What does δένδρον (déndron) mean in the Bible?
Δένδρον (dendron) means tree, a living woody plant. John the Baptist warns that the axe lies at the root of trees lacking good fruit, using orchard judgment to demand repentance.
Greek · G1186
δένδρον
A tree
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δένδρον G1186
Pronunciation déndron
What does δένδρον (déndron) mean in the Bible?
Δένδρον (dendron) means tree, a living woody plant. John the Baptist warns that the axe lies at the root of trees lacking good fruit, using orchard judgment to demand repentance.
Reader summary
Full entry for δένδρον (G1186) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G1186?
The BSB source-word alignment has 25 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include tree (15), trees (8), a tree (2).
Where does δένδρον (déndron) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 3:10. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (12), Luke (7), Revelation (4), Jude (1).
What This Word Actually Means
Δένδρον (dendron) means tree, a living woody plant. John the Baptist warns that the axe lies at the root of trees lacking good fruit, using orchard judgment to demand repentance. In Mark's staged healing, the man describes people looking like walking trees, an honest comparison from incomplete vision rather than a symbol about human nature. Jude calls intruding teachers fruitless autumn trees, twice dead and uprooted, multiplying images of barrenness and judgment.
Revelation depicts winds restrained so they do not damage land, sea, or any tree until God's servants are sealed. The noun can name an actual plant or support comparison and metaphor. Fruit, roots, season, and narrative setting determine whether a tree illustrates people, incomplete sight, false teachers, or creation protected from temporary harm.
How the Bible Uses It
Δένδρον names a tree. It appears in repentance warnings about fruit, a healed man's report of partial sight, Jude's image of uprooted false teachers, and Revelation's temporary protection of created trees.
- Matt.3.10
The axe lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
John's axe-at-the-root warning makes good fruit the visible evidence of repentance and announces judgment against barren presumption.
- Mark.8.24
The man looked up and said, “I can see the people, but they look like trees walking around.”
The partially healed man sees people resembling walking trees, giving Jesus an accurate report of blurred vision before the healing is completed.
- Luke.3.9
The axe lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Luke repeats the tree-and-fruit warning while addressing crowds tempted to rely on ancestry rather than repentant conduct.
- Jude.1.12
These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after being uprooted.
Jude portrays self-serving teachers as autumn trees without fruit, twice dead and uprooted, stressing barrenness, instability, and final judgment.
- Rev.7.1
After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back its four winds so that no wind would blow on land or sea or on any tree.
The four winds are restrained from harming any tree until God's servants are sealed, placing potential creation damage under divine timing.
Passage contextBook context
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It tree 15× Matthew 3:10, Matthew 7:17, Matthew 7:18, Matthew 7:19
trees 8× Matthew 3:10, Matthew 21:8, Mark 8:24, Luke 3:9
a tree 2× Matthew 13:32, Luke 13:19
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 3:10 δένδρων to trees Noun - Genitive Neuter Plural Matthew 3:10 δένδρον to tree Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular Matthew 7:17 δένδρον to tree Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular Matthew 7:17 δένδρον to tree Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular Matthew 7:18 δένδρον to tree Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular Matthew 7:18 δένδρον to tree Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular Matthew 7:19 δένδρον to tree Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular Matthew 12:33 δένδρον to tree Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular Matthew 12:33 δένδρον to tree Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular Matthew 12:33 δένδρον to tree Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Matthew 3:10
Aligned rows 25
Books represented 5
Matthew 12 Mark 1 Luke 7 Jude 1 Revelation 4
Source forms
δένδρον 17x dendron Matthew 3:10, Matthew 7:17, Matthew 7:18, Matthew 7:19
δένδρα 4x dendra Mark 8:24, Luke 21:29, Jude 1:12, Revelation 7:3
δένδρων 4x dendrōn Matthew 3:10, Matthew 21:8, Luke 3:9, Revelation 8:7
Parsing patterns
Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular 12x Matthew 3:10, Matthew 7:17, Matthew 7:18, Matthew 7:19
Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular 5x Matthew 12:33, Luke 13:19, Revelation 7:1, Revelation 9:4
Noun - Genitive Neuter Plural 4x Matthew 3:10, Matthew 21:8, Luke 3:9, Revelation 8:7
Noun - Accusative Neuter Plural 3x Mark 8:24, Luke 21:29, Revelation 7:3
Noun - Nominative Neuter Plural 1x Jude 1:12
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Do not invent symbolic meaning for the walking trees in Mark 8; the phrase reports incomplete visual clarity during a staged healing.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that ancestry replaces fruit when John's warning explicitly rejects that confidence.
- Do not treat Jude's fruitless trees as merely immature teachers when he calls them twice dead and uprooted.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. In Jesus' teaching, trees symbolize moral character—good trees bear good fruit, corrupt trees bear corrupt fruit.
Strong's G1186
Lexical occurrences 25 verses Greek text appearances 26 times 16 shown below Word forms 5 forms 25 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link Luke 13:18-21 Source Gloss
a tree
Extended definition Source: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
In Jesus' teaching, trees symbolize moral character—good trees bear good fruit, corrupt trees bear corrupt fruit.
a tree: Mat.3:10, al.; δ. ἀγαθόν, Mat.7:17, 18; δ. καλόν, Mat.12:33, Luk.6:43; δ. σαπρόν, Mat.7:17, 18 12:33, Luk.6:43; γίνεσθαι δ., Mat.13:32; γ. εἰς δ., Luk.13:19.
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 26 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Matthew 3:10 Noun Genitive Plural Neuter
δένδρων dendrwn
a tree
Read verse Matthew 3:10 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
δένδρον dendron
a tree
Read verse Matthew 7:17 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
δένδρον dendron
a tree
Read verse Matthew 7:17 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
δένδρον dendron
a tree
Read verse Matthew 7:18 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
δένδρον dendron
a tree
Read verse Matthew 7:18 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
δένδρον dendron
a tree
Read verse Matthew 7:19 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
δένδρον dendron
a tree
Read verse Matthew 12:33 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
δένδρον dendron
a tree
Read verse Matthew 12:33 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
δένδρον dendron
a tree
Read verse Matthew 12:33 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
δένδρον dendron
a tree
Read verse Matthew 13:32 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
δένδρον, dendron
a tree
Read verse Matthew 21:8 Noun Genitive Plural Neuter
δένδρων, dendrwn
a tree
Read verse Mark 8:24 Noun Nominative Plural Neuter
δένδρα dendra
a tree
Read verse Mark 11:8 Noun Genitive Plural Neuter
δένδρων, dendrwn
a tree
Read verse Luke 3:9 Noun Genitive Plural Neuter
δένδρων dendrwn
a tree
Read verse Luke 3:9 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
δένδρον dendron
a tree
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 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.
Form patterns 5 Aligned forms 25 Case pattern Nominative (13) Number pattern Singular (17)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · Neuter Matt 3:10 · Matt 7:17 · Matt 7:18 · Matt 7:19 · Matt 12:33 · Matt 13:32 · Luke 3:9 · Luke 6:43 · Luke 6:44 12×
Nominative · Plural · Neuter Jude 1:12 1×
Genitive · Plural · Neuter Matt 3:10 · Matt 21:8 · Luke 3:9 · Rev 8:7 4×
Accusative · Singular · Neuter Matt 12:33 · Luke 13:19 · Rev 7:1 · Rev 9:4 5×
Accusative · Plural · Neuter Mark 8:24 · Luke 21:29 · Rev 7:3 3×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
mustard seed growing into a large tree, kingdom of God parable
good and bad trees producing corresponding fruit, moral character reflection
tree planted by water as metaphor for blessed person trusting in God
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 25 lexical occurrence verses.
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
Trees become morally instructive when a passage speaks of roots, fruit, season, and judgment. John the Baptist does not ask for religious ancestry but fruit consistent with repentance, because an axe already at the root makes delay urgent. Mark's walking trees should remain a visual report: the man sees truly but indistinctly until Jesus completes the restoration.
Jude uses a dense tree image for teachers who feed themselves and offer no nourishing fruit; uprooting announces that apparent presence in the feast does not equal life. Revelation reminds readers that literal trees also belong to God's creation and remain under His control even in judgment sequences. Teachers should neither flatten nature into allegory nor miss the force of inspired metaphor.
Where Scripture asks for fruit, it seeks living evidence; where it names a tree, the creature itself may simply occupy God's world.
Anchor passage
Matt.3.10
Doctrinal connections
- Matthew 3:7-12, trees, fruit, and repentance
- Mark 8:22-26, walking trees in partial sight
- Luke 3:7-14, good fruit and coming judgment
- Jude 8-16, fruitless uprooted teachers
- Revelation 7:1-4, trees protected until sealing
- Psalm 1:1-6, the fruitful tree and the way of the righteous
Δένδρον is a general noun for tree. Modifiers identify fruit, season, or condition. Simile and metaphor can extend the living plant's features, but context must authorize each correspondence.
From Old to New Testament
Creation's trees are good gifts, wisdom compares the righteous to fruitful trees, prophets use barren trees for judgment, and Revelation includes trees within both protection and renewal.
Sources
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