Lexicon

G1097 - ginosko

Strong's: G1097 · BLB lookup Pronunciation: ghin-oce'-ko Part of speech: verb Hebrew equivalent (LXX): H3045 - yada, yadaʿ (to know), direct correspondent. NT occurrences: 222, heavily concentrated in the Johannine literature (esp. John 56× / 1 John 25× / 2 John 1× / 3 John 1×) and Pauline epistles. The Synoptics have ~80; Acts ~16.

Semantic range (Thayer / BDAG)

To come to know / learn / discover, the inceptive sense; the acquiring of knowledge through perception, experience, or instruction.
To know experientially / perceptually, the experiential / relational knowledge sense, as distinct from theoretical knowledge. The Hebrew yadaʿ tradition shapes this strongly.
To recognize / acknowledge, the identifying sense; e.g., "they did not know Him" = "they did not recognize who He was."
To understand / perceive / apprehend, the cognitive-comprehension sense.
To know intimately / sexually (idiom), Hebrew yadaʿ idiom for sexual knowing carried over into Greek (Matt 1:25, "Joseph kept her a virgin until she gave birth"; Luke 1:34, "I have not known a man").
To know (covenant-relational), the relational-covenantal sense: to know God / Christ / the truth as covenantal participation, not merely cognitive grasp.

Theological force, relational / experiential knowledge

The Greek ginōskō is shaped substantially by the Hebrew yadaʿ via the LXX. The OT-Hebrew "knowledge" concept is relational-experiential, not (or not primarily) abstract / propositional. To know (yadaʿ / ginōskō) God in biblical idiom is to be in covenantal relationship with Him, to experience, encounter, follow, and conform to Him.

Ginōskō vs. oida, the two-word distinction

NT Greek has two primary "to know" verbs, often treated as near-synonyms but with subtle differences:

G1097 ginōskō, typically the experiential / inceptive sense; coming to know through encounter or relationship; progressive / learned knowledge.
G1492 oida (eidō), typically the intuitive / immediate / settled sense; knowing-as-having-known; complete / unmediated knowledge.

The distinction is not mechanical; many NT contexts use them interchangeably. But where the difference matters, ginōskō leans toward the progressive-relational-experiential end and oida toward the settled-intuitive-comprehensive end. John 21:17 captures both: "Lord, You know (oidas) all things; You know (ginōskeis) that I love You", Peter appeals to Christ's omniscient oida and his own ginōskō-perception.

Stream 1, Knowing God as covenantal relationship

The Johannine literature deploys ginōskō with maximum intensity for the relational-covenantal-knowing of God in Christ:

John 17:3, "this is eternal life, that they may know (ginōskōsin) You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent", eternal life is defined as the relational-knowing of the Father and the Son
John 10:14-15, 27, "I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father", covenantal mutual-knowing as the structural pattern
John 14:7, "if you had known Me, you would have known My Father also"
John 14:9, "have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip?"
1 John 2:3-4, 13-14; 3:6; 4:6-8, Johannine epistemological-pastoral test: "by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments"
1 John 4:7-8, "everyone who loves is born of God and knows God; the one who does not love does not know God, for God is love"

The Johannine pattern: to know God / Christ is to be in love-and-obedience-relationship with Him; cognitive recognition of theological propositions is necessary-but-not-sufficient.

Stream 2, Pauline knowing as covenantal-redemptive participation

Paul deploys ginōskō especially for the believer's knowing-and-being-known by Christ:

Galatians 4:9, "now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God"
Philippians 3:8, 10, "the surpassing value of knowing (gnōseōs) Christ Jesus my Lord... that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection"
2 Timothy 2:19, "the Lord knows those who are His"
1 Corinthians 8:3; 13:12, "if anyone loves God, he is known by Him... now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been known fully"

The Pauline pattern preserves the priority of being known by God, the divine-side relational-knowing as the ground for the human-side covenantal-knowing. The Christian epistemology is Christological: knowledge of God is in Christ, mediated through union with Him, not autonomous.

Stream 3, Hebrew yada / sexual-knowing extension

The Hebrew yadaʿ idiom for sexual knowing (Gen 4:1, "Adam knew Eve his wife") carries into LXX-Greek and NT-Greek. The relational-personal yadaʿ / ginōskō applies maximally to the most-intimate relational reality, sexual union, but extends through the same logic to the most-intimate spiritual reality, covenantal union with God.

Notable verses

Johannine, covenantal knowing

John 1.10, "He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him"
John 8.32, "you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free"
John 10:14-15, 27, Good Shepherd knows His own
John 14:7, 9, "if you had known Me..."
John 17.3, eternal life as knowing the Father and the Son
John 17:25, "the world has not known You, yet I have known You"
1 John 2:3-4, "by this we know that we have come to know Him"
1 John 4:7-8, "the one who does not love does not know God, for God is love"

Pauline, covenantal-redemptive knowing

Galatians 4:9, "to know God, or rather to be known by God"
Philippians 3:8, 10, knowing Christ
1 Corinthians 13:12, "now I know in part... then I will know fully"
2 Timothy 2:19, "the Lord knows those who are His"

Recognition / discovery sense

Matthew 12:33, "the tree is known by its fruit"
Luke 2:43; 24:35, "they recognized Him"
Mark 5:43; 9:30, "no one should know" (concealment commands)

Covenant-recognition use

Matthew 7:23, "I never knew you", the eschatological non-recognition
2 Timothy 2:19, "the Lord knows those who are His" (counterpart)

Hebrew-yada extension (sexual)

Matthew 1:25, Joseph "kept her a virgin (ouk eginōsken autēn) until she gave birth"
Luke 1:34, Mary: "I have not known a man"

Patristic / scholarly note

The Christian epistemology of ginōskō has been the subject of major theological reflection. Augustine (De Trinitate; Confessions), develops cognitio fidei (knowledge by faith) as the distinctively Christian epistemology; faith and reason interact, but faith-knowledge is not subordinated to autonomous reason. Anselm (Proslogion), fides quaerens intellectum, faith seeking understanding; the credo ut intelligam tradition operates on the ginōskō-as-relational-and-progressive logic.

In modern theology, Karl Barth (Church Dogmatics II.1), emphasizes the priority of being-known by God; the Pauline kathōs kai epegnōsthēn (1 Cor 13:12) is the structural pattern. Cornelius Van Til (presuppositional epistemology), the Christian theory of knowledge must account for the relational-covenantal ginōskō as the framework, not abstract-Greek epistēmē.

The Hebrew yadaʿ / Greek ginōskō / Reformed knowledge lineage informs the Reformed doctrine that true knowledge of God is inseparable from union with Christ. Calvin (Institutes I.1-3), opens the Institutes with the duplex cognitio Dei (two-fold knowledge of God: as Creator, as Redeemer); knowledge of God is necessarily covenantal-personal, not propositional alone.

The contrast with Hellenistic philosophical epistemology (Plato's epistēmē, abstract intellectual knowledge of eternal Forms) is real: the biblical-Hebrew yadaʿ / NT ginōskō does not displace propositional-knowledge but embeds it in relational-covenantal context. To know God in biblical idiom is necessarily to be in covenant with Him; pure intellectual recognition without relationship does not constitute biblical ginōskō (cf. James 2:19, the demons believe and tremble).

Verses in this codex

See Obsidian's backlinks pane for every verse page linking here. Anchors: John 17.3 (eternal life as knowing), John 10.14-15 (Good Shepherd), John 14:7-9, 1 John 4:7-8 (love and knowing God), Galatians 4:9 (known by God), Philippians 3:8, 10 (knowing Christ), 1 Corinthians 13:12 (in part / fully), 2 Timothy 2:19.