an inheritance: property or a possession received as one's rightful share, whether a family estate handed down or the possession God grants by promise
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
In everyday Greek an inheritance was the estate or property a family passed on to its heir, and the New Testament uses the word that plain way in Jesus' story of the tenant farmers, who scheme to seize the owner's son and take his inheritance, and in the man who begs Jesus to make his brother split the family inheritance with him.
From that ordinary sense the word stretches to carry the Bible's largest promises. Its uses fan out along a clear line:
the land God swore to give Abraham and his descendants, though Abraham himself owned not one foot of it in his lifetime
the salvation God grants his people, a possession they will receive in full at the end yet already hold a first installment of now
God's own inheritance, in the surprising claim that his people are his treasured possession
What holds these together is not death but grant. An inheritance here is a possession received by right because God has promised it and handed it out, the way the tribes of Israel each received a portion of the land. The Greek word regularly translates the main Hebrew term for that allotted portion (נַחֲלָה), and it keeps the flavor of a settled, secure holding rather than a mere windfall.
Nuances
1aa family estate or property that passes to an heir
TranslatabilityDirect
Mat 21:38Mrk 12:7Luk 12:13Luk 20:14
1bthe land God promised to give Abraham and his descendants as a lasting possession
Act 7:5Heb 11:8
1cthe salvation God grants his people as their promised and secure possession
In the New Testament the possession is granted by God's promise and often held already as a first installment, not merely awaited after a death.Eph 1:14Gal 3:18
Both
Both name property or a possession received as one's rightful share.Luk 12:13Mat 21:38
Only inheritance
The English word suggests wealth that comes to you only when a previous owner dies, and often a windfall, neither of which is the center of the biblical term.
“heritage”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“possession”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How klēronomia differs from similar Greek words
κληρονόμοςthe heir, the person who receives; this word is the inheritance itself, the thing received.
Names the property itself, the estate or possession that passes to someone: the thing received, not the person who receives it.Luk 12:13Act 7:5
Used for the believer's future portion, the imperishable possession kept in heaven, guaranteed by the Spirit as a down payment.Eph 1:141Pe 1:4
Both
Both belong to the language of legal succession and appear together in the parable of the wicked tenants, where the heir stands to receive the inheritance.Mrk 12:7
Names the estate or property itself as the object in view, especially in a family or legal dispute: the tenants scheme to seize the vineyard owner's inheritance (Matthew 21:38,Mark 12:7), and a man asks for his share of the family inheritance (Luke 12:13).Mat 21:38Mrk 12:7Luk 12:13
Denotes the promised land as a concrete allotment: Abraham was given no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground (Acts 7:5), yet he went out to the place he would later receive as an inheritance (Hebrews 11:8).Act 7:5Heb 11:8
Names the believer's settled, kept possession as a thing already secured: the Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance (Ephesians 1:14), it is reserved in heaven (1 Peter 1:4), and it is received as a reward (Colossians 3:24).Eph 1:141Pe 1:4Col 3:24
Both
Both center on the future possession of God's kingdom and salvation, one as the act of entering into it and the other as the thing kept in store: inheriting the kingdom (Matthew 25:34) and an inheritance reserved in heaven (1 Peter 1:4).Mat 25:341Pe 1:4
Both frame the possession as something God promised and gives, not something earned by law: the promises are inherited through faith and patience (Hebrews 6:12), and the inheritance comes by promise (Galatians 3:18).Heb 6:12Gal 3:18
Names the act of coming into possession, with a person as the one who receives and the thing received as its object: to inherit the kingdom (Matthew 25:34), eternal life (Matthew 19:29), or the earth (Matthew 5:5).Mat 25:34Mat 19:29Mat 5:5
Sets a moral and eschatological gate by naming who will NOT receive: the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:9), flesh and blood cannot inherit it (1 Corinthians 15:50), and those who practice such things will not inherit it (Galatians 5:21).1Co 6:91Co 15:50Gal 5:21
Describes obtaining rank or blessing by right: the Son inherited a name above the angels (Hebrews 1:4), while the patient inherit the promises (Hebrews 6:12) and a blessing (1 Peter 3:9).Heb 1:4Heb 6:121Pe 3:9
κλῆροςthe lot or allotted portion, stressing the share assigned; this word stresses the estate or possession received and held.
Names the estate or property that passes from a father to his heirs, the possession seized or divided among those who have a legal claim to it.Mat 21:38Mrk 12:7Luk 12:13Luk 20:14
Marks a possession that is received and then held permanently as one's own, a promised reward kept secure and guaranteed rather than assigned in the moment.Eph 1:14Col 3:24Heb 9:151Pe 1:4
Both
Both name the allotted portion that believers receive among God's holy people, the heritage set apart for those who are sanctified.Act 20:32Eph 1:18Act 26:18Col 1:12
Names the physical lots that are cast to settle a matter, the objects thrown to divide clothing or to choose a person, which inheritance never means.Mat 27:35Mrk 15:24Jhn 19:24Act 1:26
Names a person's assigned share or part in something, the portion of a ministry or matter that falls to them, rather than a whole estate handed down.Act 1:17Act 8:21
κατάσχεσιςa holding or secure tenure that one takes and keeps; this word names what is received as one's rightful share.
Names the estate an heir claims within a family, the property that passes when the owner dies, which is why the tenants kill the heir to make it theirs and why one brother asks that it be divided with him.Mat 21:38Mrk 12:7Luk 12:13
Comes as a rightful share received by promise and sonship rather than by conquest, given to Abraham apart from the law and awaited by faith.Gal 3:18Heb 11:8
Carries over into the believer's future reward, the incorruptible portion kept in heaven and the eternal inheritance promised in Christ.1Pe 1:4Eph 1:14Heb 9:15
Both
Both name the land God pledged to Abraham and his offspring, standing side by side in one verse: the land he did not yet hold as an inheritance, promised to be given to him for a possession.Act 7:5
Points to the act of taking and holding territory: the land seized and occupied when its former owners are driven out.Act 7:45
Stresses secure tenure, a holding to be kept, rather than who receives it or how they came by it.Act 7:5
klēronomia in the other biblical languages
נַחֲלָהHebrew“inheritance”the main Old Testament word for the allotted inheritance, especially each tribe's portion of the land, which this Greek word regularly renders.
In the New Testament it most often names a future possession that has not yet arrived: the kingdom, eternal life, or a permanent estate kept safe in heaven for believers.Eph 1:14Col 3:241Pe 1:4Heb 9:15
It keeps the plain everyday sense of the property a person leaves behind at death, the estate heirs stand to gain.Luk 12:13Mat 21:38Mrk 12:7
Both
Both name a permanent, God-given possession that is passed down and rightfully belongs to a person or people, not earned but received as their portion.Psa 2:8Act 20:32Gal 3:18
The Greek word is the standard New Testament rendering of the Hebrew word, so the promise of an inheritance God grants his people carries straight across from one Testament to the other.Deu 4:21Heb 11:8
It names the specific portion of land in Canaan handed out to each tribe and family, the territorial allotment that anchors the books of Numbers and Joshua.Num 26:53Num 36:2Jos 14:2Jos 19:51
It runs the other direction too, naming Israel itself, or the land, as the LORD's own treasured portion that he claims as his.Deu 32:91Ki 8:51Psa 33:12Jol 3:2
יְרֻשָּׁהHebrew“possession”a possession taken and held, from the verb to take possession; this Greek word centers more on what is granted as one's share.
A rightful share received as an heir, granted by promise or descent rather than seized. It is the portion that falls to someone because of who they are, culminating in the imperishable inheritance God keeps for his people.Gal 3:18Eph 1:141Pe 1:4
The estate divided among heirs, the object of family claims and rivalry. One brother asks Jesus to split it; tenants plot to kill the son so the share will fall to them.Luk 12:13Mat 21:38Mrk 12:7
Both
Both name a portion of land that God grants as a lasting holding, so English reaches for "inheritance" or "possession" for either. The promised land is the possession Israel is to occupy, and the same land is the inheritance Abraham was told he would receive.Deu 3:20Heb 11:8Act 7:5
Territory a people takes and holds by driving out its former occupants. God assigns each nation the land it dispossesses: Seir to Esau, Ar to Moab, Ammon's country to Lot's sons.Deu 2:5Deu 2:9Deu 2:19
The concrete landholding Israel's tribes seize and keep after the conquest, the settled property distributed to each side of the Jordan.Jos 1:15Jos 12:7Jdg 21:17
Carries the family picture of an heir: property that passes from one owner to the next, which the heir has a claim on because of whose son he is. The tenants in the vineyard story recognize the son as the one the estate is coming to and plot to seize it, and a man in a crowd asks Jesus to make his brother split the family property with him.Mat 21:38Mrk 12:7Luk 20:14Luk 12:13
Usually points forward rather than at the present moment: what is promised is being kept somewhere safe and handed over later, so believers hold a guarantee now and receive the thing itself afterward.Eph 1:141Pe 1:4Col 3:24Heb 9:15
Can name a share among people and a standing in God's kingdom rather than a measured piece of ground, so the question is who belongs among those who receive, not which territory has been marked off.Act 20:32Eph 1:18Eph 5:5
Both
Both name land God gives his people to hold for good, and both are tied to the promise made to Abraham: the Hebrew word stands in God's oath to bring Israel into the land he swore to their fathers, while the Greek word is used when the New Testament looks back on that promise, with Abraham owning no ground yet and still setting out for the place he was to receive.Exo 6:8Act 7:5Heb 11:8
Both describe holding that arrives as a gift rather than as wages or plunder: the land and the law come to Israel by God's own word rather than by anything Israel won, and Paul argues that what God grants comes by promise and not by keeping rules.Deu 33:4Gal 3:18
Presses the granting itself rather than a succession of owners: God speaks at the moment of handing the land over, saying he is giving it now and giving it to be held from here on, and Moses passes on his instruction the same way, as something committed to Israel to keep.Exo 6:8Deu 33:4
Turns up in a quarrel over who holds the ground: people already living on the land insist it has been handed to them and is theirs by right, and the prophet answers that claim.Ezk 11:15Ezk 33:24Ezk 36:2
The same kind of grant can be made against a people: God hands one nation's own territory over to outsiders to hold, and outsiders in turn assign Israel's land to themselves.Ezk 25:4Ezk 25:10Ezk 36:3Ezk 36:5
What scholars say about klēronomia
κληρονομία renders נַחֲלָה and related Hebrew terms in the Septuagint, carrying the Old Testament theology of the allotted portion of the land into the New Testament (W. Foerster, TDNT 3). BDAG distinguishes the concrete legal estate (the tenant parables; Luke 12:13) from the possession of God's people, whether the land promised to the patriarchs (Acts 7:5;Heb 11:8) or the eschatological salvation of believers (Acts 20:32;Gal 3:18;Eph 5:5;Col 3:24;Heb 9:15;1 Pet 1:4). In Ephesians the inheritance is a present guarantee secured by the Spirit as a first installment (Eph 1:14) and, in 1:18, arguably God's own possession in his people (Lincoln, WBC 42; O'Brien, Pillar). Hebrews 9:15-17 exploits the double sense of διαθήκη as both covenant and will, so that the eternal inheritance is unlocked by a death, as a testament is. Documentary papyri attest the ordinary legal sense of an estate (Moulton and Milligan).
Sources
BDAG, s.v. κληρονομίαlexicon
W. Foerster, "κληρονόμος, κληρονομία, κληρονομέω," TDNT 3:767-785theological-dictionary
EDNT 2, s.v. κληρονομίαtheological-dictionary
A. T. Lincoln, Ephesians (Word Biblical Commentary 42)commentary
P. T. O'Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians (Pillar New Testament Commentary)commentary
J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testamentlexicon