What does ὅλος (hólos) mean in the Bible?
Ὅλος (hólos) means whole, entire, or complete with reference to the full extent of something. Matthew says the whole sequence surrounding Jesus' birth fulfills the prophetic word.
Greek · G3650
ὅλος
All
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ὅλος G3650
Pronunciation hólos
What does ὅλος (hólos) mean in the Bible?
Ὅλος (hólos) means whole, entire, or complete with reference to the full extent of something. Matthew says the whole sequence surrounding Jesus' birth fulfills the prophetic word.
Reader summary
Full entry for ὅλος (G3650) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G3650?
The BSB source-word alignment has 109 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include All (42), whole (40), . . . (13), vvv (2), [for] a full (1).
Where does ὅλος (hólos) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 1:22. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (22), Acts (19), Mark (18), Luke (17).
What This Word Actually Means
Ὅλος (hólos) means whole, entire, or complete with reference to the full extent of something. Matthew says the whole sequence surrounding Jesus' birth fulfills the prophetic word. Jesus asks what profit remains if someone gains the whole world and forfeits life. Opponents accuse the healed man of being born wholly in sin, exposing their sweeping and self-protective judgment.
Paul quotes a lament in which believers face death through the whole day for God's sake. Revelation describes demonic spirits gathering all the earth's kings for battle. Totality can mark fulfilled events, comprehensive possession, exaggerated accusation, sustained suffering, or worldwide scope. The noun modified and the speaker's reliability matter. “Whole” does not mean morally good, mathematically exhaustive beyond the context, or proof that no exception is conceivable.
How the Bible Uses It
Ὅλος marks an entire event, possession, condition, period, or domain. It can frame fulfilled history, the whole world's inadequate value, a hostile totalizing accusation, day-long suffering, or earth-wide mobilization.
- Matt.1.22
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:
Matthew gathers the preceding birth events as a whole under fulfillment of the Lord's prophetic word, directing attention from extraordinary circumstances to God's faithful purpose.
- Mark.8.36
What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?
Gaining the whole world cannot compensate for losing one's life, so maximum imagined possession is set against an irreplaceable personal loss.
- John.9.34
They replied, “You were born in utter sin, and you are instructing us?” And they threw him out.
The authorities dismiss the healed man as born wholly in sin, using totalizing accusation to avoid receiving testimony that exposes their spiritual blindness.
- Rom.8.36
As it is written: “For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
Paul's quotation describes facing death all day long for God's sake, locating persistent suffering within allegiance to the God whose love cannot be severed.
- Rev.16.14
These are demonic spirits that perform signs and go out to all the kings of the earth, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.
Demonic spirits go to the kings of the whole inhabited earth to assemble them for battle, portraying wide rebellion that still moves toward God's appointed day.
Passage contextBook context
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 All 42× Matthew 1:22, Matthew 4:24, Matthew 13:33, Matthew 14:35
whole 40× Matthew 5:29, Matthew 5:30, Matthew 6:22, Matthew 6:23
. . . 13× Matthew 4:23, Matthew 9:26, Matthew 9:31, Mark 1:39
vvv 2× Mark 12:44, Luke 11:36
[for] a full 1× Acts 11:26
[is] full 1× Luke 11:36
[the] whole 1× John 7:23
[the] whole [body] 1× 1 Corinthians 12:17
{has} all 1× Matthew 26:56
across 1× Acts 7:11
by all 1× Acts 19:27
entire 1× Titus 1:11
he will be completely 1× John 13:10
in one piece 1× John 19:23
of [the] whole 1× 1 John 2:2
utter 1× John 9:34
