📖 Biblical Definition
To multiply is to increase greatly — and Scripture loads the verb with covenant freight. It is the creation mandate: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it" (Genesis 1:28) — repeated to Noah (9:1) as the post-flood charter. It is the Abrahamic promise: "in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven" (Genesis 22:17). It is the early church’s growth: "the word of God grew, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly" (Acts 6:7); "And the churches... were multiplied" (Acts 9:31). God’s characteristic blessing is not addition but multiplication. He multiplies seed, sheep, souls, and saints.
📜 KJV Continual Tense
In KJV: multiplieth — ongoing increase, not one-time growth.
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Acts 6:7: "the word of God grew; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly." Continuous-aspect — the multiplication is sustained, not a single revival burst.
Genesis 1:28: "Be fruitful, and multiply." The creation mandate is the foundational continuous-aspect command. Imaging God includes generative increase.
Genesis 22:17: "I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven." Continuous covenant-multiplication; the promise reaches across millennia.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
To increase greatly in number.
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To increase greatly in number, quantity, or extent; in Scripture especially of God's blessing — humanity multiplied in creation, Abraham's seed multiplied in covenant, the church multiplied through the Spirit. God's blessing is characteristically generative.
📖 Key Scripture
Genesis 1:28 — "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it."
Acts 6:7 — "And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith."
1 Peter 1:2 — "Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Reduced to mathematical operation; the covenantal blessing-aspect of multiply has thinned in modern usage.
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Modern "multiply" is arithmetic. Scripture's multiply is blessing — the LORD's increase of what He blesses. The creation mandate, the Abrahamic promise, and the church's growth all share the verb because all share the source.
Recover the covenantal force: when Peter writes "grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied," he is invoking the LORD's characteristic increase — not arithmetic, but blessing-by-blessing accumulation.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew rabah; Greek plēthynō.
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['Hebrew', 'H7235', 'rabah', 'to be much, many, increase']
['Greek', 'G4129', 'plēthynō', 'to multiply, increase']
Usage
"Be fruitful and multiply."
"The word multiplied; the disciples multiplied."
"Grace and peace be multiplied unto you."