ἥλιος
sun
‘sun’ is one of 3 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
From Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Where this word appears
See every Nominative-case word in the Greek New Testament →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Case
- Nominative
- The case of the subject (and the predicate nominative).
- Genitive
- The case of source, possession, or “of” — answers “whose / from what.”
- Accusative
- The case of the direct object and of extent.
- Dative
- The case of the indirect object, means, or location — “to / for / with / in.”
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
Grammatical forms
- Noun, Nominative, Singular, Masculine 14 times (44%)
- Noun, Genitive, Singular, Masculine 12 times (38%)
- Noun, Accusative, Singular, Masculine 4 times (13%)
- Noun, Dative, Singular, Masculine 2 times (6%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (Robinson–Tischendorf, public domain), counted across 32 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where G2246 appears — 32 distinct verses across 8 books. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Greek form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Greek New Testament; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences of this word are not indexed here.
Matthew 5 verses
- Matthew 5:45 ἥλιον n acc sg masc that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.
- Matthew 13:6 ἡλίου n gen sg masc When the sun had risen, they were scorched. Because they had no root, they withered away.
- Matthew 13:43 ἥλιος n nom sg masc Then the righteous will shine forth like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
- Matthew 17:2 ἥλιος n nom sg masc He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as the light.
- Matthew 24:29 ἥλιος n nom sg masc But immediately after the oppression of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken;
Mark 4 verses
- Mark 1:32 ἥλιος n nom sg masc At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to him all who were sick, and those who were possessed by demons.
- Mark 4:6 ἥλιος n nom sg masc When the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.
- Mark 13:24 ἥλιος n nom sg masc But in those days, after that oppression, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light,
- Mark 16:2 ἡλίου n gen sg masc Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.
Luke 3 verses
- Luke 4:40 ἡλίου n gen sg masc When the sun was setting, all those who had any sick with various diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.
- Luke 21:25 ἡλίῳ n dat sg masc There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars; and on the earth anxiety of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the waves;
- Luke 23:45 ἡλίου n gen sg masc The sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two.
Acts 4 verses
- Acts 2:20 ἥλιος n nom sg masc The sun will be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.
- Acts 13:11 ἥλιον n acc sg masc Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is on you, and you will be blind, not seeing the sun for a season!" Immediately there fell on him a mist and darkness. He went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand.
- Acts 26:13 ἡλίου n gen sg masc at noon, O King, I saw on the way a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who traveled with me.
- Acts 27:20 ἡλίου n gen sg masc When neither sun nor stars shone on us for many days, and no small tempest pressed on us, all hope that we would be saved was now taken away.
1 Corinthians 1 verse
Ephesians 1 verse
James 1 verse
Revelation 13 verses
- Revelation 1:16 ἥλιος n nom sg masc He had seven stars in his right hand. Out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest.
- Revelation 6:12 ἥλιος n nom sg masc I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became as blood.
- Revelation 7:2 ἡλίου n gen sg masc I saw another angel ascend from the sunrise, having the seal of the living God. He cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to harm the earth and the sea,
- Revelation 7:16 ἥλιος n nom sg masc They will never be hungry, neither thirsty any more; neither will the sun beat on them, nor any heat;
- Revelation 8:12 ἡλίου n gen sg masc The fourth angel sounded, and one third of the sun was struck, and one third of the moon, and one third of the stars; so that one third of them would be darkened, and the day wouldn't shine for one third of it, and the night in the same way.
- Revelation 9:2 ἥλιος n nom sg masc He opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke from a burning furnace. The sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke from the pit.
- Revelation 10:1 ἥλιος n nom sg masc I saw a mighty angel coming down out of the sky, clothed with a cloud. A rainbow was on his head. His face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire.
- Revelation 12:1 ἥλιον n acc sg masc A great sign was seen in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
- Revelation 16:8 ἥλιον n acc sg masc The fourth poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was given to him to scorch men with fire.
- Revelation 16:12 ἡλίου n gen sg masc The sixth poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates. Its water was dried up, that the way might be made ready for the kings that come from the sunrise.
- Revelation 19:17 ἡλίῳ n dat sg masc I saw an angel standing in the sun. He cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the sky, "Come! Be gathered together to the great supper of God,
- Revelation 21:23 ἡλίου n gen sg masc The city has no need for the sun, neither of the moon, to shine, for the very glory of God illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb.
- Revelation 22:5 ἡλίου n gen sg masc There will be no night, and they need no lamp light; for the Lord God will illuminate them. They will reign forever and ever.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
ηλιος (hḗlios) is a Greek noun most often rendered “sun.” Scripture first uses it in Matthew 5:45. It turns up in 32 verses across 8 books, a moderately common footprint. It concentrates in Revelation, which alone accounts for 41% of its uses. Ranging over 3 senses, it is not a single-sense word. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's G2246 catalogs a Greek word from the Greek New Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Greek New Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 32
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 32 distinct verses.
- 8 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 8 of 27 New Testament books.
