The Greek word ginosko, translated "know" in John 17:3, means far more than being acquainted with or having information about someone. Jesus defines eternal life as knowing "the only true God, and Jesus Christ," so eternal life is defined by knowledge within a very intimate relationship, not merely by endless existence. Biblical knowing means knowing well enough to act on that knowledge, and it carries power. Hosea 4:6 and Proverbs 3 show that ignorance destroys while knowledge of God heals and gives abundant life. Isaiah 11:9 shows the Millennium's quality of life flowing from the earth being full of the knowledge of the Lord. The Hebrew yada, used of Adam knowing Eve in Genesis 4, can carry sexual connotations, and Luke 1:34 shows ginosko has the same range, which adds closeness and intimacy to knowing God. To know God therefore includes love, reverence, obedience, gratitude, and deep affection, and means living as He lives. John 17:3 uses the same word as 1 John 2:3-6, where knowing God is shown by keeping His commandments and walking as Christ walked.

In John 17:3, Jesus defines eternal life as knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ, and the Greek ginosko carries far more than intellectual acquaintance. Like the Hebrew yada', which Genesis 4 uses for the sexual intimacy of husband and wife, ginosko can denote the closest personal relationship (see Luke 1:34). The point is not the sexual act but the intimacy of heart and mind that precedes it in true love. To know God is therefore to have a wide range of mental, emotional, and experiential knowledge of Him, as though being inside His head. Its fruit includes love, reverence, obedience, gratitude, and deep affection, and it brings an awareness of God as Ruler, parent, friend, Savior, and Lawgiver, which compels wholehearted yielding to Him. Such knowledge has practical power. Hosea 4:6 shows that lacking it brings destruction, while Proverbs 3 shows that it enriches the quality of life. Eternal life is thus not merely endless existence, or immortality, but the quality of life God Himself lives, begun now through fellowship with Him. Knowing God is inseparable from living as He does, since 1 John 2:3-6 says that keeping His commandments is how we know that we know Him. Self-sacrificial giving is the way of life that expresses this knowledge.

Ginosko appears only in a quotation from John Calvin on the third commandment (Exodus 20:7). Calvin calls it silly and childish to confine God's name to the letters or syllables of "Jehovah" or Yahweh. He holds that God's name is whatever makes Him known, such as His wisdom, power, justice, truth, clemency, and rectitude, and that it is profaned whenever any of these is detracted from. In short, His name is what Paul calls gnostos or ginosko, "that which may be known of Him" (Romans 1:19). The source reads Calvin to mean that God's name encompasses everything He has revealed about Himself in His Word, and that those who become aware of it must not profane what they know of Him. This makes the commandment far broader and more spiritual than the Sacred Name view, which fixates on a single pronunciation. It extends to imitating God in all that we do, so that nothing we do brings detriment or blasphemy on what He is. God's name represents what He is, not a particular Hebrew form.

Ginosko (Strong's 1097) emphasizes understanding rather than mere knowledge or sensory perception. It is experiential, a deep, almost visceral knowing gained by going through something or sharing a relationship, much as knowing a person by walking a mile in his moccasins differs from knowing about him. By the time John wrote late in the first century, the word had become specialized in theological contexts to mean knowledge that comes from a deep and abiding relationship with God, having lived life with Him, not merely read or heard about Him. Like Jefferson's "we hold these truths," John's "we know" conveys possession and defiance: convictions digested into one's gut that one would give everything to defend. The parable of the Unjust Steward in Luke 16 supplies another nuance, since the steward's "I have resolved" translates ginosko. To know in this sense is to make a deliberate, weighty determination based on understanding, one that becomes part of character and is far stronger than a New Year's resolution. John's fifteen "we knows" in 1 John therefore express deep, resolute, unshakable convictions that form the bedrock of life and from which every action springs. They yield nine truths, including keeping the commandments, the last hour, becoming like God, loving the brethren, and having God's Spirit within.

