What does δῶρον (dōron) mean in the Bible?
Δῶρον is a gift presented to another person or an offering brought before God. The magi present costly gifts as they worship the child Jesus.
Greek · G1435
δῶρον
A present; specially, a sacrifice
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δῶρον G1435
Pronunciation dōron
What does δῶρον (dōron) mean in the Bible?
Δῶρον is a gift presented to another person or an offering brought before God. The magi present costly gifts as they worship the child Jesus.
Reader summary
Full entry for δῶρον (G1435) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G1435?
The BSB source-word alignment has 19 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include gift (7), gifts (6), . . . (2), [the] gifts (1), a gift devoted [to God] ) (1).
Where does δῶρον (dōron) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 2:11. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (9), Hebrews (5), Luke (2), Ephesians (1).
What This Word Actually Means
Δῶρον is a gift presented to another person or an offering brought before God. The magi present costly gifts as they worship the child Jesus. Temple worshipers place gifts in the treasury, and priests are appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Jesus also exposes how the language of a gift devoted to God could be manipulated to avoid honoring father and mother.
In Ephesians, salvation by grace through faith is God's gift, excluding human boasting. The noun therefore does not make a gift righteous simply because it is costly or religious. Its giver, recipient, purpose, and relation to God's commands determine whether it expresses worship, generosity, grace, obligation, or pious evasion.
How the Bible Uses It
Δῶρον ranges from gifts offered in worship to God's saving gift. Scripture examines not only what is given but whether the gift honors God, serves neighbors, and agrees with grace.
- Matt.2.11
On coming to the house, they saw the Child with His mother Mary, and they fell down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.
The magi's gifts accompany worship of the royal child; their value serves recognition and homage rather than purchasing access to Him.
- Mark.7.11
But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever you would have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God),
Jesus condemns a religious dedication used to cancel responsibility toward parents, showing that an offering cannot sanctify disobedience.
- Luke.21.1
Then Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury,
Jesus watches gifts enter the treasury and then directs attention to the widow, whose small amount reveals costly trust rather than impressive scale.
- Eph.2.8
For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God,
Paul calls salvation God's gift so that grace, not human achievement, establishes the ground of boasting and the shape of the new life.
- Heb.5.1
Every high priest is appointed from among men to represent them in matters relating to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
Priestly gifts belong to appointed mediation under the old covenant and prepare Hebrews' argument for Christ's superior priesthood and sacrifice.
Passage 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 gift 7× Matthew 5:23, Matthew 5:24, Matthew 8:4, Matthew 23:18
gifts 6× Luke 21:1, Hebrews 5:1, Hebrews 8:3, Hebrews 8:4
. . . 2× Matthew 23:19, Luke 21:4
[the] gifts 1× Hebrews 9:9
a gift devoted [to God] ) 1× Mark 7:11
is a gift devoted [to God] 1× Matthew 15:5
with gifts 1× Matthew 2:11
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 2:11 δῶρα to with gifts Noun - Accusative Neuter Plural Matthew 5:23 δῶρόν to gift Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular Matthew 5:24 δῶρόν to gift Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular Matthew 5:24 δῶρόν to gift Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular Matthew 8:4 δῶρον to gift Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular Matthew 15:5 Δῶρον to is a gift devoted [to God] Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular Matthew 23:18 δώρῳ to gift Noun - Dative Neuter Singular Matthew 23:19 δῶρον to gift Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular Matthew 23:19 δῶρον to . . . Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular Mark 7:11 Δῶρον to a gift devoted [to God] ) Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Matthew 2:11
Aligned rows 19
Books represented 6
Matthew 9 Mark 1 Luke 2 Ephesians 1 Hebrews 5 Revelation 1
Source forms
δῶρα 5x dōra Matthew 2:11, Luke 21:1, Luke 21:4, Hebrews 8:4
δῶρον 4x dōron Matthew 8:4, Matthew 23:19, Ephesians 2:8
δῶρά 3x dōra Hebrews 5:1, Hebrews 8:3, Hebrews 9:9
δῶρόν 3x dōron Matthew 5:23, Matthew 5:24
Δῶρον 2x Dōron Matthew 15:5, Mark 7:11
δώροις 1x dōrois Hebrews 11:4
δώρῳ 1x dōrō Matthew 23:18
Parsing patterns
Noun - Accusative Neuter Plural 7x Matthew 2:11, Luke 21:1, Luke 21:4, Hebrews 5:1
Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular 5x Matthew 5:23, Matthew 5:24, Matthew 8:4, Matthew 23:19
Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular 4x Matthew 15:5, Matthew 23:19, Mark 7:11, Ephesians 2:8
Noun - Dative Neuter Plural 1x Hebrews 11:4
Noun - Dative Neuter Singular 1x Matthew 23:18
Noun - Nominative Neuter Plural 1x Hebrews 9:9
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Never let a designated religious gift excuse neglect of family, justice, or another obligation God has clearly commanded.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not use δῶρον to imply that offerings purchase forgiveness or divine favor.