- #438
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Greek words (rank 438 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 32 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Revelation 13 verses 41%
- Matthew 5 verses 16%
- Mark 4 verses 13%
By section of the New Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Some books belong to more than one corpus (Luke is in both the Gospels and the Lukan corpus, and so on), so these shares overlap and need not total 100%. Each figure is a share of the word’s 32 distinct verses.
- Johannine 13 verses · 41%
- Revelation 13 verses · 41%
- Gospels 12 verses · 38%
- Lukan (Luke–Acts) 7 verses · 22%
- Pauline corpus 2 verses · 6%
- General (Catholic) Epistles 1 verse · 3%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Sun 29×
- American Standard Version: Sun 29×
- Berean Standard Bible: Sun 25×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Sun 32×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G2246 across 30 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 2 further occurrences.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders G2246 across 31 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders G2246 across 29 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 4 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 3 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders G2246 across 32 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Senses in Thayer's
The 3 senses Thayer's distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- the sun
- the rays of the sun
- the light of day
Word origin
Derived from αιρεομαι (hairéomai) (G138) — to choose.
From ἕλη helē (a ray ; perhaps akin to the alternate of G138 ); the sun ; by implication light : - + east sun.
— Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (1890), public domain.
Forms in the corpus
The 4 distinct written forms G2246 takes in the Greek New Testament, most frequent first — each parse links to that case’s occurrences in the concordance.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| ἥλιος hḗlios | Noun, Nominative, Singular, Masculine | Matthew 13:43 | 14 |
| ἡλίου hēlíou | Noun, Genitive, Singular, Masculine | Matthew 13:6 | 12 |
| ἥλιον hḗlion | Noun, Accusative, Singular, Masculine | Matthew 5:45 | 4 |
| ἡλίῳ hēlíō | Noun, Dative, Singular, Masculine | Luke 21:25 | 2 |
Same root — word family
Other Thayer's entries built from the same root as G2246, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
- αιρεσις haíresis G139 choice
- αιρετιζω hairetízō G140 to choose
- αλωσις hálōsis G259 capture
- αρπαζω harpázō G726 to seize
- ελκυω helkýō G1670 to draw
- θελω thélō G2309 to will
- ιλεως híleōs G2436 merciful
- σεληνη selḗnē G4582 moon
- σπειρα speîra G4686 cohort
- συλαω syláō G4813 to rob
- συρω sýrō G4951 to drag
- τιλλω tíllō G5089 to pluck
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 14 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint usage
The same Greek word ηλιος appears 162 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 152 verses in 28 books.
- 162
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 152
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 28 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 28 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Genesis 15:12 ἥλιος
- Exodus 1:11 ἥλιος
- Leviticus 22:7 ἥλιος
- Numbers 21:11 ἥλιος
- Deuteronomy 4:19 ἥλιος
- Joshua 1:4 ἥλιος
- Judges 5:31 ἥλιος
- 1 Samuel 11:9 ἥλιος
- 2 Samuel 2:24 ἥλιος
- 1 Kings 8:53 ἥλιος
- 2 Kings 3:22 ἥλιος
- 2 Chronicles 18:34 ἥλιος
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G2246) appears in the Greek Septuagint — showing the first 50 of 152. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context; the Greek form is the matched word — the English is not keyword-highlighted.
- Genesis 15:12 ἥλιος When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Now terror and great darkness fell on him.
- Genesis 15:17 ἥλιος It came to pass that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
- Genesis 19:23 ἥλιος The sun was risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
- Genesis 28:11 ἥλιος He came to a certain place, and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. He took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep.
- Genesis 32:32 ἥλιος Therefore the children of Israel don't eat the sinew of the hip, which is on the hollow of the thigh, to this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of the hip.
- Genesis 37:9 ἥλιος He dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brothers, and said, "Behold, I have dreamed yet another dream: and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down to me."
- Genesis 41:45 ἥλιος Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphenath-paneah; and he gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On as a wife. Joseph went out over the land of Egypt.
- Genesis 41:50 ἥλιος To Joseph were born two sons before the year of famine came, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, bore to him.
- Genesis 46:20 ἥλιος To Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him.
- Exodus 1:11 ἥλιος Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. They built storage cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses.
- Exodus 16:21 ἥλιος They gathered it morning by morning, everyone according to his eating. When the sun grew hot, it melted.
- Exodus 17:12 ἥλιος But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side. His hands were steady until sunset.
- Exodus 22:2 ἥλιος If the thief is found breaking in, and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no guilt of bloodshed for him.
- Exodus 22:25 ἥλιος "If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor; neither shall you charge him interest.
- Leviticus 22:7 ἥλιος When the sun is down, he shall be clean; and afterward he shall eat of the holy things, because it is his bread.
- Numbers 21:11 ἥλιος They traveled from Oboth, and encamped at Iyeabarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sunrise.
- Numbers 25:4 ἥλιος Yahweh said to Moses, Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them up to Yahweh before the sun, that the fierce anger of Yahweh may turn away from Israel.
- Deuteronomy 4:19 ἥλιος and lest you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host of the sky, you are drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky.
