What does ὠδίν (ōdín) mean in the Bible?
ὠδίν (ōdín): Intense suffering likened to childbirth pangs; NT metaphor for end-times tribulation and death's grip.
Greek · G5604
ὠδίν
A pang or throe, especially of childbirth
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ὠδίν G5604
Pronunciation ōdín
What does ὠδίν (ōdín) mean in the Bible?
ὠδίν (ōdín): Intense suffering likened to childbirth pangs; NT metaphor for end-times tribulation and death's grip.
Full entry for ὠδίν (G5604) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G5604?
The BSB source-word alignment has 4 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include of birth pains (2), agony (1), labor pains (1).
Where does ὠδίν (ōdín) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 24:8. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Thessalonians (1), Acts (1), Mark (1), Matthew (1).
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It of birth pains 2× Matthew 24:8, Mark 13:8
agony 1× Acts 2:24
labor pains 1× 1 Thessalonians 5:3
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Matthew 24:8
Aligned rows 4
Books represented 4
Matthew 1 Mark 1 Acts 1 1 Thessalonians 1
Source forms
ὠδίνων 2x ōdinōn Matthew 24:8, Mark 13:8
ὠδὶν 1x ōdin 1 Thessalonians 5:3
ὠδῖνας 1x ōdinas Acts 2:24
Parsing patterns
Noun - Genitive Feminine Plural 2x Matthew 24:8, Mark 13:8
Noun - Accusative Feminine Plural 1x Acts 2:24
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular 1x 1 Thessalonians 5:3
Evidence Summary
Creation
Greek word. Intense suffering likened to childbirth pangs; NT metaphor for end-times tribulation and death's grip.
Strong's G5604
Lexical occurrences 4 verses Greek text appearances 4 times Word forms 3 forms 4 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link Mark 13:3–8 Source Gloss
a pang or throe, especially of childbirth
Extended definition Source: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
Intense suffering likened to childbirth pangs; NT metaphor for end-times tribulation and death's grip.
(late form of ὠδίς), -ῖνος, ἡ [in LXX for חֵבֶל חֶבֶל (and wrongly for חֶבֶל חֶבֶל, cf. Ac, l.with), חִיל, etc. ;] a birth pang, travail pain: 1Th.5:3; metaphorically, of extreme suffering, Mat.24:8, Mrk.13:8; ὠδῖνες θανάτου (Psa.18:4 מָוֶת חֶבֶל), Act.2:24.
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
4 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Matthew 24:8 Noun Genitive Plural Feminine
ὠδίνων. wdinwn
the pain of childbirth, severe agony
Read verse Mark 13:8 Noun Genitive Plural Feminine
ὠδίνων wdinwn
the pain of childbirth, severe agony
Read verse Acts 2:24 Noun Accusative Plural Feminine
ὠδῖνας wdinav
the pain of childbirth, severe agony
Read verse 1 Thessalonians 5:3 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
ὠδὶν wdin
the pain of childbirth, severe agony
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 3 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 patterns 3 Aligned forms 4 Case pattern Genitive (2) Number pattern Plural (3)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · Feminine 1 Thess 5:3 1×
Genitive · Plural · Feminine Matt 24:8 · Mark 13:8 2×
Accusative · Plural · Feminine Acts 2:24 1×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Additional Occurrences
Mark 13:3–13 ὠδίν ōdín
birth pains; labor contractions
New Testament Witnesses
birth pains
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 4 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
ὠδίν is built from this root:
Why This Word Matters
Indicates beginning stage of eschatological events.
Canonical Themes
Creation
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.
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain