a religious festival: one of Israel's appointed sacred feasts, kept at its set time each year
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
This is the ordinary word for a religious festival, one of the fixed holy celebrations on Israel's calendar. In the New Testament it points above all to the great pilgrimage feasts, the occasions when people traveled to Jerusalem to keep the day together: Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. It is not a private party or a one-off banquet but a set, recurring, sacred occasion the whole nation observed.
Used generally, it can name any such festival, whether spelled out (the Feast of Tabernacles) or referred to loosely (a feast of the Jews). But the Gospel writers have Passover in view so often that the bare phrase the Feast, with no name attached, regularly means Passover, the chief of the pilgrimage festivals. Both uses are the same underlying idea of an appointed sacred celebration; they differ only in how tightly the context narrows which feast is meant.
Nuances
1aa religious festival: any of the appointed sacred feasts, named (such as Tabernacles) or spoken of generally
names an appointed sacred festival kept at a fixed time, such as Tabernacles, not a mealJhn 7:2
Both
both mark a special, joyful occasion set apart from ordinary daysJhn 6:4
Only feast
the English word feast first suggests a large celebratory meal or banquet, which this word does not by itself mean
“festival”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“holy day”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How heortē differs from similar Greek words
πάσχαthe name of one specific festival, Passover; this word is the general term for a religious festival, though in the Gospels it most often points to Passover itself.
A general word for any appointed festival, not tied to one occasion; it names Tabernacles, unspecified pilgrim feasts, and festivals as a whole category alongside new moons and sabbaths.Jhn 7:2Jhn 5:1Col 2:16
Points to the festival as a public season when crowds gather, so it carries the sense of the assembled pilgrims and the occasion itself rather than any particular rite or victim.Jhn 11:56Jhn 12:12Mat 27:15
Both
Both name an appointed Jewish sacred observance set on the yearly calendar, so the Passover can itself be called a feast.Luk 2:41Luk 22:1
Both mark set times that drew worshippers up to Jerusalem, where the same gathering is described by either word.Jhn 2:23Jhn 6:4
Names one specific festival, the Passover that remembers Israel's deliverance from Egypt, never the festal calendar in general.Heb 11:28Mat 26:2Jhn 18:28
Can denote the concrete Passover lamb itself, the animal killed and eaten, a physical object the general festival word never names.Mrk 14:12Luk 22:71Co 5:7
σάββατονthe weekly day of rest, which comes every seventh day; this word is an annual festival kept once a year at its appointed season. Colossians 2:16 lists them side by side as separate observances.
Names the great yearly celebrations, and the journey they required: families went up to Jerusalem for Passover, crowds went up for the festival of Shelters, and even Greek visitors came up to worship at the festival. A monthly new moon summoned nobody to Jerusalem.Luk 2:41Jhn 7:2Jhn 7:10Jhn 12:20
Covers a stretch of days with a beginning, a middle, and an end, so events can be dated inside it: Jesus teaches halfway through it, speaks on its last and greatest day, and acts just before it begins.Jhn 7:14Jhn 7:37Jhn 13:1
Is a public occasion large enough to shape official decisions: the authorities refuse to seize Jesus during it for fear of a riot, and the governor keeps a custom of releasing a prisoner at it.Mat 26:5Mrk 14:2Mat 27:15Mrk 15:6
Works as a general word that a specific celebration can be attached to, so writers pair it with a name or leave it unnamed: the festival of Unleavened Bread called the Passover, or simply a festival of the Jews.Luk 22:1Jhn 5:1Jhn 4:45
Both
Both name an appointed sacred time rather than an ordinary day, which is why Colossians 2:16 can set them side by side with the Sabbath in one short list of observances.Col 2:16
Both were visible markers of Jewish practice that outsiders could measure a believer by, so Paul tells the Colossians to let no one judge them over either one.Col 2:16
Marks the monthly turn of the calendar, the day the fresh moon first shows, so it comes round every month instead of once a year. In Colossians 2:16 it sits between the yearly celebration and the weekly Sabbath as the monthly item in that sequence.Col 2:16
Takes its name from a sign in the sky rather than from anything people do: it is literally the "new moon", a day fixed by watching the sky, not a celebration whose content the word describes.Col 2:16
The general word for any appointed festival, standing in for whichever feast the context has in view without being a name of its own. It covers Passover, Tabernacles, and even a feast the writer leaves unnamed.Jhn 5:1Luk 22:1Jhn 7:2
Carries the whole picture of festival pilgrimage: crowds going up to Jerusalem to keep the feast, and the customs that surround it.Jhn 12:12Luk 2:41
Both
Both name appointed festivals of the Jewish calendar, set-apart days that drew worshipers to Jerusalem rather than ordinary time.Luk 22:1Act 2:1
The proper name of one particular festival, the fiftieth day after Passover (the Feast of Weeks), not a category that could point to any other feast.Act 2:1
Works as a fixed point on the calendar that dates travel and plans, marking when Paul aims to arrive or how long he will stay.Act 20:161Co 16:8
heortē in the other biblical languages
חַגHebrew“feast”the main Hebrew term for a pilgrimage feast, the appointed festivals Israel gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate; this Greek word is its regular equivalent.
