A fetter or manacle
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G254, hálysis, is a Greek noun for a chain or fetter used to restrain a person, with one apocalyptic use for the great chain carried by an angel. In the Gospels it appears in accounts of a tormented man repeatedly chained by others.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἅλυσις (G254) · Open the biblical lexicon
G254, hálysis, is a Greek noun for a chain or fetter used to restrain a person, with one apocalyptic use for the great chain carried by an angel. In the Gospels it appears in accounts of a tormented man repeatedly chained by others.
The BSB source-word alignment has 11 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include chains (7), chain (2), with chains (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Mark 5:3. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (4), Mark (3), 2 Timothy (1), Ephesians (1).
G254, hálysis, is a Greek noun for a chain or fetter used to restrain a person, with one apocalyptic use for the great chain carried by an angel. In the Gospels it appears in accounts of a tormented man repeatedly chained by others. In Acts it marks Peter's imprisonment and escape, Paul's arrest and continuing custody. Paul then speaks of being an ambassador in chains, and a later letter praises Onesiphorus for not being ashamed of those chains. The noun names the instrument of restraint; it does not establish that the restraint is lawful, humane, deserved, or spiritually superior.
Acts presents chains from several angles. Peter sleeps bound between soldiers until an angel releases him. Paul is fastened with two chains amid a confused crowd before the commander has established what he has done. Later, the single chain attached to his custody becomes a visible sign of suffering connected to the hope of Israel and gospel witness. These passages can honor courage under unjust or contested confinement without romanticizing prisons, assuming every prisoner is innocent, or treating physical suffering as a requirement for faithful ministry.
Mark and Luke describe failed attempts to subdue a man living among tombs. The narratives concern a specific confrontation with an unclean spirit and culminate in restored presence, clothing, clarity, and witness. They must not be generalized into claims that mental illness, disability, trauma, addiction, or crisis behavior is demonic. Revelation's great chain belongs to apocalyptic imagery of restraining the dragon, not a technique for human exorcism or punishment. Pastoral use should protect prisoner dignity, resist stigma, support lawful accountability and due process, and make accompaniment visible when shame pressures communities to abandon the confined.
G254 marks attempted restraint, prison custody, angelic release, arrest amid public disorder, faithful witness under confinement, compassionate solidarity, and an apocalyptic act of restraint.
This man had been living in the tombs and could no longer be restrained, even with chains.
The man lives in isolation and has been subjected to repeated restraint. Mark exposes the community's inability to restore him before Jesus crosses the water and approaches him.
Though he was often bound with chains and shackles, he had broken the chains and shattered the shackles. Now there was no one with the strength to subdue him.
Force has failed to produce safety or restoration. The account must remain a particular exorcism narrative and not become a diagnosis or restraint protocol for present-day crises.
For Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was bound with chains and shackles, he had broken the chains and been driven by the demon into solitary places.
Luke identifies the narrative's stated spiritual cause and the man's repeated isolation. Modern readers should neither erase that claim nor assign the same cause to people with superficially similar behavior.
On the night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, with sentries standing guard at the entrance to the prison.
Herod's security measures make Peter's vulnerability and the coming deliverance unmistakable. The church is praying, but the text does not promise identical release from every imprisonment.
Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his wrists.
The chains fall through divine intervention, not Peter's strength. This particular rescue inspires prayer and hope without turning release into a test of faith for prisoners who remain confined.
The commander came up and arrested Paul, ordering that he be bound with two chains. Then he asked who he was and what he had done.
Paul is restrained before the commander knows his identity or alleged offense. The sequence cautions against treating arrest as proof of guilt and underscores the need for fact-finding and due process.
So for this reason I have called to see you and speak with you. It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.”
Paul interprets his custody in relation to Israel's hope as he addresses Jewish leaders in Rome. His chain becomes context for witness, not evidence that Judaism itself imprisoned him or that suffering is inherently holy.
For which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it fearlessly, as I should.
The imprisoned messenger asks for courage to speak. The paradox of an ambassador in chains magnifies the gospel's advance while keeping his need for prayer and support visible.
May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he has often refreshed me and was unashamed of my chains.
Onesiphorus answers the shame of imprisonment with repeated presence and refreshment. Solidarity is practical and costly rather than admiration from a distance.
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven with the key to the Abyss, holding in his hand a great chain.
The chain belongs to John's apocalyptic vision of the dragon's restraint under divine authority. It is not a human ritual object, political warrant, or technique for coercive ministry.
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 restraint device, often literal chains binding prisoners or demon-possessed persons in NT narratives
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.
a light chain
Read versea light chain
Read versea light chain
Read versea light chain
Read versea light chain
Read versea light chain
Read versea light chain
Read versea light chain
Read versea light chain
Read versea light chain
Read versea light chain
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 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.
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 2 selected witnesses from 11 lexical occurrence verses.
ἅλυσις is of uncertain origin - no further derivation.
Symbolize human constraint overcome by divine power.Acts 12:6-19
Symbolizes the cost of faithful witness.Acts 28:17-22
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G254 makes restraint visible rather than abstract. Peter's two chains fall in a singular divine rescue; Paul's two chains are ordered before the commander even knows the accusation; and Paul's later chain becomes part of witness to Israel's hope. The letters do not celebrate pain for its own sake: Paul requests prayer, and Onesiphorus is honored because he repeatedly brings refreshment without shame.
The Gerasene accounts show that chains and overpowering force did not restore an isolated man, while Jesus returns him to community and testimony. Revelation reserves the great apocalyptic chain for an angel acting under God's authority. Churches should reject stigma, visit and support prisoners, protect due process, distinguish lawful restraint from abuse, attend to victims as well as accused persons, and refuse amateur diagnoses that equate trauma or mental illness with demonic possession.
Acts.28.20
G254 is a feminine noun for a linked chain or fetter. It occurs in singular and plural forms, and Acts can count two chains or refer to Paul's continuing custody with one chain. The word identifies the restraint object but does not encode the prisoner's guilt, the restraint's justice, the length of custody, or whether the chain is literal outside Revelation's vision.
The Old Testament remembers unjust confinement in Joseph's story, celebrates the Lord who frees prisoners, and also requires justice for victims and the community. Jesus identifies with prisoners in the call to visitation. The New Testament's prison narratives therefore support mercy, truth, safety, due process, and solidarity together rather than a simplistic presumption about every prisoner or every institution.