Supremely blest; by extension, fortunate, well off
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μακάριος (makarios) describes a person, state, hope, or, in a few passages, God Himself as blessed, favored, or deeply well according to God’s judgment. It is not a promise that present circumstances will feel pleasant.
Reader summary
Full entry for μακάριος (G3107) · Open the biblical lexicon
μακάριος (makarios) describes a person, state, hope, or, in a few passages, God Himself as blessed, favored, or deeply well according to God’s judgment. It is not a promise that present circumstances will feel pleasant.
The BSB source-word alignment has 50 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Blessed [are] (19), Blessed (17), Blessed [is] (8), [you are] blessed (2), Blessed [is everyone] (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 5:3. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (15), Matthew (13), Revelation (7), Romans (3).
This entry includes 3 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
μακάριος (makarios) describes a person, state, hope, or, in a few passages, God Himself as blessed, favored, or deeply well according to God’s judgment. It is not a promise that present circumstances will feel pleasant. Jesus calls the poor in spirit blessed because the kingdom belongs to them, and He calls those who hear God’s word and keep it blessed. After Thomas sees the risen Lord, Jesus pronounces blessing on those who believe without seeing.
Paul quotes David to name the forgiven as blessed, grounding well-being in grace rather than merit. Revelation calls those who die in the Lord blessed because death leads to rest and their faithful deeds follow them. The adjective can also mean fortunate in ordinary speech, so context must identify whether the speaker is declaring kingdom favor, commending obedience, naming forgiveness, or describing another kind of advantage.
Biblical blessedness is God’s true verdict over a life, often revealed most clearly where comfort, status, and visible success cannot explain it.
μακάριος pronounces a person or condition truly favored or well. The selected passages trace blessedness through kingdom poverty, obedient hearing, faith in the risen Christ, forgiven sin, and death in the Lord.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The first Beatitude places blessedness on people who bring no claim of spiritual wealth. Their well-being rests in the kingdom’s present gift, which immediately separates Jesus’ verdict from self-sufficiency or prosperity.
But He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
Jesus redirects an acclaim based on biological relationship toward receptive obedience to God’s word. The saying does not dishonor Mary; Luke has already portrayed her as one who believes and receives the Lord’s word.
Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Thomas receives real evidence and confesses Jesus as Lord and God. The following blessing reaches later readers who believe the apostolic witness without demanding Thomas’s unique encounter.
“Blessed are they whose lawless acts are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
Paul quotes Psalm 32 while arguing that God credits righteousness apart from works. Blessedness here is the forgiven sinner’s status under justifying grace, not an achievement purchased by obedience.
And I heard a voice from heaven telling me to write, “Blessed are the dead—those who die in the Lord from this moment on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labors, for their deeds will follow them.”
A heavenly voice names faithful death as blessed because those who die in the Lord enter rest and their deeds follow them. The verdict resists the beastly world’s claim that survival at any cost is the highest good.
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. Blessedness rooted in God's favor, not circumstance; often used in pronouncements of spiritual approval.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 50 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
happy, blessed
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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 9 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.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 8 selected witnesses from 50 lexical occurrence verses.
Defines the covenantal flourishing promised in the kingdom. James 1:12
Defines covenantal favor rooted in obedience.
Identifies those favored at the Master’s return.
Identifies covenant favor within God’s kingdom.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Blessedness is a verdict before it is a feeling. Jesus can pronounce the poor in spirit blessed because the kingdom belongs to them, even when their present lack does not look enviable. He can call hearers and keepers of God’s word blessed because receptive obedience places life under God’s truth. John extends the blessing to believers who receive trustworthy apostolic witness to the risen Christ.
Paul takes the language into the courtroom of grace: the person whose sins are forgiven and not counted is blessed apart from works. Revelation carries the verdict through death itself. Those who die in the Lord are not abandoned losers; they rest, and their faithful deeds follow them. These passages do not make obedience irrelevant or suffering desirable in itself.
They show that God’s favor creates and recognizes a life ordered by grace, faith, allegiance, and hope. Churches should therefore resist measuring blessing by wealth, health, influence, family circumstance, or visible ease. The blessed life may mourn, suffer, wait, repent, serve, and die, yet it remains secure beneath God’s true judgment and the kingdom future He promises.
Matt.5.3
μακάριος is an adjective often used predicatively in a pronouncement: ‘blessed is’ or ‘blessed are.’ The clause that follows frequently supplies the reason or promised outcome. It can describe ordinary fortune in some contexts, so the adjective alone does not automatically signal a technical doctrine of salvation.
The Old Testament’s ashre sayings name people as truly well when they trust the Lord, receive His instruction, practice justice, or know forgiveness. Psalm 32 explicitly blesses the forgiven, and Paul carries that wording into Romans 4. Jesus’ Beatitudes deepen this wisdom and prophetic pattern around the arrival of the kingdom, while Revelation brings blessedness to resurrection hope, faithful endurance, and life in God’s city.
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