Bible word study

Eleos (Strong’s G1656): Meaning in the Bible

Eleos (ἔλεος) is the Greek word numbered G1656 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as compassion (human or divine, especially active). In the King James Bible it is translated (+ tender) mercy..

• Original wordἔλεος
• Transliterationéleos
• Pronunciationel'-eh-os
• Strong’s numberG1656
• LanguageGreek

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. of uncertain affinity;

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Eleos appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Eleos (G1656) stands behind 30 English renderings in 27 verses across 13 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Luke (8), Matthew (3), Romans (3).

How the King James Bible renders Eleos, by count

• mercy28 of 30 (93 percent)
• of1 of 30 (3 percent)
• the1 of 30 (3 percent)

Three places to read Eleos

• Matthew 9:13 But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
• Romans 9:23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
• Titus 1:4 To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Counts are made at build time from the King James text tagged with Strong’s numbers (eBible.org, public domain). Verses are read from the stored King James text, never typed.

Why the word matters

Every word the biblical writers chose carries weight. Studying Eleos in the original Greek lets you read the passages where it appears more carefully, closer to what the first hearers understood, so the meaning is drawn from the text itself rather than from the English alone.

The lexical data on this page comes from the public-domain Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890), a Hebrew and Greek dictionary keyed to the King James Bible. It is a reference tool, not a settled verdict: no single word decides a doctrine, and meaning is finally shaped by how a word is used in its sentences. Read the passages themselves, prayerfully, and in full.

Related words