Lexicon
τρέφω
trephō
G5142
G:V Greek

to feed

9
Occurrences
5
Books
Greek
Language

trepho describes supplying nourishment, including feeding birds and people, raising children, and fattening hearts.

The dominant attested use concerns supplying nourishment or being nourished, whether birds, a hungry person, a country, or the woman in the wilderness. The remaining verses extend this feeding language to being brought up or nursing, and to the figurative fattening of hearts through luxury.

Senses in use

  1. Providing nourishment or being nourished · dominant

    Present active forms describe God feeding birds in Luke 12:24 and Matthew 6:26, while the aorist active form in Matthew 25:37 occurs in the question about feeding someone who was hungry. In Acts 12:20 the present passive infinitive concerns a country's dependence on the royal domain, and Revelation 12:6 and Revelation 12:14 place the woman's nourishment in the wilderness; the APB renders these clauses with “being fed,” “might be nourished,” and “is nourished.”

  2. Raising or nursing · occasional

    The perfect passive participle in Luke 4:16 identifies Nazareth as the place where the subject had been brought up. In Luke 23:29 the aorist active form occurs with wombs that did not bear and breasts that did not nurse; the APB renders the clauses “had been brought up” and “did not nurse.”

  3. Fattening in self-indulgence · rare

    In James 5:5 the second-person aorist active form is joined to living in luxury and indulging oneself, with hearts as the object. The APB renders the clause “you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.”

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB variously presents the term with “feeds,” “being fed,” “nourished,” “brought up,” “nurse,” and “fattened.” These are translation renderings of whole clauses in every instance.

Passages featuring this word

Across Scripture