What does βεβαιόω (bebaióō) mean in the Bible?
G950 is a verb for confirming, establishing, or making something firm. Its New Testament uses do not make human intensity the measure of certainty.
Greek · G950
βεβαιόω
To stabilitate (figuratively)
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βεβαιόω G950
Pronunciation bebaióō
What does βεβαιόω (bebaióō) mean in the Bible?
G950 is a verb for confirming, establishing, or making something firm. Its New Testament uses do not make human intensity the measure of certainty.
Reader summary
Full entry for βεβαιόω (G950) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G950?
The BSB source-word alignment has 8 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include was confirmed (2), confirm (1), confirming (1), established in (1), establishes (1).
Where does βεβαιόω (bebaióō) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Mark 16:20. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Corinthians (2), Hebrews (2), 2 Corinthians (1), Colossians (1).
What This Word Actually Means
G950 is a verb for confirming, establishing, or making something firm. Its New Testament uses do not make human intensity the measure of certainty. The subject, object, and surrounding argument identify who confirms what. In First Corinthians 1, the testimony about Christ is confirmed among the Corinthians, and God is the one who will confirm them to the end. In Second Corinthians 1:21, God establishes Paul and the Corinthians together in Christ. Colossians 2:7 describes believers as established in the faith they were taught.
Romans 15:8 uses the verb for Christ confirming the promises to the patriarchs. That setting keeps confirmation tied to God's truthfulness and covenant action, while the Corinthian and Colossian settings connect firmness with God's work and apostolic teaching. The verb does not teach that a strong feeling validates a message, that success proves divine approval, or that every disputed claim becomes certain when a religious leader calls it confirmed.
Lexical sourceCanonical parallelPastoral application
How the Bible Uses It
Paul uses G950 for testimony being confirmed, people being established by God, believers being established in received faith, and ancestral promises being confirmed through Christ. The grammatical relationships keep confirmation from becoming a free-standing claim of personal certainty.
- 1Cor.1.6
Because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you.
The testimony about Christ is confirmed among or in the Corinthians within Paul's thanksgiving. The object of confirmation is not an undefined feeling or every claim made in Christ's name.
- 2Cor.1.21
Now it is God who establishes both us and you in Christ. He anointed us,
God establishes both apostle and congregation in Christ. The shared object and divine subject resist using the verse to create ministerial superiority.
- Col.2.7
Rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
The passive description belongs to a sequence about walking in Christ, being rooted and built up in him, and being established in the faith as taught.
Canonical parallelBook contextPassage contextPastoral application
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 was confirmed 2× 1 Corinthians 1:6, Hebrews 2:3
confirm 1× Romans 15:8
confirming 1× Mark 16:20
established in 1× Colossians 2:7
establishes 1× 2 Corinthians 1:21
to be strengthened 1× Hebrews 13:9
will sustain 1× 1 Corinthians 1:8
Show sample aligned rows
Mark 16:20 βεβαιοῦντος to confirming Verb - Present Participle Active - Genitive Masculine Singular Romans 15:8 βεβαιῶσαι to confirm Verb - Aorist Infinitive Active 1 Corinthians 1:6 ἐβεβαιώθη to was confirmed Verb - Aorist Indicative Passive - 3rd Person Singular 1 Corinthians 1:8 βεβαιώσει to will sustain Verb - Future Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular 2 Corinthians 1:21 βεβαιῶν to establishes Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular Colossians 2:7 βεβαιούμενοι to established in Verb - Present Participle Middle or Passive - Nominative Masculine Plural Hebrews 2:3 ἐβεβαιώθη to was confirmed Verb - Aorist Indicative Passive - 3rd Person Singular Hebrews 13:9 βεβαιοῦσθαι to to be strengthened Verb - Present Infinitive Middle or Passive
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Mark 16:20
Aligned rows 8
Books represented 6
Mark 1 Romans 1 1 Corinthians 2 2 Corinthians 1 Colossians 1 Hebrews 2
Source forms
ἐβεβαιώθη 2x ebebaiōthē 1 Corinthians 1:6, Hebrews 2:3
βεβαιούμενοι 1x bebaioumenoi Colossians 2:7
βεβαιοῦντος 1x bebaiountos Mark 16:20
βεβαιοῦσθαι 1x bebaiousthai Hebrews 13:9
βεβαιῶν 1x bebaiōn 2 Corinthians 1:21
βεβαιῶσαι 1x bebaiōsai Romans 15:8
βεβαιώσει 1x bebaiōsei 1 Corinthians 1:8
Parsing patterns
Verb - Aorist Indicative Passive - 3rd Person Singular 2x 1 Corinthians 1:6, Hebrews 2:3
Verb - Aorist Infinitive Active 1x Romans 15:8
Verb - Future Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular 1x 1 Corinthians 1:8
Verb - Present Infinitive Middle or Passive 1x Hebrews 13:9
Verb - Present Participle Active - Genitive Masculine Singular 1x Mark 16:20
Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular 1x 2 Corinthians 1:21
Verb - Present Participle Middle or Passive - Nominative Masculine Plural 1x Colossians 2:7
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Ask who confirms what in each passage before moving from the verb to assurance or leadership application.
- Distinguish stability in Christ and received faith from pressure to display emotional certainty.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that strong conviction or visible success proves that God has confirmed a message.
- Do not claim that being established in the faith makes correction, testing, or continued growth unnecessary.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. To make firm or secure; confirm the validity or truth of something through authoritative guarantee
Strong's G950
Lexical occurrences 8 verses Greek text appearances 8 times Word forms 3 forms 8 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link 1 Corinthians 1:8 Source Gloss
to stabilitate (figuratively)
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
8 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Mark 16:20 Verb Present Active Participle Genitive Singular Masculine
βεβαιοῦντος bebaiountov
I confirm, ratify
Read verse Romans 15:8 Verb Aorist Active Infinitive
βεβαιῶσαι bebaiwsai
I confirm, ratify
Read verse 1 Corinthians 1:6 Verb Third Person Singular Aorist Passive Indicative
ἐβεβαιώθη ebebaiwqh
I confirm, ratify
Read verse 1 Corinthians 1:8 Verb Third Person Singular Future Active Indicative
βεβαιώσει bebaiwsei
I confirm, ratify
Read verse 2 Corinthians 1:21 Verb Present Active Participle Nominative Singular Masculine
βεβαιῶν bebaiwn
I confirm, ratify
Read verse Colossians 2:7 Verb Present Passive Participle Nominative Plural Masculine
βεβαιούμενοι bebaioumenoi
I confirm, ratify
Read verse Hebrews 2:3 Verb Third Person Singular Aorist Passive Indicative
ἐβεβαιώθη, ebebaiwqh
I confirm, ratify
Read verse Hebrews 13:9 Verb Present Passive Infinitive
βεβαιοῦσθαι bebaiousqai
I confirm, ratify
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 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.
Form groups 3 Aligned forms 8 Tenses Aorist, Present, Future Voices Passive, Active
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Tenses
Voices
Indicative states a fact or reality 3×
Aorist Passive 1 Cor 1:6 · Heb 2:3 2×
Future Active 1 Cor 1:8 1×
Participle verbal adjective — the action as a modifying quality 3×
Present Active Mark 16:20 · 2 Cor 1:21 2×
Present Passive Col 2:7 1×
Infinitive verbal noun — the action in abstract 2×
Aorist Active Rom 15:8 1×
Present Passive Heb 13:9 1×
Discourse Aspect
How this verb appears across 8 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect
Tense
present 4 aorist 3 future 1
Voice
passive 4 active 4
Mood
indicative 3 participle 3 infinitive 2
NT Occurrences
Mark 16:20 βεβαιοῦντος present active participle participle Romans 15:8 βεβαιῶσαι aorist active infinitive infinitive 1 Corinthians 1:6 ἐβεβαιώθη aorist passive indicative completed 1 Corinthians 1:8 βεβαιώσει future active indicative prospective 2 Corinthians 1:21 βεβαιῶν present active participle participle Colossians 2:7 βεβαιούμενοι present passive participle participle Hebrews 2:3 ἐβεβαιώθη aorist passive indicative completed Hebrews 13:9 βεβαιοῦσθαι present passive infinitive infinitive
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)
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
to establish or secure persons in their faith until the end
God's action securing believers in Christ through anointing
to establish or validate the promises made to the patriarchs
attestation and validation of the salvation message by miracles and signs
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 8 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
βεβαιόω is built from this root:
For the Preacher and Teacher
Paul's confirmation language directs attention away from self-certification. The testimony concerns Christ, God establishes apostles and congregations together in Christ, believers are established in the faith they received, and Christ confirms God's promises. This gives assurance a textual and theological center without treating doubt as disobedience or questions as rebellion.
A church may value stability while still testing claims, correcting leaders, and caring for people whose assurance feels weak. First Corinthians also places God's sustaining action beside the congregation's real need for correction, showing that establishment does not mean present perfection. G950 supports confidence grounded in God's faithfulness; it does not make forcefulness, longevity, popularity, or subjective certainty evidence that God has endorsed a message.
Anchor passage
1Cor.1.6
Doctrinal connections
- First Corinthians 1:6 joins confirmation to the testimony about Christ within Paul's thanksgiving.
- Second Corinthians 1:21 names God as the one establishing apostle and congregation together in Christ.
- Colossians 2:7 places establishment in the faith inside continued life in Christ and received teaching.
- Romans 15:8 connects Christ's ministry with confirming the promises to the patriarchs and God's truthfulness.
G950 is a verb in the confirm, establish, or make-firm range. Local evidence records about five Pauline uses and about eight New Testament uses. Active and passive constructions shift attention among the one establishing, the person or matter established, and the sphere or content in which firmness is described.
From Old to New Testament
Romans 15:8 explicitly relates confirmation to the promises given to the patriarchs. That Pauline statement supplies the canonical bridge; the verb alone does not identify which promise or how every promise is fulfilled.
Canonical parallelPastoral applicationLexical sourcelocal_artifact
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