What does ἵππος (híppos) mean in the Bible?
G2462 names a horse. In James and Revelation, the animal's size, speed, military association, and responsiveness support ethical and visionary teaching.
Greek · G2462
ἵππος
A horse
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ἵπποςG2462
Pronunciationhíppos
What does ἵππος (híppos) mean in the Bible?
G2462 names a horse. In James and Revelation, the animal's size, speed, military association, and responsiveness support ethical and visionary teaching.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἵππος (G2462) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G2462?
The BSB source-word alignment has 17 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include horses (8), horse (7), horses [were] (1), of horses (1).
Where does ἵππος (híppos) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at James 3:3. Its strongest book concentrations include Revelation (16), James (1).
What This Word Actually Means
G2462 names a horse. In James and Revelation, the animal's size, speed, military association, and responsiveness support ethical and visionary teaching. In Jas. 3. 3, a bit in a horse's mouth guides the whole animal, illustrating how a small organ such as the tongue can direct a life. In Rev. 6. 4, a red horse and its rider participate in the removal of peace and human slaughter under limited permission.
In Rev. 19. 11, heaven opens and the rider called Faithful and True appears on a white horse, judging and waging war in righteousness. G2462 opens teaching on speech, violent systems, bounded judgment, and Christ's truthful rule. It does not identify every white horse with Christ, glorify militarism, or imply that controlling people is faithful leadership.
How the Bible Uses It
G2462 appears in James's bit analogy and throughout Revelation's warlike and judgment visions, including seal riders, destructive cavalry, luxury trade, and the Faithful and True rider. Rider and scene determine meaning.
- Jas.3.3
When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can guide the whole animal.
A small bit placed in a horse's mouth guides its whole body, introducing James's warning about the tongue's disproportionate power.
- Rev.6.4
Then another horse went forth. It was bright red, and its rider was granted permission to take away peace from the earth and to make men slay one another. And he was given a great sword.
A fiery red horse goes out as its rider receives limited permission to remove peace and a great sword for human slaughter.
- Rev.19.11
Then I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse. And its rider is called Faithful and True. With righteousness He judges and wages war.
The opened heaven reveals a white horse whose rider is called Faithful and True and judges in righteousness.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders Ithorses8×James 3:3, Revelation 9:7, Revelation 9:9, Revelation 9:17
horse7×Revelation 6:2, Revelation 6:4, Revelation 6:5, Revelation 6:8
horses [were]1×Revelation 9:17
of horses1×Revelation 19:18
Show sample aligned rows
James 3:3ἵππωνtohorsesNoun - Genitive Masculine PluralRevelation 6:2ἵπποςtohorseNoun - Nominative Masculine SingularRevelation 6:4ἵπποςtohorseNoun - Nominative Masculine SingularRevelation 6:5ἵπποςtohorseNoun - Nominative Masculine SingularRevelation 6:8ἵπποςtohorseNoun - Nominative Masculine SingularRevelation 9:7ἵπποιςtohorsesNoun - Dative Masculine PluralRevelation 9:9ἵππωνtohorsesNoun - Genitive Masculine PluralRevelation 9:17ἵππουςtohorsesNoun - Accusative Masculine PluralRevelation 9:17ἵππωνtohorses [were]Noun - Genitive Masculine PluralRevelation 9:19ἵππωνtohorsesNoun - Genitive Masculine Plural
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowJames 3:3
Aligned rows17
Books represented2
James1Revelation16
Source forms
ἵππων7xhippōnJames 3:3, Revelation 9:9, Revelation 9:17, Revelation 9:19
ἵππος5xhipposRevelation 6:2, Revelation 6:4, Revelation 6:5, Revelation 6:8
ἵπποις2xhippoisRevelation 9:7, Revelation 19:14
ἵππου2xhippouRevelation 19:19, Revelation 19:21
ἵππους1xhippousRevelation 9:17
Parsing patterns
Noun - Genitive Masculine Plural7xJames 3:3, Revelation 9:9, Revelation 9:17, Revelation 9:19
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular5xRevelation 6:2, Revelation 6:4, Revelation 6:5, Revelation 6:8
Noun - Dative Masculine Plural2xRevelation 9:7, Revelation 19:14
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular2xRevelation 19:19, Revelation 19:21
Noun - Accusative Masculine Plural1xRevelation 9:17
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Do not use the horse-and-bit analogy to defend coercive control of another adult, child, congregation, or spouse.
- Do not identify modern nations, armies, diseases, or leaders as particular Revelation horses solely from color or current events.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that G2462 inherently symbolizes war, speed, judgment, or Christ; the noun simply names a horse.
- Do not claim that Revelation's horse imagery authorizes Christians to wage coercive war as agents of the final rider.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. a horse
Strong'sG2462
Lexical occurrences17 versesGreek text appearances16 timesWord forms5 forms17 referencesVerse guides0 guides
Source Gloss
a horse
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
James 3:3Noun Genitive Plural Masculine
ἵππωνippwn
a horse
Read verseRevelation 6:2Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
ἵπποςippov
a horse
Read verseRevelation 6:4Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
ἵπποςippov
a horse
Read verseRevelation 6:5Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
ἵπποςippov
a horse
Read verseRevelation 6:8Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
ἵπποςippov
a horse
Read verseRevelation 9:7Noun Dative Plural Masculine
ἵπποιςippoiv
a horse
Read verseRevelation 9:9Noun Genitive Plural Masculine
ἵππωνippwn
a horse
Read verseRevelation 9:17Noun Accusative Plural Masculine
ἵππουςippouv
a horse
Read verseRevelation 9:17Noun Genitive Plural Masculine
ἵππωνippwn
a horse
Read verseRevelation 14:20Noun Genitive Plural Masculine
ἵππων,ippwn
a horse
Read verseRevelation 18:13Noun Genitive Plural Masculine
ἵππων,ippwn
a horse
Read verseRevelation 19:11Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
ἵπποςippov
a horse
Read verseRevelation 19:14Noun Dative Plural Masculine
ἵπποιςippoiv
a horse
Read verseRevelation 19:18Noun Genitive Plural Masculine
ἵππωνippwn
a horse
Read verseRevelation 19:19Noun Genitive Singular Masculine
ἵππου,ippou
a horse
Read verseRevelation 19:21Noun Genitive Singular Masculine
ἵππου,ippou
a horse
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 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.
Form patterns5Aligned forms17Case patternGenitive (9)Number patternPlural (10)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · MasculineRev 6:2 · Rev 6:4 · Rev 6:5 · Rev 6:8 · Rev 19:115×
Genitive · Plural · MasculineJas 3:3 · Rev 9:9 · Rev 9:17 · Rev 9:19 · Rev 14:20 · Rev 18:13 · Rev 19:187×
Genitive · Singular · MasculineRev 19:19 · Rev 19:212×
Dative · Plural · MasculineRev 9:7 · Rev 19:142×
Accusative · Plural · MasculineRev 9:171×
Word Origins
ἵππος is of uncertain origin - no further derivation.
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.
For the Preacher and Teacher
G2462 brings formidable movement under direction. James begins with the ordinary fact that a small bit guides a powerful horse, then warns that human speech can steer, ignite, bless, and curse. Self-control is not domination of others but accountable direction of one's own words. Revelation uses horses to unveil conquest, bloodshed, scarcity, death, deceptive military power, and final judgment.
The seal riders receive permission and limits; they are not autonomous masters of history. Later the rider called Faithful and True appears, and His distinguishing weapon proceeds from His mouth. He judges in righteousness, unlike beastly rulers and Babylon's commerce, which even trades in human lives. Faithful teaching neither sanitizes the violence of empire nor recruits Christ's horse for nationalism.
It disciplines speech, grieves war's victims, resists economies that commodify persons, and trusts the true Judge whose authority is neither deceptive nor uncontrolled.
Anchor passage
Jas.3.3
Doctrinal connections
- G2462: small speech can direct large outcomes, making the tongue a serious field of discipleship and accountability.
- G2462: human beings cannot tame the tongue by technique alone and need wisdom from above that produces peace.
- G2462: Revelation's riders unveil conquest, violence, scarcity, and death rather than romanticizing imperial power.
- G2462: destructive riders receive bounded permission, keeping history under God's sovereignty even amid judgment.
- G2462: Babylon's trade in horses and human lives exposes luxury systems that commodify creation and persons.
- G2462: the Faithful and True rider judges righteously, and His identity must not be transferred to self-serving earthly campaigns.
G2462 is a masculine Greek noun for horse. James uses the ordinary animal in analogy, while Revelation's modifiers, riders, colors, and comparison phrases identify distinct visionary figures and forces.
From Old to New Testament
Old Testament horses frequently represent military capacity that Israel is warned not to trust, while prophetic visions use colored horses and divine cavalry. Revelation transforms that background around the Lamb's sovereignty and final truthful rider.