What does δουλεία (douleía) mean in the Bible?
δουλεία (douleía): Bondage condition of servitude; contrasts with freedom and adoption as God's children in Paul's theology.
Greek · G1397
δουλεία
Slavery (ceremonially or figuratively)
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δουλεία G1397
Pronunciation douleía
What does δουλεία (douleía) mean in the Bible?
δουλεία (douleía): Bondage condition of servitude; contrasts with freedom and adoption as God's children in Paul's theology.
Full entry for δουλεία (G1397) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G1397?
The BSB source-word alignment has 5 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include of slavery (2), bondage (1), in slavery (1), slavery (1).
Where does δουλεία (douleía) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Romans 8:15. Its strongest book concentrations include Galatians (2), Romans (2), Hebrews (1).
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 of slavery 2× Romans 8:15, Galatians 5:1
bondage 1× Romans 8:21
in slavery 1× Hebrews 2:15
slavery 1× Galatians 4:24
Show sample aligned rows
Romans 8:15 δουλείας to of slavery Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular Romans 8:21 δουλείας to bondage Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular Galatians 4:24 δουλείαν to slavery Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Galatians 5:1 δουλείας to of slavery Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular Hebrews 2:15 δουλείας to in slavery Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Romans 8:15
Aligned rows 5
Books represented 3
Romans 2 Galatians 2 Hebrews 1
Source forms
δουλείας 4x douleias Romans 8:15, Romans 8:21, Galatians 5:1, Hebrews 2:15
δουλείαν 1x douleian Galatians 4:24
Parsing patterns
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular 4x Romans 8:15, Romans 8:21, Galatians 5:1, Hebrews 2:15
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 1x Galatians 4:24
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Bondage condition of servitude; contrasts with freedom and adoption as God's children in Paul's theology.
Strong's G1397
Lexical occurrences 5 verses Greek text appearances 5 times Word forms 2 forms 5 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link Romans 8:15 Source Gloss
slavery (ceremonially or figuratively)
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
5 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Romans 8:15 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
δουλείας douleiav
slavery, bondage
Read verse Romans 8:21 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
δουλείας douleiav
slavery, bondage
Read verse Galatians 4:24 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
δουλείαν douleian
slavery, bondage
Read verse Galatians 5:1 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
δουλείας douleiav
slavery, bondage
Read verse Hebrews 2:15 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
δουλείας. douleiav
slavery, bondage
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 2 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 2 Aligned forms 5 Case pattern Genitive (4) Number pattern Singular (5)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Genitive · Singular · Feminine Rom 8:15 · Rom 8:21 · Gal 5:1 · Heb 2:15 4×
Accusative · Singular · Feminine Gal 4:24 1×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
Spirit received contrasted with spirit of bondage and fear
Figurative bondage of Hagar representing covenant of slavery
Freedom from legal slavery contrasted with yoke of bondage
Bondage to fear of death from which Christ brings deliverance
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 5 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
δουλεία is built from this root:
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.
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