- Do not reduce the gift in Ephesians 2:8 to a lexical claim detached from Paul's whole grace-through-faith sentence.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. A gift to God, particularly a sacrifice or offering within the temple worship system.
Strong's G1435
Lexical occurrences 19 verses Greek text appearances 19 times 16 shown below Word forms 6 forms 19 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link Ephesians 2:8-10 Source Gloss
a present; specially, a sacrifice
Extended definition Source: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
A gift to God, particularly a sacrifice or offering within the temple worship system.
(δίδωμι), [in LXX chiefly for קׇרְבָּן, also for מִנְחָה, etc. ;] a gift, present: Mat.2:11, Rev.11:10; of gifts and sacrifices to God, Mat.5:23-24 8:4 15:5 23:18-19, Mrk.7:11, Luk.21:1, 4, Heb.5:1 8:3-4 9:9 11:4; δ. θεοῦ, Eph.2:8.
Synonymssee word δόμα
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 19 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Matthew 2:11 Noun Accusative Plural Neuter
δῶρα, dwra
a gift, present
Read verse Matthew 5:23 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
δῶρόν dwron
a gift, present
Read verse Matthew 5:24 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
δῶρόν dwron
a gift, present
Read verse Matthew 5:24 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
δῶρόν dwron
a gift, present
Read verse Matthew 8:4 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
δῶρον dwron
a gift, present
Read verse Matthew 15:5 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
Δῶρον, dwron
a gift, present
Read verse Matthew 23:18 Noun Dative Singular Neuter
δώρῳ dwrw
a gift, present
Read verse Matthew 23:19 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
δῶρον, dwron
a gift, present
Read verse Matthew 23:19 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
δῶρον; dwron
a gift, present
Read verse Mark 7:11 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
δῶρον, dwron
a gift, present
Read verse Luke 21:1 Noun Accusative Plural Neuter
δῶρα dwra
a gift, present
Read verse Luke 21:4 Noun Accusative Plural Neuter
δῶρα dwra
a gift, present
Read verse Ephesians 2:8 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
δῶρον· dwron
a gift, present
Read verse Hebrews 5:1 Noun Accusative Plural Neuter
δῶρά dwra
a gift, present
Read verse Hebrews 8:3 Noun Accusative Plural Neuter
δῶρά dwra
a gift, present
Read verse Hebrews 8:4 Noun Accusative Plural Neuter
δῶρα, dwra
a gift, present
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 6 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 6 Aligned forms 19 Case pattern Accusative (12) Number pattern Singular (10)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · Neuter Matt 15:5 · Matt 23:19 · Mark 7:11 · Eph 2:8 4×
Nominative · Plural · Neuter Heb 9:9 1×
Dative · Singular · Neuter Matt 23:18 1×
Dative · Plural · Neuter Heb 11:4 1×
Accusative · Plural · Neuter Matt 2:11 · Luke 21:1 · Luke 21:4 · Heb 5:1 · Heb 8:3 · Heb 8:4 · Rev 11:10 7×
Accusative · Singular · Neuter Matt 5:23 · Matt 5:24 · Matt 8:4 · Matt 23:19 5×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
God's grace as a spiritual gift freely bestowed on believers
offering or sacrifice presented at the altar to God
present given to gain favor or access with influential persons
ceremonial offerings and sacrifices presented under the old covenant
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 19 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
A gift can honor, sustain, worship, or deceive. The magi's offerings follow their bowing before Jesus, so worship gives the gifts their direction. The widow's treasury gift is interpreted by Jesus through costly proportion, not public magnitude. Mark 7 gives the darker contrast: a declared offering becomes a device for withholding care owed to parents. Ephesians finally removes salvation from every economy of human exchange.
Rescue is God's gift, received through faith and issuing in works God prepares, not a payment earned by religious performance. Christian giving therefore responds to grace rather than buying it. Faithful churches teach generosity that honors concrete responsibilities, protects vulnerable people, supports worship and ministry, and leaves all saving boast in God alone.
Anchor passage
Matt.2.11
Doctrinal connections
- Matthew 2:1-12, worship of the promised king
- Mark 7:9-13, tradition used against God's command
- Luke 21:1-4, costly trust in the temple treasury
- Ephesians 2:8-10, salvation as God's gracious gift
- Hebrews 5:1-10, priestly offerings and Christ's appointment
- 2 Corinthians 8:1-9, generosity shaped by Christ's grace
Δῶρον is a general noun for a gift or present and can acquire cultic force when paired with altar, priest, or sacrifice language. Context distinguishes interpersonal gift, temple offering, and divine gift.
From Old to New Testament
Israel brings gifts and offerings to the Lord while prophets reject worship that masks injustice. In the gospel, God gives salvation in Christ and forms a people whose generosity answers grace.
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