What does φύλαξ (phýlax) mean in the Bible?
φύλαξ (phýlax): One assigned protective responsibility for securing persons or places against danger or escape
Greek · G5441
φύλαξ
A watcher or sentry
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φύλαξ G5441
Pronunciation phýlax
What does φύλαξ (phýlax) mean in the Bible?
φύλαξ (phýlax): One assigned protective responsibility for securing persons or places against danger or escape
Full entry for φύλαξ (G5441) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G5441?
The BSB source-word alignment has 3 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include guards (2), sentries (1).
Where does φύλαξ (phýlax) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Acts 5:23. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (3).
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 guards 2× Acts 5:23, Acts 12:19
sentries 1× Acts 12:6
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Acts 5:23
Aligned rows 3
Books represented 1
Acts 3
Source forms
φύλακας 2x phylakas Acts 5:23, Acts 12:19
φύλακές 1x phylakes Acts 12:6
Parsing patterns
Noun - Accusative Masculine Plural 2x Acts 5:23, Acts 12:19
Noun - Nominative Masculine Plural 1x Acts 12:6
Evidence Summary
Greek word. One assigned protective responsibility for securing persons or places against danger or escape
Strong's G5441
Lexical occurrences 3 verses Greek text appearances 3 times Word forms 2 forms 3 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link Jude 1:24–25 Source Gloss
a watcher or sentry
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
3 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Acts 5:23 Noun Accusative Plural Masculine
φύλακας fulakav
a guard, keeper, sentinel
Read verse Acts 12:6 Noun Nominative Plural Masculine
φύλακές fulakev
a guard, keeper, sentinel
Read verse Acts 12:19 Noun Accusative Plural Masculine
φύλακας, fulakav
a guard, keeper, sentinel
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 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.
Form patterns 2 Aligned forms 3 Case pattern Accusative (2) Number pattern Plural (3)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Plural · Masculine Acts 12:6 1×
Accusative · Plural · Masculine Acts 5:23 · Acts 12:19 2×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Additional Occurrences
Jude 1:24–25 φυλάξαι phýlax
to guard; preserve; keep safe
New Testament Witnesses
to guard, preserve
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 3 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
φύλαξ is built from this root:
Why This Word Matters
Affirms active divine preservation, balancing the command for believers to keep themselves.
Affirms active divine preservation of believers. Jude 1:24–25
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