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
Ceremonial observance
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θρησκεία G2356
Pronunciation thrēskeía
What does θρησκεία (thrēskeía) mean in the Bible?
θρησκεία (thrēskeía): Religion as external practice and ritual observance, distinct from inward faith or spiritual reality.
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 It religion 3× Acts 26:5, James 1:26, James 1:27
[the] worship 1× Colossians 2:18
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Acts 26:5
Aligned rows 4
Books represented 3
Acts 1 Colossians 1 James 2
Source forms
θρησκεία 2x thrēskeia James 1:26, James 1:27
θρησκείᾳ 1x thrēskeia Colossians 2:18
θρησκείας 1x thrēskeias Acts 26:5
Parsing patterns
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular 2x James 1:26, James 1:27
Noun - Dative Feminine Singular 1x Colossians 2:18
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular 1x Acts 26:5
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Religion as external practice and ritual observance, distinct from inward faith or spiritual reality.
Strong's G2356
Lexical occurrences 4 verses Greek text appearances 4 times Word forms 3 forms 4 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link James 1:26–27 Source Gloss
ceremonial observance
Extended definition Source: 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 corpus Greek 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 26:5 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
θρησκείας qrhskeiav
ritual worship, religion
Read verse Colossians 2:18 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
θρησκείᾳ qrhskeia
ritual worship, religion
Read verse James 1:26 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
θρησκεία. qrhskeia
ritual worship, religion
Read verse James 1:27 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
θρησκεία qrhskeia
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 patterns 3 Aligned forms 4 Case pattern Nominative (2) Number pattern Singular (4)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · Feminine Jas 1:26 · Jas 1:27 2×
Genitive · Singular · Feminine Acts 26:5 1×
Dative · Singular · Feminine Col 2:18 1×
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:
θρησκός G2357
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.
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain