To grumble
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Gongyzo names grumbling, murmuring, complaining, or low-voiced discontent that resists what God is doing or what His servants receive. In the Gospels it appears when workers resent the landowner's generosity, religious leaders object to Jesus' fellowship with sinners, hearers complain about Jesus' bread-of-life claim, and disciples stumble over hard teaching.
Reader summary
Full entry for γογγύζω (G1111) · Open the biblical lexicon
Gongyzo names grumbling, murmuring, complaining, or low-voiced discontent that resists what God is doing or what His servants receive. In the Gospels it appears when workers resent the landowner's generosity, religious leaders object to Jesus' fellowship with sinners, hearers complain about Jesus' bread-of-life claim, and disciples stumble over hard.
The BSB source-word alignment has 8 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include [did] (1), And do not complain (1), began to grumble (1), complained (1), grumbling (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 20:11. Its strongest book concentrations include John (4), 1 Corinthians (2), Luke (1), Matthew (1).
Gongyzo names grumbling, murmuring, complaining, or low-voiced discontent that resists what God is doing or what His servants receive. In the Gospels it appears when workers resent the landowner's generosity, religious leaders object to Jesus' fellowship with sinners, hearers complain about Jesus' bread-of-life claim, and disciples stumble over hard teaching.
John also uses it for crowd whispering about Jesus. Paul warns the Corinthians not to repeat Israel's complaining. The word is not a ban on honest lament or wise appeal. It exposes a posture that mutters against grace, rejects Christ's word, or measures God's generosity by self-protective comparison before repentance can soften speech.
Gongyzo exposes murmuring discontent that resists grace, questions Jesus' teaching, or repeats Israel's pattern of complaint.
On receiving their pay, they began to grumble against the landowner.
The laborers grumble after receiving their pay because the landowner's generosity to others offends their sense of fairness.
But the Pharisees and their scribes complained to Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
The Pharisees and scribes complain about Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners, revealing resistance to mercy.
At this, the Jews began to grumble about Jesus because He had said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
The crowd begins to grumble because Jesus says He is the bread that came down from heaven.
“Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus replied.
Jesus directly commands them to stop grumbling among themselves, confronting murmuring as a barrier to receiving His word.
Aware that His disciples were grumbling about this teaching, Jesus asked them, “Does this offend you?
Even disciples are described as grumbling over Jesus' hard teaching, showing that complaint can arise near the circle of learners.
When the Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about Jesus, they and the chief priests sent officers to arrest Him.
The crowd's whispering about Jesus reaches the Pharisees and contributes to official opposition.
And do not complain, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel.
Paul warns the church not to complain as some Israelites did, using wilderness history as a covenant warning.
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. Discontented murmuring against someone or something, often expressing complaint about divine provision or authority
Discontented murmuring against someone or something, often expressing complaint about divine provision or authority
to mutter, murmur: 1Co.10:10; before κατά, Mat.20:11; πρός, Luk.5:30; περί, Jhn.6:41, 61; μετ᾽ ἀλλήλων, Jhn.6:43; with accusative, before περί, Jhn.7:32 (cf. δια-γογγύζω).
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
8 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I whisper, murmur, grumble
Read verseI whisper, murmur, grumble
Read verseI whisper, murmur, grumble
Read verseI whisper, murmur, grumble
Read verseI whisper, murmur, grumble
Read verseI whisper, murmur, grumble
Read verseI whisper, murmur, grumble
Read verseI whisper, murmur, grumble
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 8 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)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 8 lexical occurrence verses.
γογγύζω is of uncertain origin - no further derivation.
The core insight of gongyzo is that grumbling often reveals a dispute with grace before it becomes an open argument. The word describes laborers who resent equal generosity, religious leaders who object to Jesus' table fellowship, hearers who resist His heavenly origin, disciples unsettled by His difficult teaching, and a church warned by Israel's wilderness failures.
It does not forbid sufferers from crying out to God with reverent honesty. Scripture gives language for lament. Gongyzo exposes another posture: muttering that protects pride, compares gifts, distrusts Christ, and spreads resistance among the people. The word equips preaching that moves from complaint toward repentance, gratitude, and humble reception of Jesus' word.
John.6.43
Gongyzo is a verb for murmuring or grumbling, often with the sense of low-voiced complaint. Context decides whether it is open complaint, whispered talk, or inward resistance becoming audible.
Israel's wilderness grumbling stands behind Paul's warning in 1 Corinthians 10. The Gospel uses show that the same posture can appear wherever God's grace and Christ's word offend human expectation.
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain