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Know: oida and ginōskō

Greek οἶδα · γινώσκω. Also called Know, Oida, Ginosko, oida · ginōskō.

The New Testament’s two common verbs for “know”: oida (320 times) and ginōskō (221). They are often taught as two kinds of knowing; the text mostly uses them as one.

A popular distinction holds that oida is knowledge you have, settled and complete, and ginōskō knowledge you come to by experience. The BSB’s renderings lean that way: ginōskō is more often “understand”, “realize” or “recognize”. But the two stand side by side in fifteen verses, often with no change of sense, and when Hebrews quotes Jeremiah 31:34, where the Hebrew uses one verb twice, it uses ginōskō and then oida. Ginōskō, like the Hebrew yada, can also mean sexual union: “seeing I know not a man”, Mary says in the KJV.

Oida and ginōskō: two Greek verbs for know, and how far they overlap

Two verbs, one English word

οἶδα oida, 320 times

  • 280 know
  • 25 understand, realize, recognize
  • 15 other words

γινώσκω ginōskō, 221 times

  • 145 know
  • 44 understand, realize, recognize
  • 32 other words

How the BSB renders them. Both are “know” most of the time. Ginōskō is more often “understand”, “realize” or “recognize”, which fits the usual teaching that it is knowledge gained, and oida knowledge held; but the text does not keep them apart.

Fifteen verses use both

  1. John 8:55 You do not know know I did not know I do know “You do not know Him, but I know Him. If I said I did not know Him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know Him”
  2. John 14:7 you had known you would know you do know “If you had known Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on you do know Him”
  3. John 21:17 know know “Lord, You know all things,” he replied. “You know I love You.”
  4. 1 John 2:29 you know you also know “If you know that He is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.”
  5. Hebrews 8:11 Know they will all know “saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know Me”

The clearest test is Hebrews 8:11, which quotes Jeremiah 31:34: “saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know Me”. Jeremiah uses one Hebrew verb, yada, both times; the Greek uses ginōskō and then oida. Here, at least, the two are one word said twice.

Knowing as union

Like the Hebrew yada (“Adam knew Eve his wife”, Genesis 4:1 in the KJV), ginōskō can mean sexual union. The KJV keeps the idiom (Joseph “knew her not”; Mary asks how this shall be, “seeing I know not a man”); the BSB says it plainly, as above. Counted in the site’s Greek by Strong’s number, G1492 and G1097, with the BSB’s English for each from its translation tables.

Where it appears

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