StrongerBible

leukos

λευκός

GreekG3022white

Appears 25 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 5:36Mat 17:2Mat 28:3Mrk 9:3Mrk 16:5Luk 9:29Jhn 4:35Jhn 20:12Act 1:10Rev 1:14 (2×)Rev 2:17Rev 3:4Rev 3:5Rev 3:18Rev 4:4Rev 6:2Rev 6:11Rev 7:9Rev 7:13Rev 14:14Rev 19:11Rev 19:14 (2×)Rev 20:11
Root family
Akin to
Word studylyoo-KOSSadjective

What leukos means

white: the color white, at times intensified to a gleaming or radiant brightness

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

At its core this word names the color white. It covers white hair, snow, wool, ripened fields, horses, and above all the white robes worn again and again in the book of Revelation.

The word also carries an older, brighter edge. Before it settled into a plain color term it meant light or gleaming, and that brilliance surfaces at the Transfiguration, where Jesus' clothing turns a white so dazzling that, as Mark puts it, no launderer on earth could match it. Here white shades into radiant, the visible glow of heavenly glory.

In Revelation the color becomes a symbol. White clothing marks those who have been made clean and who share in Christ's victory, while the white horse, the white cloud, and the great white throne all belong to the world of divine triumph and judgment. That freight comes from how the book uses the color, not from the word itself, which stays the ordinary term for white.

Nuances

1agleaming, radiant white: whiteness so bright it shines, beyond what ordinary cloth can be made
TranslatabilityPartial
Mat 17:2Mrk 9:3Luk 9:29
1bwhite: the plain color, of hair, cloth, horses, snow, and ripened grain
TranslatabilityDirect
Mat 5:36Mat 28:3Mrk 16:5Jhn 4:35Jhn 20:12Act 1:10Rev 1:14 (2×)Rev 2:17Rev 3:4Rev 3:5Rev 3:18Rev 4:4

What scholars say about leukos

The word originally denoted the quality of light or brightness (LSJ), and this luminous sense survives in the accounts of the Transfiguration, where the garments blaze beyond ordinary whiteness (Mark 9:3; Luke 9:29). BDAG accordingly divides the New Testament data into a bright, shining sense and a white color sense. The color sense dominates the corpus, and in Revelation it becomes a controlling symbol: white robes, a white stone, white horses, and a great white throne mark victory, purity, vindication, and the heavenly sphere (Michaelis, TDNT 4:241-250). The whiteness of the exalted Christ's hair in Revelation 1:14 deliberately echoes the Ancient of Days of Daniel 7:9. Scholarship treats the lexical meaning as settled; discussion concerns the symbolism, not the sense of the word.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. λευκόςlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. λευκόςlexicon
  • W. Michaelis, 'λευκός, λευκαίνω,' TDNT 4:241-250theological-dictionary

All attested forms of λευκός

dative n p

λευκοῖς

Jhn 20:12, Rev 3:4, Rev 3:5, Rev 4:4

accusative f s

λευκὴν, λευκήν

Mat 5:36, Mrk 16:5, Rev 2:17

nominative m s

λευκὸς, λευκός

Luk 9:29, Rev 6:2, Rev 19:11

accusative f p

λευκάς, λευκὰς

Rev 7:13, Rev 7:9

nominative f p

λευκαί, λευκαὶ

Jhn 4:35, Rev 1:14

nominative f s

λευκή, λευκὴ

Rev 14:14, Rev 6:11

nominative n p

λευκὰ

Mat 17:2, Mrk 9:3

nominative n s

λευκὸν

Mat 28:3, Rev 1:14

accusative m s

λευκὸν

Rev 20:11

accusative n p

λευκὰ

Rev 3:18

accusative n s

λευκὸν

Rev 19:14

dative f p

λευκαῖς

Act 1:10

dative m p

λευκοῖς

Rev 19:14