What does θρησκεία (thrēskeía) mean in the Bible?
θρησκεία (thrēskeía): Religion as external practice and ritual observance, distinct from inward faith or spiritual reality.
Greek · G2356
θρησκεία
θρησκεία (thrēskeía): Religion as external practice and ritual observance, distinct from inward faith or spiritual reality.
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θρησκείαG2356
Pronunciationthrēskeía
What does θρησκεία (thrēskeía) mean in the Bible?
Full entry for θρησκεία (G2356) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G2356?
The BSB source-word alignment has 4 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include religion (3), [the] worship (1).
Where does θρησκεία (thrēskeía) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Acts 26:5. Its strongest book concentrations include James (2), Acts (1), Colossians (1).
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders Itreligion3×Acts 26:5, James 1:26, James 1:27
[the] worship1×Colossians 2:18
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowActs 26:5
Aligned rows4
Books represented3
Acts1Colossians1James2
Source forms
θρησκεία2xthrēskeiaJames 1:26, James 1:27
θρησκείᾳ1xthrēskeiaColossians 2:18
θρησκείας1xthrēskeiasActs 26:5
Parsing patterns
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular2xJames 1:26, James 1:27
Noun - Dative Feminine Singular1xColossians 2:18
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular1xActs 26:5
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Religion as external practice and ritual observance, distinct from inward faith or spiritual reality.
Strong'sG2356
Lexical occurrences4 versesGreek text appearances4 timesWord forms3 forms4 referencesVerse guides0 guides
Study linkJames 1:26–27Source Gloss
ceremonial observance
Extended definitionSource: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
Religion as external practice and ritual observance, distinct from inward faith or spiritual reality.
(θρῆσκος), [in LXX: Wis.14:18, 27, Sir.22:5 A, 4Ma.5:6 4Mac 5:13 * ;] religion in its external aspect (MM, Exp., xv), worship: Act.26:5, Jas.1:26-27; θ. τῶν ἀγγέλων, Col.2:18.
Synonymssee: θρῆσκος
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
4 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Acts 26:5Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
θρησκείαςqrhskeiav
ritual worship, religion
Read verseColossians 2:18Noun Dative Singular Feminine
θρησκείᾳqrhskeia
ritual worship, religion
Read verseJames 1:26Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
θρησκεία.qrhskeia
ritual worship, religion
Read verseJames 1:27Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
θρησκείαqrhskeia
ritual worship, religion
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.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 3 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.
Form patterns3Aligned forms4Case patternNominative (2)Number patternSingular (4)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · FeminineJas 1:26 · Jas 1:272×
Genitive · Singular · FeminineActs 26:51×
Dative · Singular · FeminineCol 2:181×
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Witnesses
religion, outward worship practice
Showing 1 selected witness from 4 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
θρησκεία is built from this root:
θρησκόςG2357
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.