What does ἀστραπή (astrapḗ) mean in the Bible?
ἀστραπή (astrapḗ): Lightning's sudden, visible brilliance; used metaphorically for divine radiance or revelation's startling manifestation.
Greek · G796
ἀστραπή
Lightning; by analogy, glare
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ἀστραπή G796
Pronunciation astrapḗ
What does ἀστραπή (astrapḗ) mean in the Bible?
ἀστραπή (astrapḗ): Lightning's sudden, visible brilliance; used metaphorically for divine radiance or revelation's startling manifestation.
Full entry for ἀστραπή (G796) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G796?
The BSB source-word alignment has 9 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include flashes of lightning (4), lightning (4), were shining (1).
Where does ἀστραπή (astrapḗ) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 24:27. Its strongest book concentrations include Revelation (4), Luke (3), Matthew (2).
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 flashes of lightning 4× Revelation 4:5, Revelation 8:5, Revelation 11:19, Revelation 16:18
lightning 4× Matthew 24:27, Matthew 28:3, Luke 10:18, Luke 17:24
were shining 1× Luke 11:36
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 24:27 ἀστραπὴ to lightning Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular Matthew 28:3 ἀστραπὴ to lightning Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular Luke 10:18 ἀστραπὴν to lightning Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Luke 11:36 ἀστραπῇ to were shining Noun - Dative Feminine Singular Luke 17:24 ἀστραπὴ to lightning Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular Revelation 4:5 ἀστραπαὶ to flashes of lightning Noun - Nominative Feminine Plural Revelation 8:5 ἀστραπαὶ to flashes of lightning Noun - Nominative Feminine Plural Revelation 11:19 ἀστραπαὶ to flashes of lightning Noun - Nominative Feminine Plural Revelation 16:18 ἀστραπαὶ to flashes of lightning Noun - Nominative Feminine Plural
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Matthew 24:27
Aligned rows 9
Books represented 3
Matthew 2 Luke 3 Revelation 4
Source forms
ἀστραπαὶ 4x astrapai Revelation 4:5, Revelation 8:5, Revelation 11:19, Revelation 16:18
ἀστραπὴ 3x astrapē Matthew 24:27, Matthew 28:3, Luke 17:24
ἀστραπῇ 1x astrapē Luke 11:36
ἀστραπὴν 1x astrapēn Luke 10:18
Parsing patterns
Noun - Nominative Feminine Plural 4x Revelation 4:5, Revelation 8:5, Revelation 11:19, Revelation 16:18
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular 3x Matthew 24:27, Matthew 28:3, Luke 17:24
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 1x Luke 10:18
Noun - Dative Feminine Singular 1x Luke 11:36
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Lightning's sudden, visible brilliance; used metaphorically for divine radiance or revelation's startling manifestation.
Strong's G796
Lexical occurrences 9 verses Greek text appearances 9 times Word forms 4 forms 9 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link Luke 10:18 Source Gloss
lightning; by analogy, glare
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
9 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Matthew 24:27 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
ἀστραπὴ astraph
a flash of lightning, brightness, luster
Read verse Matthew 28:3 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
ἀστραπή, astraph
a flash of lightning, brightness, luster
Read verse Luke 10:18 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ἀστραπὴν astraphn
a flash of lightning, brightness, luster
Read verse Luke 11:36 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
ἀστραπῇ astraph
a flash of lightning, brightness, luster
Read verse Luke 17:24 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
ἀστραπὴ astraph
a flash of lightning, brightness, luster
Read verse Revelation 4:5 Noun Nominative Plural Feminine
ἀστραπαὶ astrapai
a flash of lightning, brightness, luster
Read verse Revelation 8:5 Noun Nominative Plural Feminine
ἀστραπαὶ astrapai
a flash of lightning, brightness, luster
Read verse Revelation 11:19 Noun Nominative Plural Feminine
ἀστραπαὶ astrapai
a flash of lightning, brightness, luster
Read verse Revelation 16:18 Noun Nominative Plural Feminine
ἀστραπαί, astrapai
a flash of lightning, brightness, luster
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 9 Case pattern Nominative (7) Number pattern Singular (5)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Plural · Feminine Rev 4:5 · Rev 8:5 · Rev 11:19 · Rev 16:18 4×
Nominative · Singular · Feminine Matt 24:27 · Matt 28:3 · Luke 17:24 3×
Dative · Singular · Feminine Luke 11:36 1×
Accusative · Singular · Feminine Luke 10:18 1×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
Swift descent from heaven, describing Satan's fall from power
Sudden visible manifestation across sky, analogy for Son of Man's coming
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 9 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
ἀστραπή is built from this root:
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