What does μάγος (mágos) mean in the Bible?
μάγος (mágos): Originally a Persian priestly caste; in NT, connotes sorcerer or magician practicing divination and occult arts.
Greek · G3097
μάγος
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μάγος G3097
Pronunciation mágos
What does μάγος (mágos) mean in the Bible?
μάγος (mágos): Originally a Persian priestly caste; in NT, connotes sorcerer or magician practicing divination and occult arts.
Full entry for μάγος (G3097) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G3097?
The BSB source-word alignment has 6 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Magi (4), sorcerer (2).
Where does μάγος (mágos) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 2:1. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (4), Acts (2).
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 Magi 4× Matthew 2:1, Matthew 2:7, Matthew 2:16
sorcerer 2× Acts 13:6, Acts 13:8
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 2:1 μάγοι to Magi Noun - Nominative Masculine Plural Matthew 2:7 μάγους to Magi Noun - Accusative Masculine Plural Matthew 2:16 μάγων to Magi Noun - Genitive Masculine Plural Matthew 2:16 μάγων to Magi Noun - Genitive Masculine Plural Acts 13:6 μάγον to sorcerer Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular Acts 13:8 μάγος to sorcerer Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Matthew 2:1
Aligned rows 6
Books represented 2
Matthew 4 Acts 2
Source forms
μάγων 2x magōn Matthew 2:16
μάγοι 1x magoi Matthew 2:1
μάγον 1x magon Acts 13:6
μάγος 1x magos Acts 13:8
μάγους 1x magous Matthew 2:7
Parsing patterns
Noun - Genitive Masculine Plural 2x Matthew 2:16
Noun - Accusative Masculine Plural 1x Matthew 2:7
Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular 1x Acts 13:6
Noun - Nominative Masculine Plural 1x Matthew 2:1
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular 1x Acts 13:8
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Originally a Persian priestly caste; in NT, connotes sorcerer or magician practicing divination and occult arts.
Strong's G3097
Lexical occurrences 6 verses Greek text appearances 6 times Word forms 5 forms 6 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link Matthew 2:1 Source Gloss
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Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
6 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Matthew 2:1 Noun Nominative Plural Masculine
μάγοι magoi
a sorcerer, magician, wizard
Read verse Matthew 2:7 Noun Accusative Plural Masculine
μάγους, magouv
a sorcerer, magician, wizard
Read verse Matthew 2:16 Noun Genitive Plural Masculine
μάγων, magwn
a sorcerer, magician, wizard
Read verse Matthew 2:16 Noun Genitive Plural Masculine
μάγων. magwn
a sorcerer, magician, wizard
Read verse Acts 13:6 Noun Accusative Singular Masculine
μάγον magon
a sorcerer, magician, wizard
Read verse Acts 13:8 Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
μάγος magov
a sorcerer, magician, wizard
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 5 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 5 Aligned forms 6 Case pattern Accusative (2) Number pattern Plural (4)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Plural · Masculine Matt 2:1 1×
Nominative · Singular · Masculine Acts 13:8 1×
Genitive · Plural · Masculine Matt 2:16 2×
Accusative · Plural · Masculine Matt 2:7 1×
Accusative · Singular · Masculine Acts 13:6 1×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
Members of Persian sacred caste who visited Jesus at his birth
Wise men consulted by Herod regarding the star and newborn king
Eastern sages whose visit prompted Herod's violent response
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 6 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
μάγος is of foreign origin - no further derivation.
Cross-Language Connections
Hebrew roots and equivalents that share conceptual or etymological ground with this Greek word.
H7248 Related Hebrew
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