What does πυρετός (pyretós) mean in the Bible?
Fever names an illness in the selected Gospel and Acts accounts. Luke describes Simon's mother-in-law suffering from a high fever and others appealing to Jesus on her behalf.
Greek · G4446
πυρετός
Fever names an illness in the selected Gospel and Acts accounts. Luke describes Simon's mother-in-law suffering from a high fever and others appealing to Jesus on her behalf.
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πυρετόςG4446
Pronunciationpyretós
What does πυρετός (pyretós) mean in the Bible?
Reader summary
Full entry for πυρετός (G4446) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G4446?
The BSB source-word alignment has 6 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include fever (6).
Where does πυρετός (pyretós) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 8:15. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (2), Acts (1), John (1), Mark (1).
What This Word Actually Means
Fever names an illness in the selected Gospel and Acts accounts. Luke describes Simon's mother-in-law suffering from a high fever and others appealing to Jesus on her behalf. John reports the hour at which an official's son's fever left, connecting his recovery with Jesus' word that the child would live. Acts names fever and dysentery in Publius' father's illness and describes Paul's prayer and the man's healing.
Each account identifies a suffering person and a narrated recovery. The word does not explain a modern diagnosis or identify every fever as demonic activity. Nor does a recorded healing guarantee an identical result from repeating a gesture or phrase. Readers should attend to the particular encounter, the action attributed to Jesus or described in prayer, and the response the account records.
How the Bible Uses It
The high fever in Simon's household, a child's reported recovery and Publius' father's illness occur in distinct healing accounts. Their narrated actions do not form a universal medical or miracle protocol.
- Luke.4.38
After Jesus had left the synagogue, He went to the home of Simon, whose mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever. So they appealed to Jesus on her behalf,
The household appeals to Jesus for Simon's mother-in-law, whose high fever is named before Jesus' response and her recovery.
- John.4.52
So he inquired as to the hour when his son had recovered, and they told him, “The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour.”
The reported hour of the fever's departure matches Jesus' assurance to the father, followed by belief in the household.
- Acts.28.8
The father of Publius was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him, and after praying and placing his hands on him, he healed the man.
Publius' father is ill with fever and dysentery; Paul visits, prays and places his hands on him before the narrated healing.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders Itfever6×Matthew 8:15, Mark 1:31, Luke 4:38, Luke 4:39
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 8:15πυρετόςtofeverNoun - Nominative Masculine SingularMark 1:31πυρετόςtofeverNoun - Nominative Masculine SingularLuke 4:38πυρετῷtofeverNoun - Dative Masculine SingularLuke 4:39πυρετῷtofeverNoun - Dative Masculine SingularJohn 4:52πυρετόςtofeverNoun - Nominative Masculine SingularActs 28:8πυρετοῖςtofeverNoun - Dative Masculine Plural
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowMatthew 8:15
Aligned rows6
Books represented5
Matthew1Mark1Luke2John1Acts1
Source forms
πυρετός3xpyretosMatthew 8:15, Mark 1:31, John 4:52
πυρετῷ2xpyretōLuke 4:38, Luke 4:39
πυρετοῖς1xpyretoisActs 28:8
Parsing patterns
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular3xMatthew 8:15, Mark 1:31, John 4:52
Noun - Dative Masculine Singular2xLuke 4:38, Luke 4:39
Noun - Dative Masculine Plural1xActs 28:8
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Care for suffering people without assigning blame when their illness persists.
- Do not use these accounts to pressure someone away from appropriate medical care.
Avoid claiming...
- The fever noun does not diagnose a present person's condition or spiritual cause.
- These narrated recoveries do not guarantee the same result for every current sufferer.
Evidence Summary
Messiah
Greek word. Acute bodily heat illness causing weakness; used in NT to demonstrate Jesus' healing power over physical disease.
Strong'sG4446
Lexical occurrences6 versesGreek text appearances6 timesWord forms3 forms6 referencesVerse guides0 guides
Study linkLuke 4:38–44Source Gloss
fever
Extended definitionSource: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
Acute bodily heat illness causing weakness; used in NT to demonstrate Jesus' healing power over physical disease.
(πῦρ) [in LXX: Deu.28:22 (קַדַּחַת) * ;] a fever: Mat.8:15, Mrk.1:31, Luk.4:39, Jhn.4:52, Act.28:8; π. μέγας, a high fever: Luk.4:38 (on the technical phrase here, see MM, xxii).
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
6 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Matthew 8:15Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
πυρετός·puretov
a fever
Read verseMark 1:31Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
πυρετὸςpuretov
a fever
Read verseLuke 4:38Noun Dative Singular Masculine
πυρετῷpuretw
a fever
Read verseLuke 4:39Noun Dative Singular Masculine
πυρετῷ,puretw
a fever
Read verseJohn 4:52Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
πυρετός.puretov
a fever
Read verseActs 28:8Noun Dative Plural Masculine
πυρετοῖςpuretoiv
a fever
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.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 3 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.
Form patterns3Aligned forms6Case patternDative (3)Number patternSingular (5)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · MasculineMatt 8:15 · Mark 1:31 · John 4:523×
Dative · Singular · MasculineLuke 4:38 · Luke 4:392×
Dative · Plural · MasculineActs 28:81×
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
New Testament Witnesses
fever
Showing 1 selected witness from 6 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
πυρετός is built from this root:
Why This Word Matters
Demonstrates Christ’s authority over physical illness.Luke 4:38–44
Canonical Themes
Messiah
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
John makes the fever's departure a reported fact that the father checks against the time of Jesus' promise. The account then names belief and identifies the event as a sign. Luke describes a household's appeal and Jesus' response, while Acts includes a visit, prayer and laying on of hands. These particulars matter because the noun fever supplies only the named illness, not an explanation of every illness or a repeatable mechanism of recovery.
A teacher can honor the accounts' testimony and the care shown toward suffering people without blaming those who remain ill or making a gesture into a guarantee. Narrated recovery receives its meaning from the whole encounter, and a present person's illness cannot be judged solely by comparison with its outcome.
Anchor passage
John.4.52
Doctrinal connections
- Luke 4:38 records an appeal made to Jesus on an ill woman's behalf.
- Luke 4:39 attributes the fever's departure to Jesus' response and records her subsequent service.
- Mark 1:30-31 describes Jesus helping Simon's mother-in-law up before her service.
- John 4:50-54 connects the child's recovery, Jesus' word and the household's belief.
- Acts 28:7-8 places Paul's prayer and visit after Publius' hospitality to the travelers.
- Acts 28:9-10 records further narrated recoveries and the islanders' subsequent provision.
The licensed Greek noun names fever, including Luke's high-fever description. It does not by itself identify an underlying cause, modern clinical category or moral status; the surrounding account supplies the narrated healing action.
From Old to New Testament
First Kings 17:19-23 narrates Elijah's appeal to the Lord and the return of a child's life. This is a comparison between particular accounts of prayer and restored life, not a shared fever occurrence or a guarantee that every present appeal produces the same outcome.