Leprous
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 theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
G3015 is an adjective meaning leprous and is usually used substantivally for a person with a serious scaly skin condition. The traditional English word leper can reduce a person to a diagnosis, and the ancient category should not be automatically equated with modern Hansen disease.
Reader summary
Full entry for λεπρός (G3015) · Open the biblical lexicon
G3015 is an adjective meaning leprous and is usually used substantivally for a person with a serious scaly skin condition. The traditional English word leper can reduce a person to a diagnosis, and the ancient category should not be automatically equated with modern Hansen disease.
The BSB source-word alignment has 9 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include [the] lepers (3), a leper (2), Leper (2), lepers (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 8:2. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (4), Luke (3), Mark (2).
G3015 is an adjective meaning leprous and is usually used substantivally for a person with a serious scaly skin condition. The traditional English word leper can reduce a person to a diagnosis, and the ancient category should not be automatically equated with modern Hansen disease. In Mark. 1. 40, a man approaches Jesus, kneels, and trusts His ability while asking whether He is willing to make him clean.
In Luke. 4. 27, Jesus recalls that Naaman the Syrian alone was cleansed among many affected people in Israel, confronting hometown entitlement. In Luke. 17. 12, ten affected people stand at a distance and call for mercy. G3015 opens teaching on Jesus' compassionate authority, social exclusion, cleansing, gratitude, and grace beyond expected boundaries. It does not blame illness on personal sin or promise universal immediate healing.
G3015 identifies people affected by conditions grouped under ancient purity and skin-disease categories. Gospel contexts emphasize approach, distance, cleansing, mission, testimony, gratitude, and restored participation rather than modern diagnosis.
Then a leper came to Jesus, begging on his knees: “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”
An affected man kneels before Jesus, confesses His ability, and asks whether He is willing to make him clean.
And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet. Yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
Jesus recalls Naaman the Syrian's cleansing to expose claims that God's prophetic favor belongs automatically to His hometown hearers.
As He entered one of the villages, He was met by ten lepers. They stood at a distance
Ten affected people stand at a distance, appeal to Jesus for mercy, and are cleansed as they go to show themselves to the priests.
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.
Greek word. Refers to ritual impurity requiring separation; in NT, Jesus' healing of lepers symbolizes restoration to community.
Refers to ritual impurity requiring separation; in NT, Jesus' healing of lepers symbolizes restoration to community.
(λεπίς), [in LXX for צָרַע ;]
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
9 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a leper
Read versea leper
Read versea leper
Read versea leper
Read versea leper
Read versea leper
Read versea leper
Read versea leper
Read versea leper
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 this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 4 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.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 9 lexical occurrence verses.
λεπρός is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G3015 brings people marked by bodily condition and social distance into direct encounter with Jesus. The man in Mark does not question Christ's power; he asks about willingness. Jesus responds with compassion, touch, and cleansing, then gives instructions tied to priestly testimony. Luke's Nazareth sermon recalls Naaman, an outsider, so that healing grace confronts inherited entitlement.
The ten in Luke 17 call from a distance, obey Jesus' direction, and are cleansed on the way, yet only one returns in praise. These narratives protect personhood: affected people speak, move, trust, obey, and worship. They are not sermon props or proof of hidden guilt. Ancient skin categories were broader than one modern disease, and responsible teaching should not offer retrospective diagnoses with false certainty.
Churches can imitate Christ through welcome, medical humility, practical access, and rejection of stigma while still respecting health precautions. Healing is gift, not a performance owed to a minister or guaranteed by a sufferer's intensity.
Mark.1.40
G3015 is a Greek adjective meaning scaly or leprous and commonly functions as a noun for an affected person. Its ancient medical and ritual range is wider than modern Hansen disease, so translation should not imply diagnostic precision the text does not provide.
Levitical skin-condition procedures and Naaman's cleansing provide essential background for Gospel language of clean and unclean. Jesus fulfills messianic signs and restores people without turning purity law into contempt for the ill.