Life
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What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
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G979 can name the course and circumstances of earthly life or the material means by which life is sustained, including livelihood, possessions, and resources available for daily living. Some passages emphasize a way or span of life, while others emphasize property, income, or what a person has to live on; context must decide, and the noun does not make material provision either ultimate or unimportant.
Reader summary
Full entry for βίος (G979) · Open the biblical lexicon
G979 can name the course and circumstances of earthly life or the material means by which life is sustained, including livelihood, possessions, and resources available for daily living. Some passages emphasize a way or span of life, while others emphasize property, income, or what a person has to live on; context must decide, and the noun does not make.
The BSB source-word alignment has 10 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include life (2), to live on (2), [civilian] (1), lives (1), money (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Mark 12:44. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (5), 1 John (2), 1 Timothy (1), 2 Timothy (1).
G979 can name the course and circumstances of earthly life or the material means by which life is sustained, including livelihood, possessions, and resources available for daily living. Some passages emphasize a way or span of life, while others emphasize property, income, or what a person has to live on; context must decide, and the noun does not make material provision either ultimate or unimportant.
In Luke. 8. 14, the Lord Jesus says worries, riches, and pleasures of this life can choke heard seed so that its fruit does not mature. In Mark. 12. 44, the Lord Jesus observes that the poor widow contributes all she has to live on after condemning scribes who devour widows’ houses, requiring economic and narrative care. G979 opens teaching on how ordinary life and material means can be received, shared, protected, or distorted, especially where worry, wealth, poverty, and neighbor need expose the direction of love.
It corrects spirituality that ignores food, housing, health, and livelihood, as well as prosperity teaching that treats possessions or a comfortable life as proof of divine favor. G979 keeps daily existence and material provision together: Jesus warns that worries, riches, and pleasures can choke the word before fruit matures, the poor widow contributes all she has to live on within a scene that also condemns exploitative religious leadership, and First John tests professed love by whether a person with material means responds to a sibling in need.
For G979, responsible teaching keeps lexical meaning, passage context, canonical synthesis, and present application distinguishable. The noun does not teach contempt for embodied life, make poverty automatically virtuous, require vulnerable people to surrender necessities, or reduce Christian love to money alone.
G979 appears across passages that develop daily life, livelihood, possessions, economic vulnerability, contentment, generosity, public peace, worldly desire, and mature fruitfulness. For G979, the immediate setting decides which part of the range is active, so the witnesses must remain distinct rather than being merged into one formula.
The seeds that fell among the thorns are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the worries, riches, and pleasures of this life, and their fruit does not mature.
The Lord Jesus says worries, riches, and pleasures of this life can choke heard seed so that its fruit does not mature.
For they all contributed out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”
The Lord Jesus observes that the poor widow contributes all she has to live on after condemning scribes who devour widows’ houses, requiring economic and narrative care.
If anyone with earthly possessions sees his brother in need, but withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God abide in him?
The letter asks how God’s love can abide in a person who has material means, sees a sibling in need, and closes off compassion.
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. Life as lived experience and livelihood, contrasting with ζωή (life as vital principle or spiritual existence).
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.
life, manner of life, livelihood
Read verselife, manner of life, livelihood
Read verselife, manner of life, livelihood
Read verselife, manner of life, livelihood
Read verselife, manner of life, livelihood
Read verselife, manner of life, livelihood
Read verselife, manner of life, livelihood
Read verselife, manner of life, livelihood
Read verselife, manner of life, livelihood
Read verselife, manner of life, livelihood
Read verselife, manner of life, livelihood
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 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.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 10 lexical occurrence verses.
βίος is a primary word - no further derivation.
Indicates total personal cost.Luke 21:1–4
Shows that she gave her entire means of living.Mark 12:41–44
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G979 keeps daily existence and material provision together: Jesus warns that worries, riches, and pleasures can choke the word before fruit matures, the poor widow contributes all she has to live on within a scene that also condemns exploitative religious leadership, and First John tests professed love by whether a person with material means responds to a sibling in need. G979 can name the course and circumstances of earthly life or the material means by which life is sustained, including livelihood, possessions, and resources available for daily living.
The selected witnesses keep the teaching concrete: Luke. 8. 14 shows that the Lord Jesus says worries, riches, and pleasures of this life can choke heard seed so that its fruit does not mature, while Mark. 12. 44 shows that the Lord Jesus observes that the poor widow contributes all she has to live on after condemning scribes who devour widows’ houses, requiring economic and narrative care.
1John. 3. 17 adds that the letter asks how God’s love can abide in a person who has material means, sees a sibling in need, and closes off compassion. G979 opens teaching on how ordinary life and material means can be received, shared, protected, or distorted, especially where worry, wealth, poverty, and neighbor need expose the direction of love. It corrects spirituality that ignores food, housing, health, and livelihood, as well as prosperity teaching that treats possessions or a comfortable life as proof of divine favor.
A church teaching G979 faithfully will name both the promise and the boundary carried by these contexts, attend to vulnerable hearers, and refuse to make the lexical item prove more than its passages support. The noun does not teach contempt for embodied life, make poverty automatically virtuous, require vulnerable people to surrender necessities, or reduce Christian love to money alone.
Luke.8.14
G979 is a Greek noun for earthly life in its course or circumstances and for the means of living, livelihood, or possessions; nearby terms for life and living overlap in some contexts but must not be forced into a rigid spiritual-versus-material contrast.
The Old Testament joins daily bread, land, labor, gleaning, debt restraint, generosity, and warnings about wealth. The New Testament uses G979 to address life’s cares and resources while centering love of God and neighbor, fruitful hearing, quiet faithfulness, and concrete provision for people in need.