Excessive
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περισσός describes what goes beyond the ordinary measure: abundant, excessive, more than enough. John 10:10 uses its adverbial form to describe the life Jesus gives: "I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness," more literally, that they may have it abundantly, to the full.
Reader summary
Full entry for περισσός (G4053) · Open the biblical lexicon
περισσός describes what goes beyond the ordinary measure: abundant, excessive, more than enough. John 10:10 uses its adverbial form to describe the life Jesus gives: "I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness," more literally, that they may have it abundantly, to the full.
The BSB source-word alignment has 22 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include more (5), greater (3), . . . (1), advantage (1), even more (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 5:37. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Corinthians (4), Luke (4), Mark (4), 2 Corinthians (3).
περισσός describes what goes beyond the ordinary measure: abundant, excessive, more than enough. John 10:10 uses its adverbial form to describe the life Jesus gives: "I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness," more literally, that they may have it abundantly, to the full. The word sits opposite the thief's stated purpose in the same verse, to steal, kill, and destroy.
Jesus does not merely counter loss with survival; he counters it with surplus. The abundance in view is not primarily material wealth; John's Gospel elsewhere ties 'life' to knowing the Father and the Son (John 17:3), so the fullness Jesus promises is measured by the quality and permanence of that relationship, not by possessions. Teachers must resist collapsing this verse into a promise of financial prosperity; the immediate contrast is with the thief's destructive theft, not with material lack.
John 10:10 is often quoted alone, detached from its contrast with the thief in the same sentence. Read together, the verse says something sharper than a general promise of a good life: it says Jesus' arrival directly opposes a specific, destructive threat already at work among the sheep.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness.
John 10:10 sets Jesus' purpose, 'that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness,' directly against the thief's purpose 'to steal and kill and destroy.'
All who came before Me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.
The contrast completes the Good Shepherd discourse's opening argument, distinguishing Jesus as the true shepherd from thieves and robbers who came before him for their own gain.
Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.
John 17:3 defines eternal life as knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, giving the Gospel's own definition of the 'fullness' promised in John 10:10.
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. Abundance exceeding what is necessary or expected; surplus beyond requirement or common measure.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 26 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
abundant, greater, vehemently, advantage
Read verseabundant, greater, vehemently, advantage
Read verseabundant, greater, vehemently, advantage
Read verseabundant, greater, vehemently, advantage
Read verseabundant, greater, vehemently, advantage
Read verseabundant, greater, vehemently, advantage
Read verseabundant, greater, vehemently, advantage
Read verseabundant, greater, vehemently, advantage
Read verseabundant, greater, vehemently, advantage
Read verseabundant, greater, vehemently, advantage
Read verseabundant, greater, vehemently, advantage
Read verseabundant, greater, vehemently, advantage
Read verseabundant, greater, vehemently, advantage
Read verseabundant, greater, vehemently, advantage
Read verseabundant, greater, vehemently, advantage
Read verseabundant, greater, vehemently, advantage
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 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.
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 5 selected witnesses from 6 lexical occurrence verses.
περισσός 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.
John 10:10 is often quoted alone, detached from its contrast with the thief in the same sentence. Read together, the verse says something sharper than a general promise of a good life: it says Jesus' arrival directly opposes a specific, destructive threat already at work among the sheep. The abundance in view is defined by what it replaces, theft, killing, and destruction, and by what John's Gospel elsewhere calls life, knowing God through Jesus.
Preachers can use this text to describe the gospel's promise honestly: not the absence of a shepherd's care and enemies who threaten the flock, but the presence of a shepherd whose provision outmatches every threat. This word opens a teaching doorway on the true measure of abundant life: John 10:10 defines it by contrast with the thief's destructive aim and, in John 17:3, by relationship with the Father through the Son, not by material increase.
It equips teachers to preach abundance without collapsing the promise into a prosperity claim the text does not make. It corrects readings that isolate 'life to the full' as a stand-alone promise of material blessing, missing both its contrast with the thief and John's own definition of life as knowing God. Frame περισσός in John 10:10 as abundance measured against the thief's destruction and defined by relationship with God, not as an independent promise of prosperity.
John.10.10
Frame περισσός in John 10:10 as abundance measured against the thief's destruction and defined by relationship with God, not as an independent promise of prosperity. Linguistically, περισσός should be allowed to name abundant, more than enough, to the full without carrying claims the cited passages do not make.
John's Gospel consistently ties 'life' to relationship with the Father through the Son (John 3:16; 17:3), and John 10:10's promise of abundant life stands in that same trajectory, offered in direct contrast to the thief's destructive aim.
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