What does βασιλικός (basilikós) mean in the Bible?
βασιλικός (basilikós): Royal authority; often denotes supreme law governing other laws with regal character.
Greek · G937
βασιλικός
Royal
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βασιλικόςG937
Pronunciationbasilikós
What does βασιλικός (basilikós) mean in the Bible?
βασιλικός (basilikós): Royal authority; often denotes supreme law governing other laws with regal character.
Full entry for βασιλικός (G937) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G937?
The BSB source-word alignment has 5 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include [his] royal (1), [the] royal (1), king’s [country] (1), official (1), royal official (1).
Where does βασιλικός (basilikós) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at John 4:46. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (2), John (2), James (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[his] royal1×Acts 12:21
[the] royal1×James 2:8
king’s [country]1×Acts 12:20
official1×John 4:49
royal official1×John 4:46
Show sample aligned rows
John 4:46βασιλικὸςtoroyal officialAdjective - Nominative Masculine SingularJohn 4:49βασιλικόςtoofficialAdjective - Nominative Masculine SingularActs 12:20βασιλικῆςtoking’s [country]Adjective - Genitive Feminine SingularActs 12:21βασιλικὴνto[his] royalAdjective - Accusative Feminine SingularJames 2:8βασιλικὸνto[the] royalAdjective - Accusative Masculine Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowJohn 4:46
Aligned rows5
Books represented3
John2Acts2James1
Source forms
βασιλικὴν1xbasilikēnActs 12:21
βασιλικῆς1xbasilikēsActs 12:20
βασιλικὸν1xbasilikonJames 2:8
βασιλικός1xbasilikosJohn 4:49
βασιλικὸς1xbasilikosJohn 4:46
Parsing patterns
Adjective - Nominative Masculine Singular2xJohn 4:46, John 4:49
Adjective - Accusative Feminine Singular1xActs 12:21
Adjective - Accusative Masculine Singular1xJames 2:8
Adjective - Genitive Feminine Singular1xActs 12:20
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Royal authority; often denotes supreme law governing other laws with regal character.
Strong'sG937
Lexical occurrences5 versesGreek text appearances5 timesWord forms4 forms5 referencesVerse guides0 guides
Source Gloss
royal
Extended definitionSource: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
Royal authority; often denotes supreme law governing other laws with regal character.
royal, belonging to a king: χώρα, Act 12:20; ἐσθής, Act.12:21; νόμος β., a supreme law, "a law which governs other laws and so has a specially regal character" (Hort), or because made by a king (LAE, p. 3673), Jas.2:8; τις, one in the service of a king, a courtier, Jhn.4:46, 49 (WH, mg., βασιλίσκος).
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
5 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
John 4:46Adjective Nominative Singular Masculine
βασιλικός,basilikov
connected with a king, royal, regal
Read verseJohn 4:49Adjective Nominative Singular Masculine
βασιλικός,basilikov
connected with a king, royal, regal
Read verseActs 12:20Adjective Genitive Singular Feminine
βασιλικῆς.basilikhv
connected with a king, royal, regal
Read verseActs 12:21Adjective Accusative Singular Feminine
βασιλικήν,basilikhn
connected with a king, royal, regal
Read verseJames 2:8Adjective Accusative Singular Masculine
βασιλικόν,basilikon
connected with a king, royal, regal
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 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.
Form patterns4Aligned forms5Case patternAccusative (2)Number patternSingular (5)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · MasculineJohn 4:46 · John 4:492×
Genitive · Singular · FeminineActs 12:201×
Accusative · Singular · FeminineActs 12:211×
Accusative · Singular · MasculineJas 2:81×
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Witnesses
John 4:43-54βασιλικόςbasilikós
royal official
Showing 1 selected witness from 5 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
βασιλικός is built from this root:
Why This Word Matters
Shows gospel reaching into political authority structures.
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.