To increase (transitively or intransitively)
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G4129, plēthýnō, is a Greek verb meaning to increase, multiply, or cause to abound. In Acts it describes growing numbers of disciples, Israel's population, the strengthened church, and the multiplying word of God.
Reader summary
Full entry for πληθύνω (G4129) · Open the biblical lexicon
G4129, plēthýnō, is a Greek verb meaning to increase, multiply, or cause to abound. In Acts it describes growing numbers of disciples, Israel's population, the strengthened church, and the multiplying word of God.
The BSB source-word alignment has 12 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include multiply (3), be multiplied (2), . . . (1), greatly in number (1), grew (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 24:12. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (5), Hebrews (2), 1 Peter (1), 2 Corinthians (1).
G4129, plēthýnō, is a Greek verb meaning to increase, multiply, or cause to abound. In Acts it describes growing numbers of disciples, Israel's population, the strengthened church, and the multiplying word of God. Elsewhere wickedness multiplies while love grows cold, God multiplies seed for generous righteousness, Abraham's descendants multiply by promise, and letters pray that grace, peace, mercy, and love will abound. The verb states increase; the thing increasing and the passage's verdict determine whether that growth is welcome, dangerous, material, relational, or rhetorical.
Acts refuses to let numerical growth conceal inequity. As disciples increase, Greek-speaking Jewish widows are overlooked in daily food distribution. The apostles and community respond through public recognition, shared selection, and accountable service, after which the word continues to spread and disciples grow. Growth therefore creates responsibilities for listening, fair provision, representative wisdom, and structures able to see those at the margins. Later summaries join numerical strengthening to peace, fear of the Lord, and the Spirit's encouragement rather than treating attendance alone as health.
Other passages deepen the contrast. Matthew warns that multiplied wickedness chills love. Second Corinthians speaks of God multiplying seed and increasing a harvest of righteousness within transparent, willing generosity, not a scheme promising donors personal wealth. The letter greetings ask for grace, peace, mercy, and love to multiply through God's work and knowledge of Christ. Faithful application names what is increasing, who benefits, who is overlooked, and what kind of fruit appears. Metrics can aid stewardship, but they cannot replace truth, justice, love, or God's agency.
G4129 moves through multiplied wickedness, disciple growth that exposes neglected widows, the spread of God's word, Abrahamic promise, church strengthening, generous provision, and prayers for grace, peace, mercy, and love to abound.
Because of the multiplication of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.
Jesus warns that increasing wickedness chills the love of many, proving that multiplication can describe destructive expansion rather than blessing.
In those days when the disciples were increasing in number, the Grecian Jews among them began to grumble against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.
Growing disciple numbers coincide with the neglect of Greek-speaking Jewish widows, making equitable care an immediate test of communal health.
So the word of God continued to spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem grew rapidly, and a great number of priests became obedient to the faith.
The word spreads and disciples grow after the community addresses neglected service, while even many priests become obedient to the faith.
As the time drew near for God to fulfill His promise to Abraham, our people in Egypt increased greatly in number.
Israel's population increases as the time of God's promise approaches, locating growth within covenant remembrance before Egyptian oppression intensifies.
Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria experienced a time of peace. It grew in strength and numbers, living in the fear of the Lord and the encouragement of the Holy Spirit.
The church grows across Judea, Galilee, and Samaria while living in peace, the fear of the Lord, and the Spirit's encouragement.
But the word of God continued to spread and multiply.
God's word multiplies after Herod's self-exalting violence ends, contrasting royal pretension with the continuing advance of God's message.
Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your store of seed and will increase the harvest of your righteousness.
God supplies and multiplies seed while increasing a harvest of righteousness in a passage about willing, accountable generosity.
Saying, “I will surely bless you and multiply your descendants.”
The doubled verbal expression intensifies God's promised blessing and multiplication of Abraham's descendants within an argument about divine oath and patient hope.
According to the foreknowledge of God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by His blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
Grace and peace are prayed in abundance for exiles defined by the Father's foreknowledge, the Spirit's sanctification, and obedience to Jesus Christ.
Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Grace and peace multiply through knowledge of God and Jesus, joining abundance to relational and theological knowledge rather than acquisition.
Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
Mercy, peace, and love are prayed in multiplying measure before Jude warns against corrupting influences within the community.
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. Growth that multiplies or increases, emphasizing abundance rather than mere addition or change.
Growth that multiplies or increases, emphasizing abundance rather than mere addition or change.
(causal of πληθύω, to be full, πληθύς, Ion. for πλῆθος), [in LXX chiefly for רָבָה hi. ;]
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
12 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I increase, multiply
Read verseI increase, multiply
Read verseI increase, multiply
Read verseI increase, multiply
Read verseI increase, multiply
Read verseI increase, multiply
Read verseI increase, multiply
Read verseI increase, multiply
Read verseI increase, multiply
Read verseI increase, multiply
Read verseI increase, multiply
Read verseI increase, multiply
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.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 9 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 1 selected witness from 12 lexical occurrence verses.
πληθύνω is built from this root:
Reinforces the unstoppable expansion of God’s word.Acts 12:20-25
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G4129 is morally open until its subject and outcome are named. Wickedness can multiply, cooling love. Disciples can increase while widows are overlooked, so the first effect of growth may be exposure of an inequitable system that needs repair. Acts celebrates the word's spread and the church's strengthening, but its summaries surround numbers with obedience, peace, fear of the Lord, the Spirit's encouragement, and attention to neglected people.
Second Corinthians attributes supplied and multiplied seed to God within voluntary generosity and a harvest of righteousness, not a guaranteed financial return. Hebrews anchors multiplication in God's sworn promise, while Peter and Jude pray for grace, peace, mercy, and love to abound. Churches may count people, resources, and needs for honest stewardship, but they should never confuse the dashboard with the life of God.
Healthy increase remains accountable to truth, just distribution, non-coercive generosity, durable love, and the flourishing of people most easily missed.
Acts.6.7
G4129 appears in active and passive forms and can be transitive or intransitive. Hebrews 6:14 contains two forms in an emphatic promise, while other contexts describe something increasing or pray that a gift may be multiplied to recipients.
Hebrews quotes God's promise to multiply Abraham's descendants, carrying Genesis covenant language into an exhortation to patient hope. Acts then narrates growing communities and a multiplying word, while the letters pray for the multiplication of covenant-shaped gifts such as grace, peace, mercy, and love.