What does ᾠδή (ōidḗ) mean in the Bible?
A song gives remembered truth a voice that people can share. The Greek noun oide names a song; its New Testament settings show what the singers celebrate and why their singing matters.
Greek · G5603
ᾠδή
A song gives remembered truth a voice that people can share. The Greek noun oide names a song; its New Testament settings show what the singers celebrate and why their singing matters.
Reading a lexicon entry
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ᾠδήG5603
Pronunciationōidḗ
What does ᾠδή (ōidḗ) mean in the Bible?
Reader summary
Full entry for ᾠδή (G5603) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G5603?
The BSB source-word alignment has 7 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include song (4), songs (2), - (1).
Where does ᾠδή (ōidḗ) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Ephesians 5:19. Its strongest book concentrations include Revelation (5), Colossians (1), Ephesians (1).
What This Word Actually Means
A song gives remembered truth a voice that people can share. The Greek noun oide names a song; its New Testament settings show what the singers celebrate and why their singing matters. In Colossians 3:16, believers sing while Christ's word takes deep residence among them, teaching and admonishing one another with gratitude. Ephesians 5:19 likewise joins speech to fellow believers with melody directed to the Lord.
Revelation places new songs before the throne, where the Lamb's redeeming death supplies the reason for His worthiness. The noun alone does not specify a musical style or guarantee spiritual truth. Its surrounding words identify the song's content, audience and purpose. Reading those words carefully helps a church sing redemption rather than merely describe a religious mood.
How the Bible Uses It
Paul uses songs within the life of a grateful, mutually instructing church. Revelation widens the scene to praise before God's throne, where redemption and righteous divine action supply the words that are sung.
- Col.3.16
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
Christ's indwelling word governs the congregation's teaching and singing. Gratitude toward God accompanies wise instruction between believers, so song belongs within the shared practice of receiving and communicating Christ's truth.
- Eph.5.19
Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord,
The instruction follows the call to be filled with the Spirit and leads into thanksgiving and mutual submission. Addressing one another and singing to the Lord join communal participation with Godward praise.
- Rev.5.9
And they sang a new song: “Worthy are You to take the scroll and open its seals, because You were slain, and by Your blood You purchased for God those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
The new song declares the Lamb worthy because He was slain and purchased people for God by His blood. The singers identify a saving achievement, not an unexplained feeling or musical effect.
- Rev.14.3
And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. And no one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.
The song belongs to the redeemed company standing with the Lamb. Its restricted learning is part of the vision's description of redeemed belonging; the noun itself does not resolve the identity or numbering of that company.
- Rev.15.3
And they sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb: “Great and wonderful are Your works, O Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the nations!
The victorious worshipers sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb, praising God's works and just ways. The surrounding vision connects worship with deliverance and divine judgment rather than detached entertainment.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders Itsong4×Revelation 5:9, Revelation 14:3, Revelation 15:3
songs2×Ephesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16
-1×Revelation 15:3
Show sample aligned rows
Ephesians 5:19ᾠδαῖςtosongsNoun - Dative Feminine PluralColossians 3:16ᾠδαῖςtosongsNoun - Dative Feminine PluralRevelation 5:9ᾠδὴνtosongNoun - Accusative Feminine SingularRevelation 14:3ᾠδὴνtosongNoun - Accusative Feminine SingularRevelation 14:3ᾠδὴνtosongNoun - Accusative Feminine SingularRevelation 15:3ᾠδὴνtosongNoun - Accusative Feminine SingularRevelation 15:3ᾠδὴνto-Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowEphesians 5:19
Aligned rows7
Books represented3
Ephesians1Colossians1Revelation5
Source forms
ᾠδὴν5xōdēnRevelation 5:9, Revelation 14:3, Revelation 15:3
ᾠδαῖς2xōdaisEphesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16
Parsing patterns
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular5xRevelation 5:9, Revelation 14:3, Revelation 15:3
Noun - Dative Feminine Plural2xEphesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Let congregational lyrics invite understanding and gratitude; do not demand a particular visible emotion as proof that a person worships sincerely.
- Choose and explain songs in light of their actual claims about Christ, allowing thoughtful questions about words that remain unclear.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that song itself saves or proves a singer's redeemed status; Revelation identifies the Lamb's saving work as the basis of redemption.
- Do not claim that oide requires one tune, instrument or musical culture; the cited instructions govern content and direction without prescribing those details.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Song of praise directed toward God or Christ, never secular or merely artistic expression in NT use.
Strong'sG5603
Lexical occurrences7 versesGreek text appearances7 timesWord forms2 forms7 referencesVerse guides0 guides
Study linkEphesians 5:15-21Source Gloss
song
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
7 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Ephesians 5:19Noun Dative Plural Feminine
ᾠδαῖςwdaiv
an ode, song
Read verseColossians 3:16Noun Dative Plural Feminine
ᾠδαῖςwdaiv
an ode, song
Read verseRevelation 5:9Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ᾠδὴνwdhn
an ode, song
Read verseRevelation 14:3Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ᾠδὴνwdhn
an ode, song
Read verseRevelation 14:3Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ᾠδήν,wdhn
an ode, song
Read verseRevelation 15:3Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ᾠδὴνwdhn
an ode, song
Read verseRevelation 15:3Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ᾠδὴνwdhn
an ode, song
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.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 2 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.
Form patterns2Aligned forms7Case patternAccusative (5)Number patternSingular (5)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Dative · Plural · FeminineEph 5:19 · Col 3:162×
Accusative · Singular · FeminineRev 5:9 · Rev 14:3 · Rev 15:35×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
Spiritual songs sung together in worship and mutual edification of believers
A song used metaphorically in contrast with sorrow, expressing joy or gladness
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 7 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
ᾠδή is built from this root:
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
The strongest connection between these passages is truthful praise shaped by what God has done. Colossians gives songs a place in the exchange of wisdom among believers, while Revelation records praise that names the Lamb's death and the people He purchased. These settings are different, yet neither treats song as an empty vessel whose value depends only on emotional response.
The church can therefore ask whether its singing helps people remember Christ, understand His work and give thanks together. This does not turn every song into a lecture or prescribe one musical tradition. It asks that melody carry intelligible gratitude. A believer who needs time to understand the words may participate thoughtfully without having to imitate another person's intensity or claim the experience described in an apocalyptic vision.
Anchor passage
Col.3.16
Doctrinal connections
- Christ's word supplies the wisdom within which congregational singing teaches and admonishes in Colossians 3:16.
- Thanksgiving accompanies Spirit-filled worship in Ephesians 5:18-20, connecting melody with the believer's grateful life.
- The Lamb's sacrificial death grounds the new song's declaration of worthiness in Revelation 5:9.
- Redemption gathers people from many peoples and languages, giving the Lamb's praise a wider horizon than one congregation.
- Revelation 15:3 places Moses and the Lamb together in praise of God's great works and righteous ways.
- The redeemed singers of Revelation 14:3 express belonging to the Lamb without making musical skill a means of redemption.
The tagged witnesses use the plural odais in Paul's instructions and the singular oden in Revelation's songs. The adjective spiritual in the epistles and new in the visions contribute information that the noun song does not contain by itself.
From Old to New Testament
Exodus 15:1-3 remembers deliverance through song, and Psalm 98:1-3 calls for a new song because the Lord has acted in salvation. Revelation 15:3 explicitly names Moses and the Lamb. Those connections concern remembered divine action and worship; they do not require treating every biblical song as the same composition.