What does ὀφθαλμοδουλεία (ophthalmodouleía) mean in the Bible?
ὀφθαλμοδουλεία (ophthalmodouleía): Service performed only when watched; work motivated by visibility rather than genuine obedience to Christ
Greek · G3787
ὀφθαλμοδουλεία
Eye-service
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ὀφθαλμοδουλείαG3787
Pronunciationophthalmodouleía
What does ὀφθαλμοδουλεία (ophthalmodouleía) mean in the Bible?
ὀφθαλμοδουλεία (ophthalmodouleía): Service performed only when watched; work motivated by visibility rather than genuine obedience to Christ
Full entry for ὀφθαλμοδουλεία (G3787) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G3787?
The BSB source-word alignment has 2 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include while they are watching (2).
Where does ὀφθαλμοδουλεία (ophthalmodouleía) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Ephesians 6:6. Its strongest book concentrations include Colossians (1), Ephesians (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 Itwhile they are watching2×Ephesians 6:6, Colossians 3:22
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowEphesians 6:6
Aligned rows2
Books represented2
Ephesians1Colossians1
Source forms
ὀφθαλμοδουλίαις1xophthalmodouliaisColossians 3:22
ὀφθαλμοδουλίαν1xophthalmodoulianEphesians 6:6
Parsing patterns
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular1xEphesians 6:6
Noun - Dative Feminine Plural1xColossians 3:22
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Service performed only when watched; work motivated by visibility rather than genuine obedience to Christ
Strong'sG3787
Lexical occurrences0 versesGreek text appearances2 timesVerse guides0 guides
Study linkColossians 3:18–4:1Source Gloss
eye-service
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
2 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Ephesians 6:6Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ὀφθαλμοδουλείανofqalmodouleian
service rendered only while the master watches
Read verseColossians 3:22Noun Dative Plural Feminine
ὀφθαλμοδουλείαιςofqalmodouleiaiv
service rendered only while the master watches
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.
Sampled Scripture Occurrences
Representative Scripture witnesses for this entry: passage, original form, and sense in context.
New Testament Witnesses
eye-service
Word Origins
ὀφθαλμοδουλεία is built from these roots:
Why This Word Matters
Exposes superficial obedience motivated by human approval.Colossians 3:18–4:1