Sword
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Μάχαιρα (máchaira) names a sword or large knife, commonly a weapon capable of violence and death. Jesus says He brings not peace but a sword in a mission discourse about the household divisions provoked by allegiance to Him; He is not commanding disciples to attack their relatives.
Reader summary
Full entry for μάχαιρα (G3162) · Open the biblical lexicon
Μάχαιρα (máchaira) names a sword or large knife, commonly a weapon capable of violence and death. Jesus says He brings not peace but a sword in a mission discourse about the household divisions provoked by allegiance to Him; He is not commanding disciples to attack their relatives.
The BSB source-word alignment has 29 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include sword (12), swords (6), [the] sword (5), a sword (2), of [the] sword (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 10:34. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (7), Luke (5), Revelation (4), Hebrews (3).
Μάχαιρα (máchaira) names a sword or large knife, commonly a weapon capable of violence and death. Jesus says He brings not peace but a sword in a mission discourse about the household divisions provoked by allegiance to Him; He is not commanding disciples to attack their relatives. In Gethsemane, a bystander and then Simon Peter use an actual sword against the high priest's servant, and Jesus rejects that violent defense.
Paul calls God's word the sword of the Spirit within the armor God supplies for spiritual resistance. Revelation mentions the sword wound of the beast within a scene of deceptive signs and idolatrous power. Literal weapons, metaphorical division, spiritual armor, and apocalyptic description must not be merged. The passage must identify the wielder, target, effect, and moral evaluation.
Μάχαιρα names a sword. It can picture division caused by loyalty to Jesus, record misguided armed defense at His arrest, describe the Spirit's sword as God's word, or mark the beast's wound in Revelation's vision.
Do not assume that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
Jesus' sword metaphor names the household conflict His mission exposes when loyalty to Him divides even close relationships; the surrounding commands concern costly discipleship, not armed conquest.
And one of the bystanders drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.
A bystander draws a real sword and cuts the servant's ear during Jesus' arrest, introducing violence that Jesus' own response refuses to make the means of His kingdom.
Then Simon Peter drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus.
John identifies Peter as the swordsman and Malchus as the servant, while Jesus commands Peter to sheath the weapon and accepts the cup the Father has given Him.
And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
The sword of the Spirit is explicitly identified as God's word, placing Spirit-given truth within the armor for standing against spiritual evil rather than harming human opponents.
Because of the signs it was given to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived those who dwell on the earth, telling them to make an image to the beast that had been wounded by the sword and yet had lived.
The second beast exploits signs connected with the first beast's sword wound to deceive earth's inhabitants into making an image, joining political violence to idolatrous propaganda.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Short sword or dagger, distinct from larger broad swords; metaphorically, instrument of judgment and division.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 29 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a sword
Read versea sword
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Read versea sword
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 6 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 29 lexical occurrence verses.
μάχαιρα is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Jesus does not promise that allegiance to Him will preserve every social peace. His sword saying warns that the gospel exposes loyalties and can divide households, yet Gethsemane shows what that warning does not mean. Peter's literal blade cannot secure Jesus' kingdom or prevent the cup the Father has given. The Lord submits to His redemptive path rather than authorizing violent rescue.
Ephesians relocates the church's combat within God's armor: believers stand against spiritual evil, and the Spirit supplies God's word as a sword of truth. Revelation then shows coercive power and deceptive spectacle feeding idolatry around a sword wound. Churches must neither deny the conflict Christ brings nor confuse faithfulness with aggression. The disciple's calling is courageous witness, truthful resistance, and confidence in the crucified and risen King, not violence against flesh and blood.
Matt.10.34
Μάχαιρα denotes a short sword or large knife and can function literally or metaphorically. Genitives and verbal actions identify possession and use. A metaphor preserves ideas such as cutting or division without converting the sentence into a command for violence.
Swords throughout Scripture represent warfare, judgment, danger, and piercing speech. The servant's word is sharp, Jesus refuses violent defense, and the church receives Spirit-given truth for a struggle not directed against flesh and blood.