What does δούλη (doúlē) mean in the Bible?
δούλη (doúlē) is a Greek word meaning "a female slave (involuntarily or voluntarily)".
Greek · G1399
δούλη
A female slave (involuntarily or voluntarily)
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δούληG1399
Pronunciationdoúlē
What does δούλη (doúlē) mean in the Bible?
δούλη (doúlē) is a Greek word meaning "a female slave (involuntarily or voluntarily)".
Full entry for δούλη (G1399) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G1399?
The BSB source-word alignment has 3 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include servant (2), maidservants (1).
Where does δούλη (doúlē) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Luke 1:38. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (2), Acts (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 Itservant2×Luke 1:38, Luke 1:48
maidservants1×Acts 2:18
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowLuke 1:38
Aligned rows3
Books represented2
Luke2Acts1
Source forms
δούλας1xdoulasActs 2:18
δούλη1xdoulēLuke 1:38
δούλης1xdoulēsLuke 1:48
Parsing patterns
Noun - Accusative Feminine Plural1xActs 2:18
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular1xLuke 1:48
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular1xLuke 1:38
Evidence Summary
Greek word. a female slave (involuntarily or voluntarily)
Strong'sG1399
Lexical occurrences3 versesGreek text appearances3 timesWord forms3 forms3 referencesVerse guides0 guides
Source Gloss
a female slave (involuntarily or voluntarily)
Extended definition
:--handmaid(-en).
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
3 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Luke 1:38Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
δούληdoulh
a female slave, bonds-maid
Read verseLuke 1:48Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
δούληςdoulhv
a female slave, bonds-maid
Read verseActs 2:18Noun Accusative Plural Feminine
δούλαςdoulav
a female slave, bonds-maid
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 3 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 patterns3Aligned forms3Case patternAccusative (1)Number patternSingular (2)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · FeminineLuke 1:381×
Genitive · Singular · FeminineLuke 1:481×
Accusative · Plural · FeminineActs 2:181×
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Witnesses
Luke 1:26–38δούληdoúlē
Female servant, bondservant
Showing 1 selected witness from 3 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
δούλη is built from this root: