for nothing: with nothing given in exchange, whether that is a price, a reason, or a result
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong
This is the ordinary word for a gift (δωρεά) put to work as an adverb, so it does not name a gift but describes how something happened: with nothing given in exchange. English "for nothing" catches it almost exactly, because the English phrase swings the same three ways.
What is missing depends on what the sentence is about:
no price is paid, so the thing comes free of charge
no reason is given, so the act is groundless
no result follows, so the effort is wasted
The New Testament leans hardest on the first of these. Paul writes that people are set right with God freely by his grace, meaning that nothing was handed over from their side. Jesus tells his messengers that what they received at no charge they must pass on at no charge, and Paul is careful to preach without taking a fee and to pay for the bread he eats. At the end of the Bible the invitation is to come and take the water of life without paying for it.
The two harder uses turn the same idea inside out. When the psalm quoted in John's Gospel says they hated Jesus "without a cause," the hatred is something nobody had earned. When Paul says that if the law could put a person right with God then Christ died "for nothing," he means the death bought no result at all. One word covers both the freest gift in the Bible and the emptiest death imaginable.
Nuances
1afree of charge: given or received with no payment made and nothing owed in return
TranslatabilityDirect
Mat 10:8 (2×)Rom 3:242Co 11:72Th 3:8Rev 21:6Rev 22:17
1bwithout cause: with nothing done to provoke or deserve it
TranslatabilityApproximate
Jhn 15:25
1cfor nothing gained: with no result to show for what was spent
Its ordinary sense is "without payment": what is handed over costs the receiver nothing, which is why it can be set against wages, fees, and bread that has to be paid for.Mat 10:82Co 11:72Th 3:8
It can be entirely positive, describing God's open-handed giving, where costing the receiver nothing is the good news rather than a complaint.Rom 3:24Rev 21:6Rev 22:17
It can mean "for no reason at all", charging that hostility was unprovoked, with nothing in the person hated to account for it.Jhn 15:25
Even where it does say an action came to nothing, the loss it names is a price paid out for no return, so the idea of cost never leaves the word.Gal 2:21
Both
Both can pronounce an action pointless, saying flatly that what was done gained nothing: a death that achieved nothing, worship that counts for nothing.Gal 2:21Mat 15:9
Verdict on an effort that misses its target: the worshippers are genuinely at work, yet the whole exercise reaches nobody, because it rests on human rules instead of God's own command.Mat 15:9Mrk 7:7
Emptiness is all it ever says. It never carries any thought of a gift, a fee, or a free handout, so it can only judge an action worthless, never describe it as generous.Mat 15:9Mrk 7:7
dōrean in the other biblical languages
חִנָּםHebrew“for nothing”the Hebrew adverb with the same three-way range of free of charge, without cause, and in vain; Greek translators regularly used this word to render it, and the quotation "they hated me without a cause" comes straight from it
Names the free gift of God's grace and salvation, the positive gospel sense of a benefit given to those who could never earn it. This generous, gift-giving use grows out of the noun for a gift that stands behind the word, and the Hebrew word never carries it.Rom 3:24Rev 21:6Rev 22:17
Both
Both mean "without cause, undeservedly": something done to a person who did nothing to provoke it. The overlap is exact, because the Greek word is chosen to render the Hebrew one: Jesus applies the psalmist's complaint "they hated me without a cause" to himself.Jhn 15:25Psa 35:19
Both mean "for nothing, at no cost": given or received without any payment changing hands. It covers a gift handed over freely and a service or benefit expected for free.Mat 10:8Gen 29:15
Both can mean "in vain, to no purpose": an act that produces no result. Paul says Christ died for nothing if righteousness comes another way, echoing the Hebrew sense of effort spent uselessly.Gal 2:21Pro 1:17
Became a fixed term for groundless hostility against an innocent person: being hated, hunted, and attacked for no reason. Across the Psalms, Job, and Proverbs it names a whole field of unjust enmity, whereas the Greek word touches this sense only in the single line that quotes it.Psa 35:7Psa 109:3Job 2:3
רֵיקָםHebrew“emptily”the Hebrew word for arriving or being sent away "empty-handed"; it pictures hands with nothing in them, where this word says nothing was handed over in exchange
Means "as a free gift, without payment or cost": something given or received for nothing, out of grace rather than earned. This is the dominant New Testament use, and it is the opposite of being empty-handed.Mat 10:8Rom 3:24Rev 21:6
Describes labor or a benefit supplied free of charge, without demanding the payment one could rightly claim.2Co 11:72Th 3:8
Both
Both can mean "without cause, for no reason": an action aimed at someone who did nothing to deserve it.Jhn 15:25Psa 7:4
Both can mean "in vain, to no purpose, without effect": an act or a thing that fails to accomplish anything.Gal 2:21Isa 55:11
Means "empty-handed": leaving, arriving, or being sent off with nothing in hand, lacking goods, gifts, or spoil. This physical sense of carrying nothing is the word's core and has no counterpart in the Greek adverb.Gen 31:42Exo 3:21Rut 1:21Deu 16:16
What scholars say about dōrean
The form is the accusative singular of δωρεά used adverbially, a construction well attested in classical and Hellenistic Greek (LSJ s.v. δωρεά). BDAG divides the New Testament usage three ways: (1) "as a gift, without payment, gratis" (Mt 10:8;Rom 3:24;2 Cor 11:7;2 Th 3:8;Rev 21:6; 22:17), (2) "undeservedly, without cause" (Jn 15:25), (3) "to no purpose, in vain" (Gal 2:21). Louw and Nida likewise assign it to three distinct semantic domains. The second sense is Septuagintal in provenance: δωρεάν is the standard Greek rendering of Hebrew חִנָּם, which carries the identical three-way range, and Jn 15:25 quotes Ps 34(35):19 / 68(69):5, where חִנָּם stands in the Hebrew. Gal 2:21 is the one contested assignment. Older lexicography grouped it with Jn 15:25 under "without cause," whence the NASB's "needlessly"; BDAG and most modern versions ("for nothing," "in vain") read it as sense (3), and commentators on Galatians generally follow suit, since Paul's argument turns on what the cross accomplished rather than on whether it was avoidable. In Rom 3:24 the adverb stands redundantly beside τῇ αὐτοῦ χάριτι; commentators read the redundancy as deliberate emphasis on the absence of any human contribution to justification.
Sources
BDAG, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (University of Chicago Press, 2000), s.v. δωρεάνlexicon
LSJ, A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. with revised supplement (Oxford, 1996), s.v. δωρεάlexicon
Louw and Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 2nd ed. (United Bible Societies, 1989), s.v. δωρεάνlexicon
Friedrich Büchsel, "δίδωμι, δωρεά, δωρεάν," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 2 (Eerdmans, 1964)lexicon
Moisés Silva, ed., New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis, 2nd ed. (Zondervan, 2014), s.v. δωρεάlexicon
Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans (NICNT; Eerdmans, 1996), on Romans 3:24commentary
James D. G. Dunn, Romans 1-8 (WBC 38A; Word, 1988), on Romans 3:24commentary
F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Galatians (NIGTC; Eerdmans, 1982), on Galatians 2:21commentary
Richard N. Longenecker, Galatians (WBC 41; Word, 1990), on Galatians 2:21commentary
D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (PNTC; Eerdmans, 1991), on John 15:25commentary