What does νόθος (nóthos) mean in the Bible?
νόθος (nóthos): Illegitimate child born outside proper marriage, used metaphorically for false spiritual sonship.
Greek · G3541
νόθος
A spurious or illegitimate son
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νόθοςG3541
Pronunciationnóthos
What does νόθος (nóthos) mean in the Bible?
νόθος (nóthos): Illegitimate child born outside proper marriage, used metaphorically for false spiritual sonship.
Full entry for νόθος (G3541) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G3541?
The BSB source-word alignment has 1 aligned row for this entry. Common renderings include illegitimate children (1).
Where does νόθος (nóthos) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Hebrews 12:8. Its strongest book concentrations include Hebrews (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 Itillegitimate children1×Hebrews 12:8
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowHebrews 12:8
Aligned rows1
Books represented1
Hebrews1
Source forms
νόθοι1xnothoiHebrews 12:8
Parsing patterns
Adjective - Nominative Masculine Plural1xHebrews 12:8
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Illegitimate child born outside proper marriage, used metaphorically for false spiritual sonship.
Strong'sG3541
Lexical occurrences1 verseGreek text appearances1 timeWord forms1 form1 referenceVerse guides0 guides
Study linkHebrews 12:4-11Source Gloss
a spurious or illegitimate son
Extended definitionSource: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
Illegitimate child born outside proper marriage, used metaphorically for false spiritual sonship.
a bastard, base born, i.e. born of a slave or concubine: Heb.12:8.
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
1 Greek text appearance shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Hebrews 12:8Adjective Nominative Plural Masculine
νόθοιnoqoi
illegitimate, bastard
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 1 case and number pattern. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Form patterns1Aligned forms1Case patternNominative (1)Number patternPlural (1)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Plural · MasculineHeb 12:81×
Where It Appears in Scripture
Where this word appears in Scripture: passage, original form, and sense in context.
New Testament Witnesses
illegitimate children
Word Origins
νόθος is of uncertain origin - no further derivation.
Why This Word Matters
Contrasts true sonship with absence of discipline.Hebrews 12:4-11