StrongerBible

dōrea

δωρεά

GreekG1431“gift, free gift”

Appears 11 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Jhn 4:10Act 2:38Act 8:20Act 10:45Act 11:17Rom 5:15Rom 5:172Co 9:15Eph 3:7Eph 4:7Heb 6:4
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradedoh-reh-AHnoun

What dōrea means

a free gift: a bestowal granted purely on the giver's initiative, which the recipient could never earn, buy, or pay back.

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

In the world of the New Testament this was the formal word for a gift that runs one direction only. An old definition put it as "a giving that is not paid back," and in everyday Greek it named the kind of grant only a superior could make: land handed out by a king, honors or tax exemptions voted by a city, freedom bestowed by an emperor. What all of these have in common is that they depend entirely on the giver's goodwill and never on any prior claim of the person who receives them.

Every time it appears in the New Testament it names a gift that comes down from God, never one exchanged between people. Across its eleven appearances it settles on three things:

  • the Holy Spirit, poured out on everyone who believes (this is Luke's near-fixed term for it)
  • God's saving act in Christ, including the very standing of being counted right with God
  • the grace that commissions and equips a person for service

Unlike the ordinary word for a present (δῶρον), which could just as easily be a sacrifice offered to God or even a bribe, this word was reserved for the free, unearned grant of a superior. Paul often sets it beside the word for grace (χάρις), the gracious attitude of the giver, so that grace is the disposition and this word is the concrete gift that disposition hands over. The one constant is that the exchange is lopsided: the gift arrives from above and cannot be repaid in kind, which is exactly why Peter tells Simon that no amount of money can purchase it.

Nuances

1athe gift of the Holy Spirit: the Spirit himself, freely given and poured out on those who believe.
Jhn 4:10Act 2:38Act 8:20Act 10:45Act 11:17
Jhn 4:10

What the unnamed "gift of God" at the Samaritan well refers to.

  • majorityThe Holy Spirit, whom the glorified Jesus gives, anticipated by the living water and by John 7:37-39.; C. K. Barrett, The Gospel According to St. John, 2nd ed. (1978), 233-234; D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, PNTC (1991), 218-220; Craig S. Keener, The Gospel of John (2003), 1:602-605
  • minorityGod's self-revelation embodied in Jesus, broadly the same as the living water offered, with the Spirit a secondary resonance.; Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John I-XII, AB 29 (1966), 170-171, 178-180
1bthe gift of salvation in Christ: God's saving act, including Christ himself and the standing of being counted right with God.
Rom 5:15Rom 5:172Co 9:15Heb 6:4
1cthe gift of grace for service: the grace God grants that commissions and equips a person for ministry.
Eph 3:7Eph 4:7

Disputed

How far δωρεά's formal, sovereign register sets it apart from the general word for a gift (δῶρον) and from χάρις, or whether at the New Testament stratum the gift-words simply overlap.

  • contestedThe distinction is real and pressable: δωρεά names a sovereign, unearned, formal bestowal (never a bribe or an offering, unlike δῶρον) and the concrete gift as against the gracious disposition (χάρις) behind it.; R. C. Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament, §16; Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (1994), 1:432-436; C. E. B. Cranfield, The Epistle to the Romans, ICC (1975), 1:285-290
  • contestedBy the New Testament period the gift-words overlap heavily and any theological weight comes from the surrounding argument, not from the choice of this word; pressing the distinction reads a word's whole history into every use.; James Barr, The Semantics of Biblical Language (1961), 206-262; J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon Based on Semantic Domains (1989), 57.84; James D. G. Dunn, Romans 1-8, WBC 38A (1988), 279-285

What scholars say about dōrea

δωρεά carries a distinct Hellenistic register as a sovereign, unreciprocated bestowal, captured in Aristotle's definition δόσις ἀναπόδοτος (Topics 4.4) and documented in Demosthenes' civic honours and tax-immunities, the Ptolemaic δωρεά-estate of the Zenon archive (the 10,000-aroura grant to Apollonios), and Roman-era imperial donationes (Spicq, TLNT 1:432-436; Moulton-Milligan 174; Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East). In the LXX substantive δωρεά is comparatively rare (about 10x, vs c.178 for δῶρον), and Panczova's distributional study shows it is never used for a bribe (שֹׁחַד, always δῶρον) or for a cultic offering, marking a genuine distinction from δῶρον at that stratum. At the NT stratum, however, Barr (illegitimate totality transfer), Louw-Nida (57.84, grouping δωρεά, δῶρον, δώρημα, δόμα, δόσις as functional synonyms), and Silva caution against pressing the distinction: the theology of Romans 5:15-17 rests on Paul's rhetoric of superabundance and the antithesis with παράπτωμα rather than on the lexeme alone. Cranfield presses the harder distinction (χάρις as gracious disposition, δωρεά as concrete gift), while Dunn, Fitzmyer, and Jewett read the cluster as variegated near-synonyms deployed for amplification (Jewett reading δωρεά through Greco-Roman benefaction, e.g. Nero's Akraiphiai grant of 67 CE). Every NT occurrence denotes a divine gift; the principal referents are the Spirit (Acts 2:38; 8:20; 10:45; 11:17; John 4:10, taken with 7:37-39), Christ's saving benefit and given righteousness (Rom 5:15-17; 2 Cor 9:15; Heb 6:4), and the grace commissioning apostolic ministry (Eph 3:7; 4:7). On the disputed genitives the near-consensus is appositional: the gift which is the Spirit (Acts 2:38, so Barrett, Bruce, Fitzmyer) and the gift which is righteousness (Rom 5:17, so Cranfield, Moo, Schreiner).

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDAG (Danker, ed.), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 3rd ed. (2000), 266, s.v. δωρεάlexicon
  • LSJ, A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. (1940), s.v. δωρεάlexicon
  • Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (1994), 1:432-436, s.v. δωρεάtheological-dictionary
  • F. Buchsel, "δίδωμι κτλ.," TDNT 2:166-175theological-dictionary
  • J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (1930), 174, s.v. δωρεάlexicon
  • J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon Based on Semantic Domains, 2nd ed. (1989), 57.84lexicon
  • James Barr, The Semantics of Biblical Language (1961), esp. 206-262monograph
  • C. E. B. Cranfield, The Epistle to the Romans, ICC (1975), 1:285-290commentary
  • James D. G. Dunn, Romans 1-8, WBC 38A (1988), 279-285commentary
  • John M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift (2015), 66-78, 466ff.monograph
  • Murray J. Harris, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, NIGTC (2005), 660-663commentary
  • Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Hermeneia (1989), 170-172commentary
  • Andrew T. Lincoln, Ephesians, WBC 42 (1990), 181-183, 240-243commentary
  • Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John I-XII, AB 29 (1966), 170-171, 178-180commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of δωρεά

accusative f s

δωρεὰν

Jhn 4:10, Act 2:38, Act 8:20, Act 11:17, Eph 3:7

genitive f s

δωρεᾶς

Rom 5:17, Eph 4:7, Heb 6:4

nominative f s

δωρεὰ

Act 10:45, Rom 5:15

dative f s

δωρεᾷ

2Co 9:15