To live (literally or figuratively)
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through the Connect page. Screenshots are helpful.
ζάω (zao) is the primary NT verb for being alive. It covers physical biological life, the ongoing life of the resurrected Christ, and the spiritual-eternal life that the NT calls the defining gift of the gospel.
Reader summary
Full entry for ζάω (G2198) · Open the biblical lexicon
ζάω (zao) is the primary NT verb for being alive. It covers physical biological life, the ongoing life of the resurrected Christ, and the spiritual-eternal life that the NT calls the defining gift of the gospel.
The BSB source-word alignment has 140 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include will live (12), [the] living (11), live (11), living (11), of [the] living (10).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 4:4. Its strongest book concentrations include Romans (23), John (17), Revelation (13), Acts (12).
This entry includes 2 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
ζάω (zao) is the primary NT verb for being alive. It covers physical biological life, the ongoing life of the resurrected Christ, and the spiritual-eternal life that the NT calls the defining gift of the gospel. Its 140 occurrences span all three meanings, and the theological weight of the word lies in how often the NT moves fluidly from one to another — physical life, resurrection life, and eternal life are not three separate concepts but three expressions of the single reality that God is the source of all life.
John 11:25-26 contains the most concentrated statement of what zao means in the NT: 'I am the resurrection and the life (zoe). Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live (zesetai), and everyone who lives (zon) and believes in me shall never die.' Jesus does not say He will give life or produce life or teach the path to life; He says He is the life. The zao of the believer is not independent life but life derived from union with the one who is life. Physical death does not end it, because the source of this life is not biological but personal — it is Christ.
Galatians 2:20 is Paul's most compressed statement of what zao means for the believer: 'I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live (zo), but Christ who lives (ze) in me. And the life (zoe) I now live (zo) in the flesh I live (zo) by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.' The verb appears four times in two verses. The believer's zao is not their own life but Christ's life expressed through them. The old self has been crucified; what remains and lives is Christ's life in the person. This is the most radical statement of what new life means in the NT.
Romans 6:10-11 applies the same logic to baptism and sanctification: 'For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life (ze) he lives (ze) he lives (ze) to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive (zontas) to God in Christ Jesus.' The zao of the resurrected Christ is oriented 'to God' — it is life lived in relationship to the Father. The believer's new life shares this same orientation.
For the preacher, ζάω (zao) is the word that insists the Christian life is not a reformed version of the old life but a new kind of life entirely — sourced in Christ, sustained by union with Him, and oriented toward God.
In the local Greek index, ζάω (zao) appears about 140 times in the NT. John's Gospel concentrates the deepest theological usage ; Jesus as the living bread, the resurrection and the life, the vine in whom branches live. Paul uses it for the believer's death-and-resurrection union with Christ (Romans 6, Galatians 2, Colossians 3). Hebrews applies it to the living word and the living God. Revelation uses the participle 'the living one' (ho zon) for the risen Christ.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.
The identity claim that redefines what zao means: Christ is not the giver of life but life itself. The 'I am' (ego eimi) formula places this alongside the other seven 'I am' statements in John's Gospel. The implication is that the believer's life is not a separate thing from Christ but is Christ's own life extended to the believer. Physical death does not end it because its source is not biological but personal — the one who is life does not die.
I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
The four uses of zao in two verses: the old I no longer lives; Christ lives in me; the life I now live in the body; I live by faith. Paul is describing the new ontology of the believer — the source of the life that continues after conversion is not the reformed self but Christ. 'By faith in the Son of God' names the mode: the believer's zao is sustained by ongoing trust in the one who gave himself, not by the believer's own spiritual resources.
The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God.
The resurrection life of Christ is 'to God' — oriented toward the Father, lived in relationship to Him. The believer is to reckon themselves as sharing this same orientation (v. 11). The sanctification logic follows: the new life is not just a life without sin but a life directed toward God. The positive content of the new life is as important as the negative (freedom from sin) — it is God-directed, not merely self-improved.
Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me.
The chain of life: Father to Son, Son to believer. The Son's zao is derived from the Father; the believer's zao is derived from the Son. The Eucharistic context intensifies this: 'eating' Christ is the NT's image for the intimate union by which Christ's life becomes the source of the believer's life. The chain means that the believer's life is not merely analogous to Christ's but participates in the very life that flows from the Father through the Son.
