Unable
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What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
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G102 describes inability or impossibility and can refer to a person lacking strength, an action beyond human power, or a claim that cannot occur under the stated conditions. Context decides whether the adjective concerns bodily weakness, moral inability, logical impossibility, ineffective law, or something humans cannot accomplish but God can.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἀδύνατος (G102) · Open the biblical lexicon
G102 describes inability or impossibility and can refer to a person lacking strength, an action beyond human power, or a claim that cannot occur under the stated conditions. Context decides whether the adjective concerns bodily weakness, moral inability, logical impossibility, ineffective law, or something humans cannot accomplish but God can.
The BSB source-word alignment has 10 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include [It is] impossible (4), impossible (2), [this is] impossible (1), crippled (1), was powerless to do (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 19:26. Its strongest book concentrations include Hebrews (4), Romans (2), Acts (1), Luke (1).
G102 describes inability or impossibility and can refer to a person lacking strength, an action beyond human power, or a claim that cannot occur under the stated conditions. Context decides whether the adjective concerns bodily weakness, moral inability, logical impossibility, ineffective law, or something humans cannot accomplish but God can. In Matt. 19. 26, jesus answers the disciples salvation question by contrasting what is impossible with man and what is possible with God.
In Heb. 11. 6, hebrews states that pleasing God is impossible without faith that seeks him and trusts his reality and reward. G102 opens teaching on creaturely limits and divine sufficiency without shaming weakness, denying ordinary means, or turning Gods power into a promise of every desired outcome. It corrects self-sufficiency that refuses grace and miracle claims that quote divine possibility while ignoring Gods will, passage context, suffering, and unanswered prayer.
G102 marks several boundaries: salvation is impossible for human power but possible with God, pleasing God is impossible without faith, and the law cannot accomplish what sin-weakened flesh prevents, so God acts in Christ. For G102, responsible teaching keeps lexical meaning, passage context, canonical synthesis, and present application distinguishable. The adjective does not make disability a spiritual defect, promise that believers can accomplish any imagined goal, or remove the need for medicine, skill, process, lament, and mutual support.
G102 appears across passages that develop human inability, divine power, weakness, faith, the limits of law, grace, and honest dependence. For G102, the immediate setting decides which part of the range is active, so the witnesses must remain distinct rather than being merged into one formula.
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Jesus answers the disciples salvation question by contrasting what is impossible with man and what is possible with God.
And without faith it is impossible to please God. For anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
Hebrews states that pleasing God is impossible without faith that seeks him and trusts his reality and reward.
For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh,
Paul explains that God did what the law was unable to do because it was weakened through the flesh.
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. Powerlessness in persons; impossibility in things—often emphasizing divine capability where human effort fails.
Powerlessness in persons; impossibility in things—often emphasizing divine capability where human effort fails.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
10 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
incapable, impossible
Read verseincapable, impossible
Read verseincapable, impossible
Read verseincapable, impossible
Read verseincapable, impossible
Read verseincapable, impossible
Read verseincapable, impossible
Read verseincapable, impossible
Read verseincapable, impossible
Read verseincapable, impossible
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 5 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 6 selected witnesses from 10 lexical occurrence verses.
ἀδύνατος is built from these roots:
Emphasizes human inability.Hebrews 6:1-8
Declares human inability in salvation.Luke 18:18–30
Emphasizes the seriousness of the described apostasy.Mark 10:17–31
G102 marks several boundaries: salvation is impossible for human power but possible with God, pleasing God is impossible without faith, and the law cannot accomplish what sin-weakened flesh prevents, so God acts in Christ. G102 describes inability or impossibility and can refer to a person lacking strength, an action beyond human power, or a claim that cannot occur under the stated conditions.
The selected witnesses keep the teaching concrete: Matt. 19. 26 shows that jesus answers the disciples salvation question by contrasting what is impossible with man and what is possible with God. , while Heb. 11. 6 shows that hebrews states that pleasing God is impossible without faith that seeks him and trusts his reality and reward.. Rom. 8. 3 adds that paul explains that God did what the law was unable to do because it was weakened through the flesh..
G102 opens teaching on creaturely limits and divine sufficiency without shaming weakness, denying ordinary means, or turning Gods power into a promise of every desired outcome. It corrects self-sufficiency that refuses grace and miracle claims that quote divine possibility while ignoring Gods will, passage context, suffering, and unanswered prayer. A church teaching G102 faithfully will name both the promise and the boundary carried by these contexts, attend to vulnerable hearers, and refuse to make the lexical item prove more than its passages support.
The adjective does not make disability a spiritual defect, promise that believers can accomplish any imagined goal, or remove the need for medicine, skill, process, lament, and mutual support.
Matt.19.26
G102 is a Greek adjective formed with a negating prefix and the language of power or ability; it can function substantivally for weak people or predicatively for what cannot be done.
Scripture repeatedly contrasts human limitation with the faithful power of God, from covenant promise to deliverance. The New Testament centers that contrast in salvation, resurrection, faith, and the Spirits work rather than in unlimited personal achievement.