What does φιλαδελφία (philadelphía) mean in the Bible?
G5360 names sibling-like affection or family love within the Christian community. Its six governed forms occur in five verses because 2 Peter 1:7 uses the noun twice.
Greek · G5360
φιλαδελφία
Fraternal affection
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φιλαδελφία G5360
Pronunciation philadelphía
What does φιλαδελφία (philadelphía) mean in the Bible?
G5360 names sibling-like affection or family love within the Christian community. Its six governed forms occur in five verses because 2 Peter 1:7 uses the noun twice.
Reader summary
Full entry for φιλαδελφία (G5360) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G5360?
The BSB source-word alignment has 6 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include brotherly kindness (2), in brotherly love (2), brotherly love (1), you have a genuine love for your brothers (1).
Where does φιλαδελφία (philadelphía) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Romans 12:10. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Peter (2), 1 Peter (1), 1 Thessalonians (1), Hebrews (1).
What This Word Actually Means
G5360 names sibling-like affection or family love within the Christian community. Its six governed forms occur in five verses because 2 Peter 1:7 uses the noun twice. Romans joins this affection to honoring one another. First Thessalonians says believers are taught by God to love and urges further growth. Hebrews commands that the affection continue, then places hospitality, care for prisoners, marriage honor, and freedom from greed nearby.
First Peter connects sincere obedience, purified life, and earnest love, while Second Peter places sibling affection beside love in a virtue sequence without making the two nouns rivals or stages of spiritual rank. The traditional gloss brotherly love includes women and men in the household of faith; it must not narrow belonging to males, biological families, or culturally preferred insiders.
Family language also cannot demand access, secrecy, touch, money, reconciliation, or endurance of abuse. Genuine community affection honors boundaries, protects vulnerable people, welcomes difference, permits lament and disagreement, and remains accountable to truth and justice.
How the Bible Uses It
The six governed G5360 forms occur at Romans 12:10, 1 Thessalonians 4:9, Hebrews 13:1, 1 Peter 1:22, and twice in 2 Peter 1:7. They call Christian communities to honor, growth, continuance, earnest love, and mature affection.
- Rom.12.10
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Outdo yourselves in honoring one another.
The philadelphia command: philostorgoi allelois — tender in affection toward one another. The compound philostorgos (tender, affectionate, as in family love) intensifies the basic philadelphia: not merely dutiful brotherly concern but the warm, tender affection of close family. This is the texture of community life Paul is calling for — not the formal meeting of obligations but the genuine warmth of family.
- 1Thess.4.9
Now about brotherly love, you do not need anyone to write to you, because you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.
Paul says the Thessalonians are taught by God to love one another and then urges them to do so more and more. Divine teaching and continued growth belong together; the verse does not make ordinary instruction, correction, or accountable practice unnecessary.
- Heb.13.1
Continue in brotherly love.
Three Greek words, maximum pastoral weight: he philadelphia meneto — the brotherly love, let it continue. The imperative of meno (to remain, to abide) is used for what is already present but under threat of lapsing. The community has philadelphia; the instruction is to not let the pressures of suffering, conflict, or weariness cause it to fade. What follows in verses 2-4 are the concrete practices in which philadelphia expresses itself: hospitality, care for prisoners, honor of marriage.
- 1Pet.1.22
Since you have purified your souls by obedience to the truth, so that you have a genuine love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from a pure heart.
The direct G5360 noun occurs within Peter's movement from obedience to truth toward sincere sibling affection and earnest mutual love. Truth, purity, and love remain joined rather than being used against one another.
- 2Pet.1.7
And to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.
Second Peter places sibling affection and love beside one another in a cumulative virtue sequence. The two G5360 forms mark the link, but the order does not establish a rank of people, a merit ladder, or a claim that affection is merely a lower form of love.
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 brotherly kindness 2× 2 Peter 1:7
in brotherly love 2× Romans 12:10, Hebrews 13:1
brotherly love 1× 1 Thessalonians 4:9
you have a genuine love for your brothers 1× 1 Peter 1:22
Show sample aligned rows
Romans 12:10 φιλαδελφίᾳ to in brotherly love Noun - Dative Feminine Singular 1 Thessalonians 4:9 φιλαδελφίας to brotherly love Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular Hebrews 13:1 φιλαδελφία to in brotherly love Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular 1 Peter 1:22 φιλαδελφίαν to you have a genuine love for your brothers Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 2 Peter 1:7 φιλαδελφίαν to brotherly kindness Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 2 Peter 1:7 φιλαδελφίᾳ to brotherly kindness Noun - Dative Feminine Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Romans 12:10
Aligned rows 6
Books represented 5
Romans 1 1 Thessalonians 1 Hebrews 1 1 Peter 1 2 Peter 2
Source forms
φιλαδελφίᾳ 2x philadelphia Romans 12:10, 2 Peter 1:7
φιλαδελφίαν 2x philadelphian 1 Peter 1:22, 2 Peter 1:7
φιλαδελφία 1x philadelphia Hebrews 13:1
φιλαδελφίας 1x philadelphias 1 Thessalonians 4:9
Parsing patterns
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 2x 1 Peter 1:22, 2 Peter 1:7
Noun - Dative Feminine Singular 2x Romans 12:10, 2 Peter 1:7
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular 1x 1 Thessalonians 4:9
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular 1x Hebrews 13:1
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Do not mistake sibling affection for uniform agreement, emotional sameness, or unrestricted access. Truthful conflict and wise boundaries can serve genuine love.
