Above/for
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Hyper is a Greek preposition whose sense depends on the case and context, often meaning for, on behalf of, for the sake of, or sometimes over and beyond. In the selected New Testament witnesses, it carries some of the Bible's most precious language of Christ acting for others: one man dies for the people, Christ dies for the ungodly, the Father gives up His Son for us all, the one dies for all, Christ gives Himself.
Reader summary
Full entry for ὑπέρ (G5228) · Open the biblical lexicon
Hyper is a Greek preposition whose sense depends on the case and context, often meaning for, on behalf of, for the sake of, or sometimes over and beyond. In the selected New Testament witnesses, it carries some of the Bible's most precious language of Christ acting for others: one man dies for the people, Christ dies for the ungodly, the Father gives up His.
The BSB source-word alignment has 155 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include for (83), about (7), above (4), for the sake of (4), - (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 5:44. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Corinthians (36), Romans (17), John (13), Ephesians (11).
Hyper is a Greek preposition whose sense depends on the case and context, often meaning for, on behalf of, for the sake of, or sometimes over and beyond. In the selected New Testament witnesses, it carries some of the Bible's most precious language of Christ acting for others: one man dies for the people, Christ dies for the ungodly, the Father gives up His Son for us all, the one dies for all, Christ gives Himself for us, and Christ appears before God on our behalf.
The word is not a shortcut that automatically proves substitution in every occurrence. Yet in passages governed by death, sacrifice, representation, and priestly access, hyper helps readers hear benefit and representation clearly. Faithful teaching lets the passage decide whether 'for' means benefit, representation, substitution, or intercession.
Hyper often marks action done for, on behalf of, or for the sake of another. In major Christological texts it helps express Christ's death, self-giving, and heavenly appearing for His people, while still requiring context to define the exact force.
You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
Caiaphas speaks better than he understands: one man will die for the people rather than the whole nation perish.
For at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
Christ dies for the ungodly at the right time, so hyper marks grace toward those without strength.
He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?
The Father gives up His own Son for us all, grounding confidence that He will freely give all things with Him.
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, therefore all died.
Paul reasons from one dying for all to the implication that all died, making representation central to the passage's logic.
And walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.
Christ loves and gives Himself for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.
For Christ did not enter a man-made copy of the true sanctuary, but He entered heaven itself, now to appear on our behalf in the presence of God.
Christ appears in heaven itself on our behalf, joining hyper to priestly representation before God.
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. Substitutionary sacrifice: giving one's life in place of another's redemption, especially Christ's atonement.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 160 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
in behalf of, above
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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 2 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 1 selected witness from 150 lexical occurrence verses.
Expresses substitutionary atonement.Luke 22:7–23
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Hyper is pastorally powerful because the gospel repeatedly says Christ acts for those who could not save themselves. Romans 5:6 does not say Christ died for the worthy, but for the ungodly. Romans 8:32 says the Father did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all. Ephesians 5:2 says Christ gave Himself for us in love as a sacrificial offering. Hebrews 9:24 says He now appears in God's presence on our behalf.
These uses do not flatten every occurrence into the same shade of meaning, but they do hold together benefit, representation, and substitution where the passage supplies them. Hyper helps teachers ask a crucial gospel question: who acts, for whom, at what cost, and with what saving result?
Rom.5.6
Hyper is a preposition, so its sense is relational and context-bound. With the genitive it often carries 'for' or 'on behalf of' force, but the exact claim depends on the verb, object, and argument. In atonement texts, the surrounding death, gift, sacrifice, and priestly language determine whether benefit, substitution, representation, or intercession is most prominent.
The Old Testament prepares readers for representative action through priests, sacrifices, intercession, and the servant who bears the sins of many. The New Testament centers that pattern in Christ. Hyper does not by itself create the doctrine, but in death and priestly contexts it helps state the direction of Christ's work: He acts for the helpless, for the ungodly, for His people, and before God on their behalf.