מוֹעֵדHebrew“meeting”the Hebrew word for an appointed sacred time or set meeting, broader than a festival; this Greek word overlaps with it where that appointed time is itself a feast.
Names the celebration itself: the pilgrim festival as a joyous public gathering, attached to a specific named feast such as Passover or Tabernacles.Luk 22:1Jhn 7:2
Carries the sense of the festival crowd and the season of pilgrimage to Jerusalem, when people travel up to keep the feast.Luk 2:41Jhn 12:12
Both
Both name the appointed religious feasts of the calendar: where the Hebrew word lists the set feasts of the LORD, the Greek word is the word the New Testament uses for keeping those same feasts.Lev 23:2Col 2:16
Both can mark a single great festival day kept by the whole people, the one the Hebrew calls a solemn feast and the Greek calls simply the feast.Lam 2:6Jhn 5:1
Names a fixed, named event on the yearly calendar that people travel to keep, above all Passover and the feast of Tabernacles.Luk 22:1Jhn 7:2
Because the event is dated, the word works as a time marker: writers place a scene "at the feast" without describing any celebrating at all.Mat 27:15Jhn 13:1
Carries an obligation to appear at the sanctuary, so the crowds go up to Jerusalem year after year and watch for whoever has not come.Luk 2:41Jhn 11:56
Stands for the whole system of Jewish observance that the first Christians argued over, listed beside new moons and Sabbaths.Col 2:16
Both
Both name a celebration held before a god and tied to the gathering of the harvest, whether the grape harvest at Shechem or Israel's own ingathering feast of Tabernacles.Jdg 9:27Jhn 7:2
Each belongs to public life rather than private devotion: whole towns and crowds keep it together, and the text speaks of the people as a body.Jdg 9:27Jhn 12:12
Names the praising itself, and can be applied to the gift given in praise: the fourth year's fruit is set apart as "praise offerings" to the LORD.Lev 19:24
Describes noisy, spontaneous merrymaking that breaks out when the crop is in, not an event scheduled in advance.Jdg 9:27
What scholars say about heortē
The lexica are unanimous on the sense: BDAG and LSJ define ἑορτή as a festival or religious feast, a usage continuous from classical Greek. In the Septuagint it is the standard rendering of חַג (the pilgrimage feast) and also of מוֹעֵד (appointed time), which fixes its biblical range as Israel's appointed sacred feasts. In the New Testament its distribution is heavily Johannine and centers on the three pilgrimage festivals, above all Passover, which is regularly denoted by the articular ἡ ἑορτή used absolutely. TDNT (s.v. ἑορτή) traces this narrowing and its theological weight in John's structuring of the ministry around the feasts. The only genuine uncertainties are referential, not lexical: which unnamed feast is meant in John 5:1, and the text-critical status of the clauses in Luke 23:17 and Acts 18:21.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. ἑορτήlexicon
LSJ, s.v. ἑορτήlexicon
TDNT, s.v. ἑορτή (K. L. Schmidt)theological-dictionary