"Fire" (literally or figuratively, specially, lightning)
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through the Connect page. Screenshots are helpful.
πῦρ (pŷr) names fire in its concrete reality: a flame can warm, illuminate, destroy, refine, or expose what cannot endure. New Testament writers also employ fire within different literary settings, so the word may mark the visible image at Pentecost, the proving of work, the testing of faith, God's holy presence, destructive speech, or final judgment.
Reader summary
Full entry for πῦρ (G4442) · Open the biblical lexicon
πῦρ (pŷr) names fire in its concrete reality: a flame can warm, illuminate, destroy, refine, or expose what cannot endure. New Testament writers also employ fire within different literary settings, so the word may mark the visible image at Pentecost, the proving of work, the testing of faith, God's holy presence, destructive speech, or final judgment.
The BSB source-word alignment has 71 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include fire (40), with fire (7), of fire (6), [the] fire (5), fiery (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 3:10. Its strongest book concentrations include Revelation (26), Matthew (12), Luke (7), Hebrews (5).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
πῦρ (pŷr) names fire in its concrete reality: a flame can warm, illuminate, destroy, refine, or expose what cannot endure. New Testament writers also employ fire within different literary settings, so the word may mark the visible image at Pentecost, the proving of work, the testing of faith, God's holy presence, destructive speech, or final judgment. The noun itself does not decide which of those meanings governs a verse.
Luke 3 places fire beside the coming One's winnowing work; Acts 2 speaks of tongues like flames of fire; 1 Corinthians 3 concerns the testing of each person's work; and Hebrews 12 calls believers to reverent worship because God is a consuming fire. These are related, but they are not interchangeable. A responsible study begins with the speaker, audience, argument, and genre before drawing a theological line.
πῦρ therefore helps readers notice Scripture's serious, sensory language without turning every mention of fire into a private experience, a promise of revival, or a single scheme of judgment. The material image itself supplies an important restraint. A flame in an ordinary scene is not automatically a symbol, and a symbolic fire does not erase the concrete force of heat, danger, and consumption.
Acts can describe a fire by which Paul is warmed, James can use fire for a tongue that corrupts, and Revelation can place fire inside a vision of final judgment. Christian teaching should neither drain these scenes of their sensory force nor force them into a single sermon point. The pastoral question is therefore precise: what is this fire doing here, and how does this passage direct hearers toward repentance, gratitude, endurance, or hope in Christ?
πῦρ occurs in ordinary narrative scenes, prophetic imagery, apostolic instruction, and apocalyptic vision. Its range includes material flame, visible imagery, testing, divine holiness, destructive moral influence, and judgment, but each passage supplies the governing sense. The selected witnesses resist both a bland treatment of fire and a one-meaning explanation for every occurrence.
John answered all of them: “I baptize you with water, but One more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
John contrasts his water baptism with the work of the stronger Coming One. The next verse's winnowing image keeps the phrase within John's announcement of messianic separation and judgment, so this occurrence must not be detached into a guaranteed second spiritual experience.
They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
At Pentecost, the text says tongues like flames of fire appeared, using visible imagery in the Spirit's coming upon the gathered disciples. The comparison is meaningful, yet Luke does not identify the Spirit as an impersonal force or make the visual sign a required pattern for every believer.
His workmanship will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man’s work.
Paul's image concerns the quality of work built on the one foundation, Jesus Christ. Fire exposes workmanship on the Day; it is not a license to rank believers by visible success or to invent a general technique of spiritual testing.
So that the proven character of your faith—more precious than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Peter compares tested faith with perishable gold refined by fire and directs hope toward Christ's revelation. Suffering here is not praised as a good in itself, nor does the comparison allow teachers to explain every hardship as a transparent verdict on a person's faith.
“For our God is a consuming fire.”
Hebrews concludes a summons to grateful, reverent worship by citing Scripture's consuming-fire language. The claim speaks of God's holy seriousness toward covenantal worship; it does not authorize frightening, coercive, or abusive leadership in God's name.
The tongue also is a fire, a world of wickedness among the parts of the body. It pollutes the whole person, sets the course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
James uses fire figuratively to portray the tongue's destructive reach. The image intensifies moral responsibility for speech, but it should not be used to label a struggling person as demonic or to replace truthful repentance and careful reconciliation.
Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death—the lake of fire.
Revelation's lake-of-fire image belongs to its final judgment vision, where even Death and Hades are defeated. Its apocalyptic force sustains sober hope in God's final justice, not speculative charts, cruelty toward others, or pleasure in anyone's ruin.
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. Fire as divine judgment and purification—literal destruction or testing that refines faith and character.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 74 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
fire, trials
Read versefire, trials
Read versefire, trials
Read versefire, trials
Read versefire, trials
Read versefire, trials
Read versefire, trials
Read versefire, trials
Read versefire, trials
Read versefire, trials
Read versefire, trials
Read versefire, trials
Read versefire, trials
Read versefire, trials
Read versefire, trials
Read versefire, trials
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.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 5 selected witnesses from 71 lexical occurrence verses.
πῦρ is a primary word - no further derivation.
Represents purifying judgment inaugurated by Christ’s mission.
Symbolizes purification and judgment.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Fire is memorable because it is never merely theoretical. It gives light and heat, reveals danger quickly, and can consume what human beings cannot restore. Scripture uses πῦρ with that same concreteness, but it does not hand the church one simple fire doctrine. John announces the stronger One who judges and gathers. Luke describes tongues like fire at Pentecost.
Paul speaks of work exposed on the Day. Peter compares faith's proven character to refined gold. Hebrews calls for reverent worship before the holy God, and Revelation directs final judgment to God's own court. The teaching task is therefore not to make fire vivid by exaggeration. It is to let the text make God, sin, judgment, endurance, worship, and hope vivid in their proper places.
In Christ, the church need not manufacture flames or hide from God's searching holiness. It is summoned to repent, worship with gratitude, endure faithfully, and leave final judgment to the Lord. That discipline also protects a congregation from two opposite failures. One treats every flame as an emotional experience to reproduce; the other uses every fire text to threaten people already burdened by fear.
Scripture's contexts do neither. They reveal God's holiness, expose what is false, call for perseverance, and promise that evil and death will not finally prevail.
1Cor.3.13
πῦρ is a noun, so its force is supplied by the verbs, modifiers, speakers, and literary setting around it. The same noun can name a literal flame, function in a comparison, or appear inside an apocalyptic vision; lexical identity alone does not settle the theological meaning of the sentence.
Fire threads through Scripture from the bush that burns without being consumed, through Sinai's holy presence, altar and judgment scenes, and prophetic visions of the Lord's purifying and judging action. Hebrews explicitly receives the consuming-fire language within new-covenant worship, while the New Testament also uses fire for Pentecost's sign, faith's testing, destructive speech, and final judgment.
The continuity lies in God's holiness and the seriousness of His word. The differences of scene and genre keep readers from treating the image as a flat symbol. Christ's saving work, the gift of the Spirit, and the promised final renewal frame the church's hope before the holy God.
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain