noun · feminine
huiothesias
Strong’sG5206
adoption
stem huiothesi-5 times in the New Testamentin 3 of 27 books3 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
Adoption as a son — the act of formally taking someone as one's child 1234. The word is used metaphorically of the relationship God establishes: with Israel as a people, and with Christians who are made God's sons, including the future completion of that status 1. It is attested as a technical term for adoption in inscriptions from the ancient world, as well as in this religious sense of sonship toward God 13. Strong's describes the underlying idea as "the placing as a son," applied figuratively to Christian standing before God 2.
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
*† υἱοθεσία, -ας, ἡ
(cf. the cl. phrases, υἱὸν τίθεσθαι, θετὸς υἱός), freq. in Inscr. (v. Deiss., BS, 239), adoption of a son (or daughter); metaph., of God's relation established
G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 1922 — public domain. References open in the reader.
Strong’s G5206 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from
Saidhwee-oth-es-ee'-ah
the placing as a son, i.e. adoption (figuratively, Christian sonship in respect to God)
Fromfrom a presumed compound of G5207 and a derivative of G5087;
King Jamesadoption (of children, of sons).
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
adoption as a son, Refs 2nd c.BC+; in a religious sense, πνεῦμα υἱοθεσίας NT; frequently in Inscrr., in the phrase καθ᾽ υἱοθεσίαν, Refs 2nd 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 | huiothesias1×υἱοθεσία | huiothesiais |
| object accusative | huiothesian3×υἱοθεσίαν | huiothesiain |
| direct address vocative | huiothesiar | huiothesiair |
| of, belonging to genitive | huiothesiau1×υἱοθεσίας | huiothesiaiu |
| to, for dative | huiothesia | huiothesiai |
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
huiothesia 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
Where it appears
Every verse the word appears in, filed under the form it takes there.
5 occurrences, every one of them listed
huiothesias“adoption”subjectnominative singular1×
Romans 9:4hotinois alō Israēlitois, hoiu tas huiothesias kai tas doxas kai tais diathēkais …… people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory …
huiothesian“adoption as sons”objectaccusative singular3×
Romans 8:23… nis kai autois en heautoi stenazanō, huiothesian apekdechorōntois tan apolutrōsian teu sōmeu nu.… as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our …
Galatians 4:5… toin hupo nomon exagorazateia, hina tan huiothesian apolabaneia.… law, that we might receive our adoption as sons.
Ephesians 1:5“adoption as sons”proorizarantos nin eis huiothesian dia Iēsu Christou eis auton, kata …He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good …
huiothesiau“adoption”of, belonging togenitive singular1×
Romans 8:15… palin eis fobon, alla labava pneumem huiothesiau en he krazanō; Abba tos patror;… but you received the Spirit of adoption to sonship, by whom we cry …