What does σπήλαιον (spḗlaion) mean in the Bible?
σπήλαιον (spḗlaion): Cave as refuge or hideout: literal shelter or metaphorical place of concealment and protection.
Greek · G4693
σπήλαιον
A cavern; by implication, a hiding-place or resort
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σπήλαιον G4693
Pronunciation spḗlaion
What does σπήλαιον (spḗlaion) mean in the Bible?
σπήλαιον (spḗlaion): Cave as refuge or hideout: literal shelter or metaphorical place of concealment and protection.
Full entry for σπήλαιον (G4693) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G4693?
The BSB source-word alignment has 6 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include a den (3), caves (2), a cave (1).
Where does σπήλαιον (spḗlaion) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 21:13. Its strongest book concentrations include Hebrews (1), John (1), Luke (1), Mark (1).
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It a den 3× Matthew 21:13, Mark 11:17, Luke 19:46
caves 2× Hebrews 11:38, Revelation 6:15
a cave 1× John 11:38
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 21:13 Σπήλαιον to a den Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular Mark 11:17 Σπήλαιον to a den Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular Luke 19:46 Σπήλαιον to a den Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular John 11:38 σπήλαιον to a cave Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular Hebrews 11:38 σπηλαίοις to caves Noun - Dative Neuter Plural Revelation 6:15 σπήλαια to caves Noun - Accusative Neuter Plural
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Matthew 21:13
Aligned rows 6
Books represented 6
Matthew 1 Mark 1 Luke 1 John 1 Hebrews 1 Revelation 1
Source forms
Σπήλαιον 3x Spēlaion Matthew 21:13, Mark 11:17, Luke 19:46
σπήλαια 1x spēlaia Revelation 6:15
σπηλαίοις 1x spēlaiois Hebrews 11:38
σπήλαιον 1x spēlaion John 11:38
Parsing patterns
Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular 3x Matthew 21:13, Mark 11:17, Luke 19:46
Noun - Accusative Neuter Plural 1x Revelation 6:15
Noun - Dative Neuter Plural 1x Hebrews 11:38
Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular 1x John 11:38
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Cave as refuge or hideout: literal shelter or metaphorical place of concealment and protection.
Strong's G4693
Lexical occurrences 6 verses Greek text appearances 6 times Word forms 4 forms 6 references Verse guides 0 guides
Source Gloss
a cavern; by implication, a hiding-place or resort
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek 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 21:13 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
σπήλαιον sphlaion
a cave, den
Read verse Mark 11:17 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
σπήλαιον sphlaion
a cave, den
Read verse Luke 19:46 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
σπήλαιον sphlaion
a cave, den
Read verse John 11:38 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
σπήλαιον, sphlaion
a cave, den
Read verse Hebrews 11:38 Noun Dative Plural Neuter
σπηλαίοις sphlaioiv
a cave, den
Read verse Revelation 6:15 Noun Accusative Plural Neuter
σπήλαια sphlaia
a cave, den
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 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.
Form patterns 4 Aligned forms 6 Case pattern Accusative (4) Number pattern Singular (4)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · Neuter John 11:38 1×
Dative · Plural · Neuter Heb 11:38 1×
Accusative · Singular · Neuter Matt 21:13 · Mark 11:17 · Luke 19:46 3×
Accusative · Plural · Neuter Rev 6:15 1×
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Witnesses
Luke 19:45–48 σπήλαιον spḗlaion
Den, cave
Showing 1 selected witness from 6 lexical occurrence verses.
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.
Sources
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