What does κρίμα (kríma) mean in the Bible?
Κρίμα is the result of κρίσις — the verdict, the sentence, the judicial outcome that judgment produces. Where κρίσις names the process or act of evaluation, κρίμα names what that process delivers.
Greek · G2917
κρίμα
A decision (the function or the effect, for or against ("crime"))
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κρίμα G2917
Pronunciation kríma
What does κρίμα (kríma) mean in the Bible?
Κρίμα is the result of κρίσις — the verdict, the sentence, the judicial outcome that judgment produces. Where κρίσις names the process or act of evaluation, κρίμα names what that process delivers.
Reader summary
Full entry for κρίμα (G2917) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G2917?
The BSB source-word alignment has 27 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include judgment (14), condemnation (4), [ the same ] condemnation (1), [His] judgment (1), [the] sentence (1).
Where does κρίμα (kríma) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 7:2. Its strongest book concentrations include Romans (6), 1 Corinthians (3), Luke (3), Revelation (3).
Are there verse guides for κρίμα (kríma)?
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
What This Word Actually Means
Κρίμα is the result of κρίσις — the verdict, the sentence, the judicial outcome that judgment produces. Where κρίσις names the process or act of evaluation, κρίμα names what that process delivers. In everyday legal Greek, it was the word for the decision of the court, the sentence imposed, the official ruling that carried force. The New Testament uses it predominantly in this forensic sense, almost always in connection with divine judgment.
Paul reaches for κρίμα in Romans 5:16 to describe the contrasting verdicts produced by Adam's sin and Christ's gift. The sin of one man produced κρίμα leading to condemnation; the gift flowing from many trespasses produced justification. The comparison is legally precise: two judicial outcomes, two opposite directions, produced by two different representative heads.
The κρίμα of the first Adam was condemnation of all who stand in him; the gift of the second Adam is justification for all who stand in him. Romans 2:2-3 applies κρίμα to the danger of the morally self-confident: those who judge others while doing the same things bring κρίμα on themselves. God's verdict is 'based on truth' (Romans 2:2) — not on reputation, social standing, or religious performance.
It penetrates to the actual moral reality of a life. This is not merely threatening; it is also liberating. Because God's κρίμα is truthful rather than arbitrary, the one who has genuinely been transformed by grace is genuinely safe. The verdict corresponds to reality; it is not capricious. First Corinthians 11:29 applies κρίμα to the Lord's Supper: eating and drinking without recognizing the body brings κρίμα on oneself.
This is one of the NT's most direct uses of κρίμα for a present experienced consequence — the community that treats the Table carelessly already experiences the effects of God's verdict in present discipline (11:30-32). Paul is not threatening final condemnation here but describing present covenant consequence, carefully distinguished in 11:32 from the κρίμα that falls on 'the world.'
source_lexiconPassage contextBook context
How the Bible Uses It
Κρίμα is locally indexed at about 27 G2917 occurrences in the New Testament, concentrated in Paul's letters (especially Romans) and Revelation. It names the judicial outcome of κρίσις — the verdict, sentence, or decision that judgment produces. The word applies both to divine final judgment and to present consequences within the community of faith.
- Rom.5.16
Again, the gift is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment that followed one sin brought condemnation, but the gift that followed many trespasses brought justification.
The forensic contrast at the heart of Romans 5: one sin produced κρίμα leading to condemnation (katakrima) for all; the gift of Christ reverses the κρίμα and produces justification. Paul's legal precision here is intentional — he is mapping the courtroom reality behind sin and atonement. The κρίμα Adam's sin warranted has been reversed not by overlooking it but by Christ's bearing it.
- Rom.2.2
And we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.
God's κρίμα is 'based on truth' (kata aletheian) — it corresponds to reality, not appearance. Paul is addressing those who judge others hypocritically: they will not escape the truthful verdict. But the same principle reassures: a verdict based on truth cannot be manipulated or deceived. The God who judges truthfully is the same God who justifies truthfully through Christ's atoning work.
- Rom.11.33
O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!
κρίματα (plural) here refers to God's governing decisions across history — not merely condemnatory sentences but the entire sweep of God's judicial governance of human events. Paul breaks into doxology at the depth of these κρίματα after wrestling with Israel's election and rejection. The word at its widest stretch encompasses all of God's ruling wisdom, not only final condemnation.
- 1Cor.11.29
For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
Present κρίμα as covenant consequence: treating the Lord's Table carelessly does not simply produce social disorder; it brings κρίμα on the one who does so. Paul immediately clarifies in 11:32 that this present κρίμα is divine discipline, not final condemnation — the Lord disciplines the church so that it 'will not be condemned with the world.' The Supper is a covenant meal, and covenant meals carry covenant weight.
- Rom.13.2
Consequently, whoever resists authority is opposing what God has set in place, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.
Κρίμα in the civic sphere: resistance to divinely ordered governing authority brings κρίμα. Paul is not teaching absolute political submission but establishing that authority structures have a God-given function. Undermining that function brings the verdict that belongs to those who oppose God's ordering of life together. The pastoral application requires care: Paul is addressing ordinary civic order, not outlawing prophetic resistance to evil regimes.
- Rev.20.4
Then I saw the thrones, and those seated on them had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or hands. And they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
Κρίμα given to the martyrs: those who bore witness at the cost of their lives are given the authority of judgment — seated on thrones, they participate in the eschatological verdict. This is κρίμα as vindication: the world's verdict on the martyrs (guilty, executed) is reversed by the divine κρίμα that seats them as judges. The reversibility of human verdicts by divine ones is embedded in the word's eschatological use.
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 judgment 14× Matthew 7:2, Luke 23:40, John 9:39, Acts 24:25
condemnation 4× Mark 12:40, Luke 20:47, Romans 3:8, Jude 1:4
[ the same ] condemnation 1× 1 Timothy 3:6
[His] judgment 1× Revelation 18:20
[the] sentence 1× Luke 24:20
authority to judge 1× Revelation 20:4
judged 1× James 3:1
judgments 1× Romans 11:33
lawsuits 1× 1 Corinthians 6:7
punishment 1× Revelation 17:1
verdict 1× 2 Peter 2:3
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 7:2 κρίματι to judgment Noun - Dative Neuter Singular Mark 12:40 κρίμα to condemnation Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular Luke 20:47 κρίμα to condemnation Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular Luke 23:40 κρίματι to judgment Noun - Dative Neuter Singular Luke 24:20 κρίμα to [the] sentence Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular John 9:39 κρίμα to judgment Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular Acts 24:25 κρίματος to judgment Noun - Genitive Neuter Singular Romans 2:2 κρίμα to judgment Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular Romans 2:3 κρίμα to judgment Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular Romans 3:8 κρίμα to condemnation Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Matthew 7:2
Aligned rows 27
Books represented 15
Matthew 1 Mark 1 Luke 3 John 1 Acts 1 Romans 6 1 Corinthians 3 Galatians 1 1 Timothy 2 Hebrews 1 James 1 1 Peter 1 2 Peter 1 Jude 1 Revelation 3
Source forms
κρίμα 21x krima Mark 12:40, Luke 20:47, Luke 24:20, John 9:39
κρίματα 2x krimata Romans 11:33, 1 Corinthians 6:7
κρίματι 2x krimati Matthew 7:2, Luke 23:40
κρίματος 2x krimatos Acts 24:25, Hebrews 6:2
Parsing patterns
Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular 16x Mark 12:40, Luke 20:47, Luke 24:20, John 9:39
Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular 5x Romans 2:2, Romans 3:8, Romans 5:16, 2 Peter 2:3
Noun - Dative Neuter Singular 2x Matthew 7:2, Luke 23:40
Noun - Genitive Neuter Singular 2x Acts 24:25, Hebrews 6:2
Noun - Accusative Neuter Plural 1x 1 Corinthians 6:7
Noun - Nominative Neuter Plural 1x Romans 11:33
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Κρίμα in the NT almost always refers to a divine verdict, not simply a human opinion or social consequence. When teaching from κρίμα passages, keep the vertical dimension clear: God's verdict is what is at stake, and it is based on truth, not appearance. This should produce both gravity (the verdict is real and will correspond to reality) and reassurance (the God who justifies through Christ is the same God whose verdict is truthful).
