What does λαῖλαψ (laîlaps) mean in the Bible?
λαῖλαψ (laîlaps): A violent, sudden storm or squall, often depicting divine power or chaos in biblical narrative.
Greek · G2978
λαῖλαψ
A whirlwind (squall)
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λαῖλαψ G2978
Pronunciation laîlaps
What does λαῖλαψ (laîlaps) mean in the Bible?
λαῖλαψ (laîlaps): A violent, sudden storm or squall, often depicting divine power or chaos in biblical narrative.
Full entry for λαῖλαψ (G2978) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G2978?
The BSB source-word alignment has 3 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include a storm (1), a windstorm (1), windstorm (1).
Where does λαῖλαψ (laîlaps) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Mark 4:37. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Peter (1), Luke (1), Mark (1).
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 a storm 1× 2 Peter 2:17
a windstorm 1× Luke 8:23
windstorm 1× Mark 4:37
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Mark 4:37
Aligned rows 3
Books represented 3
Mark 1 Luke 1 2 Peter 1
Source forms
λαῖλαψ 2x lailaps Mark 4:37, Luke 8:23
λαίλαπος 1x lailapos 2 Peter 2:17
Parsing patterns
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular 2x Mark 4:37, Luke 8:23
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular 1x 2 Peter 2:17
Evidence Summary
Greek word. A violent, sudden storm or squall, often depicting divine power or chaos in biblical narrative.
Strong's G2978
Lexical occurrences 3 verses Greek text appearances 3 times Word forms 2 forms 3 references Verse guides 0 guides
Source Gloss
a whirlwind (squall)
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
3 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Mark 4:37 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
λαῖλαψ lailay
a sudden storm, squall
Read verse Luke 8:23 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
λαῖλαψ lailay
a sudden storm, squall
Read verse 2 Peter 2:17 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
λαίλαπος lailapov
a sudden storm, squall
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 2 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 2 Aligned forms 3 Case pattern Nominative (2) Number pattern Singular (3)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · Feminine Mark 4:37 · Luke 8:23 2×
Genitive · Singular · Feminine 2 Pet 2:17 1×
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Witnesses
Mark 4:35–41 λαῖλαψ laîlaps
violent storm, whirlwind
Showing 1 selected witness from 3 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
λαῖλαψ 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.
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