Bible word study

Zao (Strong’s G2198): Meaning in the Bible

Zao (ζάω) is the Greek word numbered G2198 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as to live (literally or figuratively). In the King James Bible it is translated life(-time), (a-)live(-ly), quick..

• Original wordζάω
• Transliterationzáō
• Pronunciationdzah'-o
• Strong’s numberG2198
• LanguageGreek

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. a primary verb;

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Zao appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Zao (G2198) stands behind 151 English renderings in 127 verses across 20 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Romans (24), John (18), Revelation (15).

How the King James Bible renders Zao, by count

• live46 of 151 (30 percent)
• living31 of 151 (21 percent)
• liveth23 of 151 (15 percent)
• alive14 of 151 (9 percent)
• lived4 of 151 (3 percent)
• quick4 of 151 (3 percent)

Three places to read Zao

• Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
• Romans 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
• 1 Thessalonians 5:10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

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 Zao 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.

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