What does μέλαν (mélan) mean in the Bible?
μέλαν (mélan) is a Greek word meaning "ink".
Greek · G3188
μέλαν
Ink
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μέλανG3188
Pronunciationmélan
What does μέλαν (mélan) mean in the Bible?
μέλαν (mélan) is a Greek word meaning "ink".
Full entry for μέλαν (G3188) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G3188?
The BSB source-word alignment has 3 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include ink (2), with ink (1).
Where does μέλαν (mélan) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at 2 Corinthians 3:3. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Corinthians (1), 2 John (1), 3 John (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 Itink2×2 John 1:12, 3 John 1:13
with ink1×2 Corinthians 3:3
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row2 Corinthians 3:3
Aligned rows3
Books represented3
2 Corinthians12 John13 John1
Source forms
μέλανος2xmelanos2 John 1:12, 3 John 1:13
μέλανι1xmelani2 Corinthians 3:3
Parsing patterns
Noun - Genitive Neuter Singular2x2 John 1:12, 3 John 1:13
Noun - Dative Neuter Singular1x2 Corinthians 3:3
Evidence Summary
Greek word. ink
Strong'sG3188
Lexical occurrences3 versesGreek text appearances3 timesWord forms2 forms3 referencesVerse guides0 guides
Source Gloss
ink
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
3 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
2 Corinthians 3:3Adjective Dative Singular Neuter
μέλανι,melani
ink
Read verse2 John 1:12Adjective Genitive Singular Neuter
μέλανος·melanov
ink
Read verse3 John 1:13Adjective Genitive Singular Neuter
μέλανοςmelanov
ink
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 2 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 patterns2Aligned forms3Case patternGenitive (2)Number patternSingular (3)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Genitive · Singular · Neuter2 John 1:12 · 3 John 1:132×
Dative · Singular · Neuter2 Cor 3:31×
Word Origins
μέλαν is built from this root: