Nourishment (literally or figuratively); by implication, rations (wages)
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G5160, trophḗ, is a Greek noun for food, nourishment, or provisions. Most uses concern actual sustenance: what John eats, what anxious people need, what traveling workers deserve, what households distribute, what believers share, and what weakened bodies require.
Reader summary
Full entry for τροφή (G5160) · Open the biblical lexicon
G5160, trophḗ, is a Greek noun for food, nourishment, or provisions. Most uses concern actual sustenance: what John eats, what anxious people need, what traveling workers deserve, what households distribute, what believers share, and what weakened bodies require.
The BSB source-word alignment has 16 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include food (8), . . . (3), [some] food (2), [their] meals (1), provisions (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 3:4. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (7), Matthew (4), Hebrews (2), James (1).
G5160, trophḗ, is a Greek noun for food, nourishment, or provisions. Most uses concern actual sustenance: what John eats, what anxious people need, what traveling workers deserve, what households distribute, what believers share, and what weakened bodies require. Hebrews also uses solid food as a metaphor for mature teaching. The figurative use depends on the physical reality rather than making it disposable. Scripture's theology of nourishment begins with embodied creatures whose hunger matters to God and neighbor.
Jesus says life is more than food while assuring disciples of the Father's knowledge and care. He does not say food is unimportant or that anxious people should be shamed. The mission discourse says a worker is worthy of provisions, placing ministry dependence inside hospitality and just support rather than entitlement to luxury. Jesus' faithful servant gives a household food at the proper time, so entrusted authority is measured by timely provision instead of control. Acts then shows shared meals with glad and sincere hearts and Saul regaining strength after receiving food. Ordinary nourishment participates in communal faithfulness.
Hebrews' milk and solid-food imagery calls hearers toward practiced discernment, not intellectual elitism. James refuses a faith that blesses a hungry person without supplying daily food. G5160 therefore corrects any spirituality that praises sermons while neglecting meals, or offers meals while manipulating recipients. Nourishment should be adequate, timely, dignifying, and free from coercive conditions. Churches may support workers, feed households, share tables, develop mature teaching, and recognize the body as part of discipleship. The word does not promise abundance to every believer, blame food insecurity on deficient faith, or authorize leaders to control access to necessities in exchange for loyalty.
G5160 names food within anxiety and divine care, provisions due to workers, timely household stewardship, shared tables, bodily recovery, mature teaching, and the material test of professed faith.
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?
Jesus directs anxious disciples toward the Father's care and the greater gift of life. The teaching does not deny material need or make involuntary anxiety a moral defect.
Take no bag for the road, or second tunic, or sandals, or staff; for the worker is worthy of his provisions.
The sent disciples depend on hospitality because workers deserve sustenance. The instruction supports just provision while the mission context rejects accumulation, coercion, and luxury-seeking.
Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household, to give the others their food at the proper time?
Faithful authority provides the household's food when it is needed. The following contrast with abuse makes care, timing, and accountability central tests of stewardship.
With one accord they continued to meet daily in the temple courts and to break bread from house to house, sharing their meals with gladness and sincerity of heart,
The earliest believers' common life includes worship and actual meals shared across homes. Gladness and sincerity frame hospitality without requiring one compulsory household arrangement for every church.
And after taking some food, he regained his strength. And he spent several days with the disciples in Damascus.
After blindness, prayer, and Ananias' visit, Saul's recovery includes food and time with disciples. Physical nourishment and community support belong within the account of spiritual transformation.
Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to reteach you the basic principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food!
Food becomes an image for teaching fitted to maturity. The rebuke aims toward practiced discernment and perseverance, not humiliation of beginners or status competition among learners.
Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.
James names daily nourishment as the concrete need that exposes empty religious speech. The next verse requires useful action rather than a blessing that leaves the body unfed.
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. Physical sustenance that sustains life; metaphorically, spiritual nourishment required for growth and maturity
Physical sustenance that sustains life; metaphorically, spiritual nourishment required for growth and maturity
(τρέφω), [in LXX for לֶחֶם, מָזוֹן, אֹכֶל, etc. ;] nourishment, food: Mat.3:4 6:25 10:10 24:45, Luk.12:23, Jhn.4:8, Act.2:46 9:19 14:17 27:33-34, 36 27:38 Jas.2:15. Metaphorical: Heb.5:12, 14.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
food, nourishment
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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 4 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 16 lexical occurrence verses.
τροφή 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.
G5160 keeps nourishment practical. Jesus acknowledges anxiety about food while directing disciples to the Father's care, and He says workers deserve provisions without inviting luxury or extraction. The faithful household servant supplies food at the proper time, so leadership is judged by whether entrusted people are nourished rather than exploited. Acts places meals inside glad, sincere fellowship and records Saul regaining bodily strength through food after a transforming encounter.
Hebrews can then use solid food as an image for mature teaching precisely because nourishment sustains growth. James closes any escape into metaphor by confronting a brother or sister without daily food and rejecting words that provide nothing useful. Together these texts ask whether Christian communities feed bodies, support workers fairly, teach toward discernment, and distribute care without coercion.
Food ministries should protect dignity and choice. Compensation should be transparent and accountable. Teaching should strengthen rather than rank hearers. Prayer for provision should never replace action available to the church. God's care does not make hunger imaginary; it forms people who receive life gratefully and become faithful providers at the proper time.
Matt.24.45
G5160 is a feminine noun for food, nourishment, or provisions. Its 16 governed witnesses use several cases but preserve the same concrete semantic center. Context can emphasize a meal, ongoing sustenance, rations due to a worker, or food as an image for teaching. The metaphorical sense in Hebrews grows from actual nourishment and should not be read back into every occurrence. Compound cross-language artifacts are separate from this exact single-ID study.
The Old Testament presents food as God's creation gift, daily provision, covenant blessing, Sabbath trust, and a field of justice for the poor, stranger, widow, and orphan. Jesus stands in that story when He teaches dependence on the Father and provides food for crowds. The church's shared meals and material care extend the same embodied mercy. Hebrews' teaching metaphor also recalls wisdom as nourishment, but Scripture never lets spiritual food become an excuse to leave actual hunger unmet.