The moon
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G4582 is the ordinary Greek noun for the moon. First Corinthians 15:41 distinguishes the splendor of the sun, moon, and stars within Paul's analogy for differing kinds of glory as he teaches bodily resurrection.
Reader summary
Full entry for σελήνη (G4582) · Open the biblical lexicon
G4582 is the ordinary Greek noun for the moon. First Corinthians 15:41 distinguishes the splendor of the sun, moon, and stars within Paul's analogy for differing kinds of glory as he teaches bodily resurrection.
The BSB source-word alignment has 9 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include moon (8), [the] moon (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 24:29. Its strongest book concentrations include Revelation (4), 1 Corinthians (1), Acts (1), Luke (1).
G4582 is the ordinary Greek noun for the moon. First Corinthians 15:41 distinguishes the splendor of the sun, moon, and stars within Paul's analogy for differing kinds of glory as he teaches bodily resurrection. Acts 2:20 quotes the prophet Joel's image of the moon turned to blood before the great and glorious Day of the Lord, placing cosmic signs within Peter's proclamation of the poured-out Spirit and salvation in the Lord's name.
Revelation 21:23 says the final city has no need of sun or moon because God's glory illuminates it and the Lamb is its lamp. Other occurrences appear in Jesus' prophetic discourse and Revelation's visions of judgment and conflict. G4582 opens teaching on creation, resurrection, prophetic imagery, judgment, and new-creation glory. It corrects astrology, sensational prediction from lunar events, and claims that every eclipse or unusual moon phase directly fulfills a specific apocalyptic text.
G4582 simply names the moon, but its nine New Testament settings are theologically concentrated. It serves creation analogy, prophetic cosmic language, apocalyptic signs, and a vision in which divine glory surpasses created lights. Genre and cited Scripture control interpretation.
The sun has one degree of splendor, the moon another, and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
Paul points to the differing splendor of sun, moon, and stars while explaining continuity and transformation in bodily resurrection.
The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and glorious Day of the Lord.
Peter quotes Joel's cosmic language as part of the announcement of the Spirit's outpouring and the approaching Day of the Lord.
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its lamp.
The holy city needs no created luminary for light because God's glory illuminates it and the Lamb is its lamp.
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. The moon as celestial body marking apocalyptic signs and cosmic disturbances in eschatological passages
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
9 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
the moon
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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 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.
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 4 selected witnesses from 9 lexical occurrence verses.
σελήνη is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G4582 names a familiar created body that New Testament writers place within several large theological horizons. Paul uses the visible differences among sun, moon, and stars to help hearers imagine that embodied glory can be real and varied. The analogy supports his resurrection argument; it does not provide a ranking of human worth or a map of heavenly social classes.
Peter's Pentecost sermon quotes Joel's language of darkened sun and blood-colored moon. The quotation announces the seriousness of the Day of the Lord while leading hearers toward the promise that everyone who calls on the Lord's name will be saved. Jesus and Revelation likewise use disrupted heavenly lights within prophetic and apocalyptic scenes where symbolism, Old Testament echoes, and final judgment belong together.
Revelation's closing city does not demean creation. It declares that God's glory and the Lamb supply an unsurpassed light. G4582 therefore directs awe away from lunar divination and toward the Creator, resurrection hope, repentance, and final communion with God. Eclipses and red coloration are ordinary observable events unless a biblical text itself identifies a particular occurrence.
Responsible teaching should resist date-setting, fear marketing, and confident claims based on photographs while taking the passages' call to watchfulness and faith seriously.
1Cor.15.41
G4582 is the common feminine Greek noun for the moon. The lexical meaning remains stable across its occurrences; the varied theological force comes from simile, prophetic quotation, apocalyptic vision, and the surrounding argument.
Old Testament creation texts, Joseph's dream, prophetic Day-of-the-Lord imagery, and promises of everlasting light form the principal background for New Testament moon references. Those echoes should be traced explicitly rather than replaced by modern astrological or astronomical speculation.