The Greek ginosko, to know, is used in Ephesians 3:19 of experiencing the love of Christ, and it carries the sense of closeness and intimacy rather than mere awareness. This fits the biblical sense of knowing, which parallels the Hebrew yada as in Adam knowing Eve. It is a personal, experiential relationship that engages the whole person: facts, practical experience, and a delighting, cherishing emotional response. It is distinct from eido, which means being familiar with or knowing about someone, as the scribes and Pharisees knew about Jesus yet did not know the Father. John 17:3 defines eternal life as knowing God, and this knowing is proven by conduct. Israel had book knowledge yet did not know God because they failed to act as His children (Isaiah 1; Romans 10). Josiah knew God because he did what God would do were He a man (Jeremiah 22:16). According to 1 John 2:3-6 and 3:6, a person who claims to know God but does not keep His commandments is a liar. Because God's Torah means instruction, broader than ten laws, knowing God grows as a person is conformed to God's character in every area of life. Jesus said that whoever does God's will will know (John 7:17), and He will tell lawbreakers, "I never knew you." Jesus, made complete through suffering, came to know humanity by sharing its experience, just as people come to know God by living as He lives. Knowing God is therefore a relationship of shared experience, trust, and walking together in agreement.

Ginosko is the word Jesus uses when He says, "I never knew you," to those who cry "Lord, Lord." God knows everything, including their names and works, so He does not mean mere awareness. Thayer defines ginosko as a Jewish idiom for intimacy between a man and a woman, so it means an intimate, experiential relationship, like that of a husband and wife or the bridegroom and bride, as in Hosea, Isaiah, and the parable of the Ten Virgins. It differs from eido, which means to cherish and pay attention to, as in recognizing the ministry in 1 Thessalonians 5:12. Paul says the one who loves God is known (ginosko) by Him (1 Corinthians 8:3). Those rejected practiced lawlessness, iniquity, and unrighteousness, so they had no real love for God. Knowing God cannot be separated from obedience. Jeremiah 9:23-24 shows what to know about Him: He exercises lovingkindness (hesed, the equivalent of agape), judgment, and righteousness. Knowing God means growing into that character. First John gives the test: we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments, and anyone who claims to know Him yet disobeys is a liar. Whoever does not love his brother does not know God, because God is love. Those who practice righteousness, right judgment, and lovingkindness can say honestly that they know God and that He knows them.

In John 21:15-17, translations obscure two pairs of Greek words. Alongside agape and phileo for love, two different words are rendered "know." In his first answers Peter says "You know" using eido, which means to see in a figurative sense, carrying the idea of understanding, comprehending, and perceiving. The third time, after Jesus lowers the bar by asking whether Peter has phileo love for Him, Peter answers "You know all things; You know that I love You" using ginosko, which indicates experiential knowledge. This shift implies that Jesus understands all things and has experienced Peter's phileo affection toward Him. Yet the humbled Peter, still grieved by his recent denial, will not claim that Jesus has experienced agape love from him. Peter's careful choice of ginosko reflects his honest recognition that personal warmth is not the same as devotion to God's will. The lesson for Peter and for everyone is that agape love cannot exist unless Christ supplies it. When Christ is active in a person, even meager efforts that accord with His will begin to produce abundantly.

To know God, in Hebrew yada and in Greek ginosko, is what eternal life consists of, and it undergirds living faith and the good works faith produces. The word indicates a combination of close, warm, even passionate intimacy with head knowledge. This gives a person an edge that enables him to trust God and at the same time perceive what God is doing. Daniel 11:32 shows the principle: "the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits." Such knowing is no casual acquaintance but the foundation of a true working relationship with God, and it is what gives His Word authority in a believer's heart and mind. Moses illustrates it. He forsook Egypt, not fearing the king's wrath, because he endured as seeing Him who is invisible; knowing God, he was strong and did great exploits. Knowing God means believing that He is holy, righteous, faithful, omnipotent, and omniscient, and that He is sovereign over His creation. Because the believer knows His character, that He is too wise to err and too loving to let His people be overwhelmed, he can patiently trust Him through confusing and frightening times, confident that Romans 8:28 stands, and can live with a peace that passes understanding.

Ginosko means progressive knowledge, knowledge gained over a period of time by observation. In John 14:7, Jesus' words "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also" mean that if the disciples had really come to know Him by watching how He lived and did things, they would have seen and known the Father in the same manner. Knowing is not a single moment of insight but the fruit of attentive observation. Those who study Jesus Christ in His obedience, how He lived, served, and gave Himself to others, see the exact mind and nature of God the Father in action. As they watch Christ imitating His Father, they see how He glorifies the Father. The disciples had lived with Jesus for three years, seen Him heal, cast out demons, and raise the dead, and still failed to put it together, so seeing means waking up and perceiving what one is looking at rather than going through life blindly. This knowledge is bound up with eternal life, which is knowing the Father and Jesus Christ. Knowing God means knowing the mind of God and imitating it, so that believers become one in mind and heart with the Father and the Son.

In John 17:3, eternal life is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, and the word for know there is ginosko. It means to know and believe in a complete sense, to understand all facets of an individual's life. To know the Father and the Son is to have their life, which is eternal, and to take on their way of living, which comes from believing Jesus Christ. This knowing is more than acknowledging that God exists or that Christ lived. It is the only way to eternal life, and it is expressed in action. The Complete Word Study Dictionary says that to know God is to be directed by love, and is therefore followed by a life of love and the execution of Christ's commandments. In the same way, believing on Christ means moving toward how He lived and committing oneself to Him in all ways. Knowing the truth, as in John 8:32, comes by continuing in His word, and that truth sets a person free from the world's deception and from a life that leads to death.

To know God (Hebrew yada; Greek ginosko) is the factor that undergirds, supports, and strengthens faith so that it produces good works. As Daniel 11:32 says, "the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits." Knowing indicates a close, warm, even passionate intimacy combined with head knowledge, and it gives a person an edge in life. It enables a believer to trust God and, at the same time, to perceive what He is doing. It makes God's Word authoritative, and this relationship forms the foundation of a true, working willingness to submit to His sovereignty. Those who know their God believe that His holiness means His anger burns against sin, that His righteousness means His judgments fall on the rebellious, that His faithfulness makes His promises absolute, that His omnipotence means no one can resist Him, and that His omniscience means no problem is beyond Him. Because they know His character, they endure the disappointments and mysteries of life, seeing that He is too wise to make mistakes and too loving to let them be overwhelmed. They are assured that Romans 8:28 holds true, and they live through tumultuous times with a peace that passes understanding.

In John 7:27 two different Greek words are both translated "know." Oida carries the sense of mental knowledge: the people know where Jesus is from because they have heard about His origins and hold them to be true. Ginosko is experiential knowledge. When the Messiah comes, popular belief held that no one would ginosko where He is from, meaning no one would have any experience of the real Messiah, because He would simply appear suddenly, out of thin air. Since the people had extensive experience of Jesus of Nazareth, whose origins in Nazareth and residence in Capernaum were common knowledge and who had preached for a long time, they concluded He could not be the Messiah. The distinction shows that they were sure of the facts about Jesus' origins but wrong about what the Messiah's arrival would look like. Jesus cried out publicly to set the record straight. They claimed to know Him and where He was from, but they did not truly know the Father who sent Him. Had they known the Father as they claimed, they would have accepted the Son. He knows the Father because They have spent long ages together, and His source is God Himself.

In the dialogue between Jesus and Peter by the shores of Galilee, as recorded in John 21, a significant distinction emerges in the use of the Greek word ginosko (G1097). When Peter responds to Jesus' repeated question about his love, he initially uses the word oida, implying a basic perception or knowledge based on physical presence. However, in his third response in verse 17, Peter shifts to ginosko, which conveys a deeper understanding achieved through the growth of a relationship. He appeals to Jesus, saying, in essence, that after three and a half years together, Jesus should have experienced through their shared bond that Peter truly loves Him. This use of ginosko reflects Peter's plea for recognition of his heartfelt commitment, despite his past denial, emphasizing a profound, relational knowledge over mere observation.

The Greek word ginosko (G1097) conveys a deep, experiential, and relational understanding of knowing. It is used in Romans 1:21 to describe those who once knew God but failed to glorify Him, becoming vain in their imaginations and darkening their foolish hearts. This same term appears in Philippians 3:10, where Paul expresses his desire to know Christ, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings. These individuals, who once had a relationship with God, fell into apostasy by believing a lie after God sent them strong delusion due to their vanity, thanklessness, and persistent suppression of the truth they once knew. Their hardness of heart resulted from their unrelenting refusal to humbly obey God, marking the tragic extent of their falling away.

The word ginosko (G1097) is significant in understanding how we come to know God the Father through Jesus Christ. As used in John 14:7, ginosko refers to progressive knowledge, acquired over time through observation. Jesus Christ explains that if the disciples had truly come to know Him by perceiving how He lived and acted, they would also have known the Father. This implies that by observing and obeying Jesus Christ, one unconsciously draws closer to the Father, and over time, consciously engages in the process of knowing Him. Through Jesus Christ's life and actions, we see the exact mind and nature of God the Father, enabling us to develop a deeper relationship with Him.