Bible word study

Tereo (Strong’s G5083): Meaning in the Bible

Tereo (τηρέω) is the Greek word numbered G5083 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as to guard (from loss or injury, properly, by keeping the eye upon; and thus differing from G5442, which is properly to prevent escaping; and from G2892, which implies a fortress or full military lines of apparatus), i.e. to note (a prophecy; figuratively, to fulfil a command); by implication, to detain (in custody; figuratively, to maintain); by extension, to withhold (for personal ends; figuratively, to keep unmarried); by extension, to withhold (for personal ends; figuratively, to keep unmarried). In the King James Bible it is translated hold fast, keep(- er), (pre-, re-)serve, watch..

• Original wordτηρέω
• Transliterationtēréō
• Pronunciationtay-reh'-o
• Strong’s numberG5083
• LanguageGreek

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. from (a watch; perhaps akin to G2334);

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Tereo appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Tereo (G5083) stands behind 76 English renderings in 68 verses across 16 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in John (18), Revelation (11), Acts (10).

How the King James Bible renders Tereo, by count

• keep26 of 76 (34 percent)
• keepeth9 of 76 (12 percent)
• kept9 of 76 (12 percent)
• reserved7 of 76 (9 percent)
• observe3 of 76 (4 percent)
• preserved2 of 76 (3 percent)

Three places to read Tereo

• Matthew 19:17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
• John 17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
• 2 Peter 3:7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

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 Tereo 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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