To taste; by implication, to eat; figuratively, to experience (good or ill)
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Geuomai means to taste, and by extension to experience. The New Testament uses it for ordinary tasting, as when the master of the banquet tastes the water turned to wine, and for refusing to drink after tasting the wine mixed with gall.
Reader summary
Full entry for γεύομαι (G1089) · Open the biblical lexicon
Geuomai means to taste, and by extension to experience. The New Testament uses it for ordinary tasting, as when the master of the banquet tastes the water turned to wine, and for refusing to drink after tasting the wine mixed with gall.
The BSB source-word alignment has 15 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include will not taste (3), [not] to eat (1), [who] have tasted (1), after tasting [it] (1), ate (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 16:28. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (3), Hebrews (3), John (2), Luke (2).
Geuomai means to taste, and by extension to experience. The New Testament uses it for ordinary tasting, as when the master of the banquet tastes the water turned to wine, and for refusing to drink after tasting the wine mixed with gall. It also uses the word figuratively: some will not taste death before seeing the Son of Man's kingdom, Jesus tastes death for everyone by God's grace, some have tasted the heavenly gift, and believers have tasted that the Lord is good.
The word therefore moves from sensory contact to real experience. It should not be inflated into full possession in every passage, but it does mark genuine encounter with what is tasted.
Geuomai can describe literal tasting or experiential participation. John 2 and Matthew 27 use ordinary tasting. Matthew 16 and Hebrews 2 use taste with death. Hebrews 6 and 1 Peter use taste for serious spiritual encounter with God's gift, word, power, and goodness.
And the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not know where it was from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside
The master of the banquet tastes the water turned wine. The word is literal sensory tasting in the sign at Cana.
Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”
Jesus says some standing there will not taste death before seeing the Son of Man's kingdom. Taste becomes an idiom for experiencing death.
They offered Him wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, He refused to drink it.
Jesus tastes the wine mixed with gall and refuses it. The literal action belongs to the suffering scene before the cross.
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.
Hebrews says Jesus tasted death for everyone by God's grace. The word names His real experience of death in saving humiliation.
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit,
Hebrews speaks of those who have tasted the heavenly gift. The word marks serious spiritual exposure within a warning passage.
Now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Peter says believers have tasted that the Lord is good. The word supports desire for the word after experiencing the Lord's goodness.
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. to taste; by implication, to eat; figuratively, to experience (good or ill)
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
15 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I taste, experience
Read verseI taste, experience
Read verseI taste, experience
Read verseI taste, experience
Read verseI taste, experience
Read verseI taste, experience
Read verseI taste, experience
Read verseI taste, experience
Read verseI taste, experience
Read verseI taste, experience
Read verseI taste, experience
Read verseI taste, experience
Read verseI taste, experience
Read verseI taste, experience
Read verseI taste, experience
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.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 14 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)
γεύομαι is a primary verb - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Geuomai helps teachers speak carefully about experience without letting experience become vague. In some passages it simply means tasting with the mouth, as at Cana or at the cross. In others, tasting is a way to speak of entering an experience: tasting death, tasting the heavenly gift, or tasting the Lord's goodness. Hebrews 2:9 is the deepest use in this set, because Jesus truly tastes death for everyone by God's grace.
That does not make every tasting text about atonement, but it does show how vivid the word can become. Geuomai calls readers to distinguish first contact, real encounter, warning, and saving experience by context.
Heb.2.9
Geuomai can be literal or figurative. Figurative uses often mean to experience something personally. The context must determine whether the experience is sensory, mortal, warning-related, or savingly nourishing.
Old Testament tasting language can invite people to perceive the Lord's goodness and can describe bitter or sweet experience. The New Testament retains that sensory force while centering the deepest death-experience in Christ and the believer's tasted goodness in the Lord.