To trust (in)
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pisteuo means to believe, trust, rely on, or entrust oneself, with saving force when directed toward God, Christ, or the gospel as Scripture presents them. The New Testament does not use the verb for bare opinion or religious optimism.
Reader summary
Full entry for πιστεύω (G4100) · Open the biblical lexicon
pisteuo means to believe, trust, rely on, or entrust oneself, with saving force when directed toward God, Christ, or the gospel as Scripture presents them. The New Testament does not use the verb for bare opinion or religious optimism.
The BSB source-word alignment has 241 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include believe (45), believes (29), believed (28), believers (8), have believed (7).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 8:13. Its strongest book concentrations include John (98), Acts (37), Romans (21), Mark (14).
This entry includes 14 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
Pisteuo means to believe, trust, rely on, or entrust oneself, with saving force when directed toward God, Christ, or the gospel as Scripture presents them. The New Testament does not use the verb for bare opinion or religious optimism. Jesus commands people to repent and believe in the gospel. John says those who believe in the Son have eternal life and writes so readers may believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
Paul and Silas tell the jailer to believe in the Lord Jesus and be saved. Romans joins heart-belief in the resurrection with confession of Jesus as Lord. For pastoral teaching, pisteuo calls readers away from self-reliance into receptive trust in Christ, a trust that receives life and shows itself in allegiance.
The selected passages present believing as response to the gospel, trust in the Son for eternal life, reception of Jesus' identity, reliance on the Lord Jesus for salvation, and heart-belief in the risen Lord.
“The time is fulfilled,” He said, “and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the gospel!”
Jesus announces the fulfilled time and nearness of God's kingdom, then commands repentance and belief in the gospel. pisteuo is the response demanded by the kingdom announcement.
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Believing in God's one and only Son is set opposite perishing and joined to eternal life. The object of faith is personal and saving, not merely a doctrine abstracted from Christ.
Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment. Indeed, he has crossed over from death to life.
Jesus says the one who hears His word and believes the Father who sent Him has eternal life and has crossed from death to life. Faith receives the Father's witness to the Son.
But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.
John states his Gospel's purpose: written signs call readers to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and to have life in His name.
They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Paul and Silas answer the jailer's urgent question with a direct call to believe in the Lord Jesus. The promise of salvation is attached to Christ, not to ritual performance.
That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans joins confessing Jesus as Lord with believing in the heart that God raised Him from the dead. Saving faith is resurrection-shaped and Lord-confessing.
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.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Belief directed toward a person (with εἰς) expresses trust and reliance, not mere intellectual assent.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 248 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I believe, have faith in
Read verseI believe, have faith in
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Read verseI believe, have faith in
Read verseI believe, have faith in
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Read verseI believe, have faith in
Read verseI believe, have faith in
Read verseI believe, have faith in
Read verseI believe, have faith in
Read verseI believe, have faith in
Read verseI believe, have faith in
Read verseI believe, have faith in
Read verseI believe, have faith in
Read verseI believe, have faith in
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.
How this verb appears across 240 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)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 8 selected witnesses from 241 lexical occurrence verses.
πιστεύω is built from this root:
Trust in Christ’s resurrection secures righteousness. 1 John 3:19-24
Identifies faith as the means of receiving messianic restoration. 1 John 4:13-16
Faith is the necessary response. 1 John 5:1-5
Central response required for life. 1 Timothy 1:8-11
Faith grounded in resurrection evidence. Acts 13:1-12
Marks progression from initial trust to confirmed faith. Acts 14:1-7
Marks the emergence of resurrection faith. Acts 16:25-34
Saving trust in Christ is the central aim of the Gospel.
The proconsul’s faith reflects the gospel’s effective power.
Marks genuine response to gospel proclamation.
Identifies faith in the Lord Jesus as the means of salvation.
Marks the genuine response that follows scriptural verification.
Marks genuine conversion in a skeptical environment.
Miracles lead to faith in the Lord, not mere amazement.
Paul views the gospel as a stewardship, reinforcing the seriousness of preserving and proclaiming it faithfully.
Faith in Jesus’ identity as the Christ is the defining mark of new birth.
Faith in Christ remains central; love flows from trust in Him.
Believers not only know about God’s love but actively depend on it.
Faith in Jesus as the Christ is the defining mark of new birth.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Pisteuo is central to New Testament gospel response because it names the receptive trust by which sinners receive Christ and life in His name. Mark 1 places believing beside repentance under Jesus' announcement of the kingdom. John's Gospel repeatedly directs faith toward Jesus as the Son, the Christ, and the one sent by the Father. Believing is not a leap into religious feeling; it is response to revealed testimony about Jesus.
Acts 16 shows the simplicity and urgency of the call: believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. Romans 10 prevents faith from becoming private sentiment by joining heart-belief in the resurrection with confession that Jesus is Lord. The word therefore guards grace and summons allegiance. Faith does not earn salvation, but saving faith has a definite object, receives God's testimony, and bows to the risen Lord.
John.20.31
Pisteuo can mean believe, trust, rely on, or entrust depending on construction and context. In saving contexts, the object matters. Believing in Christ is more than acknowledging a fact; it is receptive reliance on the person and work of the Lord Jesus as the gospel presents Him.
The Old Testament calls God's people to trust the Lord, believe His word, and rely on His promises. The New Testament focuses that trust on Jesus Christ, the promised Son, crucified and risen, so that faith in God's promise becomes faith in the gospel fulfilled in Him.
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