What does φύσις (phýsis) mean in the Bible?
G5449 is a noun for nature, natural condition, or what belongs to a creature or established order. Its fourteen forms serve several distinct arguments.
Greek · G5449
φύσις
Nature
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through the Connect page. Screenshots are helpful.
φύσις G5449
Pronunciation phýsis
What does φύσις (phýsis) mean in the Bible?
G5449 is a noun for nature, natural condition, or what belongs to a creature or established order. Its fourteen forms serve several distinct arguments.
Reader summary
Full entry for φύσις (G5449) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G5449?
The BSB source-word alignment has 14 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include by nature (3), nature (3), . . . (1), by birth (1), kinds (1).
Where does φύσις (phýsis) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Romans 1:26. Its strongest book concentrations include Romans (7), Galatians (2), James (2), 1 Corinthians (1).
What This Word Actually Means
G5449 is a noun for nature, natural condition, or what belongs to a creature or established order. Its fourteen forms serve several distinct arguments. Romans uses it in discussions of sexual relations, Gentiles and law, circumcision, and the wild and cultivated branches of the olive-tree metaphor. First Corinthians 11 appeals to nature in a contested argument about hair and honor.
Galatians and Ephesians can speak of birth or prior condition. James uses the noun for kinds of creatures and humankind, while 2 Peter speaks of sharing in the divine nature. These passages do not yield one simple definition of what is natural, and the noun does not turn every social custom, bodily variation, majority pattern, or interpreter's intuition into divine law.
Romans 1 must be handled within Paul's wider indictment of humanity and without slurs, harassment, coercive treatment, speculative diagnoses, or selective condemnation of sexual minorities. Romans 11 forbids Gentile arrogance and anti-Jewish replacement claims. First Corinthians 11 requires historical, literary, and canonical care and must not be used to police bodies, hair, ethnicity, disability, or gender expression through humiliation.
Second Peter's participation language does not make creatures divine in essence.
How the Bible Uses It
Fourteen G5449 forms in eleven verses range across sexual relations, moral and covenant arguments, birth and prior condition, hair and honor, creature kinds, olive-tree metaphor, and participation in God's promises.
- Rom.1.26
For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
Paul uses the word in a judgment passage about exchanging what is natural for what is contrary to nature. The claim must stay inside Paul's argument about idolatry, disorder, and divine judgment.
- Rom.2.14
Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.
Gentiles who do not have the law may by nature do what the law requires, showing that Paul can use nature language for moral awareness as well as created order.
- Rom.11.24
For if you were cut from a wild olive tree, and contrary to nature were grafted into one that is cultivated, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!
Paul uses nature language in the olive tree image to distinguish wild and cultivated branches. The word supports the metaphor but does not turn the metaphor into biology.
- 1Cor.11.14
Doesn't nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him,
Paul appeals to nature inside a difficult argument about honor, hair, and assembly practice. The noun alone does not identify which features are creational, customary, rhetorical, or locally assumed, so application requires historical and canonical care.
- Jas.3.7
All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man,
James uses the noun twice for kinds of creatures and humankind while contrasting animal taming with the untamed tongue. This concrete classification broadens the range beyond moral or sexual arguments.
- 2Pet.1.4
Through these He has given us His precious and magnificent promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, now that you have escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
Participation in the divine nature is connected with God's promises and escape from corruption. The phrase describes gracious participation and transformation, not absorption into God's essence or human divinity.
Book contextPassage 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 by nature 3× Romans 2:14, Galatians 4:8, Ephesians 2:3
nature 3× Romans 11:24, 1 Corinthians 11:14, 2 Peter 1:4
. . . 1× James 3:7
by birth 1× Galatians 2:15
kinds 1× James 3:7
natural 1× Romans 11:21
natural [branches] 1× Romans 11:24
physically 1× Romans 2:27
unnatural 1× Romans 1:26
vvv 1× Romans 11:24
Show sample aligned rows
Romans 1:26 φύσιν to unnatural Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Romans 2:14 φύσει to by nature Noun - Dative Feminine Singular Romans 2:27 φύσεως to physically Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular Romans 11:21 φύσιν to natural Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Romans 11:24 φύσιν to vvv Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Romans 11:24 φύσιν to nature Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Romans 11:24 φύσιν to natural [branches] Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 1 Corinthians 11:14 φύσις to nature Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular Galatians 2:15 φύσει to by birth Noun - Dative Feminine Singular Galatians 4:8 φύσει to by nature Noun - Dative Feminine Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Romans 1:26
Aligned rows 14
Books represented 6
Romans 7 1 Corinthians 1 Galatians 2 Ephesians 1 James 2 2 Peter 1
Source forms
φύσει 5x physei Romans 2:14, Galatians 2:15, Galatians 4:8, Ephesians 2:3
φύσιν 5x physin Romans 1:26, Romans 11:21, Romans 11:24
φύσεως 2x physeōs Romans 2:27, 2 Peter 1:4
φύσις 2x physis 1 Corinthians 11:14, James 3:7
Parsing patterns
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 5x Romans 1:26, Romans 11:21, Romans 11:24
Noun - Dative Feminine Singular 5x Romans 2:14, Galatians 2:15, Galatians 4:8, Ephesians 2:3
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular 2x Romans 2:27, 2 Peter 1:4
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular 2x 1 Corinthians 11:14, James 3:7
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Name the kind of nature claim being made before applying the passage.