- Deuteronomy 4:41 ἥλιος Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise;
- Deuteronomy 4:47 ἥλιος They took his land in possession, and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise;
- Deuteronomy 4:49 ἥλιος and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.
- Deuteronomy 11:30 ἥλιος Aren't they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah, over against Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?
- Deuteronomy 16:6 ἥλιος but at the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell in, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that you came forth out of Egypt.
- Deuteronomy 17:3 ἥλιος and has gone and served other gods, and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the host of the sky, which I have not commanded;
- Deuteronomy 23:12 ἥλιος You shall have a place also outside of the camp, where you shall go forth abroad:
- Deuteronomy 24:13 ἥλιος you shall surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his garment, and bless you: and it shall be righteousness to you before Yahweh your God.
- Deuteronomy 24:15 ἥλιος in his day you shall give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down on it; for he is poor, and sets his heart on it: lest he cry against you to Yahweh, and it be sin to you.
- Deuteronomy 33:14 ἥλιος For the precious things of the fruits of the sun, For the precious things of the growth of the moons,
- Joshua 1:4 ἥλιος From the wilderness, and this Lebanon, even to the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border.
- Joshua 1:15 ἥλιος until Yahweh have given your brothers rest, as [he has given] you, and they also have possessed the land which Yahweh your God gives them: then you shall return to the land of your possession, and possess it, which Moses the servant of Yahweh gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise.
- Joshua 4:19 ἥλιος The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, on the east border of Jericho.
- Joshua 8:29 ἥλιος The king of Ai he hanged on a tree until the evening: and at the going down of the sun Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree, and cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised thereon a great heap of stones, to this day.
- Joshua 10:12 ἥλιος Then spoke Joshua to Yahweh in the day when Yahweh delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel; and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand you still on Gibeon; You, Moon, in the valley of Aijalon.
- Joshua 10:13 ἥλιος The sun stood still, and the moon stayed, Until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies. Isn't this written in the book of Jashar? The sun stayed in the midst of the sky, and didn't hurry to go down about a whole day.
- Joshua 10:27 ἥλιος It happened at the time of the going down of the sun, that Joshua commanded, and they took them down off the trees, and cast them into the cave in which they had hidden themselves, and laid great stones on the mouth of the cave, to this very day.
- Joshua 12:1 ἥλιος Now these are the kings of the land, whom the children of Israel struck, and possessed their land beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon, and all the Arabah eastward:
- Joshua 13:5 ἥλιος and the land of the Gebalites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrise, from Baal Gad under Mount Hermon to the entrance of Hamath;
- Joshua 13:7 ἥλιος Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
- Joshua 13:8 ἥλιος With him the Reubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond the Jordan eastward, even as Moses the servant of Yahweh gave them:
- Joshua 15:7 ἥλιος and the border went up to Debir from the valley of Achor, and so northward, looking toward Gilgal, that is over against the ascent of Adummim, which is on the south side of the river; and the border passed along to the waters of En Shemesh, and the goings out of it were at En Rogel;
- Joshua 15:10 ἥλιος and the border turned about from Baalah westward to Mount Seir, and passed along to the side of Mount Jearim on the north (the same is Chesalon), and went down to Beth-shemesh, and passed along by Timnah;
- Joshua 19:27 ἥλιος and it turned toward the sunrise to Beth Dagon, and reached to Zebulun, and to the valley of Iphtah El northward to Beth Emek and Neiel; and it went out to Cabul on the left hand,
- Joshua 19:34 ἥλιος and the border turned westward to Aznoth Tabor, and went out from there to Hukkok; and it reached to Zebulun on the south, and reached to Asher on the west, and to Judah at the Jordan toward the sunrise.
- Joshua 23:4 ἥλιος Behold, I have allotted to you these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even to the great sea toward the going down of the sun.
- Judges 5:31 ἥλιος So let all your enemies perish, Yahweh: But let those who love him be as the sun when he goes forth in his might. The land had rest forty years.
- Judges 9:33 ἥλιος and it shall be, that in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, you shall rise early, and rush on the city; and, behold, when he and the people who are with him come out against you, then may you do to them as you shall find occasion.
- Judges 11:18 ἥλιος Then they went through the wilderness, and went around the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and they encamped on the other side of the Arnon; but they didn't come within the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab.
- Judges 14:18 ἥλιος The men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion? He said to them, If you hadn't plowed with my heifer, You wouldn't have found out my riddle.
- Judges 19:14 ἥλιος So they passed on and went their way; and the sun went down on them near to Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin.
- Judges 20:43 ἥλιος They enclosed the Benjamites round about, [and] chased them, [and] trod them down at [their] resting-place, as far as over against Gibeah toward the sunrise.
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G2246) in the Septuagint — not a translation of any one Hebrew word. The store carries no word-level Hebrew↔Greek alignment, so no Hebrew original is asserted here. Counts come from the recovered LXX Strong's tagging — high-frequency vocabulary is well covered, while rare or late forms may be untagged — so they reflect tagged occurrences and may slightly undercount.
