to marry: to enter into marriage, to take someone as one's spouse
TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled
This verb means to marry, to enter the married state. It can describe a man taking a wife or a woman marrying a husband, and it points to the marriage bond itself rather than to the wedding celebration.
In older Greek the word divided along the lines of who was acting: a man "married" in the sense of taking a wife, while a woman "was married" in the sense of being given to a husband. The New Testament relaxes that division and uses the single verb for either partner, as Paul does in 1 Corinthians 7 when he speaks both of a man who marries and of a woman who marries.
The word turns up often in teaching about divorce and remarriage, and in the well-known saying that in the resurrection people "neither marry nor are given in marriage." There it stands beside a different verb that means to give someone in marriage, the action of a parent or guardian handing a daughter to a husband. The distinction is worth keeping: this verb is what the bride and groom do, while the other is what a third party does on their behalf.
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“married”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How gameō differs from similar Greek words
γαμίζωto give someone in marriage: the act of a parent or guardian handing a daughter to a husband, set opposite to marrying oneself in the resurrection saying
Names the act of the person who enters marriage: taking a spouse, wedding, including remarriage after divorce or the death of a spouse. This is the ordinary word for a man or woman getting married.1Co 7:91Co 7:391Ti 5:14
Used when Scripture regulates who may marry whom: forbidding marriage, marrying a divorced person, or a widow being free to remarry. The subject is always the one who weds, never the one who bestows another.Mat 5:32Mrk 10:111Ti 4:3
Both
Both belong to the making of marriages and stand together as a fixed pair picturing ordinary human life going on, people wedding and being given to wed.Mat 24:38
Jesus pairs both to say that in the resurrection neither happens: no one weds and no one is given in marriage, because that arrangement belongs only to this age.Luk 20:34Luk 20:35
Names the act of giving another person in marriage: the role of the father or guardian who bestows a daughter or dependent on a husband. The subject is not the one being wed but the one arranging and granting the match.1Co 7:38
ἐπιγαμβρεύωto marry a dead brother's widow: the specific duty-marriage that raised up an heir for the deceased, not marriage in general
γάμοςthe noun for a wedding or the married state, the event or institution, whereas this word is the act of marrying
Names the act of taking a spouse and the ongoing married state, not a celebration. It is what a person does, so it governs debate about whether, when, and whom one should marry.1Co 7:91Co 7:281Ti 5:14
Points to the individual couple and their union: the man who marries a woman, the woman who marries a man. It is spoken of particular people entering a bond, and of remarriage after divorce.Mat 19:9Mrk 10:11Luk 16:18
Both
Both belong to the single sphere of marriage: one names the act of entering it, the other the celebration that marks it, so they often stand side by side in the same teaching.Luk 17:27Luk 14:8
Names the wedding feast: the public celebration with a set day, invited guests, and a host, not the act of marrying. It can be attended, prepared, and even refused by those invited.Mat 22:2Mat 25:10Jhn 2:1
Becomes an image of the final joy God prepares for his people, the wedding of the Lamb to which guests are summoned. This celebratory picture is carried by the event word, never by the act of marrying.Rev 19:7Rev 19:9
gameō in the other biblical languages
לָקַחHebrew“to take: take”the usual Hebrew way of saying "marry" was to "take" a wife, using the ordinary verb for taking or receiving
Is a dedicated verb whose one job is to name marrying, so it stands on its own with no object attached and simply means to marry.Mat 19:101Ti 4:3
Used to weigh marriage as a life choice set against staying single, treating it as a good but optional state a person may take up or forgo.1Co 7:91Co 7:28
Both
Both can express a man entering marriage, but the Hebrew word does so only through the fixed phrase to take a wife, where the general verb take must be paired with the word wife to carry the sense, while the Greek word needs no such object and means marry by itself.Gen 4:19Luk 14:20
Its core sense is the plain act of taking, grasping, or fetching any object at all, and this ordinary grabbing meaning fills most of its uses with nothing to do with marriage.Gen 3:6Gen 8:20Gen 14:11
Reaches across a wide range of everyday actions, from fetching food and leading a person along to receiving something handed over.Gen 2:15Gen 15:9Gen 18:5
בָּעַלHebrew“rule: to marry”a Hebrew verb for becoming a woman's husband and master, marrying her and taking authority over the household
Names the plain act of entering marriage with no built-in claim of ownership, so it applies evenly to a man or a woman marrying, and to remarriage after divorce or widowhood.Mrk 10:121Co 7:39
Used to weigh marriage as a choice against singleness, treating it as a good but optional state that a person may take up or forgo.1Co 7:91Co 7:281Ti 4:3
Both
Both name the act of taking a wife and entering the married state, and both can describe the same everyday event of a man marrying a woman.Deu 24:1Luk 14:20
Casts marrying as a man becoming a woman's husband and master, taking her under his authority, so the wife is spoken of as one who is owned or ruled.Deu 24:1Deu 22:22
Because it carries the sense of lordship, it is stretched to picture God as the husband who takes possession of his people, and even to describe other lords ruling over them.Isa 54:5Jer 3:14Isa 26:13
What scholars say about gameō
γαμέω is the standard Greek verb for entering marriage, attested from Homer onward. Classical usage marked gender by voice: the active of a man taking a wife, the middle (γαμέομαι) of a woman being given in marriage (LSJ). Koine, including the New Testament, largely levels this distinction and uses the active for either partner (BDAG). In the New Testament it is concentrated in the Synoptic divorce and resurrection pericopes and in 1 Corinthians 7, and it is repeatedly set opposite γαμίζω / ἐκγαμίζω "to give in marriage" (Matt 22:30 and parallels), standing near the cognate noun γάμος "wedding, marriage". The lexica treat the sense as settled; the live exegetical questions attach not to what the verb means but to Jesus' and Paul's teaching on divorce and celibacy.