New (especially in freshness; while is properly so with respect to age
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Greek has two words for 'new': neos (new in terms of time — recently made, young) and kainos (new in terms of quality — different, unprecedented, previously unknown). The distinction is not always sharp, but in theologically loaded contexts kainos typically carries the qualitative sense: not just a newer version of what came before but something that belongs to a different order altogether.
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Full entry for καινός (G2537) · Open the biblical lexicon
Greek has two words for 'new': neos (new in terms of time — recently made, young) and kainos (new in terms of quality — different, unprecedented, previously unknown). The distinction is not always sharp, but in theologically loaded contexts kainos typically carries the qualitative sense: not just a newer version of what came before but something that.
The BSB source-word alignment has 42 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include A new (16), new (13), [the] new (2), anew (2), of a new (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 9:17. Its strongest book concentrations include Revelation (9), Luke (5), Mark (5), Matthew (4).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
Greek has two words for 'new': neos (new in terms of time — recently made, young) and kainos (new in terms of quality — different, unprecedented, previously unknown). The distinction is not always sharp, but in theologically loaded contexts kainos typically carries the qualitative sense: not just a newer version of what came before but something that belongs to a different order altogether.
Paul uses kainos in one of Galatians' most concentrated theological statements: 'For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what matters is a new creation (kainē ktisis)' (Gal. 6:15). This 'new creation' is not an improved version of the old world but a new order of reality inaugurated by the death and resurrection of Christ. The person in Christ inhabits this new creation now — their identity is determined not by whether they carry a circumcision-mark or not but by whether they belong to the new-creation order Christ has inaugurated.
Second Corinthians 5:17 extends the same concept to the individual: 'if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation (kainē ktisis); the old has gone, the new has come.' In Revelation, the eschatological fullness of this new creation appears as 'a new heaven and a new earth' (Rev. 21:1) and 'behold, I make all things new' (Rev. 21:5 — kainos). Galatians 6:15's kainē ktisis points to the same eschatological reality already present in anticipation within the community of faith.
The local Greek index currently counts about 42 occurrences for kainos in the NT. The most theologically significant uses are in the new covenant (kainē diathēkē — Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25; 2 Cor. 3:6; Heb. 8-9), the new creation (Gal. 6:15; 2 Cor. 5:17), the new commandment (John 13:34 — kainē entolē), and the new Jerusalem and all things new in Revelation (21:1-2, 5). The word consistently signals a qualitative newness belonging to God's eschatological action.
For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is a new creation.
The letter's decisive cosmological statement. Having argued the gospel throughout Galatians, Paul reaches the bottom level: it is not the old covenant markers (circumcision) or their absence that defines the believer's world — it is the new creation order that Christ has inaugurated. The contrast is not between old Judaism and new Christianity but between the old creation order and the new creation order.
Both circumcised Jewish believers and uncircumcised Gentile believers belong to the new creation by grace through faith.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!
The individual-application statement of what Galatians 6:15 makes the communal claim. The new creation is not only an eschatological future but a present reality for the person in Christ. 'The old has passed away' and 'the new has come' use completed-action forms — the transition is already accomplished. This is the decisive identity statement for the believer: they do not live in the old order but in the new.
And the One seated on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Then He said, “Write this down, for these words are faithful and true.”
The eschatological fullness of kainē ktisis: God on the throne making all things new (kainos). The Galatians new creation and the Revelation new creation are the same reality at different stages: the new creation has been inaugurated in Christ (Gal. 6:15) and will be consummated at the renewal of all things (Rev. 21:5). The believer lives between inauguration and consummation, embodying the new creation in a world still marked by the old.
A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another.
Jesus calls the love-commandment 'new' (kainēn). This is not because the command to love was absent from the OT (Lev. 19:18 commands love of neighbor) but because its ground and measure are new: 'as I have loved you.' The new covenant's love-command is qualitatively different — calibrated to the self-giving love of Christ at the cross. This illuminates Galatians' own statement that what matters in the new creation is 'faith expressing itself through love' (Gal. 5:6): new-creation faith produces new-covenant love.
By speaking of a new covenant, He has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.
Hebrews deploys kainos to make the redemptive-historical argument: the covenant declared 'new' (kainēn) in Jeremiah 31:31 has made the first covenant 'old' (pepalaiōken). This is the same logic underlying Galatians' argument: the new creation/new covenant that Christ inaugurated has not merely supplemented the old covenant but has fulfilled and surpassed it in a way that renders its regulatory markers (circumcision, calendar, food laws) no longer operative as conditions of standing.
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.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. New in quality and freshness rather than merely recent in time; emphasizes novelty of form or character
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 44 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 10 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.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 5 selected witnesses from 42 lexical occurrence verses.
καινός is of uncertain origin - no further derivation.
Describes the new covenant reality inaugurated by Christ. 1 John 2:7-11
Indicates covenantal transformation, not minor revision. Hebrews 8:7-13
The command is ancient in revelation but newly embodied in Christ and empowered by the light He brings. Luke 5:33–39
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Kainos in Galatians 6:15 ('new creation') is Paul's most radical claim in the letter — and it is hidden in plain sight. After six chapters of argument about circumcision and faith, law and grace, flesh and Spirit, Paul reaches the bottom: what is at stake in the Galatian controversy is not a Jewish-Gentile dispute about a religious practice. What is at stake is whether the new creation has arrived or not.
If the new creation has arrived — if Christ's death and resurrection have inaugurated the new order of reality — then the old identity markers (circumcision/uncircumcision) no longer determine one's position before God. The new creation operates on a different logic entirely: grace, faith, and the Spirit. If the Galatians return to circumcision as a condition of standing, they are implicitly denying that the new creation has arrived.
They are reaching back into the old creation order for a security that the new creation has made unnecessary. The pastoral application is profound: what is the 'new creation' claim of the gospel doing to the identity-markers your people are building their lives on? Their education, their family connections, their moral record, their religious performance, their social status — none of these determines their standing in the new creation.
Only Christ determines that. The preacher who names this with precision will help people experience the gospel not as a set of beliefs about the future but as an already-present new reality that they inhabit by faith.
Gal.6.15
The Greek distinction between neos (new in time) and kainos (new in quality) is important for theological precision but should not be pressed mechanically — the NT does not always maintain the distinction rigidly. In theologically loaded texts like Galatians 6:15, 2 Corinthians 5:17, and Revelation 21, kainos consistently signals the qualitative newness of God's eschatological action rather than mere temporal recency.
The related verb kainoō (to renew) and the noun anakainōsis (renewal) appear in Romans 12:2 (renewal of the mind) and Titus 3:5 (renewing by the Holy Spirit), extending the kainos concept to the ongoing transformation process. The prefix ana- (again, up) adds a layer to anakainōsis: it is a re-newing, a bringing of the already-new-creation reality into the present experience of the believer.
The prophetic tradition in Isaiah is the primary OT source for new-creation language. Isaiah 65:17 and 66:22 promise that God will 'create new heavens and a new earth' — a qualitatively different order from the fallen creation. Isaiah 43:18-19 introduces the pattern earlier: 'Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!' The prophetic new thing is always God's sovereign creative action, not a human renovation project.
The new covenant promised in Jeremiah 31:31-34 is part of the same cluster: it will be 'not like the covenant I made with their ancestors' — qualitatively different, written on the heart rather than on stone. Paul reads Christ's death and resurrection as the fulfillment of both the new exodus (Isa. 40-55) and the new covenant (Jer. 31): the new creation has been inaugurated in the one who was the firstfruits of the resurrection (1 Cor.
15:20). The kainē ktisis of Galatians 6:15 is present reality because the resurrection has occurred; the kainē ktisis of Revelation 21 is future fullness because the resurrection awaits its cosmic completion. Between these two stands the church, called to embody now the new-creation order that will eventually encompass everything.
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