被 Marks the Passive in 1,397 Bible Clauses
Answering: “how to make a passive sentence in Chinese”
Updated 2026-09-26 · plain text · JSON
被 marks the subject as the one acted upon, with the agent optional. 被杀 is 'was killed'.
- HSK level
- 3
- derived from its own words
- In the Bible
- 1,397
- clauses
- Meet it first in
- Isaiah
- where it is commonest
- How sure
- Counted
- 100% of a checked sample
Practise it
Tap the words that carry the pattern.
。
The same verses, in full
Easiest first: ranked by how much of each verse sits at or below HSK 3, the point’s own level. Colours are tones. Nothing here was written for the page — every line is in the text.
就是jiù shì你们nǐ men的de头发tóu fa也yě都dōu被bèi数shǔ过guò了le。
But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Matthew 10:30 · 100% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
正zhèng祝福zhù fú的de时候shí hou，他tā就jiù离开lí kāi他们tā men，被bèi带dài到dào天上tiān shàng去qù了le。
While he blessed them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.
Luke 24:51 · 93% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
被bèi数shǔ的de共有gòng yǒu二èr千qiān七qī百bǎi五十wǔ shí名míng。
Those who were counted of them by their families were two thousand seven hundred fifty.
Numbers 4:36 · 90% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
所以suǒ yǐ我wǒ被bèi请qǐng的de时候shí hou，就jiù不bù推辞tuī cí而ér来lái。现在xiàn zài请问qǐng wèn：你们nǐ men叫jiào我wǒ来lái有yǒu什么shén me意思yì si呢ne？」
Therefore I also came without complaint when I was sent for. I ask therefore, why did you send for me?”
Acts 10:29 · 90% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
并且bìng qiě造zào男nán造zào女nǚ。在zài他们tā men被bèi造zào的de日子rì zi， 神shén赐福cì fú给gěi他们tā men，称chēng他们tā men为wéi「人rén」。）
He created them male and female, and blessed them. On the day they were created, he named them Adam.
Genesis 5:2 · 89% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
你nǐ在zài深shēn水shuǐ中zhōng被bèi海浪hǎi làng打破dǎ pò的de时候shí hou， 你nǐ的de货物huò wù和hé你nǐ中间zhōng jiān的de一切yí qiè人民rén mín， 就jiù都dōu沉chén下去xià qù了le。
In the time that you were broken by the seas, in the depths of the waters, your merchandise and all your company fell within you.
Ezekiel 27:34 · 88% of this verse’s words are at or below the point’s own HSK level
Go and meet it in the text
- Read Matthew 10 — where the first example above comes from, with every word tappable.
- The rest of HSK 3 grammar — the other points at this level, with their counts.
- The HSK 3 word deck — the vocabulary side, ordered by how often the Bible uses it.
What the Bible does with it
被 makes a passive: 被杀, was killed; 被掳, was carried away captive. The agent can be named — 被以色列人打败, defeated by the Israelites — or left out entirely, which is what this translation usually does. In modern Chinese 被 carries a faint sense of misfortune; in the prophets that fits the material almost too well.
The Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified) uses 被 1,657 times. 260 of those occurrences are the same words doing something else.
It is not the only passive here. 受 — to receive, to suffer — does the same work lexically, and the classical 为…所… frame appears in the letters. The alternatives below are counted so the comparison is a measurement rather than an impression.
It is commonest in Isaiah, with 153 of them, and 72% of all of them fall in the Old Testament — which is mostly a statement about length, since the Old Testament is the longer part of the book.
| Word | Reading | HSK | Occurrences |
|---|---|---|---|
| 被 | bèi | 3 | 1,657 |
The HSK column is the level data/dict.json gives the word, and it is what puts this point at level 3.
| Occurrences | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| the construction | 1,397 | 84% |
| the same words doing something else | 260 | 16% |
| Book | Clauses |
|---|---|
| Isaiah | 153 |
| Jeremiah | 127 |
| Ezekiel | 108 |
| Psalms | 95 |
| Luke | 52 |
Counted from what the rule matched, before the audit — a ranking, not a published total.
| Word | Reading | HSK | Occurrences | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 为 | wèi | 2 | 3,830 | in 为…所…, the classical passive frame |
| 受 | shòu | 3 | 631 | 'to receive, to suffer', a lexical passive |
| 遭 | zāo | not graded | 93 | 'to meet with', for misfortune |
The candidates are chosen by hand; the counts are measured, and a candidate the corpus cannot illustrate with a real verse is left out. No claim is made that they are interchangeable.
Counted
The rule: 被 read bèi, then a word with a verb sense within three words — the action the subject undergoes.
30 of 1,397 matches were drawn at random and read in context; 100% were right. Checked by Claude Opus 5, reading each sampled clause in context; not a native speaker. Recall is not measured: this is what the rule finds, not everything the translation contains.
This point is HSK 3 because that is the highest HSK level of the point's own function words, as data/dict.json grades them; a word the HSK lists do not grade sends the point to 'beyond'.
Questions
- Does a Chinese passive need an agent?
- No. 被 plus the verb is complete on its own, and that is how most of these clauses are built — the thing that was done matters, who did it often does not.
- How often does it occur in the Chinese Bible?
- 1,397 clauses in the Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified), out of 1,657 occurrences of the words that mark it.
- Which book of the Bible uses it most?
- Isaiah, with 153 — followed by Jeremiah (127), Ezekiel (108), Psalms (95).
- How do you know the count is right?
- The rule is: 被 read bèi, then a word with a verb sense within three words — the action the subject undergoes. 30 of its 1,397 matches were drawn at random and checked one by one; 100% were right. Recall is not measured, so the figure is what this rule finds, not everything the translation contains.
Related reference pages
Take it further
- 97 ready-made vocabulary decks — by HSK level, by book or by topic, exportable to Anki, Pleco or Quizlet.
- Printable 田字格 worksheets — passages with pinyin, meanings and tracing rows.
- The parallel reader — Chinese, pinyin and your own language side by side, every word tappable.
- The dataset behind these numbers — plain JSON, free to reuse with attribution.
How this was measured
Edition: Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified). Every figure comes from one pass over all 1,189 chapters and 31,021 verses, 650,628word tokens in total, using the site’s own segmentation. A construction count is published only when a hand-checked sample of the rule that found it was at least 90% correct; between 70% and that it is published as an approximation, and below it no count is published at all. Generated 2026-09-26.