Gift
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G5486 is a noun for a gracious gift. Its seventeen governed forms include God's gift in contrast with Adam's trespass, eternal life in Christ, God's gifts and calling concerning Israel, differing enablements in the body, a person's marital gift, spiritual gifts, favor connected with communal prayer, and gifts associated with ministry and service.
Reader summary
Full entry for χάρισμα (G5486) · Open the biblical lexicon
G5486 is a noun for a gracious gift. Its seventeen governed forms include God's gift in contrast with Adam's trespass, eternal life in Christ, God's gifts and calling concerning Israel, differing enablements in the body, a person's marital gift, spiritual gifts, favor connected with communal prayer, and gifts associated with ministry and service.
The BSB source-word alignment has 17 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include gift (8), gifts (6), [those with] gifts (1), favor shown (1), spiritual gift (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Romans 1:11. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Corinthians (7), Romans (6), 1 Peter (1), 1 Timothy (1).
G5486 is a noun for a gracious gift. Its seventeen governed forms include God's gift in contrast with Adam's trespass, eternal life in Christ, God's gifts and calling concerning Israel, differing enablements in the body, a person's marital gift, spiritual gifts, favor connected with communal prayer, and gifts associated with ministry and service. The word does not mean only spectacular abilities, and not every occurrence describes a congregational role.
First Corinthians 12 places varied gifts under the same Spirit and asks questions whose expected answer is that not everyone has the same gift. Romans 6:23 applies the noun to eternal life, while 1 Corinthians 7:7 applies it to differing personal conditions. Teachers must therefore resist turning one gift, experience, office, personality, marital state, or ministry style into a universal sign of salvation or maturity.
Gift claims remain subject to truth, love, order, consent, safeguarding, accountability, and the good of others. The noun alone does not settle continuationist or cessationist debates, confer office, override character requirements, or place a speaker beyond testing.
χάρισμα is indexed at about 17 NT occurrences in the local Greek artifact. The selected witnesses include Romans 5 for the gift of grace in Christ, 1 Corinthians 12 for gifts of the Spirit, and further uses in Romans 12, 2 Corinthians 1, the Pastoral Epistles, and 1 Peter 4.
There are different gifts, but the same Spirit.
The foundational claim: variety within unity. The charismata are various (diaireseis); different in kind, shape, and expression; but they come from the same Spirit. This means no single charisma represents the fullness of the Spirit's work, and no single charisma can be required of everyone as the sign of the Spirit's presence. The variety is built into the design, not a problem to be resolved toward uniformity.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The noun names God's gift of eternal life in contrast with sin's wages. This direct use prevents spiritual-gift teaching from becoming the word's only frame.
We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If one’s gift is prophecy, let him use it in proportion to his faith;
Paul moves from differing gifts to concrete instructions for their exercise. The passage supports faithful use inside the body, not self-authorization that bypasses testing, consent, competence, order, or safeguarding.
As good stewards of the manifold grace of God, each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve one another.
Peter's stewardship frame: charismata are received gifts to be employed for one another. The word 'steward' (oikonomos) is important; the gift belongs to God and is managed on His behalf for the community's good. The person who has a charisma is not its owner; they are its manager. 'God's varied grace' (poikile charis tou theou) connects each specific charisma back to the infinite variety of God's grace; no one charisma exhausts what God gives, and the community needs the whole variety.
For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
Paul reminds Timothy to rekindle God's gift associated here with Paul's laying on of hands. The verse joins gift, memory, relationship, and responsible exercise without establishing one universal mechanism for receiving gifts or church office.
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. A Spirit-empowered gift freely given, emphasizing supernatural grace rather than earned ability or natural talent.
A Spirit-empowered gift freely given, emphasizing supernatural grace rather than earned ability or natural talent.
(χαρίζομαι) [in LXX: Sir.7:33 א (AB, χάρις) Sir.38:30 Bl (א AB2R, χρῖσμα) * ;] a gift of grace, a free gift, esp. of extraordinary operations of the Spirit in the Apostolic Church, but including all spiritual graces and endowments (Lft., Notes, 148 f.): Rom.1:11 5:15-16 6:23 11:29 12:6, 1Co.1:7 7:7 12:4 12:9 12:28 12:30-31, 2Co.1:11, 1Ti.4:14, 2Ti.1:6, 1Pe.4:10.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 17 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
an undeserved favor
Read versean undeserved favor
Read versean undeserved favor
Read versean undeserved favor
Read versean undeserved favor
Read versean undeserved favor
Read versean undeserved favor
Read versean undeserved favor
Read versean undeserved favor
Read versean undeserved favor
Read versean undeserved favor
Read versean undeserved favor
Read versean undeserved favor
Read versean undeserved favor
Read versean undeserved favor
Read versean undeserved favor
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 this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 7 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.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 17 lexical occurrence verses.
χάρισμα is built from this root:
Emphasizes that spiritual abilities are gifts of grace, not achievements.1 Timothy 4:11-16
Contrasts earned wages with the gracious gift of eternal life.2 Timothy 1:1-7
Ministry capacity is received, not self-produced. Timothy is called to steward and rekindle what God has already supplied.Romans 12:3-8
Spiritual gifting is a divine enablement that must not be neglected.Romans 6:15-23
G5486 keeps grace-gift language broader than a catalog of ministry abilities. Romans uses it for God's saving gift, eternal life, the gifts and calling related to Israel, and varied service. First Corinthians includes spiritual enablements, the expectation of Christ's return, and differing marital conditions. Other letters connect the noun with answered prayer, recognized ministry, rekindled service, and stewardship for others.
These settings share divine generosity but do not erase their differences. In congregational use, gifts are varied and ordered toward service rather than rank. No one manifestation proves salvation, maturity, authority, or office. A claimed gift must be tested through truthful confession of Christ, love, intelligibility, order, character, communal discernment, consent, and safety.
Leaders may not suppress others merely to preserve control, and individuals may not invoke gifting to bypass accountability, training, boundaries, or protection.
1Cor.12.4
The seventeen neuter noun forms span singular and plural across five case forms. The related grace word family helps explain the gift gloss, but suffix and etymology do not establish the source, purpose, visibility, permanence, or supernatural character of each occurrence. Modern personality charisma is not a reliable guide to the New Testament noun.
Old Testament accounts of Spirit-enabled service provide canonical background without functioning as direct occurrences of this Greek noun. Bezalel receives wisdom and skill for tabernacle work (Exodus 31:1-5), selected leaders receive the Spirit for particular tasks, and Moses wishes that all the Lord's people were prophets (Numbers 11:25-29). Joel 2:28-29 promises a broad outpouring of the Spirit, and Acts 2 presents Pentecost in relation to that promise.
These connections help readers place some New Testament gift language within the larger canon, but they do not prove that every charisma is miraculous, permanent, public, or equivalent to an Old Testament office.