To be an heir to (literally or figuratively)
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KLERONOMEO, G2816, means to inherit, receive as an heir, or obtain what has been promised. In the New Testament it carries the Old Testament inheritance pattern into the language of kingdom, eternal life, promise, blessing, and new creation.
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Full entry for κληρονομέω (G2816) · Open the biblical lexicon
KLERONOMEO, G2816, means to inherit, receive as an heir, or obtain what has been promised. In the New Testament it carries the Old Testament inheritance pattern into the language of kingdom, eternal life, promise, blessing, and new creation.
The BSB source-word alignment has 18 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include inherit (6), will inherit (4), to inherit (3), will not inherit (2), He has inherited (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 5:5. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Corinthians (4), Hebrews (4), Matthew (3), Galatians (2).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
KLERONOMEO, G2816, means to inherit, receive as an heir, or obtain what has been promised. In the New Testament it carries the Old Testament inheritance pattern into the language of kingdom, eternal life, promise, blessing, and new creation. Jesus says the meek will inherit the earth, and Revelation promises that the one who overcomes will inherit all things.
Paul warns that persistent wickedness will not inherit the kingdom of God, making inheritance both gracious promise and moral warning. The word is not about self-made achievement. It names reception from God, secured by his promise, and received in the path of faith, repentance, endurance, and union with Christ.
G2816 brings inheritance language into the New Testament as promise, kingdom, eternal life, blessing, and new creation. It is gift language, but not morally indifferent gift language.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Jesus blesses the meek with earth-inheritance language, receiving and deepening Psalm 37's hope.
And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for the sake of My name will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.
Following Jesus reframes loss and reward around eternal life as inheritance.
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,
Paul uses inheritance as moral warning: the kingdom is not inherited by unrepentant wickedness.
Then you will not be sluggish, but will imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.
Hebrews links inheritance of promise with faith and patience, not spiritual sluggishness.
The one who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son.
Revelation gathers inheritance into the final promise of God's people receiving all things as sons.
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. To inherit or receive as one's own possession, especially God's kingdom and eternal blessings in eschatological fulfillment.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 18 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I inherit, obtain
Read verseI inherit, obtain
Read verseI inherit, obtain
Read verseI inherit, obtain
Read verseI inherit, obtain
Read verseI inherit, obtain
Read verseI inherit, obtain
Read verseI inherit, obtain
Read verseI inherit, obtain
Read verseI inherit, obtain
Read verseI inherit, obtain
Read verseI inherit, obtain
Read verseI inherit, obtain
Read verseI inherit, obtain
Read verseI inherit, obtain
Read verseI inherit, obtain
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 18 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 3 selected witnesses from 18 lexical occurrence verses.
κληρονομέω is built from this root:
Frames eternal life as covenant inheritance.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
New Testament inheritance language answers two opposite distortions. It denies self-salvation because an heir receives what another has promised, yet it also denies moral indifference because the promised kingdom belongs to people whose lives are being brought under the reign of Christ. Matthew 5:5 places the meek, not the grasping, in the line of Psalm 37's earth promise.
Matthew 19:29 makes costly allegiance to Jesus intelligible in light of eternal life. First Corinthians 6 warns those who would turn grace into permission for settled rebellion, while Hebrews 6 describes heirs who continue through faith and patience. Revelation 21 brings the theme home in sonship: the overcomer inherits because God declares, 'I will be his God, and he will be My son.'
Assurance rests in God's promise, and perseverance marks those who live toward it.
Rev.21.7
The verb names receiving or obtaining an inheritance. It places attention on heirship and promised possession, not on the heir producing the estate. Context must still decide whether the inheritance is earth, eternal life, kingdom, blessing, promise, or the final new-creation gift.
Psalm 37 promises that the meek will inherit the land, while Israel's wider inheritance story teaches that possession comes from God's covenant gift. Jesus receives that hope in the Beatitudes, expands inheritance language toward eternal life and kingdom, and Revelation locates its completion in the new creation. This is a canonical development of promise and heirship, not a claim that every land text directly predicts the same event.
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Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain