What does γέμω (gémō) mean in the Bible?
G1073 is a Greek verb that describes a person, object, or scene as being full of named content. It is stative in these passages: the focus rests on what is present, not on the process that put it there.
Greek · G1073
γέμω
Be full
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γέμωG1073
Pronunciationgémō
What does γέμω (gémō) mean in the Bible?
G1073 is a Greek verb that describes a person, object, or scene as being full of named content. It is stative in these passages: the focus rests on what is present, not on the process that put it there.
Reader summary
Full entry for γέμω (G1073) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G1073?
The BSB source-word alignment has 11 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include full (4), are full (3), [and was] covered with (1), covered with (1), that was covered with (1).
Where does γέμω (gémō) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 23:25. Its strongest book concentrations include Revelation (7), Matthew (2), Luke (1), Romans (1).
Are there verse guides for γέμω (gémō)?
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
What This Word Actually Means
G1073 is a Greek verb that describes a person, object, or scene as being full of named content. It is stative in these passages: the focus rests on what is present, not on the process that put it there. Jesus speaks of vessels full of greed and self-indulgence and tombs full of bones and impurity, exposing the gulf between polished appearances and corrupt interiors.
Paul gathers Scripture's indictment of sinful speech in a mouth full of cursing and bitterness. Revelation uses the same verb for bowls full of incense, identified as the saints' prayers, and bowls full of God's wrath in a final judgment scene. The verb is therefore morally neutral until the content and context identify what kind of fullness is in view. It does not name the command to be filled with the Spirit in Ephesians 5:18, and it does not mean intoxication.
Its negative uses should lead to repentance and truthful self-examination, never ethnic contempt, armchair diagnosis, or claims that a person is beyond mercy.
source_lexicongrammaticalPassage contextBook contextCanonical parallelPastoral application
How the Bible Uses It
G1073 describes a state of being full across moral exposure, corrupted speech, worship imagery, and divine judgment. The named content and the passage's genre control how that fullness should be understood.
- Matt.23.25
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
Jesus contrasts carefully cleaned exteriors with inner greed and self-indulgence, making the vessel image a summons to integrity rather than performance.
- Matt.23.27
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of impurity.
The whitewashed tomb image exposes beauty that conceals death and impurity, intensifying the warning against outward religious respectability without inward truth.
- Rom.3.14
“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
Within Paul's chain of Scripture quotations, a mouth full of cursing and bitterness demonstrates that sin disorders human speech.
- Rev.5.8
When He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
Golden bowls full of incense are explicitly identified with the saints' prayers in worship before the slain and risen Lamb.
- Rev.15.7
Then one of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever.
Golden bowls full of divine wrath belong to Revelation's final judgment vision and emphasize God's judicial action, not human revenge.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders Itfull4×Revelation 5:8, Revelation 15:7, Revelation 17:4, Revelation 21:9
are full3×Matthew 23:27, Luke 11:39, Romans 3:14
[and was] covered with1×Revelation 4:8
covered with1×Revelation 4:6
that was covered with1×Revelation 17:3
they are full1×Matthew 23:25
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 23:25γέμουσινtothey are fullVerb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person PluralMatthew 23:27γέμουσινtoare fullVerb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person PluralLuke 11:39γέμειtoare fullVerb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person SingularRomans 3:14γέμειtoare fullVerb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person SingularRevelation 4:6γέμονταtocovered withVerb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Neuter PluralRevelation 4:8γέμουσινto[and was] covered withVerb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person PluralRevelation 5:8γεμούσαςtofullVerb - Present Participle Active - Accusative Feminine PluralRevelation 15:7γεμούσαςtofullVerb - Present Participle Active - Accusative Feminine PluralRevelation 17:3γέμονταtothat was covered withVerb - Present Participle Active - Accusative Neuter PluralRevelation 17:4γέμονtofullVerb - Present Participle Active - Accusative Neuter Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowMatthew 23:25
Aligned rows11
Books represented4
Matthew2Luke1Romans1Revelation7
Source forms
γέμουσιν3xgemousinMatthew 23:25, Matthew 23:27, Revelation 4:8
γέμει2xgemeiLuke 11:39, Romans 3:14
γέμοντα2xgemontaRevelation 4:6, Revelation 17:3
γεμούσας2xgemousasRevelation 5:8, Revelation 15:7
γέμον1xgemonRevelation 17:4
γεμόντων1xgemontōnRevelation 21:9
Parsing patterns
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Plural3xMatthew 23:25, Matthew 23:27, Revelation 4:8
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular2xLuke 11:39, Romans 3:14
Verb - Present Participle Active - Accusative Feminine Plural2xRevelation 5:8, Revelation 15:7
Verb - Present Participle Active - Accusative Neuter Plural1xRevelation 17:3
Verb - Present Participle Active - Accusative Neuter Singular1xRevelation 17:4
Verb - Present Participle Active - Genitive Neuter Plural1xRevelation 21:9
Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Neuter Plural1xRevelation 4:6
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Begin the inner-and-outer integrity question with personal and communal repentance rather than using it to police another group's hidden motives.
- Describe harmful speech and greed truthfully without assigning clinical diagnoses, immutable identities, or hopeless moral categories to people.
- Leave divine wrath to God's justice; pursue truthful accountability through lawful, nonviolent, and neighbor-loving means.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that G1073 is the verb used for the Spirit-filling command or for becoming drunk.
- Do not claim that being described as full of sin makes repentance, forgiveness, or transformation impossible.
- Do not claim that Matthew 23 condemns Jewish ethnicity, all Jewish teachers, or Judaism as a people and tradition.
Key Verse and Form Guides
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. be full
Source Gloss
be full
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
11 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Matthew 23:25Verb Third Person Plural Present Active Indicative
γέμουσινgemousin
I am full of
Read verseMatthew 23:27Verb Third Person Plural Present Active Indicative
γέμουσινgemousin
I am full of
Read verseLuke 11:39Verb Third Person Singular Present Active Indicative
γέμειgemei
I am full of
Read versegemei
I am full of
Read verseRevelation 4:6Verb Present Active Participle Nominative Plural Neuter
γέμονταgemonta
I am full of
Read verseRevelation 4:8Verb Present Active Participle Nominative Plural Neuter
γέμονταgemonta
I am full of
Read verseRevelation 5:8Verb Present Active Participle Accusative Plural Feminine
γεμούσαςgemousav
I am full of
Read verseRevelation 15:7Verb Present Active Participle Accusative Plural Feminine
γεμούσαςgemousav
I am full of
Read verseRevelation 17:3Verb Present Active Participle Accusative Singular Neuter
γέμονgemon
I am full of
Read verseRevelation 17:4Verb Present Active Participle Accusative Singular Neuter
γέμονgemon
I am full of
Read verseRevelation 21:9Verb Present Active Participle Accusative Plural Feminine
γεμούσαςgemousav
I am full of
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 forms11TensesPresentVoicesActive
Tenses
Voices
Indicativestates a fact or reality5×
Participleverbal adjective — the action as a modifying quality6×
Present ActiveRev 5:8 · Rev 15:7 · Rev 4:6 · Rev 17:3 · Rev 17:4 · Rev 21:96×
Discourse Aspect
How this verb appears across 11 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect
Tense
present11
Voice
active11
Mood
participle6indicative5
NT Occurrences
Matthew 23:25γέμουσινpresent active indicativeongoingMatthew 23:27γέμουσινpresent active indicativeongoingLuke 11:39γέμειpresent active indicativeongoingRomans 3:14γέμειpresent active indicativeongoingRevelation 4:6γέμονταpresent active participleparticipleRevelation 4:8γέμουσινpresent active indicativeongoingRevelation 5:8γεμούσαςpresent active participleparticipleRevelation 15:7γεμούσαςpresent active participleparticipleRevelation 17:3γέμονταpresent active participleparticipleRevelation 17:4γέμονpresent active participleparticipleRevelation 21:9γεμόντωνpresent active participleparticiple
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
γέμω 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
G1073 makes fullness concrete by requiring a content. In Matthew 23, clean surfaces do not compensate for interiors characterized by greed, self-indulgence, death, and impurity. Jesus' woes confront hypocrisy among named leaders; they do not authorize contempt for Jewish people or suspicion toward an ethnic or religious group. Romans 3 places a mouth full of cursing and bitterness inside a chain of quotations establishing universal human guilt, which prepares for Paul's proclamation of God's righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ.
Revelation changes both genre and content. Bowls full of incense are identified as the prayers of the saints before the slain Lamb, while bowls full of wrath belong to God's climactic judgment. The common verb does not make prayer and wrath morally alike, nor does it explain how either bowl became full. It simply presents each vessel with its named content. For teaching, this distinction resists vague appeals to spiritual fullness.
Ask what fills the subject, how the passage evaluates it, and what response the larger argument calls for. Negative fullness should summon repentance and grace-shaped truthfulness, not diagnostic labeling, collective blame, or the belief that sinful people are beyond redemption.
Anchor passage
Matt.23.25
Doctrinal connections
- Jesus' vessel image joins outward religious practice to the deeper necessity of inward truth and justice.
- The whitewashed tomb warning exposes hypocrisy without authorizing prejudice against Jewish people or Judaism.
- Romans 3 places corrupted speech within universal guilt before announcing God's righteousness through faith in Christ.
- Revelation 5 places the saints' prayers within worship centered on the slain and reigning Lamb.
- Revelation 15 locates full bowls of wrath within God's judicial action rather than human retaliation.
- The same stative verb can carry opposite contents, showing that context determines moral and theological evaluation.
The governed Greek morphology shows present active indicative and participial forms. Although the forms are morphologically active, G1073 functions statively in these contexts, presenting subjects as full of a genitive or otherwise named content rather than describing a filling process.
From Old to New Testament
Old Testament texts also describe vessels, mouths, lands, and sanctuaries as full of particular contents, and incense belongs to Israel's worship vocabulary. Revelation draws on that scriptural world while interpreting its own symbols. These canonical echoes clarify imagery, but they do not make every Hebrew filling verb a lexical equivalent of G1073.