If
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” It frequently appears with a subjunctive verb, but the construction does more than mark uncertainty. Jesus uses it to describe the necessity of new birth, the freedom granted by the Son, abiding prayer, and love expressed in obedience.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἐάν (G1437) · Open the biblical lexicon
” It frequently appears with a subjunctive verb, but the construction does more than mark uncertainty. Jesus uses it to describe the necessity of new birth, the freedom granted by the Son, abiding prayer, and love expressed in obedience.
The BSB source-word alignment has 338 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include if (195), . . . (36), vvv (34), unless (33), - (9).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 4:9. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (62), John (59), 1 Corinthians (48), Mark (33).
Ean commonly introduces a future-facing or general condition and is often rendered “if,” “whenever,” or, with a negative, “unless. ” It frequently appears with a subjunctive verb, but the construction does more than mark uncertainty. Jesus uses it to describe the necessity of new birth, the freedom granted by the Son, abiding prayer, and love expressed in obedience.
First John uses it in assurances about confession and in tests of faithful confession concerning Jesus. The particle marks the condition; the passage identifies the agent, response, promise, or warning. Readers should not turn ean into a works-based formula, nor should they remove the responsibility that a sentence clearly names. Careful teaching follows the complete clause and shows how divine action, human response, and promised outcome relate in that particular text.
Ean commonly introduces conditions with a future, contingent, repeated, or general force. The passage determines whether the construction functions as promise, warning, test, invitation, or description.
Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
The negative condition states the necessity of birth from above for seeing God’s kingdom. The discourse locates the needed action in the Spirit’s sovereign work.
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
The condition fixes attention on the Son as the liberating agent. True freedom follows His action, not autonomous human resolve.
If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
The prayer promise is framed by abiding in Christ and His words. The condition keeps desire and asking within discipleship.
If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
Jesus joins love for Him with obedience to His commands. The condition describes covenant loyalty without presenting obedience as the purchase price of His love.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Confession is placed under God’s faithful and righteous promise to forgive and cleanse. The ground of assurance is His character and provision.
If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
The confession concerning Jesus belongs to John’s tests of genuine faith and mutual abiding. The statement is not a detached verbal formula.
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. Conditional particle marking contingency as possible but uncertain, less definite than simple εἰ with indicative.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 336 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
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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 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.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
ἐάν is built from these roots:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Ean often places a real response inside a promise or declaration whose deepest ground is God’s action. John 3 states that no one sees the kingdom apart from birth from above, and the conversation attributes that birth to the Spirit. John 8 makes the Son the decisive giver of freedom. John 15 frames answered prayer within abiding in Christ and His words, while John 14 joins love for Jesus to obedience.
First John 1 names confession within God’s faithful provision for forgiveness and cleansing, and 1 John 4 places confession of the Son within mutual abiding. The particle does not turn these texts into techniques for earning grace. It also does not permit readers to claim the results while dismissing the conditions the inspired author states. Faithful proclamation holds divine initiative, gospel promise, and obedient response together in the order and proportion of each passage.
1John.1.9
Ean often combines the conditional particle with the subjunctive and can mark future contingency, repeated circumstances, broad conditions, or negative “unless” constructions. The local BSB word table contains about 338 aligned hits, while the normalized artifact records its own governed count basis. Neither count determines the force of a particular clause.
Covenant Scripture joins divine promise with faithful response, exposes false profession, and calls God’s people to confession and obedience. Ean marks several New Testament conditions within that canonical pattern, but the new birth, freedom, forgiveness, and abiding in these passages arise from God’s saving initiative.