Properly, remembered , i.e. a male (of man or animals, as being the most noteworthy sex)
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The Hebrew term zākār identifies someone or something as male. Scripture applies it to human beings and animals, and the surrounding passage determines whether the concern is creation, household membership, genealogy, circumcision, sacrifice, preservation of living creatures, or another concrete setting.
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Full entry for זָכָר (H2145) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew term zākār identifies someone or something as male. Scripture applies it to human beings and animals, and the surrounding passage determines whether the concern is creation, household membership, genealogy, circumcision, sacrifice, preservation of living creatures, or another concrete setting.
The BSB source-word alignment has 82 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include male (32), men (13), a man (6), the males (4), a male (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 1:27. Its strongest book concentrations include Leviticus (18), Numbers (18), Genesis (14), Ezra (12).
The Hebrew term zākār identifies someone or something as male. Scripture applies it to human beings and animals, and the surrounding passage determines whether the concern is creation, household membership, genealogy, circumcision, sacrifice, preservation of living creatures, or another concrete setting. Genesis 1 places male and female together under God’s creative act and the shared gift of his image; the term marks a real distinction without assigning greater human worth to one sex.
Other texts identify male animals for sacrifice or count males for particular covenant and communal responsibilities. Because an older source gloss attached a claim about males being more noteworthy, responsible teaching must reject that value judgment as neither the public gloss nor a conclusion established by the cited passages. The word names male identity; it does not by itself supply an entire theology of embodiment, vocation, authority, or dignity.
From creation through covenant signs, ritual instructions, genealogies, and animal classifications, zākār identifies male creatures while each passage supplies the relevant responsibility or setting.
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
God creates humanity in his image as male and female, joining bodily distinction with a dignity received from the same Creator.
Male and female He created them, and He blessed them. And in the day they were created, He called them “man.”
The genealogy recalls that God created and blessed male and female together and named them within the one human family.
That you do not act corruptly and make an idol for yourselves of any form or shape, whether in the likeness of a male or female,
Israel must not represent God by an idol shaped like either a male or female creature, preserving the Creator-creature distinction.
Your lamb must be an unblemished year-old male, and you may take it from the sheep or the goats.
The Passover instruction specifies an unblemished year-old male from the sheep or goats, showing the term’s ordinary use for animals.
This is My covenant with you and your descendants after you, which you are to keep: Every male among you must be circumcised.
The Abrahamic covenant command identifies every male in the household as the recipient of circumcision within that historical covenant administration.
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.
Hebrew word. Male defined by remembrance and prominence; marks the socially or biologically significant member of species.
Male defined by remembrance and prominence; marks the socially or biologically significant member of species.
properly, remembered, i.e. a male (of man or animals, as being the most noteworthy sex) BDB: male Usage: × him, male, man(child, -kind).
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 82 lexical occurrence verses.
זָכָר 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.
Zākār is specific but not self-interpreting. It tells the reader that a human or animal is male, while the passage tells the reader why that fact matters there. Genesis 1 provides the foundational human setting: male and female are both created by God and both stand within humanity’s image-bearing commission. Genesis 17 connects males in Abraham’s household with circumcision, but that covenant command should not be made to say everything about male identity.
Exodus can use the same term for a sacrificial animal, and Deuteronomy can use it when forbidding creature-shaped images of God. Faithful teaching therefore refuses two opposite errors. It does not dissolve the bodily distinction named in the text, and it does not turn that distinction into a claim of superior worth. The Creator, covenant, and immediate command govern the theological movement.
Gen.1.27
Zākār functions as a sex designation and may be used substantivally for a male. Its referent can be human or animal, singular or collective, so translators use male, males, man, or male child according to context.
The New Testament continues to affirm embodied creation and equal accountability before God while locating saving standing in Christ rather than sex, ancestry, or ritual privilege. Its teaching about men, women, marriage, church order, singleness, and new creation must be drawn from those complete passages, not inferred from this Hebrew designation alone.