Riches
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Ploutos means riches, wealth, abundance, or a treasury of resources. The New Testament uses it for earthly wealth that deceives, becomes uncertain, and rots under judgment, but also for God's inexhaustible kindness, wisdom, knowledge, and grace.
Reader summary
Full entry for πλοῦτος (G4149) · Open the biblical lexicon
Ploutos means riches, wealth, abundance, or a treasury of resources. The New Testament uses it for earthly wealth that deceives, becomes uncertain, and rots under judgment, but also for God's inexhaustible kindness, wisdom, knowledge, and grace.
The BSB source-word alignment has 22 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include riches (12), [means] riches (2), of wealth (2), wealth (2), [the] full riches (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 13:22. Its strongest book concentrations include Ephesians (5), Romans (5), Colossians (2), Revelation (2).
Ploutos means riches, wealth, abundance, or a treasury of resources. The New Testament uses it for earthly wealth that deceives, becomes uncertain, and rots under judgment, but also for God's inexhaustible kindness, wisdom, knowledge, and grace. The noun's moral force therefore comes from its kind, source, use, and object of hope. Material riches are not inherently saving or inherently sinful, yet they can choke the word, invite self-trust, and testify against hoarding.
God's riches move outward in patience, redemption, forgiveness, and generous provision. Christian teaching should neither promise affluence nor romanticize deprivation; it should direct hope to God, expose wealth's instability, and form stewards who repent, share, and bear fruitful love.
Ploutos names abundance in sharply different registers: deceptive and perishing material riches, and the immeasurable riches of God's kindness, wisdom, and grace. The contrast relocates hope and reshapes stewardship.
The seed sown among the thorns is the one who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
Matthew 13:22 says the deceitfulness of riches and cares of the age choke the word so it becomes unfruitful. Wealth competes for trust and attention.
Or do you disregard the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?
Romans 2:4 asks whether a person despises the riches of God's kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that this kindness leads toward repentance.
O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!
Romans 11:33 erupts in worship before the depth of the riches of God's wisdom and knowledge after tracing mercy across Jew and Gentile.
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
Ephesians 1:7 says believers have redemption and forgiveness through Christ's blood according to the riches of God's grace. Divine abundance measures the gift.
Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be conceited and not to put their hope in the uncertainty of wealth, but in God, who richly provides all things for us to enjoy.
First Timothy 6:17 tells the rich not to hope in the uncertainty of riches but in God, who richly supplies all things for enjoyment.
Your riches have rotted and moths have eaten your clothes.
James 5:2 declares hoarded riches rotted within a judgment oracle against oppressive wealth and withheld wages.
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. Wealth spanning material possessions and spiritual riches, often emphasizing God's abundant provision or resources.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 22 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
riches, wealth
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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 5 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 4 selected witnesses from 22 lexical occurrence verses.
πλοῦτος 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.
Ploutos teaches by contrast. Material riches can promise control while choking the word, and their uncertainty becomes visible when stored goods decay and withheld wages cry out. God is rich in an entirely different way: His kindness leads sinners to repentance, His wisdom exceeds human tracing, and His grace gives redemption through Christ's blood. The contrast does not make matter evil or prohibit enjoyment; First Timothy names God as generous provider.
It does strip wealth of ultimacy and attach resources to responsibility. Churches should proclaim divine abundance without turning grace into a wealth scheme, teach materially secure believers to hope in God and share, and refuse donor favoritism or silence about exploitation. True riches create worship, repentance, forgiveness, generosity, and fruitful endurance.
Eph.1.7
Ploutos is the noun riches, wealth, or abundance, related to the adjective plousios, rich. It may denote material assets or metaphorical abundance, with modifiers and context identifying the kind.
Wisdom warns that riches sprout wings, prophets condemn wealth built through oppression, and the Psalms celebrate the inexhaustible abundance of God's mercy and works.