The sea (genitive case or specially)
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θάλασσα (thalassa) is the common noun for a sea or large body of water. In the New Testament it names concrete places such as the Sea of Galilee, the Mediterranean, and the sea crossed in Israel’s exodus, while Revelation also uses sea imagery within apocalyptic visions.
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Full entry for θάλασσα (G2281) · Open the biblical lexicon
θάλασσα (thalassa) is the common noun for a sea or large body of water. In the New Testament it names concrete places such as the Sea of Galilee, the Mediterranean, and the sea crossed in Israel’s exodus, while Revelation also uses sea imagery within apocalyptic visions.
The BSB source-word alignment has 91 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Sea (73), [the] sea (4), of [the] Sea (4), . . . (2), a sea (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 4:15. Its strongest book concentrations include Revelation (26), Mark (19), Matthew (16), Acts (10).
θάλασσα (thalassa) is the common noun for a sea or large body of water. In the New Testament it names concrete places such as the Sea of Galilee, the Mediterranean, and the sea crossed in Israel’s exodus, while Revelation also uses sea imagery within apocalyptic visions. The sea can be a workplace where fishermen cast nets, a route of travel, a setting of storm and danger, an image in prophetic judgment, or part of the created world that worships its Maker.
Jesus calls disciples beside the sea, rebukes wind and sea with sovereign authority, and walks upon it as frightened disciples watch. Paul recalls Israel passing through the sea but warns that shared covenant privileges did not prevent judgment for unbelief. Acts 27 presents sailors lowering a lifeboat into the sea in an attempted escape that would abandon others, showing that danger tests solidarity as well as skill.
Revelation’s vision of a new heaven and new earth says the sea is no more. Readers should honor that statement while recognizing its apocalyptic setting and the book’s repeated association of the sea with threat, rebellion, commerce, and death; the verse alone should not be made to settle every question about waters in the new creation. The noun itself does not mean chaos, evil, or judgment in every passage.
God created the sea, people labor on it, and Christ rules it. Teachers should let geography, genre, and narrative action decide whether the sea is ordinary setting, remembered deliverance, moral analogy, dangerous creation, or eschatological image.
θάλασσα names literal waters that support work and travel, expose human frailty, recall Israel’s deliverance, and display Christ’s authority. Revelation carries the sea into apocalyptic judgment and new-creation imagery, where genre and book-level symbolism must govern conclusions.
As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.
The Sea of Galilee is the brothers’ workplace and the setting of Jesus’ call. Discipleship reaches them within skilled daily labor and redirects their vocation toward following Christ and gathering people.
Then Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and the sea. “Silence!” He commanded. “Be still!” And the wind died down, and it was perfectly calm.
Jesus addresses the forces threatening the boat and brings complete calm, leading the disciples to ask who He is. The sea contributes real danger; the narrative’s theological center is the authority of the One whom wind and sea obey.
When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the sea—and they were terrified.
The disciples encounter Jesus upon the water in darkness and fear. His words, “It is I; do not be afraid,” interpret the sign through His presence rather than through a lesson in human risk-taking.
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud, and that they all passed through the sea.
Paul recalls the exodus generation’s shared passage through the sea, then warns that privilege did not remove the demand for faithful allegiance. Deliverance history becomes instruction against idolatry and presumption.
Meanwhile, the sailors attempted to escape from the ship. Pretending to lower anchors from the bow, they let the lifeboat down into the sea.
The sea is the immediate environment of a life-threatening voyage, and the sailors’ attempted escape would abandon the rest. Paul’s warning joins God’s promise of preservation to responsible, communal action.
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’s new-creation vision removes the sea after it has repeatedly served as a sphere of threat, beastly emergence, commerce, and the dead. The apocalyptic declaration promises an order without those hostile powers, while caution is needed before turning one image into a complete physical geography.
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. Sea as boundary between divine and human realms; often represents chaos, danger, or divine judgment in NT theology.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 92 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 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.
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 1 selected witness from 90 lexical occurrence verses.
θάλασσα is built from this root:
Symbol of chaos subdued by divine authority.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
The sea reveals human dependence without becoming an independent spiritual power. Fishermen know it as a place of labor; travelers experience it as a route they cannot control; frightened disciples discover that Jesus commands what threatens them. Mark and John do not invite believers to prove faith by imitating the signs. They reveal the Lord who is present and sovereign where His followers are afraid.
First Corinthians remembers a whole generation passing through the sea and then falling through unbelief, warning churches not to confuse sacramental privilege or shared history with persevering faith. Acts 27 adds a communal dimension: in crisis, expert sailors try to secure themselves at everyone else’s expense, but God’s promised preservation includes their remaining with the ship.
Revelation finally announces a new creation with no more sea, promising the removal of the threatening order the book has associated with beastly power and death. Churches may preach courage, providence, and final hope while still respecting natural danger, maritime labor, disaster grief, and interpretive limits. The stable center is not the sea as symbol, but the Creator and Redeemer whose authority, faithfulness, and coming renewal encompass it.
Mark.4.39
θάλασσα is a feminine noun used for named seas, large bodies of water, and sea imagery. The same form can identify the Sea of Galilee, the exodus sea, maritime routes, or an apocalyptic sea. A lexical gloss cannot decide whether a given occurrence is geographical, metaphorical, or symbolic; genre and modifiers must do that work.
Genesis places the seas within God’s good creation, the exodus displays His power to deliver through the sea, psalms praise His rule over roaring waters, and prophets use turbulent seas for nations and judgment. The Gospels reveal Jesus commanding and walking upon the sea, Acts shows providence amid maritime danger, and Revelation carries sea imagery toward the new creation where hostile threat and death are gone.
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