To liken
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G3666 describes making or becoming like something and also the act of comparing one reality with another, especially in Jesus questions and kingdom parables. The verb can name true likeness, mistaken identification, moral resemblance, or an illustrative comparison, so resemblance must not be stretched into identity at every point.
Reader summary
Full entry for ὁμοιόω (G3666) · Open the biblical lexicon
G3666 describes making or becoming like something and also the act of comparing one reality with another, especially in Jesus questions and kingdom parables. The verb can name true likeness, mistaken identification, moral resemblance, or an illustrative comparison, so resemblance must not be stretched into identity at every point.
The BSB source-word alignment has 15 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include is like (5), can I compare (4), be like (1), can we compare (1), in human form (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 6:8. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (8), Luke (3), Acts (1), Hebrews (1).
G3666 describes making or becoming like something and also the act of comparing one reality with another, especially in Jesus questions and kingdom parables. The verb can name true likeness, mistaken identification, moral resemblance, or an illustrative comparison, so resemblance must not be stretched into identity at every point. In Heb. 2. 17, the Son had to be made like His brothers in every way relevant to true humanity so He could serve as merciful and faithful high priest and make atonement.
In Mark. 4. 30, jesus asks what comparison and parable can present the kingdom of God before giving the mustard seed image. G3666 opens teaching on faithful likeness: the Son was made like His brothers to serve as merciful high priest, and Jesus compares the kingdom and responsive hearers through carefully bounded images. It corrects careless analogies that transfer every feature of an image to God, Christ, or the kingdom, and it resists accounts of the incarnation that weaken either Christs true humanity or His sinlessness.
G3666 makes comparison accountable to context: Hebrews says the Son was made like His brothers so He could become a merciful and faithful high priest, Jesus asks what image can compare with Gods kingdom, and the obedient hearer is likened to a wise builder on rock. Likeness serves incarnation, parable, and moral response, but each passage limits the analogy.
For G3666, responsible teaching keeps lexical meaning, passage context, canonical synthesis, and present application distinguishable. G3666 does not make compared things identical, imply that Jesus shared human sin, or permit a parables incidental details to control doctrine beyond the point Jesus develops.
G3666 appears across passages that develop Christs solidarity, kingdom comparison, obedient resemblance, discernment, and the limits of analogy. For G3666, the immediate setting decides which part of the range is active, so the witnesses must remain distinct rather than being merged into one formula.
For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, in order to make atonement for the sins of the people.
The Son had to be made like His brothers in every way relevant to true humanity so He could serve as merciful and faithful high priest and make atonement.
Then He asked, “To what can we compare the kingdom of God? With what parable shall we present it?
Jesus asks what comparison and parable can present the kingdom of God before giving the mustard seed image.
Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
The person who hears Jesus words and acts on them is likened to a wise builder whose house stands on rock.
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.
Greek word. to liken
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
15 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I make like, liken, compare
Read verseI make like, liken, compare
Read verseI make like, liken, compare
Read verseI make like, liken, compare
Read verseI make like, liken, compare
Read verseI make like, liken, compare
Read verseI make like, liken, compare
Read verseI make like, liken, compare
Read verseI make like, liken, compare
Read verseI make like, liken, compare
Read verseI make like, liken, compare
Read verseI make like, liken, compare
Read verseI make like, liken, compare
Read verseI make like, liken, compare
Read verseI make like, liken, compare
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 mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 15 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
ὁμοιόω is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G3666 makes comparison accountable to context: Hebrews says the Son was made like His brothers so He could become a merciful and faithful high priest, Jesus asks what image can compare with Gods kingdom, and the obedient hearer is likened to a wise builder on rock. Likeness serves incarnation, parable, and moral response, but each passage limits the analogy.
G3666 describes making or becoming like something and also the act of comparing one reality with another, especially in Jesus questions and kingdom parables. The selected witnesses keep the teaching concrete: Heb. 2. 17 shows that the Son had to be made like His brothers in every way relevant to true humanity so He could serve as merciful and faithful high priest and make atonement, while Mark.
4. 30 Shows that jesus asks what comparison and parable can present the kingdom of God before giving the mustard seed image. Matt. 7. 24 adds that the person who hears Jesus words and acts on them is likened to a wise builder whose house stands on rock. G3666 opens teaching on faithful likeness: the Son was made like His brothers to serve as merciful high priest, and Jesus compares the kingdom and responsive hearers through carefully bounded images.
It corrects careless analogies that transfer every feature of an image to God, Christ, or the kingdom, and it resists accounts of the incarnation that weaken either Christs true humanity or His sinlessness. A church teaching G3666 faithfully will name both the promise and the boundary carried by these contexts, attend to vulnerable hearers, and refuse to make the lexical item prove more than its passages support.
G3666 does not make compared things identical, imply that Jesus shared human sin, or permit a parables incidental details to control doctrine beyond the point Jesus develops.
Heb.2.17
G3666 is a Greek verb related to likeness and comparison; active forms can liken or compare, while passive forms can describe being made or becoming like someone or something.
Creation presents humanity made in Gods image, while Israel learns through signs, patterns, and warnings not to reduce God to a created likeness. The New Testament uses G3666 for the Sons real human solidarity, kingdom parables, and ethical resemblance under the authority of Christs words.