to shine out: to give off light bright enough to catch the eye
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
This is the strong word for shining. It is not a faint glow, and it is not light bouncing back off a polished surface, which is the kind of glisten another verb names (στίλβω). Here the light streams out of its source and people turn and look.
Two of the seven uses are everyday light: a lamp set on its stand gives light to everyone in the house, and lightning flashes clear across the sky. Even in those two the point is reach. The light gets to everybody in view.
Four of the uses are light that comes from God:
Jesus' face blazing like the sun on the mountain
the brightness that filled Peter's cell when the angel stood there
the light God called out of the darkness at the creation of the world
that same light now shining inside people, so they can see who Jesus is
The last use is the bridge between the two. The lamp on the stand in Matthew 5:15 becomes, one verse later, the command to let your own light shine in front of other people. What holds the whole range together is that light never shines for itself. It shines so that someone else can see.
Nuances
1ato give light: what a lamp or a flash of lightning does, so that everyone in view can see it
TranslatabilityDirect
Mat 5:15Luk 17:24
1bto blaze: to break out in a brightness that comes from God
Mat 17:2Act 12:72Co 4:6 (2×)*
1cto shine as more than physical light: for a life to give out visible good, or for God to light a person up inside
names light actually streaming out of its source, strong enough to make people lookMat 17:2Act 12:7
Both
both describe what a lamp does when it lights up the room around itMat 5:15Luk 17:24
Only shine
in English a thing can shine because light bounces off it, and an English shine can be faint or merely polished, neither of which this word means
“give light”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“shine forth”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How lampō differs from similar Greek words
φαίνωalso used of a lamp or a star giving off light, but it far more often means to come into view or to seem a certain way, a range this word never has.
always names light being actively given off by a source: a lamp radiating, a face or garments blazing, lightning flashing, God shining brightness into the heart. The focus is the outpouring of light itself.Mat 17:2Luk 17:242Co 4:6
used of a person's good deeds shining out before others, where the point is that the light streams outward to be seen, not merely that it becomes visible.Mat 5:16Act 12:7
Both
both are used of a lamp or heavenly light giving off light, so in that setting either word can describe something shining.Mat 5:15Jhn 5:35
reaches well beyond light: it commonly means to appear or come into view, as when an angel appears in a dream, a sign appears in the sky, or weeds appear among the wheat.Mat 1:20Mat 24:30Mat 13:26
carries a sense the light word never has: to seem or appear to be a certain way, often with a gap between the outward look and the inner reality (looking righteous while being false, seeming beautiful outside while rotten within).Mat 23:27Mat 23:28Mat 6:5
φωτίζωto light something up, so the thing being lit is what the sentence is about, and it stretches to opening a person's understanding, which this word does not do.
Names the brightness a light source gives off on its own: the shining thing itself is the subject, whether a lamp on its stand, a face, or a flash of lightning.Mat 5:15Mat 17:2Luk 17:24
Carries the picture of a visible life or witness radiating outward so that others can see it, the light beaming forth rather than being cast on some object.Mat 5:162Co 4:6
Both
Both can describe a radiant, overpowering light that floods a physical place and drives out its darkness.Act 12:7Rev 18:1
Is causative: it means to give light to something else, so the thing lit up is the object rather than the glowing source, as when a city or a room is flooded with light.Luk 11:36Rev 21:23Rev 22:5
Reaches into the mind: it means to enlighten a person or to bring hidden things to light, imparting understanding and exposing what was concealed, a range "to shine" never carries.Jhn 1:91Co 4:5Eph 1:182Ti 1:10Heb 6:4
ἐκλάμπωa compound built on this verb that adds the picture of light breaking out; used once, of the righteous blazing like the sun in their Father's kingdom.
This is the everyday word for a light source doing what a light source does: a lamp set on its stand lighting the whole house, a light filling the cell where Peter was held, lightning lighting up the sky from one end to the other.Mat 5:15Act 12:7Luk 17:24
It is regularly used of light with onlookers in view, light that shines to people or in front of them so they can see something: everyone in the house benefits from the lamp, and the light of the disciples is to shine before others so they notice the good being done.Mat 5:15Mat 5:16
It covers shining that is happening now or commanded now, including light God has already put inside people: he is the one who said "let light shine out of darkness" and who has shone in our hearts.Mat 5:162Co 4:6
Both
Both can describe a person shining as bright as the sun, in almost identical wording: at the transfiguration the face of Jesus shone "like the sun", and the righteous will shine "like the sun" in the kingdom.Mat 17:2Mat 13:43
In both, the thing named is what produces the brightness rather than something lit up from outside: a light shone in the prison cell, and the righteous themselves shine.Act 12:7Mat 13:43
In its one appearance the people themselves are what shines: the righteous will blaze out like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. The added force is light bursting out of them, not light simply being given off.Mat 13:43
Its single use is a promise about the end of the age, after the harvest that sorts the righteous from the rest, so the shining is something that breaks out later rather than something already going on.Mat 13:43
περιλάμπωa compound built on this verb for light that wraps all the way around someone, as the glory of the Lord did around the shepherds.
The shining runs outward from whatever is giving off the light, with no one in particular caught in it. A lamp set on its stand throws light through the whole house, and lightning lights up the sky from one side of it to the other.Mat 5:15Luk 17:24
It covers plain household brightness as readily as light from heaven. The same word serves for a lamp lighting a room and for the good that people do where others can see it.Mat 5:15Mat 5:16
It stretches to light that no eye can see, breaking in inside a person. Paul says the God who made light shine out of darkness at the beginning has now made it shine in human hearts.2Co 4:6
Both
Both report a sudden burst of light from God arriving with a heavenly messenger and flooding an ordinary place, a locked prison cell in the one scene and a night pasture in the other.Act 12:7Luk 2:9
Both reach for the sun to measure a brightness that is not the sun: a face that shone like the sun on the mountain, and a light brighter than the sun at noon on the road.Mat 17:2Act 26:13
The light closes all the way around people, and the word itself names who was caught inside it: the shepherds standing in their field, and Paul together with the men walking the road with him. Nothing is said about where the light went next.Luk 2:9Act 26:13
Both of its uses are light from heaven and nothing else, never a lamp and never daylight: the glory of the Lord in the one scene, and a light out of the sky at midday in the other.Luk 2:9Act 26:13
στίλβωto glisten, of light bouncing off a surface, used of the dazzling clothes of Jesus on the mountain rather than of light streaming out of a source.
Names something that puts out light of its own, so the sentence is about the source rather than the surface: a lamp set on a stand lights the whole house, and a light appears in a locked prison cell.Mat 5:15Act 12:7
Used for light that goes outward to reach people, so it can be asked of a person: let your light shine in front of others, and God shines the knowledge of his glory into the heart.Mat 5:162Co 4:6
Stretches to a sudden blaze that fills the sky, with lightning flashing from one end of it to the other as the picture of the Son of Man's day.Luk 17:24
At the transfiguration it is the face itself that shines, and the comparison is to the sun, a body that makes its own light.Mat 17:2
Both
Both name a brightness strong enough to stop the onlooker, and the two of them split one scene between them: on the mountain Jesus's face is described with one word and his clothing with the other.Mat 17:2Mrk 9:3
Both are ordinary Greek words that a lexicon glosses "to shine", and English Bibles reach for the same handful of renderings for each, so the difference between light given off and light bounced back is easy to lose in translation.Mat 5:15Mrk 9:3
Describes how a surface looks rather than what a source gives off: a hard, glossy gleam, the sort of glint you see on something polished. It is the clothing of Jesus that glistens, whiter than any launderer on earth could get cloth.Mrk 9:3
Works as a description hung on an object, telling you what the cloth looked like, and never names an act asked of a person or done by God to someone.Mrk 9:3
λαμπρόςthe matching adjective, calling a thing gleaming or splendid, and it can even mean expensive and showy, while this word names the act of giving off light.
lampō in the other biblical languages
זָהַרHebrew“to warn”the Hebrew that can mean to shine, as the wise shine like the stars, though far more often it means to warn someone of danger.
Names physical light breaking out and being seen: a lamp on its stand, lightning across the sky, a face blazing, brightness flooding a dark cell.Mat 5:15Luk 17:24Act 12:7
Carries a sending-out force: the light does not just glow, it shines onto others or out into the world, so it readily pictures witness and revelation.Mat 5:162Co 4:6
Both
Where the Hebrew word does mean shine, the two overlap fully: a bright radiance that catches the eye, whether a transfigured face or the wise gleaming like the stars.Mat 17:2Dan 12:3
Almost always means to warn or caution someone, especially the watchman charged to alert the guilty to danger; this sense has no light in view at all.Ezk 3:17Ezk 33:72Ki 6:10
Extends to teaching and admonishing: instructing people in what is right and correcting them, an outcome of being warned rather than of being lit up.Exo 18:20Psa 19:11Ecc 4:13
אוֹרHebrew“to light”the everyday Hebrew for giving light or for day breaking, used across a much wider range and without the force of a blaze that stops people.
