noun · masculine
askos
Strong’sG779
a wine-skin
stem ask-12 times in the New Testamentin 3 of 27 books2 of 10 forms occur
What it means
A plain-English reading of the word, with the lexicons it draws on — Abbott-Smith, Strong's, and Liddell-Scott-Jones — right below it, in full.
AI Summary
ἀσκός means a wineskin — a bag or bottle made of leather (skin) used to hold and carry wine 1234. In the Greek Old Testament it renders Hebrew words for skin bottles or bags 1, and in the New Testament it refers to leather wine-bottles, as in the sayings about not putting new wine into old ones 1. Strong's likewise describes it as a leathern or skin bag used as a bottle 2, and LSJ confirms that a skin made into a bag, especially for wine, was the ordinary and most common use of the word 3.
Sources: 1 Abbott-Smith 2 Strong's 3 LSJ 4 Dodson. Condensed by anthropic/claude-sonnet-5 on 2026-09-23 — it may still misstate what these say; check them yourself if it matters to you.
The lexicons it was drawn from, in full:
Abbott-Smith — the 1922 lexicon entry, in full
Strong’s G779 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from
Saidas-kos'
a leathern (or skin) bag used as a bottle
Fromfrom the same as G778;
King Jamesbottle.
James Strong, Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, 1890 — public domain. The numbers in it link to the entries here.
Liddell-Scott-Jones — the classical dictionary this word appears in
skin, hide, Refs 1st c.AD+; but usually, skin made into a bag, especially wineskin, οἶνον.. ἀσκῷ ἐν αἰγείῳRefs 8th c.BC+; ἀσκὸς βοός, of the bag in which Aeolus bottled up the winds, Refs 8th c.BC+; ἀσκοὺς καμήλων skins of camel's hide, Refs 5th c.BC+; ἀ. Μαρσύεω bag made from the skin of Marsyas, Refs 5th c.BC+; ἀσκοὶ πεφυσαμένοι, of mankind, Refs 5th c.BC+; ἀσκός, of the human skin, Refs 1st c.AD+
2 paunch, belly, Refs 7th c.BC+; in oracular language, Refs 5th c.BC+
3 bellows, Refs 2nd c.BC+
4 bagpipes, Refs 2nd c.AD+
5 proverbial, wineskin, of a toper, Refs 4th c.BC+; “ἀσκός, πέλεκυς” in a child's game, Refs 4th c.BC+; ἀσκὸν δείρειν flay alive, hence, abuse, maltreat, Refs 5th c.BC+:—passive, ἀσκὸς δεδάρθαιRefs 6th c.BC+
H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, H. S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (9th ed., 1925–1940) — digitised by the Perseus Digital Library and corrected and expanded by Tyndale House, Cambridge, via STEPBible-Data's TFLSJ table, CC BY 4.0. Covers all of Greek literature, not just the Bible.
Translated as
Every occurrence, sorted by the English it was actually given — the evidence for what the word means, not a gloss of it.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), dedicated to the public domain — berean.bible.
Biblang forms
Every form this word takes in Biblang, with the Greek it corresponds to and how often the New Testament uses it.
| Job in the sentence case | one singular | more than one plural |
|---|---|---|
| subject nominative | askos | askois4×ἀσκοί |
| object accusative | askon | askoin8×ἀσκοὺς |
| direct address vocative | askor | askoir |
| of, belonging to genitive | askou | askoiu |
| to, for dative | asko | askoi |
Tinted cells are forms the New Testament never uses, so there is no Greek to show against them — but they are still correct Biblang, built from the slots below like any other.
Why these forms, and no others — the slots that make them
asko is this word in every one of its forms. The slots after it make all the rest.
same in every form varies — every value shown
Words built on the same stem
Other words sharing the exact same stem — not merely related in meaning.
Where it appears
Every verse the word appears in, filed under the form it takes there.
12 occurrences, every one of them listed
askois“skins”subjectnominative plural4×
Matthew 9:17… ei de mē ge, rēgolō tois askois, kai tos oinos ekchotō kai tois …… old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will spill …
Matthew 9:17… kai tos oinos ekchotō kai tois askois apololō; alla balalō oinon neon eis …… the wine will spill, and the wineskins will be ruined. Instead, they pour …
Mark 2:22“skins”… kai tos oinos apolotō kai tois askois. alla oinon neon eis askoin kainoin.… the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. Instead, new wine is poured into new wineskins.”
Luke 5:37“skins”… askoin, kai autos ekchiti kai tois askois apoleli;… burst the skins, the wine will spill, and the wineskins will …
askoin“wineskins”objectaccusative plural8×
Matthew 9:17oude balalō oinon neon eis askoin palaioin; ei de mē ge, rēgolō …… men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will …
Matthew 9:17… apololō; alla balalō oinon neon eis askoin kainoin, kai amfoterois suntērolō.… they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Mark 2:22kai oudenos balatō oinon neon eis askoin palaioin; ei de mē, rēgati tos …… one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will …
Mark 2:22… de mē, rēgati tos oinos toin askoin, kai tos oinos apolotō kai tois …… does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the …
Mark 2:22… tois askois. alla oinon neon eis askoin kainoin.… new wine is poured into new wineskins.”
Luke 5:37kai oudenos balatō oinon neon eis askoin palaioin; ei de mēge, rēgati tos …… one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine …
Luke 5:37… rēgati tos oinos tos neos toin askoin, kai autos ekchiti kai tois askois …… the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will spill, and the …
Luke 5:38alla oinon neon eis askoin kainoin blēteem.… new wine is poured into new wineskins.