Heaven
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ouranos names heaven, the heavens, or the sky according to context. The New Testament uses the word for the visible heavens, the realm of God's throne and authority, the place from which divine revelation and vindication come, and the eschatological horizon of new creation.
Reader summary
Full entry for οὐρανός (G3772) · Open the biblical lexicon
ouranos names heaven, the heavens, or the sky according to context. The New Testament uses the word for the visible heavens, the realm of God's throne and authority, the place from which divine revelation and vindication come, and the eschatological horizon of new creation.
The BSB source-word alignment has 273 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include heaven (218), heavens (15), sky (13), air (7), of heaven (6).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 3:2. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (82), Revelation (52), Luke (35), Acts (26).
This entry includes 6 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
Ouranos names heaven, the heavens, or the sky according to context. The New Testament uses the word for the visible heavens, the realm of God's throne and authority, the place from which divine revelation and vindication come, and the eschatological horizon of new creation. The word does not invite escape from embodied obedience. Matthew speaks of the Father in heaven while commanding visible good works on earth.
Acts 1 directs disciples away from staring into the sky and toward witness while awaiting Christ's return. Philippians 3:20 locates Christian citizenship in heaven, and Revelation 21:1 looks for a new heaven and new earth. For pastoral teaching, ouranos helps believers live under God's authority, pray with reverence, wait for Christ, and hope for renewed creation rather than an abstract spiritual elsewhere.
Ouranos stretches from sky language to the Father's heavenly rule and the new creation. The selected passages keep heaven connected to God's authority, Christ's mission, public discipleship, patient witness, and final renewal.
As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. Suddenly the heavens were opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and resting on Him.
The heavens open at Jesus' baptism as the Spirit descends and the Father's voice identifies the Son. ouranos marks divine disclosure, not an ordinary weather detail.
In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Good works on earth lead others to glorify the Father in heaven. Heaven does not remove public obedience; it grounds discipleship under the Father's gaze and honor.
So then, this is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.
The Lord's Prayer addresses the Father in heaven with reverent confidence. The phrase joins nearness in prayer with transcendence and hallowed worship.
“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.”
After the ascension, the disciples are told not to remain looking into the sky, because Jesus will return as He went. Heaven frames hope while redirecting the church toward its witness.
But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Christian citizenship is in heaven, from which believers await the Savior. The point is allegiance and expectation, not contempt for bodily life.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
John sees a new heaven and a new earth. The final hope is not disembodied flight but God's renewed creation where heaven and earth are made new.
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.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Heaven signifies both the physical sky and God's transcendent dwelling place where divine rule operates.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 284 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
the sky, the heaven
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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 9 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.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 273 lexical occurrence verses.
οὐρανός 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.
Ouranos gives the New Testament a vocabulary for God's realm, divine disclosure, ascended hope, and final renewal. At Jesus' baptism the opened heavens identify Him within the Father's saving purpose. In the Sermon on the Mount, the Father in heaven sees, hears, rewards, and is glorified through visible obedience. Acts 1 warns against turning heaven into passive sky-gazing, because the ascended Christ will return and His witnesses have work to do.
Philippians 3 places the church's citizenship in heaven, which means present allegiance to the coming Savior rather than withdrawal from embodied life. Revelation 21 completes the movement by speaking of a new heaven and new earth. Heaven is therefore not a vague escape hatch. It is the sphere of God's rule, the source of Christ's return, and the promised renewal toward which faithful disciples live.
Acts.1.11
Ouranos can refer to the visible sky, the heavens, or the realm associated with God's throne and rule. English readers should not force one spatial image into every passage. Phrases such as from heaven, in heaven, kingdom of heaven, and new heaven each carry their own literary and theological work.
Genesis opens with heavens and earth as God's created order, and the Psalms often speak of the heavens declaring God's glory or locating His throne. The New Testament draws that language into Jesus' baptism, prayer, ascension, and return, then ends with new heaven and new earth. The line from creation to new creation keeps heaven from becoming anti-creational.