Wood
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Ξύλον (xylon) means wood, a piece of timber, a wooden object such as a club, or a living tree. The arresting crowds carry swords and clubs, and Jesus questions why leaders approach Him with weapons as though He were a violent outlaw.
Reader summary
Full entry for ξύλον (G3586) · Open the biblical lexicon
Ξύλον (xylon) means wood, a piece of timber, a wooden object such as a club, or a living tree. The arresting crowds carry swords and clubs, and Jesus questions why leaders approach Him with weapons as though He were a violent outlaw.
The BSB source-word alignment has 20 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include tree (7), clubs (5), a tree (3), wood (3), stocks (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 26:47. Its strongest book concentrations include Revelation (7), Acts (4), Luke (2), Mark (2).
This entry includes 3 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
Ξύλον (xylon) means wood, a piece of timber, a wooden object such as a club, or a living tree. The arresting crowds carry swords and clubs, and Jesus questions why leaders approach Him with weapons as though He were a violent outlaw. In Acts, the apostles say Jesus was killed by being hung on a tree, using scriptural curse language while proclaiming that the God of Israel raised Him.
Paul lists wood among building materials whose quality will be exposed by fire, contrasting combustible work with durable materials on the one foundation, Jesus Christ. The noun's reference changes with context: weapon, material, tree, or execution timber. It does not mean “cross” lexically in every occurrence, nor does tree language remove the historical Roman crucifixion.
Ξύλον can mean a club, wood as building material, or a tree. Its witnesses include armed arrest, Jesus hung on a tree and raised by God, and combustible ministry work tested on Christ's foundation.
While Jesus was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived, accompanied by a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and elders of the people.
A crowd arrives with swords and wooden clubs to seize Jesus, displaying organized force against the unresisting teacher betrayed by one of the Twelve.
While Jesus was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived, accompanied by a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests, scribes, and elders.
Mark repeats the armed approach under chief-priestly authority, making the clubs ordinary weapons rather than symbolic trees.
Then Jesus said to the chief priests, temple officers, and elders who had come for Him, “Have you come out with swords and clubs as you would against an outlaw?
Jesus asks temple leaders why they come with swords and clubs as against an outlaw, exposing the mismatch between their force and His public teaching.
The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging Him on a tree.
The apostles accuse the council of killing Jesus by hanging Him on a tree and announce that Israel's God raised and exalted Him as Leader and Savior.
If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw,
Wood, hay, and straw represent combustible work built on the one foundation, whose quality the coming fire will disclose.
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. Primarily denotes wood material or wooden objects; crucially, "beam" for crucifixion in NT theology.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 19 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a staff, cross, anything made of wood
Read versea staff, cross, anything made of wood
Read versea staff, cross, anything made of wood
Read versea staff, cross, anything made of wood
Read versea staff, cross, anything made of wood
Read versea staff, cross, anything made of wood
Read versea staff, cross, anything made of wood
Read versea staff, cross, anything made of wood
Read versea staff, cross, anything made of wood
Read versea staff, cross, anything made of wood
Read versea staff, cross, anything made of wood
Read versea staff, cross, anything made of wood
Read versea staff, cross, anything made of wood
Read versea staff, cross, anything made of wood
Read versea staff, cross, anything made of wood
Read versea staff, cross, anything made of wood
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.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 20 lexical occurrence verses.
ξύλον is built from this root:
Connects crucifixion imagery to curse-bearing theology.Acts 16:16-24
Highlights the severity of the apostles’ confinement.Luke 23:26–32
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Wood serves radically different human purposes. In Gethsemane it becomes a club carried by authorities who treat Jesus as a dangerous criminal despite His public, nonviolent teaching. Acts takes tree language into proclamation: the leaders hang Jesus under the sign of curse, but God overturns their verdict by raising and exalting Him. The shameful timber becomes part of the gospel without ceasing to name real execution.
First Corinthians returns to construction. Work built on Christ may be substantial or combustible, and final testing reveals quality rather than changing the foundation. Teachers should not force these scenes into one wood symbolism. They can expose coercion, proclaim the crucified and risen Savior, and warn builders to use durable gospel materials, all while letting ξύλον retain the concrete sense each passage requires.
Matt.26.47
Ξύλον is a flexible noun for wood, timber, wooden implement, club, or tree. Number, accompanying weapons, construction lists, and hanging language establish the referent.
Wood builds homes and sacred furnishings, clubs become weapons, cursed offenders hang on trees, and apostolic preaching applies that scriptural background to Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection.