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hieros

ἱερόν

GreekG2411temple, temple courts

Appears 72 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 4:5Mat 12:5Mat 12:6Mat 21:12 (2×)Mat 21:14Mat 21:15Mat 21:23Mat 24:1 (2×)Mat 26:55Mrk 11:11Mrk 11:15 (2×)Mrk 11:16Mrk 11:27Mrk 12:35Mrk 13:1Mrk 13:3Mrk 14:49Mrk 16:8Luk 2:27Luk 2:37Luk 2:46Luk 4:9Luk 18:10Luk 19:45Luk 19:47Luk 20:1Luk 21:5Luk 22:52Jhn 2:15Jhn 7:14Jhn 8:2Act 3:1Act 3:2Act 3:3Act 3:8Act 5:21
Root family
Names & words formed with this
Word studyhee-er-ONnoun

What hieros means

the temple: the whole sacred building and its surrounding courts, the place set apart for God

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This word names the temple as a whole place, the entire walled complex with its courts, porches, and treasury, not just the small inner room where God was thought to dwell. That is why people walk in it, teach in it, sell animals in it, and are arrested in it: the word covers the wide public grounds where crowds gathered, where Jesus taught daily, and where the apostles met.

Almost every time it appears it means the temple in Jerusalem, the center of Israel's worship. Once, in Acts, it names a pagan temple instead, the great shrine of the goddess Artemis at Ephesus. The core idea does not change: a building and grounds set apart as holy to a god. Only the god is different.

The contrast with the other Greek word for temple matters. Where this word means the whole sacred precinct, the other word names just the inner sanctuary, the holy house at its heart. Keeping them apart explains how Jesus can be teaching in the temple courts and yet never enter the inner shrine, which only priests could approach.

Nuances

1athe temple in Jerusalem: its courts and grounds, the center of Israel's worship
Mat 4:5Mat 12:5Mat 12:6Mat 21:12 (2×)Mat 21:14Mat 21:15Mat 21:23Mat 24:1 (2×)Mat 26:55Mrk 11:11Mrk 11:15 (2×)Mrk 11:16
1ba pagan temple: a sacred building dedicated to another god
Act 19:27

Uncategorized

Awaiting AI sense categorization.

1 verse
Mrk 16:8

What scholars say about hieros

Standard lexica treat the word as a single sense, the temple as the whole sacred precinct, and stress its consistent contrast with ναός, which names the inner sanctuary. BDAG defines it as the temple complex including its courts and notes that in the Gospels and Acts the activity it hosts (teaching, trading, gathering) presupposes the open grounds rather than the shrine. LSJ confirms the classical sense of a sanctuary or temple precinct sacred to a deity, the usage that lets Acts 19:27 apply it to the temple of Artemis. TDNT (Michel) lays out the precinct-versus-sanctuary distinction across the New Testament.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. ἱερόνlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. ἱερόνlexicon
  • O. Michel, "ναός," TDNT 4:880-890dictionary
  • G. Schrenk, "ἱερόν," TDNT 3:230-247dictionary

All attested forms of ἱερόν

dative n s

ἱερῷ

Mat 12:5, Mat 21:12, Mat 21:14, Mat 21:15, Mat 26:55, Mrk 11:15, Mrk 11:27, Mrk 12:35

accusative n s

ἱερὸν, ἱερόν

Mat 21:12, Mat 21:23, Mrk 11:15, Mrk 16:8, Luk 18:10, Luk 19:45, Jhn 7:14, Jhn 8:2

genitive n s

ἱεροῦ

Mat 4:5, Mat 12:6, Mat 24:1, Mat 24:1, Mrk 11:16, Mrk 13:1, Mrk 13:3, Luk 2:37