StrongerBible

aurion

αὔριον

GreekG0839tomorrow, the next day, ...

Appears 15 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 6:30Mat 6:34 (2×)Luk 10:35Luk 12:28Luk 13:32Luk 13:33Act 4:3Act 4:5Act 23:15Act 23:20Act 25:221Co 15:32
Names & words formed with this
Word studyOW-ree-onadverb

What aurion means

tomorrow: the day right after the one now in view, and by extension the time ahead that nobody yet holds

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

Greek names the day after the present one with a single small adverb, and it does not swap that word when the vantage point moves. Spoken from where a person is standing, it is "tomorrow": the plotters in Acts 23:20 want Paul brought down to them tomorrow. Told from inside an account that has already reached a particular day, the very same word means "the next day": the Samaritan pays the innkeeper the next day in Luke 10:35, and the arrested apostles are held until the next day in Acts 4:3. Greek does have a dedicated compound for that storytelling move (ἐπαύριον), but the plain word does the same job once it takes an article.

With an article in front of it, this word behaves like a noun, something close to "the morrow." A day a person can talk about, rather than simply act in, can also be handed a life of its own: Matthew 6:34 says the morrow will do its own worrying. From there it is a short step to standing for the whole stretch of time nobody has been given yet, which is what James means when he tells confident traders they do not know the first thing about tomorrow.

The word travels almost everywhere with its opposite, "today" (σήμερον), and the pairing is where its force comes from:

  • Grass that is alive today is oven fuel tomorrow, in Matthew 6:30 and Luke 12:28.
  • Jesus drives out demons today and tomorrow, and on the third day he finishes, in Luke 13:32.
  • Merchants announce that today or tomorrow they will set out for a city and trade there for a year, in James 4:13.

Each pairing draws a very short line, and the writers use that shortness to say how little of it belongs to us.

Nuances

1atomorrow: the day after today, spoken of from the present moment
TranslatabilityDirect
Mat 6:30Luk 12:28Luk 13:32Luk 13:33Act 23:15Act 23:20Act 25:221Co 15:32Jas 4:13
1bthe next day: the day following a point the account has already reached
Luk 10:35Act 4:3Act 4:5
1cthe future: the time ahead, spoken of as a thing in its own right
Mat 6:34 (2×)Jas 4:14

What scholars say about aurion

αὔριον is an old adverb attested from Homer onward, belonging to the word group for dawn and morning, and it is the standard Koine term for "tomorrow." LSJ and BDAG both note the frequent articular use, ἡ αὔριον with ἡμέρα understood, which yields the substantival "the morrow" and the prepositional phrases ἐπὶ τὴν αὔριον and εἰς τὴν αὔριον at Luke 10:35 and Acts 4:3, 5; elsewhere the New Testament prefers the compound ἐπαύριον for the narrative "on the next day." Two passages carry the exegetical weight. Matthew 6:34 personifies ἡ αὔριον, and commentators divide over how far the saying generalizes from the following day to anxiety about the future as such. Luke 13:32 to 33 sets σήμερον καὶ αὔριον beside τῇ τρίτῃ and τῇ ἐχομένῃ; Fitzmyer and others read the sequence as an idiom for a short, divinely determined period rather than a literal itinerary. 1 Corinthians 15:32 reproduces the Greek form of Isaiah 22:13, φάγωμεν καὶ πίωμεν, αὔριον γὰρ ἀποθνῄσκομεν.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. αὔριονlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. αὔριονlexicon
  • EDNT, s.v. αὔριονlexicon
  • James Hope Moulton and George Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, s.v. αὔριονlexicon
  • Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke (X-XXIV), Anchor Bible 28A, 1985commentary

All attested forms of αὔριον

adv

αὔριον, αὔριόν

Mat 6:30, Mat 6:34, Mat 6:34, Luk 10:35, Luk 12:28, Luk 13:32, Luk 13:33, Act 4:3