East
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G395 names a rising and commonly refers to the sunrise direction, the east. Matthew 2:2 reports the magi saying they saw the king's star in the east, or at its rising, within the narrative that brings them to worship Jesus.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἀνατολή (G395) · Open the biblical lexicon
G395 names a rising and commonly refers to the sunrise direction, the east. Matthew 2:2 reports the magi saying they saw the king's star in the east, or at its rising, within the narrative that brings them to worship Jesus.
The BSB source-word alignment has 10 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include east (5), [the] east (4), [the] Dawn (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 2:1. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (5), Revelation (3), Luke (2).
G395 names a rising and commonly refers to the sunrise direction, the east. Matthew 2:2 reports the magi saying they saw the king's star in the east, or at its rising, within the narrative that brings them to worship Jesus. Matthew 24:27 uses lightning flashing from east to west to describe the unmistakable visibility of the Son of Man's coming. Revelation 7:2 locates an angel's ascent from the east, the direction of sunrise.
Luke 1:78 uses the image differently, announcing that the Dawn from on high will visit because of God's tender mercy. The noun's concrete association with rising light supports the poetic force in Luke, but the context, not the dictionary alone, establishes the messianic reference. G395 therefore joins geography and imagery without making them interchangeable.
East can simply be a direction; a rising can identify astronomical observation; Dawn can become a salvation image. Teachers should preserve those distinctions, avoid speculative star theories as though certain, and center Luke's claim on God's mercy and visitation rather than on vague optimism about every new beginning.
G395 moves between the east as the direction of sunrise, the observed rising of a star, the broad visibility of lightning, and Luke's poetic Dawn from on high. Its canonical usefulness depends on retaining the concrete rising image while allowing each context to define its referent.
Because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the Dawn will visit us from on high,
Zechariah's prophecy grounds the visiting Dawn from on high in God's tender mercy and places the image within promised salvation, forgiveness, light, and peace.
Asking, “Where is the One who has been born King of the Jews? We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”
The magi report seeing the king's star in the east or at its rising and come to worship, while Matthew's narrative controls the sign's purpose without explaining its physical mechanism.
For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Lightning visible from east to west illustrates the public and unmistakable character of the Son of Man's coming, opposing claims that His arrival is hidden in a private location.
And I saw another angel ascending from the east, with the seal of the living God. And he called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea:
The angel ascends from the east carrying the living God's seal before harm proceeds, using the sunrise direction within John's symbolic vision without making east itself divine.
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. Rising of the sun; the direction where light appears, not merely geographic location.
Rising of the sun; the direction where light appears, not merely geographic location.
(ἀνατέλλω), [in LXX chiefly for מִזְרָח קָדִים ;]
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
10 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
rising of the sun, the East
Read verserising of the sun, the East
Read verserising of the sun, the East
Read verserising of the sun, the East
Read verserising of the sun, the East
Read verserising of the sun, the East
Read verserising of the sun, the East
Read verserising of the sun, the East
Read verserising of the sun, the East
Read verserising of the sun, the East
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 4 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 2 selected witnesses from 11 lexical occurrence verses.
ἀνατολή is built from this root:
Depicts the Messiah as dawning light fulfilling prophetic promise.Luke 1:57–80
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G395 begins with a familiar human orientation: light rises, and the direction of sunrise is east. That concrete link allows the noun to function geographically and poetically. Matthew 2 records the magi's report of a star seen in the east or at its rising. The narrative tells why the sign matters, drawing them toward the newborn King, but it does not give enough information to make one astronomical reconstruction an article of faith.
In Matthew 24, the east-to-west flash of lightning emphasizes visibility. Jesus warns against secret-location claims because His coming will not depend on privileged access to a rumor. Revelation can place an angel's ascent in the east within a symbolic vision while keeping authority with the living God and His seal. Luke 1 reaches the richest image: because of God's tender mercy, the Dawn from on high visits people sitting in darkness and guides feet into peace.
The saving claim arises from Zechariah's prophecy and its place in Luke, not from sunrise as a natural process. This distinction protects preaching from both dullness and excess. Creation's rising light supplies resonant language, but nature is not made to prove details the text does not state. G395 directs readers toward God's merciful visitation, public hope, and peace while keeping geography, observation, apocalyptic symbol, and messianic poetry in their proper passages.
Luke.1.78
G395 is a Greek noun derived from the idea of rising. It can denote a rising, especially of light, or the east as the direction of sunrise. Singular, plural, modifiers such as sun, and narrative setting help clarify the intended sense.
The Old Testament repeatedly uses dawn, sunrise, and eastern orientation in ordinary, poetic, prophetic, and temple settings. Luke's Dawn from on high participates in that scriptural world, yet the Gospel's prophecy supplies the Christ-centered connection. The lexical image alone does not make every earlier sunrise text a direct prediction.