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that 1 Corinthians 11:29 means that Christians who receive communion carelessly or unworthily are risking final condemnation. Paul distinguishes the present κρίμα (experienced as illness or death — covenant discipline) from being 'condemned with the world' (11:32). The Lord's Supper passage concerns covenant seriousness within the community, not the question of final salvation.
- Do not claim that Romans 5:16 teaches a simple legal transaction in which moral reality is ignored. Paul's point is the opposite: the truthful God issued a κρίμα that the reality of sin warranted, and that κρίμα was executed on Christ, not canceled. Justification is not God pretending the κρίμα did not exist; it is God satisfying it in the person of the Son.
Key Verse and Form Guides
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Evidence Summary
Messiah
Greek word. God's judicial verdict or sentence, especially divine judgment against sin and wrongdoing.
Source Gloss
a decision (the function or the effect, for or against ("crime"))
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 28 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Matthew 7:2 Noun Dative Singular Neuter
κρίματι krimati
a judgment, verdict, lawsuit
Read verse Matthew 23:14 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
κρίμα. krima
a judgment, verdict, lawsuit
Read verse Mark 12:40 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
κρίμα. krima
a judgment, verdict, lawsuit
Read verse Luke 20:47 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
κρίμα. krima
a judgment, verdict, lawsuit
Read verse Luke 23:40 Noun Dative Singular Neuter
κρίματι krimati
a judgment, verdict, lawsuit
Read verse Luke 24:20 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
κρίμα krima
a judgment, verdict, lawsuit
Read verse John 9:39 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
κρίμα krima
a judgment, verdict, lawsuit
Read verse Acts 24:25 Noun Genitive Singular Neuter
κρίματος krimatov
a judgment, verdict, lawsuit
Read verse Romans 2:2 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
κρίμα krima
a judgment, verdict, lawsuit
Read verse Romans 2:3 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
κρίμα krima
a judgment, verdict, lawsuit
Read verse krima
a judgment, verdict, lawsuit
Read verse Romans 5:16 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
κρίμα krima
a judgment, verdict, lawsuit
Read verse Romans 11:33 Noun Nominative Plural Neuter
κρίματα krimata
a judgment, verdict, lawsuit
Read verse Romans 13:2 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
κρίμα krima
a judgment, verdict, lawsuit
Read verse 1 Corinthians 6:7 Noun Accusative Plural Neuter
κρίματα krimata
a judgment, verdict, lawsuit
Read verse 1 Corinthians 11:29 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
κρίμα krima
a judgment, verdict, lawsuit
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 6 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 6 Aligned forms 27 Case pattern Accusative (17) Number pattern Singular (25)
Nominative · Plural · Neuter Rom 11:33 1×
Genitive · Singular · Neuter Acts 24:25 · Heb 6:2 2×
Dative · Singular · Neuter Matt 7:2 · Luke 23:40 2×
Accusative · Singular · Neuter Mark 12:40 · Luke 20:47 · Luke 24:20 · John 9:39 · Rom 2:3 · Rom 13:2 · 1 Cor 11:29 · 1 Cor 11:34 · Gal 5:10 · 1 Tim 3:6 · 1 Tim 5:12 · Jas 3:1 · 1 Pet 4:17 · Jude 1:4 · Rev 17:1 · Rev 18:20 16×
Accusative · Plural · Neuter 1 Cor 6:7 1×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
New Testament Witnesses
Divine evaluation and verdict.
judgment
judgment
Judgment, decision.
