A sister (naturally or ecclesiastically)
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Ἀδελφή means sister, whether by biological family relation or by the new kinship formed among God's people. The Gospels use it for named women such as Mary and Martha and for Paul's unnamed biological sister in Acts.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἀδελφή (G79) · Open the biblical lexicon
Ἀδελφή means sister, whether by biological family relation or by the new kinship formed among God's people. The Gospels use it for named women such as Mary and Martha and for Paul's unnamed biological sister in Acts.
The BSB source-word alignment has 25 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include sister (15), sisters (8), a believing (1), a sister (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 12:50. Its strongest book concentrations include John (6), Mark (4), Luke (3), Matthew (3).
Ἀδελφή means sister, whether by biological family relation or by the new kinship formed among God's people. The Gospels use it for named women such as Mary and Martha and for Paul's unnamed biological sister in Acts. Jesus also expands family language when He says that whoever does His Father's will is His brother, sister, and mother. That saying does not erase natural family obligations or turn obedience into the meritorious cause of salvation.
It declares the reality and dignity of a community gathered around Jesus and God's will. The feminine noun keeps women explicitly present in both household history and covenant fellowship. A sister is not an abstract audience category but a person to be heard, honored, protected, and received as kin in Christ.
Ἀδελφή names a biological or covenant sister. Jesus' family saying explicitly includes believing women within the new household gathered around obedience to God.
For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”
Jesus identifies those doing His Father's will as true family, relativizing but not abolishing natural kinship under the kingdom.
For whoever does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother.”
Mark's parallel places the new family around Jesus as He responds to misunderstanding from those closest to Him.
She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to His message.
Mary appears as Martha's sister and as a disciple seated at the Lord's feet to hear His word.
At this time a man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
John introduces Lazarus through the real household bonds of Mary and Martha, whose grief and faith shape the sign narrative.
But when the son of Paul’s sister heard about the plot, he went into the barracks and told Paul.
Paul's sister and nephew appear as ordinary biological family whose courageous information becomes a means of preservation.
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. a sister (naturally or ecclesiastically)
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 24 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a sister
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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 6 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.
ἀδελφή 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.
Sister language is concrete. Mary and Martha are not interchangeable figures; each speaks, grieves, serves, listens, believes, and is loved within a real household. Paul's sister and nephew participate quietly but decisively in his preservation. Jesus' declaration of a new family explicitly includes sisters among those gathered around God's will. This enlarges the household of faith without authorizing contempt for biological relatives, since Jesus elsewhere upholds honor and care.
Churches should hear the noun's pastoral force. Women in Christ are not auxiliary participants or unnamed dependents; they are sisters whose gifts, safety, discipleship, testimony, and burdens matter to the whole family. Covenant language creates obligations of purity, respect, mutual service, and protection. It must never be used to simulate intimacy for manipulation or to bypass wise boundaries.
Matt.12.50
Ἀδελφή is the feminine counterpart to ἀδελφός. It ordinarily denotes a female sibling and can extend metaphorically to a woman within the covenant community. The context distinguishes household genealogy from spiritual kinship.
Israel's households include sisters whose lives expose questions of protection, inheritance, courage, and covenant continuity. Jesus forms a new family around Himself, and the apostolic church names believing women as sisters, coworkers, patrons, and servants.