"Night" (literally or figuratively)
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νύξ (nyx) is the ordinary noun for night, the period of darkness between evening and morning. New Testament narratives use it for travel, prayer, work, danger, imprisonment, visions, and quiet acts that occur after sunset.
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Full entry for νύξ (G3571) · Open the biblical lexicon
νύξ (nyx) is the ordinary noun for night, the period of darkness between evening and morning. New Testament narratives use it for travel, prayer, work, danger, imprisonment, visions, and quiet acts that occur after sunset.
The BSB source-word alignment has 61 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include night (43), at night (4), by night (3), nights (3), . . . (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 2:14. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (16), Matthew (9), Revelation (8), Luke (7).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
νύξ (nyx) is the ordinary noun for night, the period of darkness between evening and morning. New Testament narratives use it for travel, prayer, work, danger, imprisonment, visions, and quiet acts that occur after sunset. The shepherds keep watch by night when heaven announces the Savior’s birth. Jesus is betrayed on a particular night, which the church remembers when proclaiming His death at the Lord’s Table.
Judas goes out into the night after receiving the morsel, a literal time marker that also resonates with John’s larger contrast between light and darkness, though the noun alone does not prove the symbolism. Paul says the night is nearly over and the day has drawn near, turning the daily rhythm into an ethical and eschatological summons to cast off deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
The Day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night, emphasizing unexpected arrival and the need for sober watchfulness rather than providing a timetable. Revelation ends with a city where there is no more night because the Lord God gives light. Night is therefore neither inherently evil nor spiritually inferior. God meets, protects, calls, and receives prayer during literal night.
People who work at night, endure insomnia, experience depression, or fear darkness should not be treated as symbols of unbelief. When writers use night figuratively, the surrounding contrast with day, light, deeds, betrayal, or watchfulness establishes the meaning. νύξ helps readers trace vulnerability, secrecy, waiting, labor, moral darkness, and the promised end of night without collapsing physical darkness into sin.
νύξ names literal nighttime and can also participate in moral or eschatological contrasts with day and light. The selected passages move from shepherd watch and Jesus’ betrayal through Judas’s departure, the church’s wakefulness, the unexpected Day of the Lord, and the new creation where God’s light ends night.
And there were shepherds residing in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night.
The shepherds’ ordinary night watch becomes the setting for the angelic announcement of the Savior. God’s glory enters a working night and turns vigilant labor into witnessed good news.
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread,
Paul locates the Supper in the historical night of betrayal and gives the tradition to correct selfish division at the church’s meal. Remembering that night proclaims Christ’s death and calls the body to discerning love.
As soon as he had received the morsel, Judas went out into the night.
The statement records Judas’s departure after Jesus identifies the betrayer. Within John’s sustained light-darkness pattern, the literal night intensifies the moral gravity, but the symbolism arises from the narrative rather than from νύξ in isolation.
The night is nearly over; the day has drawn near. So let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
Paul uses the passing night and approaching day to call believers into public, Christ-clothed holiness. Eschatological hope changes present conduct; it does not encourage withdrawal from ordinary responsibilities.
For you are fully aware that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
The comparison emphasizes unexpected arrival, especially for those saying peace and security. Paul reassures believers that they belong to light and calls them to sobriety, faith, love, and hope rather than date calculation.
There will be no more night in the city, and they will have no need for the light of a lamp or of the sun. For the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.
The final city needs no created lamp because God gives enduring light and His servants reign. The disappearance of night completes Revelation’s vision of unthreatened communion and worship.
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.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Night used literally for time period; metaphorically for spiritual darkness or evil, moral ignorance.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 65 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
the night, night-time
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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 5 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.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 61 lexical occurrence verses.
νύξ is a primary word - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Night in Scripture is a creaturely time through which God remains present, not a realm beyond His care. Luke’s shepherds work through it and receive the announcement of Christ. Paul remembers the night of betrayal so the church may proclaim the Lord’s death and reject humiliating divisions at His Table. John’s brief statement that Judas went out into the night carries moral weight because the Gospel has already contrasted light and darkness, yet Jesus continues toward the cross in sovereign love.
Romans and First Thessalonians turn night into an image of the present age’s fading darkness and the unexpected arrival of the Lord’s Day. Their answer is not panic. Believers put on Christ, remain sober, and wear faith, love, and hope. Revelation completes the movement with a city whose light is God Himself. Pastoral use should therefore make room for those who pray, labor, grieve, or fear through literal nights, while calling every disciple out of deeds that prefer concealment.
The Christian promise is not that every earthly night feels short, but that darkness will not rule forever and the Lord will bring His people into unbroken light.
Rom.13.12
νύξ is a feminine third-declension noun with forms such as νυκτός and νυκτί that can look unlike the nominative headword. It normally denotes literal night. Figurative force emerges from explicit contrasts, narrative placement, or established book-level imagery rather than from the noun’s morphology.
Creation separates night from day and calls both parts of God’s ordered world. Israel is delivered during the Passover night, psalmists pray and remember God in the night watches, and prophets use darkness for judgment while promising dawn. The New Testament announces Christ during a shepherd watch, remembers His betrayal night, calls believers children of light, and ends in a city where God’s presence removes every need for night.
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