A fane, shrine, temple
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ναός (naos) names a temple or sanctuary, often with attention to the sacred dwelling itself rather than the wider courts and complex that another Greek term can denote. Jesus can speak of Jerusalem’s sanctuary as holy because of the One who dwells there, while also exposing corrupt judgments about its gold and sanctity.
Reader summary
Full entry for ναός (G3485) · Open the biblical lexicon
ναός (naos) names a temple or sanctuary, often with attention to the sacred dwelling itself rather than the wider courts and complex that another Greek term can denote. Jesus can speak of Jerusalem’s sanctuary as holy because of the One who dwells there, while also exposing corrupt judgments about its gold and sanctity.
The BSB source-word alignment has 45 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include temple (39), [is] a temple (1), [the] temple (1), shrines (1), temple {took} (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 23:16. Its strongest book concentrations include Revelation (16), Matthew (9), 1 Corinthians (4), Luke (4).
ναός (naos) names a temple or sanctuary, often with attention to the sacred dwelling itself rather than the wider courts and complex that another Greek term can denote. Jesus can speak of Jerusalem’s sanctuary as holy because of the One who dwells there, while also exposing corrupt judgments about its gold and sanctity. Paul then applies temple language to the gathered church, to the believer’s body in a sexual-ethics argument, and to the living God’s covenant people in contrast with idols.
These uses do not make place, congregation, and body identical. Each passage develops a particular implication of God’s holy presence and claim. Revelation finally sees no sanctuary building in the new Jerusalem because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The word therefore traces neither a simple replacement slogan nor an excuse for vague inward spirituality.
It summons reverence, corporate holiness, embodied obedience, separation from idolatry, and hope in God’s immediate presence with His redeemed people.
ναός names a sanctuary and becomes a concentrated biblical image for God’s holy dwelling. The selected passages move from Jerusalem’s temple to the church, the believer’s body, covenant separation from idols, and the new creation where God and the Lamb are the city’s temple.
And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the One who dwells in it.
Jesus exposes oath-making that separates sacred things from the God whose presence makes the sanctuary holy. The temple’s significance is derivative: it cannot be understood apart from the One who dwells there.
Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
The plural address confronts a divided congregation. Paul identifies the church corporately as God’s temple and makes the indwelling Spirit a reason to reject destructive factionalism.
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
Within Paul’s argument against sexual immorality, temple language makes bodily obedience a matter of belonging to God. The application is embodied holiness, not contempt for the body.
What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.”
Paul joins living-temple identity to covenant promises of God dwelling among His people. The resulting summons concerns allegiance and holiness, not social withdrawal from every unbelieving neighbor.
But I saw no temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
The new Jerusalem lacks a separate sanctuary because unmediated divine presence fills the city. God and the Lamb are not merely located in the temple; they are its reality and light.
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. The inner sanctuary or holy of holies, distinct from the entire temple complex (ἱερόν).
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 46 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a temple, shrine
Read versea temple, shrine
Read versea temple, shrine
Read versea temple, shrine
Read versea temple, shrine
Read versea temple, shrine
Read versea temple, shrine
Read versea temple, shrine
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Read versea temple, shrine
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 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.
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 3 selected witnesses from 45 lexical occurrence verses.
Identifies Jesus' body as the true dwelling of God. Acts 19:21-27
Identifies Christ as the true dwelling place of God. John 2:13–25
Represents the center of Artemis worship and civic pride.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Temple language concentrates the biblical truth that the holy God chooses to dwell with His people and therefore claims their worship, relationships, and bodies. Jesus refuses to let sacred gold eclipse the One who makes the sanctuary holy. Paul then makes the same presence ethically searching. In First Corinthians 3, the congregation together is God’s temple, so factional destruction is an offense against what God inhabits.
In First Corinthians 6, the believer’s body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, so sexual conduct cannot be separated from redemption, ownership, and worship. In Second Corinthians 6, living-temple identity excludes agreement with idols because covenant presence demands covenant allegiance. Revelation brings the trajectory to its goal. The new Jerusalem needs no separate sanctuary, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
The image should not be flattened into “buildings do not matter” or “my body is sacred” without context. Its deeper claim is that God’s gracious presence creates a holy people whose corporate life and embodied obedience anticipate unbroken communion with Him.
1Cor.3.16
ναός can denote a sanctuary, temple, or sacred dwelling and is not always coextensive with ἱερόν, which often denotes the larger temple complex. Metaphorical uses retain the core association of divine presence and holiness, but their referent varies: congregation, body, or eschatological city. Number, addressee, and argument must govern application.
The tabernacle and Jerusalem temple express God’s gracious decision to dwell among His covenant people while preserving His holiness. Prophetic promises anticipate a cleansed people and restored presence. Paul applies that dwelling promise to the Spirit-indwelt church, and Revelation completes the movement with a city wholly filled by God and the Lamb.
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