To look at
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Θεάομαι means to look at, behold, observe, or see with sustained attention. It can describe the audience whose gaze religious performers seek, Mary Magdalene's seeing of the risen Jesus, Jesus' attentive sight of Levi, the disciples' beholding of the incarnate Word's glory, and their fixed gaze as He ascends.
Reader summary
Full entry for θεάομαι (G2300) · Open the biblical lexicon
Θεάομαι means to look at, behold, observe, or see with sustained attention. It can describe the audience whose gaze religious performers seek, Mary Magdalene's seeing of the risen Jesus, Jesus' attentive sight of Levi, the disciples' beholding of the incarnate Word's glory, and their fixed gaze as He ascends.
The BSB source-word alignment has 22 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include saw (5), to see (5), [and] they saw (1), had seen (1), has ever seen (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 6:1. Its strongest book concentrations include John (6), Matthew (4), 1 John (3), Acts (3).
This entry includes 3 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
Θεάομαι means to look at, behold, observe, or see with sustained attention. It can describe the audience whose gaze religious performers seek, Mary Magdalene's seeing of the risen Jesus, Jesus' attentive sight of Levi, the disciples' beholding of the incarnate Word's glory, and their fixed gaze as He ascends. The verb often suggests more than accidental visual contact, yet seeing does not guarantee understanding or faith.
Some seek to be seen, some see and disbelieve testimony, and some behold glory and bear witness. The person viewed, the observer's posture, and the narrative response decide the theological weight. Lexical emphasis on attentive sight must remain subordinate to each passage's account of revelation and response.
Θεάομαι describes attentive sight or observation. Its uses contrast performing for an audience, witnessing the risen and incarnate Christ, Jesus' own purposeful sight, and gazing that must become obedient mission.
“Be careful not to perform your righteous acts before men to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
Jesus warns against practicing righteousness for spectators, where being observed becomes the desired reward and displaces the Father's approval.
And when they heard that Jesus was alive and she had seen Him, they did not believe it.
Mary's report rests on having seen the living Jesus, yet the disciples initially refuse her testimony, showing that secondhand witness can meet resistant unbelief.
After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. “Follow Me,” He told him,
Jesus' sight of Levi is purposeful and personal; He addresses the tax collector with a summons that redirects his life into discipleship.
The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John's 'we have seen' bears apostolic witness to glory revealed in the Word made flesh, full of grace and truth rather than remote divine appearance.
“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.”
The angels interrupt passive skyward gazing and join Jesus' visible ascension to the promise of His return and the apostles' coming witness.
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. Deliberate, contemplative vision that interprets its object, not merely glancing sight
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 24 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I see, behold, contemplate, visit
Read verseI see, behold, contemplate, visit
Read verseI see, behold, contemplate, visit
Read verseI see, behold, contemplate, visit
Read verseI see, behold, contemplate, visit
Read verseI see, behold, contemplate, visit
Read verseI see, behold, contemplate, visit
Read verseI see, behold, contemplate, visit
Read verseI see, behold, contemplate, visit
Read verseI see, behold, contemplate, visit
Read verseI see, behold, contemplate, visit
Read verseI see, behold, contemplate, visit
Read verseI see, behold, contemplate, visit
Read verseI see, behold, contemplate, visit
Read verseI see, behold, contemplate, visit
Read verseI see, behold, contemplate, visit
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 22 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)
θεάομαι is a primary verb - no further derivation.
Seeing becomes spiritually significant through revelation and response, not through eyesight alone. Matthew 6 exposes righteous action staged for human observation; the gaze is real, but it becomes the performer's entire reward. Mark records that Mary has seen the risen Jesus while others initially reject her report. Jesus sees Levi not as scenery but as a person He summons.
John 1 places attentive apostolic beholding at the heart of testimony: the eternal Word became flesh, and His glory was seen in grace and truth. Acts then refuses to let beholding end in immobility. The ascended Jesus will return, and witnesses must carry His message. Churches depend on the apostolic witness while learning to look at people attentively without turning ministry into performance.
Matt.6.1
Θεάομαι often carries the sense of looking upon or observing and may imply sustained or noteworthy sight. It overlaps with common seeing verbs but should not be assigned a fixed mystical nuance.
Prophets behold visions, worshipers seek God's glory, and Israel is warned against eyes that see without understanding. The apostles testify to glory encountered in the incarnate Son.