A stone (literally or figuratively)
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Lithos means a stone, a piece of rock, or building material. Matthew uses the ordinary object in vivid contrasts: God can raise Abraham's children from stones, the tempter challenges Jesus to turn stones into bread and invokes protection from striking a stone, and a father does not answer a hungry child with a stone.
Reader summary
Full entry for λίθος (G3037) · Open the biblical lexicon
Lithos means a stone, a piece of rock, or building material. Matthew uses the ordinary object in vivid contrasts: God can raise Abraham's children from stones, the tempter challenges Jesus to turn stones into bread and invokes protection from striking a stone, and a father does not answer a hungry child with a stone.
The BSB source-word alignment has 59 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include stone (19), stones (13), a stone (10), [another] (4), [The] stone (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 3:9. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (14), Matthew (11), Mark (8), Revelation (8).
Lithos means a stone, a piece of rock, or building material. Matthew uses the ordinary object in vivid contrasts: God can raise Abraham's children from stones, the tempter challenges Jesus to turn stones into bread and invokes protection from striking a stone, and a father does not answer a hungry child with a stone. Jesus then identifies Himself through the rejected stone that becomes the cornerstone.
The noun itself does not automatically mean Christ, hardness, stumbling, or judgment; context assigns each image. Canonical stone imagery moves from created material and human need to temple, rejection, foundation, and living people built around Christ. Sound teaching preserves the literal scene before tracing a warranted theological pattern.
Lithos names ordinary stone and becomes a flexible biblical image. Matthew moves from inert material and temptation to provision contrasts and finally the rejected stone established by God as cornerstone.
And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.
Matthew 3:9 warns against confidence in ancestry: God is able from these stones to raise children for Abraham. The image magnifies divine freedom rather than teaching stones possess faith.
The tempter came to Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
Matthew 4:3 records the tempter's demand that the hungry Son command stones to become bread. Jesus refuses to use sonship outside obedient dependence on God's word.
“If You are the Son of God,” he said, “throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command His angels concerning You, and they will lift You up in their hands, so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”
Matthew 4:6 cites the psalmic promise that angels will keep Jesus from striking His foot against a stone. The temptation misuses protection to demand a spectacle.
Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
Matthew 7:9 asks whether a father would give a stone when his son requests bread. Visual similarity sharpens the contrast between useless response and good provision.
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
Matthew 21:42 cites the rejected stone becoming the cornerstone. Jesus applies the builders' rejection and God's reversal within His confrontation with the leaders.
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. Stone carries metaphorical weight in NT: Christ as cornerstone, believers as living stones, stumbling block.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 60 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a stone
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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 8 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 4 selected witnesses from 58 lexical occurrence verses.
λίθος is a primary word - no further derivation.
Connects to Psalm 118 and Christ’s exaltation.Luke 20:9–19
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Lithos shows how Scripture develops theology through concrete objects without turning them into secret codes. Stones beside the Jordan expose the emptiness of ancestry-based presumption. Wilderness stones become the setting for Jesus' obedient refusal to manufacture bread on the tempter's terms. A household stone highlights the Father's goodness by contrast with bread.
In the vineyard confrontation, the rejected stone becomes the cornerstone through God's action, locating Jesus at the center of judgment and renewed building. Churches should let these scenes retain their differences while proclaiming their convergence in Christ. The cornerstone is not a license for institutions to claim invulnerability; every building line must remain aligned to the rejected and vindicated Son.
Matt.21.42
Lithos normally denotes a stone or piece of rock, often as a countable object or building material. It differs from broader rock-mass language, though English translations may overlap.
Jacob's memorial stones, temple construction, Isaiah's tested cornerstone, and Zion's stumbling stone prepare the New Testament's building and rejection imagery.