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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λαῖλαψG2978
Pronunciationlaîlaps
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 Ita storm1×2 Peter 2:17
a windstorm1×Luke 8:23
windstorm1×Mark 4:37
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowMark 4:37
Aligned rows3
Books represented3
Mark1Luke12 Peter1
Source forms
λαῖλαψ2xlailapsMark 4:37, Luke 8:23
λαίλαπος1xlailapos2 Peter 2:17
Parsing patterns
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular2xMark 4:37, Luke 8:23
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular1x2 Peter 2:17
Evidence Summary
Greek word. A violent, sudden storm or squall, often depicting divine power or chaos in biblical narrative.
Strong'sG2978
Lexical occurrences3 versesGreek text appearances3 timesWord forms2 forms3 referencesVerse guides0 guides
Source Gloss
a whirlwind (squall)
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek 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 4:37Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
λαῖλαψlailay
a sudden storm, squall
Read verseLuke 8:23Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
λαῖλαψlailay
a sudden storm, squall
Read verse2 Peter 2:17Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
λαίλαποςlailapov
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 patterns2Aligned forms3Case patternNominative (2)Number patternSingular (3)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · FeminineMark 4:37 · Luke 8:232×
Genitive · Singular · Feminine2 Pet 2:171×
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Witnesses
Mark 4:35–41λαῖλαψlaîlaps
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.