StrongerBible

keras

κέρας

GreekG2768“horn, mighty savior”

Appears 11 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Luk 1:69Rev 5:6Rev 9:13Rev 12:3Rev 13:1 (2×)Rev 13:11Rev 17:3Rev 17:7Rev 17:12Rev 17:16
Root family
Word studyKEH-rahsnoun

What keras means

a horn: the pointed growth on a creature's head, and by extension the strength or the ruler that a horn stands for

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

In the New Testament this word turns up almost entirely inside a vision, and the horns are there to be counted. A horn shows how much power its bearer holds, so the slain Lamb has seven, the dragon and the beast from the sea have ten each, and the beast from the earth has only two. When John asks what the ten mean, the angel answers plainly that they are ten kings. That answer is the key to the whole picture: one horn, one ruler.

Behind this stands the Hebrew Bible, where the matching word (קֶרֶן) covers the same ground and more. There a horn lifted high means strength granted, a horn broken means strength destroyed, and the horns of the altar are the projections at its four corners that a man in danger could grab hold of. Daniel's night vision of horned beasts, written in Aramaic (קֶרֶן), is the direct source of the ten horned monster John sees.

Two New Testament uses reach past the beasts. One is the voice that speaks from the four horns of the golden altar in Revelation 9:13, the only place the word names a piece of furniture rather than a creature. The other is Zechariah's song in Luke 1:69, where God has raised up a horn of salvation in the house of David. Nothing in that scene is horned. The phrase is borrowed whole from the Psalms, where a raised horn means rescuing strength, and it announces that God has produced a mighty deliverer.

Nuances

1aa horn on the head of a creature seen in a vision, its number showing how much power that creature holds
TranslatabilityDirect
Rev 5:6Rev 12:3Rev 13:1 (2×)Rev 13:11Rev 17:3Rev 17:7Rev 17:12Rev 17:16
1bone of the projections carved at the corners of an altar
Rev 9:13
1ca horn as a figure for saving strength, meaning the powerful rescuer God provides
TranslatabilityPartial
Luk 1:69

What scholars say about keras

The lexica are unanimous on the range. BDAG divides κέρας into the literal horn of an animal (dominant in Revelation), the horn shaped projection at the corner of an altar (Rev 9:13), and the Septuagintal metaphor for power (Luke 1:69); LSJ documents the same spread of literal and derived uses across classical Greek, including horn shaped projections of land and drinking vessels made of horn. Foerster's TDNT article traces the figurative use to Hebrew קֶרֶן by way of the Septuagint, where the idiom of a raised or exalted horn renders the Hebrew figure for granted strength (1 Sam 2:10; Ps 18:2; Ps 132:17), the last of which stands directly behind the Benedictus. Commentators on Revelation (Beale, Aune) read the horn counts against Daniel 7 and 8, where the Aramaic קֶרֶן numbers the kings of successive empires; the explicit gloss at Rev 17:12 ("the ten horns are ten kings") is generally taken as the seer's own decoding of the image rather than an independent lexical sense, which is why the standard lexica do not list it separately. On Luke 1:69, Fitzmyer and Marshall take κέρας σωτηρίας as a personal reference to a deliverer rather than an abstract statement about saving power, on the strength of the verb "raised up" and the Davidic setting of the hymn.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. κέραςlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. κέραςlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. קֶרֶןlexicon
  • W. Foerster, "κέρας", in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. G. Kittel, vol. 3theological-dictionary
  • G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation, New International Greek Testament Commentarycommentary
  • David E. Aune, Revelation, Word Biblical Commentarycommentary
  • Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke I-IX, Anchor Biblecommentary
  • I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke, New International Greek Testament Commentarycommentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of κέρας

accusative n p

κέρατα

Rev 5:6, Rev 12:3, Rev 13:1, Rev 13:11, Rev 17:3, Rev 17:7

genitive n p

κεράτων

Rev 9:13, Rev 13:1

nominative n p

κέρατα

Rev 17:12, Rev 17:16

accusative n s

κέρας

Luk 1:69