- Handle Romans 1 inside Paul's wider indictment of humanity and with restraint, confidentiality, nonviolence, and equal moral standards.
- Read Romans 11 as a warning against Gentile boasting and preserve God's continuing mercy toward Jewish branches.
- Approach 1 Corinthians 11 without humiliation or coercive body policing; distinguish the noun's lexical range from disputed historical and theological conclusions.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not use G5449 as a slogan detached from Paul's argument. Romans 1, Romans 2, and Romans 11 use nature language in distinct ways.
- Do not treat an interpreter's intuition, a majority pattern, a social custom, or a bodily variation as self-proving divine law.
- Do not claim that sharing in divine nature makes believers divine in essence or removes the Creator-creature distinction.
Book contextPastoral application
Evidence Summary
Greek word. nature
Strong's G5449
Lexical occurrences 14 verses Greek text appearances 14 times Word forms 4 forms 14 references Verse guides 0 guides
Source Gloss
nature
Greek Text Appearances
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.
Romans 1:26 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
φύσιν· fusin
nature, inherent nature
Read verse Romans 2:14 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
φύσει fusei
nature, inherent nature
Read verse Romans 2:27 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
φύσεως fusewv
nature, inherent nature
Read verse Romans 11:21 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
φύσιν fusin
nature, inherent nature
Read verse Romans 11:24 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
φύσιν fusin
nature, inherent nature
Read verse Romans 11:24 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
φύσιν fusin
nature, inherent nature
Read verse Romans 11:24 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
φύσιν, fusin
nature, inherent nature
Read verse 1 Corinthians 11:14 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
φύσις fusiv
nature, inherent nature
Read verse Galatians 2:15 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
φύσει fusei
nature, inherent nature
Read verse Galatians 4:8 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
φύσει fusei
nature, inherent nature
Read verse Ephesians 2:3 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
φύσει fusei
nature, inherent nature
Read verse James 3:7 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
φύσις fusiv
nature, inherent nature
Read verse James 3:7 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
φύσει fusei
nature, inherent nature
Read verse 2 Peter 1:4 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
φύσεως, fusewv
nature, inherent nature
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 (5) Number pattern Singular (14)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · Feminine 1 Cor 11:14 · Jas 3:7 2×
Genitive · Singular · Feminine Rom 2:27 · 2 Pet 1:4 2×
Dative · Singular · Feminine Rom 2:14 · Gal 2:15 · Gal 4:8 · Eph 2:3 · Jas 3:7 5×
Accusative · Singular · Feminine Rom 1:26 · Rom 11:21 · Rom 11:24 5×
Word Origins
φύσις 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
G5449 requires slow teaching because the same noun functions in sexual, moral, covenantal, social, zoological, metaphorical, and participatory contexts. Romans 1 belongs to Paul's argument about idolatry and judgment, while Romans 2 discusses Gentiles, law, and circumcision. Romans 11 applies natural and contrary-to-nature language inside an olive-tree metaphor that warns Gentile believers against arrogance toward Jewish branches.
First Corinthians 11 appeals to nature within a debated hair-and-honor argument. Galatians and Ephesians refer to birth or prior condition, James classifies creature kinds, and 2 Peter speaks of participation in the divine nature through God's promises. Teachers must let each construction and argument define the claim. Nature language cannot become a shortcut for prejudice, body policing, anti-Jewish theology, cultural absolutism, or the claim that human beings become divine in essence.
Anchor passage
Rom.2.14
Doctrinal connections
- Rom.1.26 - Paul uses the word in a judgment passage about exchanging what is natural for what is contrary to nature. The claim must stay inside Paul's argument about idolatry, disorder, and divine judgment.
- Rom.2.14 - Gentiles who do not have the law may by nature do what the law requires, showing that Paul can use nature language for moral awareness as well as created order.
- Rom.11.24 - Paul uses nature language in the olive tree image to distinguish wild and cultivated branches. The word supports the metaphor but does not turn the metaphor into biology.
- 1Cor.11.14 - hair and honor language requires historical, rhetorical, and canonical care rather than automatic body policing.
- Jas.3.7 - creature kinds and humankind supply a concrete classification use.
- 2Pet.1.4 - participation in divine nature concerns promise-shaped transformation, not identity with God's essence.
Every governed token is feminine singular, with the case distribution spanning subject, possessive or source, indirect, and object constructions. Repetition within Romans 1:26, Romans 11:24, and James 3:7 serves local contrasts. Morphology and word history do not determine whether a claim concerns creation, custom, birth, metaphor, species, or participation.
From Old to New Testament
Creation, creature kinds, covenant identity, human corruption, and God's promises provide broad canonical backgrounds. No single background resolves every G5449 occurrence, and none authorizes treating contemporary cultural expectations as self-evident creation law.
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