The Living One. I was dead, and behold, now I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of Death and of Hades.
The risen Christ's self-identification in Revelation: 'the Living One' (ho zon — present participle, ongoing). His zao is permanent: 'alive forever more' (zon eis tous aionas ton aionon). And it is authoritative: He holds the keys of Death and Hades. The one who is alive holds the keys to what kills. This is the eschatological ground of the believer's zao — the resurrection life flows from the one who has permanently overcome death.
For the gospel reveals the righteousness of God that comes by faith from start to finish, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
The Habakkuk 2:4 quotation (also in Gal 3:11 and Heb 10:38) places zao at the center of Paul's gospel: the righteous one will live (zesetai) by faith. Life is not achieved by works or legal standing but received by faith. The quotation frames the entire argument of Romans: the gospel reveals the righteousness of God, and in that righteousness the righteous one finds life — the life that the law could not give (Gal 3:21).
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.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Living physically or spiritually; distinctively means existing in active relationship with God or Christ.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 142 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I live
Read verseI live
Read verseI live
Read verseI live
Read verseI live
Read verseI live
Read verseI live
Read verseI live
Read verseI live
Read verseI live
Read verseI live
Read verseI live
Read verseI live
Read verseI live
Read verseI live
Read verseI live
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 mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
How this verb appears across 134 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)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 8 selected witnesses from 140 lexical occurrence verses.
ζάω is a primary verb - no further derivation.
Affirms ongoing covenant life beyond death. 1 Timothy 4:6-10
Affirms that Jesus is alive, not merely remembered. Acts 14:8-20
Contrasts the true God with lifeless idols. Acts 25:13-22
Affirms Paul’s claim that Jesus is living. Luke 20:27–40
Hope rests in the active, reigning God, not in human effort. Luke 24:1–12
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
ζάω (zao) is the NT's verb for the life that matters most: not biological existence but the life that Christ is and gives. Galatians 2:20 is the most compressed and radical statement of what this means: 'no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.' The Christian life is not the old life cleaned up, improved, or reformed — it is a different life with a different source.
Christ is not merely the example of how to live; He is the life that the believer lives. This completely reframes the project of Christian living: the goal is not self-improvement but the increasing expression of Christ's life through the person. The preacher who builds from Galatians 2:20 will consistently redirect the congregation from self-effort to union — asking not 'how can I be better?'
But 'how is Christ's life flowing through me in this situation?' And John 11:25 provides the eschatological ground: this life is not interrupted by physical death because its source does not die. 'I am the resurrection and the life' means the believer's zao is as permanent as Christ Himself.
Jhn.11.25
ζάω (zao) is a contract verb (alpha-contract). Its noun counterpart is zoe (G2222, life), which has already been curated. Together they cover the most important life-concept in the NT. The verb's present participle, zon/zosa (living, the living one), is theologically significant: in Revelation, 'the Living One' (ho zon) is a title for the risen Christ (1:18; 4:9-10).
The 'living God' (theos zon) appears across both Testaments as a contrast with dead idols (Mat 16:16; Heb 3:12; Rev 7:2). The compound verb suzao (to live together with, G4800) appears in 2 Tim 2:11 and 2 Cor 7:3, expressing the shared life of the believer with Christ and the apostle with his community.
The OT background for zao runs through the Hebrew hayah (to live, H2416) and chay (life, living, H2416/H2421). The living God (El hay) is the OT's fundamental contrast with the dead gods of the nations. Deuteronomy 30:19-20 — 'choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days' — is the OT's clearest statement that life is God-given and sustained by covenant relationship.
The NT's zao inherits this and concentrates it in Christ: He is now the one who is life (Jhn 11:25), and the believer's zao is sustained by union with Him. The Habakkuk 2:4 quotation ('the righteous will live by faith') connects OT faith and NT zao in Paul's gospel argument. Ezekiel 37's valley of dry bones — the Spirit breathing life into what was dead — is the OT's most dramatic image of the life-giving power of God's Spirit, anticipating the NT's teaching that the same Spirit who raised Christ gives life to the believer (Rom 8:11).
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