What does ᾄδω (áidō) mean in the Bible?
G103, áidō, is a Greek verb meaning to sing. Its five New Testament uses form a concentrated arc from the life of the church to the worship of Revelation.
Greek · G103
ᾄδω
To sing
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ᾄδωG103
Pronunciationáidō
What does ᾄδω (áidō) mean in the Bible?
G103, áidō, is a Greek verb meaning to sing. Its five New Testament uses form a concentrated arc from the life of the church to the worship of Revelation.
Reader summary
Full entry for ᾄδω (G103) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G103?
The BSB source-word alignment has 5 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include they sang (3), [and] as you sing (1), Sing (1).
Where does ᾄδω (áidō) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Ephesians 5:19. Its strongest book concentrations include Revelation (3), Colossians (1), Ephesians (1).
What This Word Actually Means
G103, áidō, is a Greek verb meaning to sing. Its five New Testament uses form a concentrated arc from the life of the church to the worship of Revelation. In Ephesians, Spirit-filled believers address one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs while singing to the Lord and giving thanks. In Colossians, the word of Christ dwells richly among believers as they teach and admonish one another with wisdom and sing gratefully to God. Singing is therefore both Godward and mutual: the congregation praises the Lord and gives fellow believers shared words by which truth, gratitude, wisdom, and correction inhabit the body.
Revelation centers song on the Lamb and God's just rule. The elders sing that the slain Lamb is worthy because His blood purchased people for God from every tribe, language, people, and nation. The redeemed sing a new song before the throne, and those who conquer the beast sing the song of Moses and the Lamb, praising God's great works and just, true ways. These visions do not authorize worship leaders to claim heavenly status, settle every dispute about the 144,000 through the verb itself, or turn “conquest” into present violence. The songs identify victory with belonging to the Lamb and faithful resistance to the beast.
G103 does not prescribe a single musical culture or require professional ability. Ephesians and Colossians place singing inside communities marked by love, peace, gratitude, wisdom, mutual submission, and the word of Christ. The participial form does not make music the exclusive sign of being Spirit-filled or word-filled. People may participate through voice, attentive presence, signing, adapted communication, or reverent silence according to ability and circumstance. Faithful Christian singing should make Christ's word at home among the people, direct honor to God, teach without manipulation, welcome the varied nations the Lamb redeems, and join lyrics to lives of thankful holiness and neighbor-love.
source_lexiconPassage contextBook contextCanonical parallelPastoral application
How the Bible Uses It
G103 joins congregational singing shaped by the Spirit and the word of Christ to Revelation's new songs about the slain Lamb, redeemed peoples, faithful endurance, and God's just ways.
- Eph.5.19
Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord,
Singing is part of Spirit-filled communal life, directed to the Lord and spoken among believers. The surrounding commands include thanksgiving and mutual submission in reverence for Christ.
- Col.3.16
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
The word of Christ, wisdom, mutual teaching, admonition, and gratitude shape the congregation's song. Music serves the indwelling message rather than replacing it.
- Rev.5.9
And they sang a new song: “Worthy are You to take the scroll and open its seals, because You were slain, and by Your blood You purchased for God those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
Heaven's new song centers the slain Lamb's worth and His redemption of a people from every people-group. Worship magnifies Christ and embraces redeemed diversity.
- Rev.14.3
And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. And no one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.
The song belongs to the redeemed who follow the Lamb. The verse emphasizes their identity and fidelity; G103 alone does not decide how every image or number in the vision should be interpreted.
- Rev.15.3
And they sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb: “Great and wonderful are Your works, O Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the nations!
The song of Moses and the Lamb praises God's works and just ways after resistance to the beast. Exodus memory and the Lamb's victory converge in worship of the holy King of nations.
Passage contextBook contextCanonical parallel
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders Itthey sang3×Revelation 5:9, Revelation 14:3, Revelation 15:3
[and] as you sing1×Colossians 3:16
Sing1×Ephesians 5:19
Show sample aligned rows
Ephesians 5:19ᾄδοντεςtoSingVerb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine PluralColossians 3:16ᾄδοντεςto[and] as you singVerb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine PluralRevelation 5:9ᾄδουσινtothey sangVerb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person PluralRevelation 14:3ᾄδουσινtothey sangVerb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person PluralRevelation 15:3ᾄδουσινtothey sangVerb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Plural
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowEphesians 5:19
Aligned rows5
Books represented3
Ephesians1Colossians1Revelation3
Source forms
ᾄδουσιν3xadousinRevelation 5:9, Revelation 14:3, Revelation 15:3
ᾄδοντες2xadontesEphesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16
Parsing patterns
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Plural3xRevelation 5:9, Revelation 14:3, Revelation 15:3
Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Plural2xEphesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Select songs whose words are faithful to Christ, understandable in context, singable by the congregation, and joined to gratitude and neighbor-love.
