What does κέρδος (kérdos) mean in the Bible?
κέρδος (kérdos): Monetary or material gain pursued for profit; in NT, often condemned as spiritual loss.
Greek · G2771
κέρδος
Gain (pecuniary or genitive case)
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κέρδοςG2771
Pronunciationkérdos
What does κέρδος (kérdos) mean in the Bible?
κέρδος (kérdos): Monetary or material gain pursued for profit; in NT, often condemned as spiritual loss.
Full entry for κέρδος (G2771) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G2771?
The BSB source-word alignment has 3 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include gain (2), [is] gain (1).
Where does κέρδος (kérdos) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Philippians 1:21. Its strongest book concentrations include Philippians (2), Titus (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 Itgain2×Philippians 3:7, Titus 1:11
[is] gain1×Philippians 1:21
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowPhilippians 1:21
Aligned rows3
Books represented2
Philippians2Titus1
Source forms
κέρδη1xkerdēPhilippians 3:7
κέρδος1xkerdosPhilippians 1:21
κέρδους1xkerdousTitus 1:11
Parsing patterns
Noun - Genitive Neuter Singular1xTitus 1:11
Noun - Nominative Neuter Plural1xPhilippians 3:7
Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular1xPhilippians 1:21
Evidence Summary
Messiah
Greek word. Monetary or material gain pursued for profit; in NT, often condemned as spiritual loss.
Strong'sG2771
Lexical occurrences3 versesGreek text appearances3 timesWord forms3 forms3 referencesVerse guides0 guides
Study linkPhilippians 1:18b–26Source Gloss
gain (pecuniary or genitive case)
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
3 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Philippians 1:21Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
κέρδος.kerdov
gain, advantage
Read versePhilippians 3:7Noun Nominative Plural Neuter
κέρδη,kerdh
gain, advantage
Read verseTitus 1:11Noun Genitive Singular Neuter
κέρδουςkerdouv
gain, advantage
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 patterns3Aligned forms3Case patternNominative (2)Number patternSingular (2)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · NeuterPhil 1:211×
Nominative · Plural · NeuterPhil 3:71×
Genitive · Singular · NeuterTitus 1:111×
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
New Testament Witnesses
gain, profit
Showing 1 selected witness from 3 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
κέρδος is of uncertain origin - no further derivation.
Why This Word Matters
Defines death as advantage because of presence with Christ.Philippians 1:18b–26
Canonical Themes
Messiah
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.