Blood
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αἷμα is the Greek word for blood, and few words in the New Testament carry as much theological density. At its most literal, it refers to the physical substance of biological life — the blood of humans and animals.
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Full entry for αἷμα (G129) · Open the biblical lexicon
αἷμα is the Greek word for blood, and few words in the New Testament carry as much theological density. At its most literal, it refers to the physical substance of biological life — the blood of humans and animals.
The BSB source-word alignment has 97 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include blood (75), [the] blood (5), of Blood (4), bleeding (2), from bleeding (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 16:17. Its strongest book concentrations include Hebrews (21), Revelation (19), Acts (11), Matthew (11).
This entry includes 4 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
αἷμα is the Greek word for blood, and few words in the New Testament carry as much theological density. At its most literal, it refers to the physical substance of biological life — the blood of humans and animals. The Greek world associated blood with life itself, and this association was inherited and deepened by the Hebrew Bible, where blood is explicitly declared to be the life of the creature (Lev 17:11). But in the New Testament, many significant theological uses of this word point beyond physiology to the atoning work of Christ.
The logic the New Testament draws on was established in the Torah: the life is in the blood, and the blood makes atonement for the soul (Lev 17:11). Hebrews states it with stark precision: without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin (Heb 9:22). This is not arbitrary or primitive — it is the canonical assertion that sin's consequence is death, and that the canonical sacrificial answer to death includes substitutionary life-for-life exchange. The animal sacrifices in Israel pointed forward to the one sacrifice Christians confess actually accomplishes what the ritual signified.
Paul calls Christ's death a propitiation through faith in his blood (Rom 3:25). Ephesians grounds redemption and forgiveness explicitly in the blood of Christ (Eph 1:7). Peter calls it precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish (1 Pet 1:19). Revelation frames the whole vision of cosmic renewal on the fact that Christ has washed his people from their sins in his own blood and made them a kingdom (Rev 1:5-6) — connecting αἷμα directly to βασιλεύς, the royal work accomplished through the blood. For the preacher, the blood of Christ is not decorative language: remove the atoning death of Christ from the gospel and the gospel itself has been emptied.
The local NT index currently counts about 97 uses of this word, with heavy concentration in Hebrews and Revelation. The Pauline letters use it to ground the atonement in specific soteriological claims. The Gospels preserve the eucharistic words of institution. Hebrews develops the most sustained theological argument for blood in sacrificial atonement. Revelation uses it for both the blood of martyrs and — decisively — the blood of Christ as the basis for cosmic victory.
According to the law, in fact, nearly everything must be purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
This verse is a key text for NT atonement theology. The writer of Hebrews is not inventing a new idea; he is interpreting the logic that runs through the Levitical system. Remission — the actual removal of guilt — requires blood. This is the foundation on which the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice stands.
This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
The Last Supper words of institution make the connection explicit: this is the blood of the covenant. Jesus frames his approaching death in covenant-sealing terms drawn from Exodus 24, where Moses sprinkled blood over the people at Sinai. Every Eucharist since is a proclamation that the new covenant has been ratified in Christ's blood.
God presented Him as an atoning sacrifice in His blood through faith, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand.
Paul's argument in Romans 3 reaches its apex here: Christ as the hilasterion (mercy seat/propitiation) presented in his blood. The blood is not incidental — it is the instrument of faith's object. The phrase 'through faith in his blood' anchors the whole Pauline doctrine of justification in the specific atoning work accomplished at the cross.
And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood,
The connection between Christ's kingship and his blood is explicit here: the ruler of the kings of the earth is the one who washed us from sins by his blood. Royal authority and atoning sacrifice are not separable in the NT's christology. The King is King precisely because he gave his blood; the blood is effective precisely because it was given by the King.
How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, purify our consciences from works of death, so that we may serve the living God!
Hebrews shifts the application of atoning blood from ritual purity (which animal blood could achieve) to conscience (which the blood of Christ reaches). This is the pastoral high point: the blood of Christ addresses not just legal guilt but the inner defilement that kills motivation for living faith. It cleanses the record and the person.
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. blood
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 99 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
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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 5 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 3 selected witnesses from 97 lexical occurrence verses.
αἷμα is of uncertain origin - no further derivation.
Expresses responsibility for rejecting the gospel.
Points to the ongoing efficacy of Christ’s atoning sacrifice in maintaining fellowship.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Modern congregations are often uncomfortable with the blood of Christ — the language sounds primitive, violent, or transaction-based in a way that feels out of step with a relational gospel. The pastoral challenge is not to soften the language but to explain the logic, because the logic belongs to the gospel's center.
The blood of Christ is the New Testament's way of saying that the death of Christ was not merely the martyrdom of an innocent man — it was the sacrifice that justice required and love provided. The OT establishes the pattern: where there is guilt, there must be either punishment of the guilty party or substitution. The blood represents life given in the place of the life that was owed. When Paul says we are redeemed through his blood (Eph 1:7), he is saying that the price of freedom was not cheap — it cost the Son of God his life. When Hebrews says the blood of Christ cleanses the conscience (9:14), it is saying that guilt is not just a legal problem but a personal wound, and the actual sacrifice of Christ is the remedy the NT presents.
For preaching, αἷμα keeps the atonement from becoming abstract. Jesus did not die as a symbol or an example — he shed blood. His death was as physical, costly, and irreversible as any death. And from that concrete, bodily sacrifice flows everything the gospel promises: forgiveness, cleansing, covenant access, royal standing before God.
Heb.9.14
αἷμα in classical Greek referred simply to blood as physical substance. In the LXX it translates the Hebrew דָּם (dam) extensively, absorbing the covenantal and sacrificial associations of the Hebrew term. The NT draws on the OT semantic range: blood as life-substance, blood as the instrument of sacrifice, blood as covenant seal, and blood as the mark of martyrdom.
The NT adds the decisive new register: the specific blood of Christ as the once-for-all atoning sacrifice (Heb 9:26) that fulfills the sacrificial and covenantal trajectories.
The Old Testament builds the theology of blood over centuries: from the Passover blood on the doorposts (Exod 12), to the covenant-sealing blood at Sinai (Exod 24:8), to the elaborate Levitical system in which blood on the altar mediates between holy God and sinful Israel, to Isaiah 53's servant whose life is poured out as a guilt offering. The NT declares this sacrificial structure fulfilled in a single sacrifice: the blood of Jesus.
Hebrews argues at length that the Levitical blood was always a shadow — pointing to the real thing it could not itself accomplish. The conscience it could not cleanse, the once-for-all-ness it could not claim, the direct access to God it could not open — all of these become realities in the blood of Christ. The OT shapes every dimension of the NT's language; the NT presents the decisive fulfillment as arriving.
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