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 1:22 ὅλον to All Adjective - Nominative Neuter Singular Matthew 4:23 ὅλῃ to . . . Adjective - Dative Feminine Singular Matthew 4:24 ὅλην to all Adjective - Accusative Feminine Singular Matthew 5:29 ὅλον to whole Adjective - Nominative Neuter Singular Matthew 5:30 ὅλον to whole Adjective - Nominative Neuter Singular Matthew 6:22 ὅλον to whole Adjective - Nominative Neuter Singular Matthew 6:23 ὅλον to whole Adjective - Nominative Neuter Singular Matthew 9:26 ὅλην to . . . Adjective - Accusative Feminine Singular Matthew 9:31 ὅλῃ to . . . Adjective - Dative Feminine Singular Matthew 13:33 ὅλον to all Adjective - Nominative Neuter Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Matthew 1:22
Aligned rows 109
Books represented 16
Matthew 22 Mark 18 Luke 17 John 6 Acts 19 Romans 4 1 Corinthians 4 2 Corinthians 1 Galatians 2 Philippians 1 1 Thessalonians 1 Titus 1 Hebrews 2 James 4 1 John 2 Revelation 5
Source forms
ὅλον 35x holon Matthew 1:22, Matthew 5:29, Matthew 5:30, Matthew 6:22
ὅλην 19x holēn Matthew 4:24, Matthew 9:26, Matthew 14:35, Matthew 20:6
ὅλης 18x holēs Mark 12:30, Mark 12:33, Luke 4:14, Luke 5:5
ὅλῃ 14x holē Matthew 4:23, Matthew 9:31, Matthew 22:37, Matthew 24:14
ὅλη 8x holē Mark 1:33, John 4:53, Acts 19:27, Acts 21:30
ὅλῳ 6x holō Matthew 26:13, Acts 18:8, Romans 1:8, Philippians 1:13
ὅλος 4x holos Matthew 22:40, John 9:34, John 13:10, 1 John 5:19
ὅλου 3x holou John 19:23, Acts 10:22, 1 John 2:2
Parsing patterns
Adjective - Accusative Feminine Singular 20x Matthew 4:24, Matthew 9:26, Matthew 14:35, Matthew 20:6
Adjective - Genitive Feminine Singular 18x Mark 12:30, Mark 12:33, Luke 4:14, Luke 5:5
Adjective - Nominative Neuter Singular 17x Matthew 1:22, Matthew 5:29, Matthew 5:30, Matthew 6:22
Adjective - Dative Feminine Singular 14x Matthew 4:23, Matthew 9:31, Matthew 22:37, Matthew 24:14
Adjective - Accusative Masculine Singular 13x Matthew 16:26, Mark 8:36, Mark 12:44, Mark 14:9
Adjective - Nominative Feminine Singular 8x Mark 1:33, John 4:53, Acts 19:27, Acts 21:30
Adjective - Accusative Neuter Singular 5x 1 Corinthians 5:6, Galatians 5:9, James 3:2, James 3:3
Adjective - Dative Masculine Singular 5x Matthew 26:13, Acts 18:8, Romans 1:8, Hebrews 3:2
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Do not treat every phrase containing “whole” as a technical claim of exceptionless global extent; establish the passage's actual domain and rhetorical purpose.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not endorse the leaders' claim that the healed man was wholly born in sin; John presents it as blindness resisting evidence.
- Do not claim that gaining the whole world has any value capable of compensating for the loss of one's life.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Denotes completeness or totality of a whole unit, distinct from πᾶς which emphasizes all individual parts collectively.
Strong's G3650
Lexical occurrences 108 verses Greek text appearances 112 times 16 shown below Word forms 10 forms 108 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link Luke 11:33-36 Source Gloss
all
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 112 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Matthew 1:22 Adjective Nominative Singular Neuter
ὅλον olon
all, the whole, entire
Read verse Matthew 4:23 Adjective Accusative Singular Feminine
ὅλην olhn
all, the whole, entire
Read verse Matthew 4:24 Adjective Accusative Singular Feminine
ὅλην olhn
all, the whole, entire
Read verse Matthew 5:29 Adjective Nominative Singular Neuter
ὅλον olon
all, the whole, entire
Read verse Matthew 5:30 Adjective Nominative Singular Neuter
ὅλον olon
all, the whole, entire
Read verse Matthew 6:22 Adjective Nominative Singular Neuter
ὅλον olon
all, the whole, entire
Read verse Matthew 6:23 Adjective Nominative Singular Neuter
ὅλον olon
all, the whole, entire
Read verse Matthew 9:26 Adjective Accusative Singular Feminine
ὅλην olhn
all, the whole, entire
Read verse Matthew 9:31 Adjective Dative Singular Feminine
ὅλῃ olh
all, the whole, entire
Read verse Matthew 13:33 Adjective Nominative Singular Neuter
ὅλον. olon
all, the whole, entire
Read verse Matthew 14:35 Adjective Accusative Singular Feminine
ὅλην olhn
all, the whole, entire
Read verse Matthew 16:26 Adjective Accusative Singular Masculine
ὅλον olon
