to the] obedience 1× Romans 1:5
make it obedient 1× 2 Corinthians 10:5
Show sample aligned rows
Romans 1:5 ὑπακοὴν to [to the] obedience Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Romans 5:19 ὑπακοῆς to obedience Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular Romans 6:16 ὑπακοήν to obedient Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Romans 6:16 ὑπακοῆς to to obedience Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular Romans 15:18 ὑπακοὴν to to obedience Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Romans 16:19 ὑπακοὴ to obedience Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular Romans 16:26 ὑπακοὴν to obedience Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 2 Corinthians 7:15 ὑπακοήν to obedient Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 2 Corinthians 10:5 ὑπακοὴν to make it obedient Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 2 Corinthians 10:6 ὑπακοή to obedience Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Romans 1:5
Aligned rows 15
Books represented 5
Romans 7 2 Corinthians 3 Philemon 1 Hebrews 1 1 Peter 3
Source forms
ὑπακοὴν 5x hypakoēn Romans 1:5, Romans 15:18, Romans 16:26, 2 Corinthians 10:5
ὑπακοήν 3x hypakoēn Romans 6:16, 2 Corinthians 7:15, Hebrews 5:8
ὑπακοῆς 3x hypakoēs Romans 5:19, Romans 6:16, 1 Peter 1:14
ὑπακοῇ 2x hypakoē Philemon 1:21, 1 Peter 1:22
ὑπακοή 1x hypakoē 2 Corinthians 10:6
ὑπακοὴ 1x hypakoē Romans 16:19
Parsing patterns
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 8x Romans 1:5, Romans 6:16, Romans 15:18, Romans 16:26
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular 3x Romans 5:19, Romans 6:16, 1 Peter 1:14
Noun - Dative Feminine Singular 2x Philemon 1:21, 1 Peter 1:22
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular 2x Romans 16:19, 2 Corinthians 10:6
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Keep Christ's saving obedience distinct from the believer's responsive obedience of faith.
- Test every call for human obedience by Scripture, especially where secrecy, coercion, harm, or conscience is involved.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not use G5218 to make obedience the ground of justification. Romans 5 places the saving obedience in Christ, with believers responding from grace.
- Do not use G5218 to demand unquestioning submission to a human leader, conceal harm, or bind a conscience beyond Scripture. Obedience to Christ judges every lesser command.
Passage contexttheological_synthesisPastoral application
Evidence Summary
Greek word. obedience
Strong's G5218
Lexical occurrences 14 verses Greek text appearances 15 times Word forms 4 forms 14 references Verse guides 0 guides
Source Gloss
obedience
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
15 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Romans 1:5 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ὑπακοὴν upakohn
obedience
Read verse Romans 5:19 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
ὑπακοῆς upakohv
obedience
Read verse Romans 6:16 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ὑπακοήν, upakohn
obedience
Read verse Romans 6:16 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
ὑπακοῆς upakohv
obedience
Read verse Romans 15:18 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ὑπακοὴν upakohn
obedience
Read verse Romans 16:19 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
ὑπακοὴ upakoh
obedience
Read verse Romans 16:26 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ὑπακοὴν upakohn
obedience
Read verse 2 Corinthians 7:15 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ὑπακοήν, upakohn
obedience
Read verse 2 Corinthians 10:5 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ὑπακοὴν upakohn
obedience
Read verse 2 Corinthians 10:6 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
ὑπακοή. upakoh
obedience
Read verse Philemon 1:21 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
ὑπακοῇ upakoh
obedience
Read verse Hebrews 5:8 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ὑπακοήν, upakohn
obedience
Read verse 1 Peter 1:2 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ὑπακοὴν upakohn
obedience
Read verse 1 Peter 1:14 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
ὑπακοῆς, upakohv
obedience
Read verse 1 Peter 1:22 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
ὑπακοῇ upakoh
obedience
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.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 4 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.
Form patterns 4 Aligned forms 14 Case pattern Accusative (7) Number pattern Singular (14)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · Feminine Rom 16:19 · 2 Cor 10:6 2×
Genitive · Singular · Feminine Rom 5:19 · Rom 6:16 · 1 Pet 1:14 3×
Dative · Singular · Feminine Phlm 1:21 · 1 Pet 1:22 2×
Accusative · Singular · Feminine Rom 1:5 · Rom 6:16 · Rom 15:18 · 2 Cor 7:15 · 2 Cor 10:5 · Heb 5:8 · 1 Pet 1:2 7×
Word Origins
ὑπακοή is built from this root:
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
G5218 keeps grace, faith, Christ, and discipleship in their proper order. The obedience of Jesus Christ is the representative saving act contrasted with Adam's disobedience. Believers do not add to that foundation. They receive grace and are called into the obedience that comes from faith, an allegiance that reaches thought, speech, body, relationships, and mission.
This order also limits human authority. Pastors, parents, spouses, governments, and church members remain accountable to Christ and His Word; none may claim the unconditional obedience that belongs to the Lord. A teacher who invokes obedience while hiding wrongdoing or punishing faithful questions contradicts the truth to which Christian obedience responds. The word should therefore produce humble submission to Christ, careful hearing of Scripture, willing action, accountable leadership, and courage to resist commands that oppose God.
Anchor passage
Rom.1.5
Doctrinal connections
- Rom.1.5 - Grace and apostleship serve the obedience of faith among the nations, joining gospel mission to trusting allegiance.
- Rom.5.18-19 - Christ's obedience answers Adam's disobedience and grounds the righteous standing and life of His people.
- Rom.6.15-18 - Those freed from sin become obedient from the heart to the pattern of teaching delivered to them.
- Rom.15.18 and 16.26 - Paul's mission seeks Gentile obedience through word and deed, and the revealed gospel goes to all nations for the obedience of faith.
- 2Cor.10.3-6 - Spiritual warfare brings arguments and thoughts under Christ, while corrective authority waits for the church's obedience and remains accountable to apostolic truth.
- Heb.5.7-9 - The Son learns obedience through suffering in His incarnate mission and becomes the source of eternal salvation to those who obey Him.
Obedience or faithful hearing is the reviewed display gloss for G5218. In this Pauline-focused companion, local STEP TAGNT evidence shows about 10 Pauline use(s), with common forms including N-ASF 5, N-GSF 2, N-NSF 2. The noun belongs to a hearing and obedience word family; context decides whether emphasis falls on responsive hearing, enacted obedience, or submission to God.
From Old to New Testament
Israel's covenant call to hear and obey prepares the responsive-hearing pattern, while the prophets expose outward compliance without faithful hearts. Christ fulfills obedient sonship, and the new covenant forms a people who obey from the heart by the Spirit.
Sources
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