To know
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ginosko means to know, come to know, recognize, understand, perceive, become aware, or know relationally. The New Testament uses it for ordinary awareness, discernment, recognition, moral knowledge, relational knowledge, and saving knowledge of God.
Reader summary
Full entry for γινώσκω (G1097) · Open the biblical lexicon
ginosko means to know, come to know, recognize, understand, perceive, become aware, or know relationally. The New Testament uses it for ordinary awareness, discernment, recognition, moral knowledge, relational knowledge, and saving knowledge of God.
The BSB source-word alignment has 221 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include know (20), we know (10), knows (9), understand (9), you know (8).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 1:25. Its strongest book concentrations include John (56), Luke (28), 1 John (25), Matthew (20).
This entry includes 5 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
Ginosko means to know, come to know, recognize, understand, perceive, become aware, or know relationally. The New Testament uses it for ordinary awareness, discernment, recognition, moral knowledge, relational knowledge, and saving knowledge of God. It can describe knowing a fact, recognizing a person, learning the meaning of sin through the law, being known by God, keeping Christ's commandments as evidence of knowing Him, and eternal life as knowing the Father and Jesus Christ whom He sent.
The word is broad enough that context must govern every claim. It does not always mean intimate covenant knowledge, and it does not always mean bare information. In its highest uses, knowing is personal, obedient, and God-given: the Shepherd knows His sheep, the sheep know Him, and eternal life is communion with the true God through the sent Son.
The selected witnesses move from rejected claims of knowing Christ, to Shepherd-sheep knowledge, to eternal life, to moral awareness through the law, to being known by God, and to obedience as evidence of knowing Him.
Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’
Jesus' warning, 'I never knew you,' shows that religious activity can exist without recognized relationship to Him. The verb carries covenantal and judicial weight in the Sermon context.
I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me,
Jesus knows His sheep and His sheep know Him. The verb here is mutual, relational knowledge under the good Shepherd's care.
Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.
Jesus defines eternal life as knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. Knowing is personal communion with God through the Son, not mere religious information.
What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”
Paul says he would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not spoken. ginosko can describe moral recognition awakened by God's command.
But the one who loves God is known by God.
Paul says the one who loves God is known by God. The decisive knowledge is not human mastery, but God's gracious recognition of those who love Him.
By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments.
John says believers can know that they have come to know Christ if they keep His commandments. Obedience is evidence of knowing Him, not the purchase price of that knowledge.
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.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Know through experience and observation, distinct from οἶδα which is reflective knowing based on intuition or information
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 223 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I come to know, learn, realize
Read verseI come to know, learn, realize
Read verseI come to know, learn, realize
Read verseI come to know, learn, realize
Read verseI come to know, learn, realize
Read verseI come to know, learn, realize
Read verseI come to know, learn, realize
Read verseI come to know, learn, realize
Read verseI come to know, learn, realize
Read verseI come to know, learn, realize
Read verseI come to know, learn, realize
Read verseI come to know, learn, realize
Read verseI come to know, learn, realize
Read verseI come to know, learn, realize
Read verseI come to know, learn, realize
Read verseI come to know, learn, realize
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.
How this verb appears across 219 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)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 5 selected witnesses from 221 lexical occurrence verses.
γινώσκω is a primary verb - no further derivation.
Distinguishes superficial familiarity from true relational knowledge.1 John 2:12-14
Indicates covenantal knowledge evidenced by obedience rather than mere intellectual assent.1 John 2:3-6
Christian maturity is measured by deepening relational knowledge of God, not merely accumulated information.
John defines true knowledge of God as relational and transformative, countering claims of detached or purely theoretical spirituality.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Ginosko asks what kind of knowledge a passage is describing. Sometimes the word is ordinary perception or awareness; Romans 7 uses it for knowing sin through the law's command. Sometimes it is relational recognition; John 10 speaks of the Shepherd who knows His sheep and the sheep who know Him. In John 17, Jesus brings the word to its highest saving frame: eternal life is knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent.
The word also humbles human knowledge. In 1 Corinthians 8, the one who loves God is known by God, so divine recognition outranks human expertise. In 1 John, knowing Christ is tested by obedience. Christian knowing is therefore personal, truthful, obedient, and grace-rooted. It is not less than understanding, but it becomes saving only as God makes Himself known in the Son and brings people into communion with Him.
John.17.3
Ginosko is flexible. It can describe learning, recognizing, perceiving, understanding, or relational knowing. The context, object, and theological setting must decide the force; a preacher should not import John's relational use into every occurrence or reduce John 17 to bare cognition.
The Old Testament often speaks of knowing the Lord as covenant recognition, obedience, and revealed relationship, while also using knowledge for wisdom, discernment, and moral understanding. The New Testament centers that knowledge in Jesus Christ, the sent Son who makes the Father known and gives eternal life.