StrongerBible

kērugma

κήρυγμα

GreekG2782“preaching, proclamation, ...”

Appears 9 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 12:41Mrk 16:8Luk 11:32Rom 16:25(14:24)1Co 1:211Co 2:41Co 15:142Ti 4:17Tit 1:3
Root family
Word studyKAY-roog-mahnoun

What kērugma means

a herald's public announcement: both the act of proclaiming a message aloud on someone else's authority and the message that gets proclaimed

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

The word belongs to the world of the public herald (κῆρυξ), the officer who stood where a crowd could hear him and read out a ruler's decree. What he delivered was not his own opinion. It was handed to him, and his one job was to make it heard. That background shapes every use in the New Testament: an announcement of this kind carries weight because of who stands behind it, not because the speaker is impressive.

Greek uses this noun for two tightly linked things, and often for both at once: the act of announcing, and what gets announced. Paul can set his announcing beside his manner of speech, so that the activity is in view, and he can also say the announcement would be empty if Christ was not raised, where the truth of the content is what is at stake. English does much the same with the word "proclamation", which is why most translations do not try to mark the difference.

The verb of the same family (κηρύσσω) names the activity, and the good news (εὐαγγέλιον) names the content by its glad character. This noun sits between them: the announcement considered simply as an announcement. It is also not teaching (διδαχή), which unfolds and explains at length. Announcing declares something and asks for a response.

The one example from before the Christian message shows the pattern plainly. Jesus points to what Jonah announced at Nineveh, a blunt warning that turned the city around, and the Greek Old Testament had used this very noun for the cry Jonah was told to make (קְרִיאָה).

Nuances

1athe message announced: what the herald actually says, the content people hear and are asked to believe
Mrk 16:8Rom 16:25(14:24)1Co 1:211Co 15:14
1bthe act of announcing: the public proclaiming itself, the work of standing up and delivering the message aloud
Mat 12:41Luk 11:321Co 2:42Ti 4:17Tit 1:3

What scholars say about kērugma

The standard lexica treat κήρυγμα as a verbal noun from κηρύσσω and divide the usage between the act of proclamation and the content proclaimed (BDAG, s.v.), with LSJ documenting the classical use for a herald's public notice and for an officially published offer or reward. Friedrich's TDNT article on the κῆρυξ word group traces the herald background and argues that in Paul the noun regularly denotes the content of the apostolic announcement, above all the crucified and risen Christ; EDNT reaches a similar judgment while noting that act and content are frequently inseparable. Commentators on 1 Corinthians 1:21 and 2:4 dispute whether ἡ μωρία τοῦ κηρύγματος concerns the content or the mode of delivery: Thiselton and Fee both take the content, the message of the cross, as primary, while allowing that Paul's argument also implicates his deliberately unadorned rhetoric. A further discussion concerns C. H. Dodd's influential distinction between kerygma and didache, which treated the noun as a label for a recoverable outline of the earliest apostolic preaching; later work, notably McDonald, questioned how sharply the two categories can be separated in the sources, and current lexicography does not treat the noun as a technical term. The occurrence in the short ending of Mark, τὸ ἱερὸν καὶ ἄφθαρτον κήρυγμα τῆς αἰωνίου σωτηρίας, belongs to a secondary conclusion absent from the earliest manuscripts and is usually cited as evidence of later usage rather than of the evangelist's own vocabulary.

Where scholars disagree about kērugma

Whether κήρυγμα in the New Testament names a definable body of apostolic content, distinguishable from teaching, or is simply the ordinary noun for proclaiming and what is proclaimed.

  • majorityThe noun is not a technical term. It denotes the act of proclamation or its content according to context, and the New Testament does not use it to mark off a fixed message over against teaching.; BDAG, s.v. κήρυγμα; James I. H. McDonald, Kerygma and Didache: The Articulation and Structure of the Earliest Christian Message, SNTSMS 37 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980)
  • minorityThe noun designates a recoverable core proclamation of the earliest church, a summary of the saving events, which stands distinct from the teaching that followed conversion.; C. H. Dodd, The Apostolic Preaching and Its Developments (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1936)

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. κήρυγμαlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. κήρυγμαlexicon
  • Gerhard Friedrich, "κῆρυξ, κηρύσσω, κήρυγμα," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Gerhard Kittel, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965), 683-718theological-dictionary
  • Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Horst Balz and Gerhard Schneider, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), s.v. κήρυγμαtheological-dictionary
  • C. H. Dodd, The Apostolic Preaching and Its Developments (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1936)monograph
  • James I. H. McDonald, Kerygma and Didache: The Articulation and Structure of the Earliest Christian Message, SNTSMS 37 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980)monograph
  • Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000)commentary
  • Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, NICNT, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014)commentary

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

All attested forms of κήρυγμα

accusative n s

κήρυγμα

Mat 12:41, Mrk 16:8, Luk 11:32, Rom 16:25

nominative n s

κήρυγμα, κήρυγμά

1Co 15:14, 2Ti 4:17, 1Co 2:4

dative n s

κηρύγματι

Tit 1:3

genitive n s

κηρύγματος

1Co 1:21