To plant
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G5452, phyteúō, is a Greek verb meaning to plant. It describes ordinary agricultural activity in Luke, planted fig trees and vineyards in Jesus' parables, a mulberry tree imagined as replanted in the sea, and ministry labor in First Corinthians.
Reader summary
Full entry for φυτεύω (G5452) · Open the biblical lexicon
G5452, phyteúō, is a Greek verb meaning to plant. It describes ordinary agricultural activity in Luke, planted fig trees and vineyards in Jesus' parables, a mulberry tree imagined as replanted in the sea, and ministry labor in First Corinthians.
The BSB source-word alignment has 11 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include planted (4), plants (3), has not planted (1), planted [the seed] (1), planting (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 15:13. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Corinthians (4), Luke (4), Matthew (2), Mark (1).
G5452, phyteúō, is a Greek verb meaning to plant. It describes ordinary agricultural activity in Luke, planted fig trees and vineyards in Jesus' parables, a mulberry tree imagined as replanted in the sea, and ministry labor in First Corinthians. The verb names an action that begins cultivation or establishes a plant; it does not guarantee fruit, growth, ownership, or moral approval. A planted vineyard may become the setting for accountable stewardship, and a planted fig tree may still lack fruit.
Paul's Corinthian use provides the clearest ministry distinction. Paul plants, Apollos waters, and God gives growth. Planter and waterer share a purpose, remain accountable for their own labor, and are not the source or owner of the church's life. The image honors real work without permitting founders, pastors, donors, or teachers to possess people, claim credit for grace, or make visible expansion the proof of faithfulness. First Corinthians 9 also uses vineyard planting to argue that workers may rightly receive material support.
Jesus' parables require literary care. Vineyard planting evokes provision and entrusted responsibility before tenants reject the owner's servants and son; it must not become an anti-Jewish replacement slogan or a warrant for dispossession. The plant not set by the Father in Matthew 15 concerns teaching and defilement in context, not permission to uproot people through coercion or violence. Luke's mustard-seed saying directs faith toward God rather than teaching a verbal technique for controlling creation. Churches plant and tend in hope, protect laborers, and leave ultimate growth and judgment to God.
G5452 moves through planted vineyards and fig trees, ordinary work before judgment, a faith saying about a mulberry tree, the uprooting of teaching not planted by the Father, ministry collaboration, and worker support.
But Jesus replied, “Every plant that My heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by its roots.
Jesus answers a dispute about defilement and tradition by declaring that what the Father did not plant will be uprooted, keeping final removal under divine authority.
Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.
The landowner fully prepares and entrusts a vineyard before the tenants' violent refusal, making stewardship and accountability central to the parable.
Then Jesus began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine vat, and built a watchtower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.
Mark's vineyard opening stresses the owner's provision and entrusted tenancy before the escalating rejection of servants and son.
Then Jesus told this parable: “A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He went to look for fruit on it but did not find any.
A planted fig tree is inspected for fruit within a parable that joins warning with an additional season of patient cultivation.
And the Lord answered, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.
The mulberry-tree image portrays faith's dependence on God and should not be converted into a formula for spectacular command or blaming sufferers.
It was the same in the days of Lot: People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.
Planting is ordinary life in Lot's days; the warning concerns unprepared absorption in daily activity, not the sinfulness of cultivation itself.
Then He proceeded to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it out to some tenants, and went away for a long time.
The planted vineyard becomes an entrusted estate whose tenants resist the owner, developing themes of authority, rejection, and accountability.
I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.
Paul names his planting and Apollos's watering before locating actual growth in God's agency.
So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
The planter and waterer are relativized beside God who gives growth, directly opposing ministry celebrity and ownership.
He who plants and he who waters are one in purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.
Planter and waterer share purpose while each remains accountable for labor, holding collaboration and differentiated responsibility together.
Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who tends a flock and does not drink of its milk?
A vineyard planter's right to eat from its fruit supports Paul's argument that gospel workers may receive material provision without turning ministry into exploitation.
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. To plant something deliberately for future growth; used metaphorically for establishing spiritual foundations.
To plant something deliberately for future growth; used metaphorically for establishing spiritual foundations.
(φυτόν, a plant, φύω), [in LXX chiefly for נָטַע, also for שָׁתַל, etc. ;] to plant: Luk.17:28, 1Co.3:6-8; with accusative, φυτείαν, Mat.15:13; ἀμπελῶνα, Mat.21:33, Mrk.12:1, Luk.20:9, 1Co.9:7; pass., before ἐν, Luk.13:6 17:6.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
11 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I plant
Read verseI plant
Read verseI plant
Read verseI plant
Read verseI plant
Read verseI plant
Read verseI plant
Read verseI plant
Read verseI plant
Read verseI plant
Read verseI plant
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 11 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 3 selected witnesses from 11 lexical occurrence verses.
φυτεύω 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.
G5452 honors planting as real labor while denying the planter ultimate control. Jesus describes cultivated vineyards and a fig tree within parables of entrusted care, patience, rejection, and judgment. Luke also treats planting as ordinary human work, and the mulberry-tree saying uses a startling image to direct disciples away from self-sufficiency. Paul then applies the verb to ministry: he planted, Apollos watered, but God caused growth.
That grammar disarms both passivity and possession. Workers should prepare, teach, tend, collaborate, and receive appropriate support, yet no founder owns the people reached through that labor. A congregation's increase cannot be manufactured into evidence of divine approval, and a season without visible fruit does not erase faithful service. Vineyard judgment texts must be taught without ethnic replacement or dispossession, and uprooting language must remain God's verdict on corrupt teaching rather than a tool for coercing bodies, property, or conscience.
1Cor.3.6
G5452 is a verb appearing in active and passive forms across literal, parabolic, and metaphorical settings. Its subject and object clarify whether a person plants a vineyard, a tree has been planted, or ministry labor is compared to cultivation.
Jesus' vineyard parables draw on Israel's prophetic vineyard imagery of God's provision, expectation, and judgment. Paul's field metaphor carries that agricultural world into apostolic ministry while locating ownership and growth in God rather than in any planter.