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G3741 is a Greek adjective for what is holy, devout, or religiously right. Hebrews 7:26 describes Jesus as the fitting high priest who is holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
Reader summary
Full entry for ὅσιος (G3741) · Open the biblical lexicon
G3741 is a Greek adjective for what is holy, devout, or religiously right. Hebrews 7:26 describes Jesus as the fitting high priest who is holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
The BSB source-word alignment has 8 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include holy (3), Holy One (3), [One who is] holy (1), holy [and] (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Acts 2:27. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (3), Revelation (2), 1 Timothy (1), Hebrews (1).
G3741 is a Greek adjective for what is holy, devout, or religiously right. Hebrews 7:26 describes Jesus as the fitting high priest who is holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. First Timothy 2:8 calls men everywhere to pray with holy hands without anger or dissension, joining the posture of prayer to reconciled conduct.
Titus 1:8 includes being holy among the character qualifications of an overseer, alongside hospitality, love of good, self-control, uprightness, and discipline. Acts uses the adjective for God's Holy One in resurrection proclamation and for the sure holy blessings promised to David, while Revelation addresses God as uniquely holy and just. G3741 opens teaching on God's moral purity, Christ's holy priesthood, devout leadership, and prayer shaped by peace.
It corrects religious performance that calls gestures holy while anger, faction, exploitation, or undisciplined leadership remains unaddressed.
G3741 describes God, Christ, people, hands raised in prayer, and promised blessings as holy or devout in a sense aligned with what is right before God. Its uses emphasize moral and religious fitness, faithful character, and the Holy One's incorruptible identity.
Such a high priest truly befits us—One who is holy, innocent, undefiled, set apart from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
Jesus is the holy, innocent, undefiled, and exalted high priest who fully meets His people's need.
Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or dissension.
Public prayer with lifted holy hands is explicitly joined to freedom from anger and dissension.
Instead, he must be hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.
An overseer's holiness appears within an integrated pattern of hospitality, goodness, self-control, uprightness, and discipline.
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. Religiously right conduct reflecting covenant loyalty; distinct from ἅγιος which emphasizes ceremonial separation.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
7 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
holy, pious
Read verseholy, pious
Read verseholy, pious
Read verseholy, pious
Read verseholy, pious
Read verseholy, pious
Read verseholy, pious
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 this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 4 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.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 8 lexical occurrence verses.
ὅσιος is of uncertain origin - no further derivation.
Prayer leadership must be marked by personal holiness, not merely public posture.1 Timothy 2:8-15
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G3741 presents holiness as fitting alignment with God's character and purposes. Hebrews applies it supremely to Jesus, whose holy, innocent, undefiled life and exalted priesthood answer the need that former priests could not finally meet. His holiness is not aloof fragility; the same letter has shown Him drawing near to suffering people and offering Himself effectively.
First Timothy brings holiness into public prayer. Lifted hands cannot be called holy while anger and contentious rivalry control the worshiper. The verse does not offer a technique for making prayer powerful; it demands congruence between appeal to God and conduct toward others. Titus gives the same integrity to leadership. Holiness stands beside hospitality, love of good, justice, self-control, and discipline, so no single gift, charisma, or title can replace tested character.
Acts and Revelation direct the word toward the risen Holy One and toward God, whose judgments are righteous. Human holiness is therefore responsive and dependent, never a platform for claiming divine immunity. G3741 calls churches to prayer without faction, leadership with accountable character, and worship that agrees with truth. It should not be used to create purity hierarchies, excuse authoritarian control, or shame ordinary embodied life.
Christ's holiness provides the secure priestly center; leaders and worshipers are called to lives that visibly fit their confession.
Heb.7.26
G3741 can be rendered holy, devout, or pious, emphasizing religious and moral rightness. It overlaps with other Greek holiness terms but has its own usage pattern, applying to God, Christ, people, hands in prayer, and holy promises according to context.
The Septuagint uses related language for faithful, upright, pure, or devoted persons and for God's Holy One. New Testament writers bring those scriptural patterns into Christ's resurrection and priesthood while calling worshipers and leaders to congruent lives.