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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κέρδος G2771
Pronunciation kérdos
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 It gain 2× Philippians 3:7, Titus 1:11
[is] gain 1× Philippians 1:21
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Philippians 1:21
Aligned rows 3
Books represented 2
Philippians 2 Titus 1
Source forms
κέρδη 1x kerdē Philippians 3:7
κέρδος 1x kerdos Philippians 1:21
κέρδους 1x kerdous Titus 1:11
Parsing patterns
Noun - Genitive Neuter Singular 1x Titus 1:11
Noun - Nominative Neuter Plural 1x Philippians 3:7
Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular 1x Philippians 1:21
Evidence Summary
Messiah
Greek word. Monetary or material gain pursued for profit; in NT, often condemned as spiritual loss.
Strong's G2771
Lexical occurrences 3 verses Greek text appearances 3 times Word forms 3 forms 3 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link Philippians 1:18b–26 Source Gloss
gain (pecuniary or genitive case)
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek 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 1:21 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
κέρδος. kerdov
gain, advantage
Read verse Philippians 3:7 Noun Nominative Plural Neuter
κέρδη, kerdh
gain, advantage
Read verse Titus 1:11 Noun Genitive Singular Neuter
κέρδους kerdouv
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 patterns 3 Aligned forms 3 Case pattern Nominative (2) Number pattern Singular (2)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · Neuter Phil 1:21 1×
Nominative · Plural · Neuter Phil 3:7 1×
Genitive · Singular · Neuter Titus 1:11 1×
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.
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