- Do not use church-family language to pressure harmed people into secrecy, contact, touch, money, forgiveness on demand, or unsafe reconciliation.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim the traditional gloss brotherly love limits G5360 to men or makes biological family structure the measure of belonging.
- Do not claim 2 Peter 1:7 creates a spiritual rank, a merit ladder, or a strict contrast in which sibling affection is inferior and agape alone is mature.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Mutual affection among Christians understood as familial bond, not mere emotion or preference.
Strong's G5360
Lexical occurrences 6 verses Greek text appearances 6 times Word forms 4 forms 6 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link Hebrews 13:1-6 Source Gloss
fraternal affection
Extended definition Source: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
Mutual affection among Christians understood as familial bond, not mere emotion or preference.
(φιλάδελφος), [in LXX: 4Ma.13:23 4Mac 13:26 4Mac 14:1 * ;] the love of brothers, brotherly love: of Christians' mutual love as brethren (see: ἀδελφός), Rom.12:10, 1Th.4:9, Heb.13:1, 1Pe.1:22, 2Pe.1:7.
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
6 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Romans 12:10 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
φιλαδελφίᾳ filadelfia
brotherly love
Read verse 1 Thessalonians 4:9 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
φιλαδελφίας filadelfiav
brotherly love
Read verse Hebrews 13:1 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
φιλαδελφία filadelfia
brotherly love
Read verse 1 Peter 1:22 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
φιλαδελφίαν filadelfian
brotherly love
Read verse 2 Peter 1:7 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
φιλαδελφίαν, filadelfian
brotherly love
Read verse 2 Peter 1:7 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
φιλαδελφίᾳ filadelfia
brotherly love
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 6 Case pattern Accusative (2) Number pattern Singular (6)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · Feminine Heb 13:1 1×
Genitive · Singular · Feminine 1 Thess 4:9 1×
Dative · Singular · Feminine Rom 12:10 · 2 Pet 1:7 2×
Accusative · Singular · Feminine 1 Pet 1:22 · 2 Pet 1:7 2×
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
New Testament Witnesses
brotherly love
Showing 1 selected witness from 6 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
φιλαδελφία is built from this root:
Why This Word Matters
Defines covenant affection among believers. Hebrews 13:1-6
Canonical Themes
For the Preacher and Teacher
G5360 gives churches a concrete vocabulary for sibling-like affection that honors others, continues under pressure, grows through God's teaching, and expresses itself in earnest love. Romans connects it with mutual honor rather than status seeking. First Thessalonians joins divine instruction to the command to increase, so affection is neither self-generated achievement nor an excuse to avoid formation.
Hebrews places its continuance beside welcome, prisoner care, marriage honor, and freedom from greed. First Peter joins it with obedience to truth and sincere love, and Second Peter places it within a virtue sequence. The family metaphor includes women and men and must remain accountable to the gospel. It cannot be used to force intimacy, suppress disagreement, demand secrecy, bypass safeguarding, or keep harmed people in unsafe relationships.
Christian affection protects boundaries, tells truth, makes room for difference, and seeks another person's good.
Anchor passage
Rom.12.10
Doctrinal connections
- Romans.12.10 - sibling affection takes visible form through mutual devotion and giving honor.
- 1Thessalonians.4.9-10 - believers taught by God to love are still urged to increase in that practice.
- Hebrews.13.1-5 - continuing affection stands beside hospitality, prisoner care, marriage honor, and freedom from greed.
- 1Peter.1.22 - obedience to truth, purified life, sincere sibling affection, and earnest love remain joined.
- 2Peter.1.5-7 - sibling affection and love belong together in a cumulative call to fruitful character.
- John.13.34-35 - Jesus' command to love one another supplies Christ-centered context without replacing G5360's direct uses.
The compound joins affection or friendship language with the sibling term, and every governed token is feminine singular. Accusative and dative each appear twice; genitive and nominative appear once each. Second Peter 1:7 supplies two tokens in one clause. The compound supports sibling-like affection but does not create a rigid lexical contrast with agape.
From Old to New Testament
Leviticus 19 joins refusal of hidden hatred with truthful correction and neighbor love, while Proverbs 17:17 praises faithful friendship in adversity. Jesus' command to love one another gives the church its Christ-centered measure. These parallels clarify truthful, durable affection without making the compound carry every covenant-love theme.
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