What does ὄνος (ónos) mean in the Bible?
ὄνος (ónos): Beast of burden representing humility; Jesus's triumphal entry on a donkey symbolizes humble, peaceful kingship
Greek · G3688
ὄνος
A donkey
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ὄνος G3688
Pronunciation ónos
What does ὄνος (ónos) mean in the Bible?
ὄνος (ónos): Beast of burden representing humility; Jesus's triumphal entry on a donkey symbolizes humble, peaceful kingship
Full entry for ὄνος (G3688) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G3688?
The BSB source-word alignment has 5 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include a donkey (2), donkey (2), of a donkey (1).
Where does ὄνος (ónos) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 21:2. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (3), John (1), Luke (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 It a donkey 2× Matthew 21:2, Matthew 21:5
donkey 2× Matthew 21:7, Luke 13:15
of a donkey 1× John 12:15
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 21:2 ὄνον to a donkey Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Matthew 21:5 ὄνον to a donkey Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Matthew 21:7 ὄνον to donkey Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Luke 13:15 ὄνον to donkey Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular John 12:15 ὄνου to of a donkey Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Matthew 21:2
Aligned rows 5
Books represented 3
Matthew 3 Luke 1 John 1
Source forms
ὄνον 4x onon Matthew 21:2, Matthew 21:5, Matthew 21:7, Luke 13:15
ὄνου 1x onou John 12:15
Parsing patterns
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 3x Matthew 21:2, Matthew 21:5, Matthew 21:7
Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular 1x Luke 13:15
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular 1x John 12:15
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Beast of burden representing humility; Jesus's triumphal entry on a donkey symbolizes humble, peaceful kingship
Strong's G3688
Lexical occurrences 5 verses Greek text appearances 6 times Word forms 3 forms 5 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link Matthew 21:2 Source Gloss
a donkey
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
6 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Matthew 21:2 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ὄνον onon
a donkey, an ass
Read verse Matthew 21:5 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ὄνον onon
a donkey, an ass
Read verse Matthew 21:7 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ὄνον onon
a donkey, an ass
Read verse Luke 13:15 Noun Accusative Singular Masculine
ὄνον onon
a donkey, an ass
Read verse Luke 14:5 Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
ὄνος onov
a donkey, an ass
Read verse John 12:15 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
ὄνου. onou
a donkey, an ass
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 3 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 3 Aligned forms 5 Case pattern Accusative (4) Number pattern Singular (5)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Genitive · Singular · Feminine John 12:15 1×
Accusative · Singular · Feminine Matt 21:2 · Matt 21:5 · Matt 21:7 3×
Accusative · Singular · Masculine Luke 13:15 1×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
Animal Jesus instructs disciples to bring for his triumphal entry
Fulfillment of OT prophecy regarding messianic king riding humble beast
OT scriptural reference to humble animal used in messianic context
Common domestic animal used in Jesus's moral teaching about mercy
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 5 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
ὄνος 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.
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