- Design participation that welcomes different voices, languages, abilities, ages, and cultural traditions without forcing identical physical expression.
- Test worship leadership structures for celebrity, financial exploitation, unsafe power, and exclusion that contradict the Lamb-centered songs being sung.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that one musical form, volume, language, emotional display, or instrumentation is required by G103.
- Do not claim that singing by itself proves a congregation is Spirit-filled, word-filled, grateful, or faithful.
- Do not claim that Revelation 14:3 can be fully decoded from the meaning of sing or used to elevate one modern group as uniquely redeemed.
- Do not claim that worship of the victorious Lamb permits domination, dehumanization, or violence in His name.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. to sing
Strong'sG103
Lexical occurrences5 versesGreek text appearances5 timesWord forms2 forms5 referencesVerse guides0 guides
Source Gloss
to sing
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
5 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Ephesians 5:19Verb Present Active Participle Nominative Plural Masculine
ᾄδοντεςadontev
I sing
Read verseColossians 3:16Verb Present Active Participle Nominative Plural Masculine
ᾄδοντεςadontev
I sing
Read verseRevelation 5:9Verb Third Person Plural Present Active Indicative
ᾄδουσινadousin
I sing
Read verseRevelation 14:3Verb Third Person Plural Present Active Indicative
ᾄδουσινadousin
I sing
Read verseRevelation 15:3Verb Third Person Plural Present Active Indicative
ᾄδουσιadousin
I sing
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 groups2Aligned forms5TensesPresentVoicesActive
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Tenses
Voices
Indicativestates a fact or reality3×
Present ActiveRev 5:9 · Rev 14:3 · Rev 15:33×
Participleverbal adjective — the action as a modifying quality2×
Present ActiveEph 5:19 · Col 3:162×
Discourse Aspect
How this verb appears across 4 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect
Tense
present4
Voice
active4
Mood
indicative3participle1
NT Occurrences
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)
Word Origins
ᾄδω is a primary verb - no further derivation.
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
G103 makes singing a communal bearer of Christian truth and hope. In Colossians, the word of Christ dwells richly as believers teach and admonish one another with wisdom and gratitude. In Ephesians, Spirit-filled song is joined to thanksgiving and mutual submission. Revelation then unveils what gives Christian praise its deepest center: the slain Lamb is worthy, His blood purchases a people from every tribe and language, His followers resist the beast, and God's ways are just and true.
Song is not a decorative pause in discipleship. It helps a community remember the gospel, address God, speak truth to one another, and rehearse the future toward which faith presses. Yet music does not authenticate doctrine, guarantee spiritual filling, or rank gifted performers above others. Faithful practice chooses truthful and singable words, includes the whole body as abilities permit, honors many cultures without tokenizing them, rejects celebrity and manipulation, and lets gratitude, holiness, peace, and mutual care confirm what the congregation sings.
Anchor passage
Col.3.16
Doctrinal connections
- The word of Christ dwells among believers through wise mutual teaching and song.
- The Holy Spirit forms thankful communities marked by worship and mutual submission.
- The slain Lamb's sacrificial death establishes His worthiness and redeems a worldwide people.
- Christian worship embraces every tribe, language, people, and nation without cultural erasure.
- Faithful endurance resists idolatrous power while trusting God's final and just victory.
- The song of Moses and the Lamb unites deliverance memory with Christ-centered hope.
G103 is a Greek verb whose five governed uses are present active forms, two participles in Ephesians and Colossians and three indicatives in Revelation. In the letters, the action is related to psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, gratitude, and Godward address. In Revelation, the verb takes song as its object. The exact single-code artifact is preferred over one cross-language compound artifact.
The morphology does not specify musical style, accompaniment, performance quality, emotional intensity, or whether every person contributes in the same physical manner.
From Old to New Testament
The New Testament verb stands in continuity with Israel's songs of deliverance, covenant memory, lament, and praise. Revelation explicitly names the song of Moses and the Lamb, carrying Exodus imagery into the Lamb's victory and worship among the nations. This continuity is centered in Christ and must not be used to convert Israel's battles into a mandate for Christian violence.
Canonical parallelPastoral application