all, the whole, entire
Read verse Matthew 20:6 Adjective Accusative Singular Feminine
ὅλην olhn
all, the whole, entire
Read verse Matthew 21:4 Adjective Nominative Singular Neuter
ὅλον olon
all, the whole, entire
Read verse Matthew 22:37 Adjective Dative Singular Feminine
ὅλῃ olh
all, the whole, entire
Read verse Matthew 22:37 Adjective Dative Singular Feminine
ὅλῃ olh
all, the whole, entire
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 10 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 10 Aligned forms 108 Case pattern Nominative (29) Number pattern Singular (89)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · Neuter Matt 1:22 · Matt 5:29 · Matt 5:30 · Matt 6:22 · Matt 6:23 · Matt 13:33 · Matt 26:56 · Matt 26:59 · Mark 14:55 · Mark 15:1 · Luke 11:34 · Luke 11:36 · Luke 13:21 · John 11:50 · 1 Cor 12:17 17×
Nominative · Singular · Feminine Mark 1:33 · John 4:53 · Acts 19:27 · Acts 21:30 · Acts 21:31 · 1 Cor 14:23 · Rev 6:12 · Rev 13:3 8×
Nominative · Singular · Masculine Matt 22:40 · John 9:34 · John 13:10 · 1 John 5:19 4×
Genitive · Singular · Feminine Mark 12:30 · Mark 12:33 · Luke 4:14 · Luke 5:5 · Luke 10:27 · Luke 23:5 · Acts 9:31 · Acts 9:42 · Acts 10:37 · Acts 13:49 · Rom 16:23 · Rev 3:10 · Rev 16:14 18×
Genitive · Singular · Masculine John 19:23 · 1 John 2:2 2×
Genitive · Singular · Neuter Acts 10:22 1×
Dative · Singular · Feminine Matt 4:23 · Matt 9:31 · Matt 22:37 · Matt 24:14 · Luke 1:65 · Luke 7:17 · Luke 10:27 · Acts 15:22 · 2 Cor 1:1 · 1 Thess 4:10 14×
Dative · Singular · Masculine Matt 26:13 · Acts 18:8 · Rom 1:8 · Heb 3:5 4×
Dative · Singular · Neuter Phil 1:13 1×
Accusative · Singular · Feminine Matt 4:24 · Matt 9:26 · Matt 14:35 · Matt 20:6 · Matt 27:27 · Mark 1:28 · Mark 1:39 · Mark 6:55 · Mark 15:16 · Mark 15:33 · Luke 8:39 · Luke 23:44 · Acts 5:11 · Acts 7:11 · Acts 11:28 · Acts 13:6 20×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
The entire body filled with light, completeness of illumination
Leaven permeating through entire batch of dough, complete penetration
The entire world or all humanity in relation to gaining or losing oneself
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 108 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
ὅλος is a primary word - no further derivation.
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
Claims about the whole reveal what a speaker counts as decisive. Matthew sees the birth narrative's events as a unified fulfillment of God's prophetic promise. Jesus stretches imagined acquisition to its limit: even the whole world is a disastrous bargain when life is forfeited. The healed man's interrogators use wholeness differently, turning a complex human story into the contemptuous verdict that he was entirely born in sin.
Romans names suffering that fills the day, yet the surrounding chapter refuses to let affliction define the whole truth about believers, because nothing separates them from God's love in Christ. Revelation widens rebellion to the kings of the entire earth while keeping their assembly under the great day of God Almighty. Teachers should let ὅλος mark genuine breadth without treating human totalizations as infallible or allowing vast opposition to overshadow God's rule.
Anchor passage
Matt.1.22
Doctrinal connections
- Matthew 1:18-25, the whole event and prophetic fulfillment
- Mark 8:34-38, the whole world weighed against one's life
- John 9:24-41, sweeping accusation and spiritual blindness
- Romans 8:31-39, all-day suffering and inseparable love
- Revelation 16:12-16, worldwide rebellion under God's appointed day
- Psalm 24:1-2, the earth and its fullness belonging to the Lord
Ὅλος is an adjective agreeing with the noun whose full extent it marks. Position and article usage can affect emphasis, while the discourse supplies the relevant boundaries. Universal-sounding phrases should be read within their literary domain.
From Old to New Testament
The whole earth belongs to the Lord, whole-hearted love is commanded, and entire days or communities can be described collectively. The gospel measures total worldly gain against eternal life in Christ.
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