The sun; by implication, light
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Ἥλιος means the sun, the created light that marks day, supplies ordinary experience, and serves biblical comparisons of radiance and judgment. Jesus points to the Father's sun rising on evil and good as evidence of generous providence that shapes enemy love.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἥλιος (G2246) · Open the biblical lexicon
Ἥλιος means the sun, the created light that marks day, supplies ordinary experience, and serves biblical comparisons of radiance and judgment. Jesus points to the Father's sun rising on evil and good as evidence of generous providence that shapes enemy love.
The BSB source-word alignment has 32 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include sun (21), . . . (3), [the] sun (2), [when the] sun (1), just after sunrise (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 5:45. Its strongest book concentrations include Revelation (13), Matthew (5), Acts (4), Mark (4).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
Ἥλιος means the sun, the created light that marks day, supplies ordinary experience, and serves biblical comparisons of radiance and judgment. Jesus points to the Father's sun rising on evil and good as evidence of generous providence that shapes enemy love. The women approach Jesus' tomb after sunrise, locating resurrection discovery in real time. Paul distinguishes the sun's glory from other heavenly bodies when explaining embodied resurrection.
Revelation pictures the sun darkened under judgment and finally unnecessary in the new Jerusalem because God's own radiance gives light. The sun remains a creature, not a deity. Context determines whether it marks time, common grace, created splendor, cosmic disruption, or surpassed light.
Ἥλιος names the created sun as daily provision, time marker, distinct glory, darkened light, and a lamp finally surpassed by God's presence.
That you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
The Father gives sun and rain across moral lines, and Jesus grounds enemy love in this generous character rather than in another person's deserving response.
Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they went to the tomb.
Sunrise locates the women's journey on the first day of the week, when they expect a sealed tomb and instead encounter resurrection announcement.
The sun has one degree of splendor, the moon another, and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
The sun's distinct splendor illustrates differentiated embodied glory, supporting Paul's argument that resurrection transformation is not mere resuscitation.
The star opened the pit of the Abyss, and smoke rose out of it like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the pit.
Smoke from the abyss darkens sun and air, using cosmic obscurity to portray destructive judgment under God's permitted sequence.
There will be no more night in the city, and they will have no need for the light of a lamp or of the sun. For the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.
The new Jerusalem needs neither lamp nor sun because the Lord God shines upon His servants, not because creation's earlier light was evil.
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. The physical sun, often used symbolically for divine glory, illumination, or the end of cosmic order.
The physical sun, often used symbolically for divine glory, illumination, or the end of cosmic order.
the sun: with art. (El., § 46, 5), Mat.5:45 13:43 17:2 24:29, Mrk.1:32 4:6 13:24 16:2, Luk.4:40, Act.2:20" (LXX) Act.26:13, Eph.4:26, Jas.1:11, Rev.1:16 6:12 8:12 9:2 10:1 12:1 16:8 19:17 21:23; βλέπειν τὸν ἥ., Act.13:11; οὐδὲ μὴ πέσῃ ἐπ᾽ αὐτοὺς ὁ ἥ., Rev.7:16; without art., Mat.13:6, Luk.21:25 23:45, Act.27:20, 1Co.15:41, Rev.7:2 16:12 22:5.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 32 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
the sun, sunlight
Read versethe sun, sunlight
Read versethe sun, sunlight
Read versethe sun, sunlight
Read versethe sun, sunlight
Read versethe sun, sunlight
Read versethe sun, sunlight
Read versethe sun, sunlight
Read versethe sun, sunlight
Read versethe sun, sunlight
Read versethe sun, sunlight
Read versethe sun, sunlight
Read versethe sun, sunlight
Read versethe sun, sunlight
Read versethe sun, sunlight
Read versethe sun, sunlight
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 4 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 2 selected witnesses from 32 lexical occurrence verses.
ἥλιος 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.
The sun quietly witnesses both creation's goodness and its limits. Jesus makes its daily rising an ethical lesson: the Father gives sustaining gifts even to enemies, so His children love beyond reciprocity. Sunrise at the tomb anchors the women's discovery in embodied history. Paul uses differing heavenly splendors to stretch imagination toward resurrection bodies God gives as He wills.
Revelation can darken the sun in judgment because even stable created lights remain under divine rule, then envision a city needing no sun because God's immediate glory supplies light. Christian teaching should receive ordinary providence gratefully, love enemies generously, hope bodily resurrection, and worship the Creator whose radiance exceeds every created source without despising His gifts.
Matt.5.45
Ἥλιος is the ordinary noun for sun and may occur with rising, setting, heat, darkening, or radiance. Figurative significance arises from comparison and genre.
The sun is created, stopped or darkened under God's command, and used by prophets for coming judgment and restoration. God's glory remains its source and superior light.