What does ἔλαιον (élaion) mean in the Bible?
ἔλαιον (élaion): Essential commodity with practical uses: lamps, healing ointment, ceremonial anointing, feast hospitality.
Greek · G1637
ἔλαιον
Olive oil
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ἔλαιον G1637
Pronunciation élaion
What does ἔλαιον (élaion) mean in the Bible?
ἔλαιον (élaion): Essential commodity with practical uses: lamps, healing ointment, ceremonial anointing, feast hospitality.
Full entry for ἔλαιον (G1637) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G1637?
The BSB source-word alignment has 11 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include oil (5), with oil (3), of olive oil (1), olive oil (1), with [the] oil (1).
Where does ἔλαιον (élaion) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 25:3. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (3), Matthew (3), Revelation (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 oil 5× Matthew 25:3, Matthew 25:4, Matthew 25:8, Luke 10:34
with oil 3× Mark 6:13, Luke 7:46, James 5:14
of olive oil 1× Luke 16:6
olive oil 1× Revelation 18:13
with [the] oil 1× Hebrews 1:9
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 25:3 ἔλαιον to oil Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular Matthew 25:4 ἔλαιον to oil Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular Matthew 25:8 ἐλαίου to oil Noun - Genitive Neuter Singular Mark 6:13 ἐλαίῳ to with oil Noun - Dative Neuter Singular Luke 7:46 ἐλαίῳ to with oil Noun - Dative Neuter Singular Luke 10:34 ἔλαιον to oil Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular Luke 16:6 ἐλαίου to of olive oil Noun - Genitive Neuter Singular Hebrews 1:9 ἔλαιον to with [the] oil Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular James 5:14 ἐλαίῳ to with oil Noun - Dative Neuter Singular Revelation 6:6 ἔλαιον to oil Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Matthew 25:3
Aligned rows 11
Books represented 6
Matthew 3 Mark 1 Luke 3 Hebrews 1 James 1 Revelation 2
Source forms
ἔλαιον 6x elaion Matthew 25:3, Matthew 25:4, Luke 10:34, Hebrews 1:9
ἐλαίῳ 3x elaiō Mark 6:13, Luke 7:46, James 5:14
ἐλαίου 2x elaiou Matthew 25:8, Luke 16:6
Parsing patterns
Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular 6x Matthew 25:3, Matthew 25:4, Luke 10:34, Hebrews 1:9
Noun - Dative Neuter Singular 3x Mark 6:13, Luke 7:46, James 5:14
Noun - Genitive Neuter Singular 2x Matthew 25:8, Luke 16:6
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Essential commodity with practical uses: lamps, healing ointment, ceremonial anointing, feast hospitality.
Strong's G1637
Lexical occurrences 11 verses Greek text appearances 11 times Word forms 3 forms 11 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link Luke 10:25-37 Source Gloss
olive oil
Extended definition Source: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
Essential commodity with practical uses: lamps, healing ointment, ceremonial anointing, feast hospitality.
olive-oil: Luk.16:6, Rev.6:6 18:13; for lamps, Mat.25:3-4, 8; for healing, Mrk.6:13, Luk.10:34, Jhn.5:14; for anointing at feasts, Luk.7:46, Heb.1:9" (LXX) .
Synonymsμύρον, ointment, see Tr., Syn., 135
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
11 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Matthew 25:3 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
ἔλαιον· elaion
olive oil
Read verse Matthew 25:4 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
ἔλαιον elaion
olive oil
Read verse Matthew 25:8 Noun Genitive Singular Neuter
ἐλαίου elaiou
olive oil
Read verse Mark 6:13 Noun Dative Singular Neuter
ἐλαίῳ elaiw
olive oil
Read verse Luke 7:46 Noun Dative Singular Neuter
ἐλαίῳ elaiw
olive oil
Read verse Luke 10:34 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
ἔλαιον elaion
olive oil
Read verse Luke 16:6 Noun Genitive Singular Neuter
ἐλαίου. elaiou
olive oil
Read verse Hebrews 1:9 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
ἔλαιον elaion
olive oil
Read verse James 5:14 Noun Dative Singular Neuter
ἐλαίῳ elaiw
olive oil
Read verse Revelation 6:6 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
ἔλαιον elaion
olive oil
Read verse Revelation 18:13 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
ἔλαιον, elaion
olive oil
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 patterns 3 Aligned forms 11 Case pattern Accusative (6) Number pattern Singular (11)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Genitive · Singular · Neuter Matt 25:8 · Luke 16:6 2×
Dative · Singular · Neuter Mark 6:13 · Luke 7:46 · Jas 5:14 3×
Accusative · Singular · Neuter Matt 25:3 · Matt 25:4 · Luke 10:34 · Heb 1:9 · Rev 6:6 · Rev 18:13 6×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
Used for healing and compassionate care of the wounded
Commodity of economic value in commercial transactions
Luxury item associated with pleasure and indulgence
Precious resource worthy of storage and prudent household management
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 11 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
ἔλαιον 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