Be permitted
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G1832 is the language of what is permitted, lawful, or allowed. In John, it appears where religious and legal boundaries are contested: the healed man is told it is unlawful to carry his mat on the Sabbath, and the leaders tell Pilate they are not permitted to execute anyone.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἔξεστι (G1832) · Open the biblical lexicon
G1832 is the language of what is permitted, lawful, or allowed. In John, it appears where religious and legal boundaries are contested: the healed man is told it is unlawful to carry his mat on the Sabbath, and the leaders tell Pilate they are not permitted to execute anyone.
The BSB source-word alignment has 31 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Is it lawful (8), is permissible (4), is unlawful (3), is lawful (2), It is not lawful (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 12:2. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (9), Mark (6), Luke (5), 1 Corinthians (4).
G1832 is the language of what is permitted, lawful, or allowed. In John, it appears where religious and legal boundaries are contested: the healed man is told it is unlawful to carry his mat on the Sabbath, and the leaders tell Pilate they are not permitted to execute anyone. The word matters because John shows lawfulness language being used around Jesus without always recognizing Jesus' authority. A claim that something is permitted or forbidden must still be tested by God's truth, the passage context, and the identity of Christ.
For John-focused use, the safest path is to let the immediate passage set the claim, then let the word clarify how the scene moves toward witness, faith, resistance, or worship.
G1832 names permission or lawfulness. John's uses appear in Sabbath controversy and trial procedure, where stated rules reveal deeper questions about authority, justice, and response to Jesus.
So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath! It is unlawful for you to carry your mat.”
The healed man is challenged because carrying his mat is judged unlawful on the Sabbath. The word introduces a dispute over permission and authority.
“You take Him and judge Him by your own law,” Pilate told them. “We are not permitted to execute anyone,” the Jews replied.
The leaders claim they are not permitted to execute anyone. Their legal limitation becomes part of the trial that leads Jesus to the cross.
How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
Matthew's Sabbath question shows the broader permission language, including Jesus' insistence that doing good accords with the Sabbath.
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. Permission based on law or authority, not personal desire or ability
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 32 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
it is permitted, lawful, possible
Read verseit is permitted, lawful, possible
Read verseit is permitted, lawful, possible
Read verseit is permitted, lawful, possible
Read verseit is permitted, lawful, possible
Read verseit is permitted, lawful, possible
Read verseit is permitted, lawful, possible
Read verseit is permitted, lawful, possible
Read verseit is permitted, lawful, possible
Read verseit is permitted, lawful, possible
Read verseit is permitted, lawful, possible
Read verseit is permitted, lawful, possible
Read verseit is permitted, lawful, possible
Read verseit is permitted, lawful, possible
Read verseit is permitted, lawful, possible
Read verseit is permitted, lawful, possible
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 verb appears across 30 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Representative Scripture witnesses for this entry: passage, original form, and sense in context.
ἔξεστι is built from these roots:
Frames the legal question that halts the flogging. Acts 22:22-29
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
This word helps teachers handle legal language without either dismissing it or absolutizing human use of it. John 5:10 shows a man healed by Jesus immediately caught in a Sabbath dispute. John 18:31 shows leaders appealing to legal limits while still pressing toward Jesus' death. The word is about permission, but John is interested in more than procedure. Who has authority to define the moment?
Is lawfulness being used to honor God, or to resist the work of His Son? The preacher should be careful: the word does not make law bad, but it exposes the danger of invoking rules while missing righteousness, mercy, and Christ.
John.5.10
It is permitted or lawful is a reviewed display gloss for G1832. In this John-focused companion, the local discourse foregrounding data shows 2 John use(s), with tense patterns summarized as present 2. Use these grammar signals as support for reading the passage, not as a replacement for context.
The broader Scripture connection should remain modest: permission, lawfulness, and contested authority is visible in the cited passages, while the full theological claim must come from each passage's context rather than from the word alone.
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