In the New Testament this word keeps almost no ordinary working life. Nearly every use stands in a heavy scene where the light is God's own or belongs to the end of the age: the face of Jesus on the mountain, the flash that will mark the day of the Son of Man, the light that fills Peter's cell when the angel arrives, and the glory of God breaking in on a person from the inside.Mat 17:2Luk 17:24Act 12:72Co 4:6
The brightness gets measured against the biggest things in the sky, the sun and the lightning, so it reads as overwhelming rather than useful. A face goes bright like the sun in front of three witnesses, and a single flash crosses the whole sky from one side to the other.Mat 17:2Luk 17:24
The point of the blazing is usually that people are meant to see it. A lamp is put up high so it shines for everyone in the room rather than being hidden, and lives lived well are to shine out in the open where other people can watch them and give God credit.Mat 5:15Mat 5:16
Both
Both are the natural word for a lamp doing its job. In Hebrew the seven lamps of the golden stand are set so they light the space in front of them; in Greek a lamp is placed on its stand so it lights the whole house.Exo 25:37Num 8:2Mat 5:15
Both describe light strong enough to flood a whole space at once. In Hebrew, lightning lights up the world and the ground goes bright with the glory arriving from the east; in Greek, lightning blazes from one end of the sky to the other and a light fills a locked prison cell.Psa 77:18Psa 97:4Ezk 43:2Luk 17:24Act 12:7
Both can carry God's own light breaking on people as a gift. Hebrew tells a ruined city to rise and shine because her light has come, and speaks of a rescued person brought back to see the light of the living. When a New Testament writer wants that Old Testament picture, this is the Greek word that carries it: the God who called light out of darkness has shone in human hearts, and on the mountain that light shows on a face.Isa 60:1Job 33:302Co 4:6Mat 17:2
It is the plain word for day breaking, and writers use it to time events. Joseph's brothers are sent off as soon as the morning is light, David is told to leave once there is light enough to travel by, and Joab's men march all night until daybreak reaches them at Hebron. The Greek word never tells time this way.Gen 44:31Sa 29:102Sa 2:32
It carries a settled Hebrew way of speaking about favor and revived strength through faces and eyes. God is asked to make his face shine toward his people, tired eyes brighten when Jonathan tastes the honey, and God is credited with brightening the eyes of rich and poor alike. The brightness here is warmth and relief, not glare.Num 6:25Psa 67:1Dan 9:171Sa 14:27Psa 13:3Pro 29:13
It is regularly the word for light supplied so that people can find their way: a column of fire lighting the road for a people traveling at night, and God's words lighting up the person who takes them in.Exo 13:21Neh 9:12Psa 119:130
At its most ordinary it simply means to set something alight, with no glory in view at all: priests kindling a fire on the altar for nothing, and women gathering the dry branches of a ruined vine and burning them.Mal 1:10Isa 27:11
What scholars say about lampō
The lexica are agreed and do not divide the word. BDAG gives a single entry, to shine or beam, separating only literal uses from a figurative extension, under which it places Matthew 5:16 and the second occurrence in 2 Corinthians 4:6. LSJ traces λάμπω from Homer onward with the same core sense, used of fire, polished metal, eyes, and the heavenly bodies giving out brilliant light, and notes its intensive force for a bright flash. The verb belongs to the wider φῶς word-group and underlies the compounds ἐκλάμπω and περιλάμπω as well as the noun λαμπάς and the adjective λαμπρός. Discussion of 2 Corinthians 4:6 concerns which scripture Paul is echoing (Genesis 1:3, with Isaiah 9:1 also proposed) and whether λάμψει reproduces a command or a promise; neither question bears on the verb's meaning. The observation standard in the theological dictionaries is that in the New Testament the word is drawn almost wholly into descriptions of divine and end-time light: the transfiguration, the angelic epiphany in Acts, and the light of the new creation shining in the heart.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. λάμπωlexicon
LSJ, s.v. λάμπωlexicon
H. Conzelmann, "φῶς κτλ.," TDNT 9:310-358theological-dictionary
EDNT, s.v. λάμπωtheological-dictionary
Margaret E. Thrall, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, ICC (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1994), on 4:6commentary
Ulrich Luz, Matthew 1-7, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007), on 5:14-16commentary