To make room for
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Χωρέω describes having room or capacity, making room, containing something, moving into a place, or being able to receive a saying. Its ten governed forms include literal space, physical capacity, reception of a difficult teaching, relational openness, the progress of food through the body, and movement toward repentance.
Reader summary
Full entry for χωρέω (G5562) · Open the biblical lexicon
Χωρέω describes having room or capacity, making room, containing something, moving into a place, or being able to receive a saying. Its ten governed forms include literal space, physical capacity, reception of a difficult teaching, relational openness, the progress of food through the body, and movement toward repentance.
The BSB source-word alignment has 10 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include [Each] could hold (1), accept [this] (1), can accept (1), goes (1), has no place (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 15:17. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (4), John (3), 2 Corinthians (1), 2 Peter (1).
Χωρέω describes having room or capacity, making room, containing something, moving into a place, or being able to receive a saying. Its ten governed forms include literal space, physical capacity, reception of a difficult teaching, relational openness, the progress of food through the body, and movement toward repentance. The immediate object and context determine which sense is active.
John gives three vivid uses. Stone jars hold a measured amount in John 2:6, Jesus' word has no place among hostile hearers in John 8:37, and John 21:25 says the world would not have room for all the books if every work of Jesus were written. The first is literal capacity, the second is a statement within a conflict scene, and the third is rhetorical praise of the abundance of Jesus' works. None should be made to carry the other two senses automatically.
Matthew 19:11-12 uses the verb twice for being able to receive Jesus' saying about marriage and eunuchs. The wording acknowledges differentiated capacity and ends with a conditional call to the one able to receive it; it does not authorize churches, families, or leaders to impose celibacy, marriage, gender expectations, or sexual history disclosures. In 2 Corinthians 7:2, Paul's request to make room for his team is relational and occurs alongside his defense, but the imperative does not erase consent, accountability, or a harmed person's right to distance and safety.
Second Peter 3:9 uses the verb in the desire that all come to repentance. That passage belongs in debates about patience and salvation, but the lexical form alone does not settle every question about divine will, human response, election, or final judgment. Across the corpus, χωρέω can invite honest receptivity while never requiring uncritical trust, access for unsafe leaders, or acceptance of a claim without evidence.
The ten governed forms occur in nine verses across Matthew, Mark, John, 2 Corinthians, and 2 Peter. They range from literal room and containment to receiving a saying, making relational room, and coming to repentance.
Whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then is eliminated.
The verb refers to physical movement into the stomach. This direct use guards against treating room or reception as its only sense.
Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given.
Three forms across verses 11-12 address ability to receive the saying, including two forms in verse 12. The passage acknowledges capacity and does not authorize coercion about marriage or celibacy.
So many gathered that there was no more room, not even outside the door.
The crowded house supplies a literal spatial use in the healing account.
Now six stone water jars had been set there for the Jewish rites of purification. Each could hold from twenty to thirty gallons.
The water jars have measurable capacity. John uses the word in a plain physical sense before later metaphorical uses.
I know you are Abraham’s descendants, but you are trying to kill Me because My word has no place within you.
Jesus says His word has no place within His hearers. The capacity language becomes morally and spiritually searching in context.
There are many more things that Jesus did. If all of them were written down, I suppose that not even the world itself would have space for the books that would be written.
John closes by saying the world itself could not contain all the books if everything Jesus did were written. The word stretches from physical capacity to literary impossibility.
Make room for us in your hearts.
Paul's imperative is a relational appeal in a defended ministry relationship. It cannot by itself require renewed access after abuse, deception, or broken trust.
He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
The infinitive describes coming to repentance within Peter's account of divine patience. Larger doctrinal conclusions require the whole passage and canon.
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 hold or make room for, literally in space or metaphorically in heart and mind.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
10 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I make room, go, receive
Read verseI make room, go, receive
Read verseI make room, go, receive
Read verseI make room, go, receive
Read verseI make room, go, receive
Read verseI make room, go, receive
Read verseI make room, go, receive
Read verseI make room, go, receive
Read verseI make room, go, receive
Read verseI make room, go, receive
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 10 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)
χωρέω 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.
Χωρέω joins room with receptivity without making them identical. The jars in John 2 hold water, the Mark 2 house cannot hold another person, and food moves into the body in Matthew 15. Matthew 19 uses the verb for capacity to receive a difficult saying, John 8 for Jesus' word having no place among particular hostile hearers, Paul for making relational room, and Peter for coming to repentance.
This range invites honest self-examination, but it also resists manipulation. A ministry leader cannot quote making room to demand access after harm, and a community cannot use receiving language to compel marriage, celibacy, disclosure, or agreement. Receptivity is not gullibility. Truthful reception can involve testing a claim, naming injury, setting boundaries, seeking care, and refusing coercion.
Teachers should identify the object, speaker, relationship, and immediate argument before drawing a spiritual application.
John.8.37
The ten active-voice forms span present, future, and aorist tense forms and indicative, infinitive, imperative, and participial moods. Matthew 19:12 contains both an infinitive and an imperative. Grammar helps distinguish statement, possibility, and appeal, but neither tense nor mood supplies the ethical authority of a speaker; context and the whole passage remain decisive.
Old Testament invitations to hear, receive wisdom, repent, and make space for others can provide thematic comparison, but no single Hebrew expression is established here as a direct equivalent. Jesus' saying in Matthew 19, the conflict in John 8, Paul's relational appeal, and Peter's statement about repentance each govern their own application. Wider connections remain contextual support rather than additional occurrences.
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