Additional Occurrences
judgment, verdict
John 9:35-41 κίμα kríma
judgment
Luke 20:45–47 κατάκριμα kríma
Judgment, condemnation
Mark 12:38–40 κρίμα kríma
judgment, condemnation
Showing 8 selected witnesses from 27 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
κρίμα is built from this root:
Why This Word Matters
Affirms that God’s judicial decisions are beyond full human scrutiny. Acts 24:22-27
Affirms divine accountability. Luke 20:45–47
Indicates heightened condemnation for religious pretense. Mark 12:38–40
Reveals moral and spiritual evaluation through Christ's presence. Romans 11:33-36
Grounds the urgency of repentance. James 3:1–6
Canonical Themes
Messiah
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
Κρίμα is the word that keeps the gospel honest about what Christ actually accomplished. It is not enough to say Christ died and now things are different. The NT's legal vocabulary — κρίμα especially — forces the preacher to say what changed: the verdict that Adam's sin warranted (Romans 5:16), the κρίμα that the law's honest assessment would have produced, was absorbed by the one who had no such verdict coming to him.
Romans 5:16 maps this with courtroom precision: condemnation was the judicial outcome; justification replaced it. Preachers who find legal metaphors cold should notice that the NT writers reach for them precisely because they are concrete. Grace is not a feeling; it is a verdict reversal. The one who deserved condemnation has received justification. That is not abstraction; it is the most specific thing that can be said about what happened at the cross.
Κρίμα also appears in the domain of community life (1 Corinthians 11), which tells preachers something important: the gospel verdict has social and liturgical weight. How the church eats together at the Lord's Table reflects and is affected by the κρίμα God has spoken over them. A community that takes its identity as the justified seriously will treat its covenant practices seriously.
Κρίμα in the community is not primarily warning; it is the gravity of having been placed in the company of the verdict-reversed.
Anchor passage
Rom.5.16
Doctrinal connections
- G2920 κρίσις — judgment (process); the process that produces the κρίμα (verdict)
- G2919 κρίνω — to judge; the root verb from which κρίμα derives
- G2631 κατάκριμα — condemnation; the specific negative κρίμα that Paul contrasts with justification in Romans 5:16 and 8:1
- G1344 δικαιόω — to justify; the verdict of acquittal/righteous standing that reverses the κρίμα of condemnation
- G1342 δίκαιος — righteous; the character of the judge whose κρίμα is kata aletheian (based on truth)
- H4941 מִשְׁפָּט — Hebrew judgment/verdict; the OT legal background that gives NT κρίμα its covenantal depth
Κρίμα is the neuter noun derived from κρίνω (to judge, separate, decide). The -μα suffix in Greek typically forms result nouns: the outcome of the action named by the verb. κρίμα is thus 'the result of judging' — the verdict or sentence, not the act of judging itself (which is κρίσις). This distinction is maintained with reasonable consistency in the NT, though the two words can overlap.
Abbott-Smith notes that κρίμα in the NT is 'the issue of a judicial process' — it names what emerges from the κρίσις, not the κρίσις itself. This distinction matters pastorally: κρίσις is what is coming; κρίμα is what will be delivered when it arrives — or, for the believer in Christ, what has already been reversed.
From Old to New Testament
The OT world of κρίμα is saturated with the language of H4941 מִשְׁפָּט — God's judgment as both legal verdict and restorative justice. The psalms petition God to vindicate the righteous and condemn the wicked, trusting that the divine מִשְׁפָּט will ultimately correspond to reality. The prophets announce that God's מִשְׁפָּט is coming and that no social arrangement will survive it unchanged.
In the NT, κρίμα inherits this tradition and concentrates it around the cross and the last day. Romans 5:16 is the critical redemptive-historical statement: the κρίμα that Adam's sin generated has been answered not by God overlooking it but by Christ absorbing it and the new κρίμα (justification) being issued in its place. The transfer from condemnation-verdict to justification-verdict is the NT's definitive answer to the OT expectation of מִשְׁפָּט.
Revelation 20:4 completes the arc: those who suffered the world's unjust κρίμα (execution for testimony) are seated to participate in the final κρίμα of God. OT longing for true and final justice is not disappointed; it is fulfilled, at cost, through Christ.
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