Compare , a form of ); forcefulness (literally or figuratively)
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G2479, ischýs, is a Greek noun for strength, might, or capacity brought to bear. It can name creaturely strength devoted to loving God, strength supplied by God for service, divine might described beside other power terms, or strength ascribed to the Lamb in worship.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἰσχύς (G2479) · Open the biblical lexicon
G2479, ischýs, is a Greek noun for strength, might, or capacity brought to bear. It can name creaturely strength devoted to loving God, strength supplied by God for service, divine might described beside other power terms, or strength ascribed to the Lamb in worship.
The BSB source-word alignment has 10 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include strength (5), [the] strength (1), in strength (1), might (1), mighty (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Mark 12:30. Its strongest book concentrations include Ephesians (2), Mark (2), Revelation (2), 1 Peter (1).
G2479, ischýs, is a Greek noun for strength, might, or capacity brought to bear. It can name creaturely strength devoted to loving God, strength supplied by God for service, divine might described beside other power terms, or strength ascribed to the Lamb in worship. The word does not itself mean miracle, authority, or domination. Its overlap with G1411, dýnamis, and G2904, krátos, must not be turned into a rigid technical hierarchy.
In Mark 12:30, strength belongs within the command to love God with the whole person. The coordinated terms should not be converted into a speculative map of detachable human faculties. First Peter 4:11 places Christian service inside strength that God supplies and directs the resulting glory through Jesus Christ. Revelation 5:12 includes strength in the worshipful ascription offered to the slain and worthy Lamb.
The language does not suggest that the Lamb previously lacked strength; the throne-room chorus acknowledges His worth. Across these passages, strength is devoted, received, and returned in praise. Christian use of ischýs therefore opposes both self-sufficiency and performative weakness. Capacity is real, but it remains accountable to love, dependent service, wise limits, and the glory of God.
G2479 names strength or effective capacity in a small but theologically rich set of passages. It appears in wholehearted love, God-supplied service, clustered divine-power language, and worship of the Lamb, with each context defining whose strength is in view.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
Strength is included in the comprehensive command to love God; the coordinated terms summon the whole person rather than define separable human substances.
If anyone speaks, he should speak as one conveying the words of God. If anyone serves, he should serve with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.
Service proceeds through strength God supplies and terminates in His glory through Jesus Christ; the servant receives capacity but does not become its source.
In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!”
The heavenly chorus ascribes strength to the slain and worthy Lamb within worship, not as a claim that Christ previously lacked strength.
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. Physical or moral forcefulness; inner strength or ability to exert power effectively.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
11 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
strength, power
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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 4 selected witnesses from 10 lexical occurrence verses.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Mark 12:30 includes ischýs in the command to love the Lord with heart, soul, mind, and strength. Jesus calls for comprehensive covenant devotion, not a speculative anatomy in which four detachable human components can be measured separately. First Peter 4:11 gives strength a ministry setting: whoever serves should do so with the strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.
Supplied capacity neither erases the servant's action nor turns that servant into the source. It also cannot be used to sanctify exhaustion, because dependence on provision includes wise reception of limits, help, and rest. Revelation 5:12 places strength among the honors proclaimed to the Lamb who was slain and is worthy. The worshiping chorus does not fill a deficiency in Christ; it publicly acknowledges His worth within the throne-room vision.
Other passages cluster ischýs with power terms for cumulative praise or description, not necessarily a technical hierarchy. These uses give churches a pattern for capacity: offer it in love, receive it as provision, exercise it in service, and return glory to God. Strength must never become a pretext for coercion or a score by which disabled, ill, aging, exhausted, or dependent believers are judged less devoted.
1Pet.4.11
G2479 is a feminine Greek noun for strength or effective capacity. It occurs alone and beside overlapping terms such as dýnamis and krátos. Coordination can accumulate emphasis, but lexical overlap does not establish a universal rank order among power words.
Old Testament strength language repeatedly denies that armies or human prowess can save and calls God's people to love Him wholly. The New Testament places effective capacity within love, divine provision, service, and worship of the Lamb. These themes converge canonically while Hebrew strength terms and G2479 keep distinct lexical identities.