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pur

πῦρ

GreekG4442fire, flame

Appears 75 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 3:10Mat 3:11Mat 3:12Mat 5:22Mat 7:19Mat 13:40Mat 13:42Mat 13:50Mat 17:15Mat 18:8Mat 18:9Mat 25:41Mrk 9:22Mrk 9:43Mrk 9:44Mrk 9:45Mrk 9:46Mrk 9:47Mrk 9:48Mrk 9:49Luk 3:9Luk 3:16Luk 3:17Luk 9:54Luk 12:49Luk 17:29Act 2:3Act 7:30Rom 12:201Co 3:13 (2×)1Co 3:152Th 1:8(7)Heb 1:7Heb 10:27Heb 11:34Heb 12:18Heb 12:29Jas 3:5Jas 3:6Jas 5:31Pe 1:72Pe 3:7Jud 1:7Jud 1:23Rev 1:14Rev 2:18Rev 3:18Rev 4:5Rev 8:7Rev 8:8
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What pur means

fire: the burning flame, with all its power to warm, consume, purify, and destroy

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

Across the New Testament this is one word, fire, used for one thing seen in many settings. At its base it is ordinary flame: the cooking fire in a courtyard, the brushwood thrown on a campfire, a lightning strike. From that single physical reality the writers draw the whole range of what fire does, and the contexts, not the word itself, tell you which side of fire is in view.

Two settings dominate. The first is judgment. Because fire consumes what is worthless and cannot be reversed, it becomes the standard picture of God's final dealing with evil: the chaff burned after the harvest, the fruitless tree thrown into the flames, the fiery furnace, the lake of fire. The second is testing and purifying. The same fire that destroys the worthless also refines metal, burning away impurity and leaving what is genuine, so fire pictures the trials that prove faith real and the day that will test each person's work.

A few places use fire for sheer destructive force in human speech and conduct, most vividly the tongue that James calls a fire setting a whole life ablaze. And fire repeatedly marks the presence of God himself, who appears in the burning bush, descends as tongues of fire at Pentecost, and is called a consuming fire.

These are facets of one idea, not separate words. A reader carries the same mental picture, flame, into every verse; what shifts is what that flame is doing.

Nuances

1aordinary fire: literal flame that burns, heats, lights, or consumes in everyday life and nature
Mat 17:15Mrk 9:22Luk 22:55Act 2:19Act 28:5Heb 11:34Jas 3:5Rev 13:13
1bthe fire of God's judgment: flame as the picture of final punishment that consumes what is condemned
Mat 3:10Mat 3:12Mat 5:22Mat 7:19Mat 13:40Mat 13:42Mat 13:50Mat 18:8Mat 18:9Mat 25:41Mrk 9:43Mrk 9:44
1cfire that tests and refines: flame that proves what is genuine by burning away what is not
Mrk 9:491Co 3:13 (2×)1Co 3:151Pe 1:7Rev 3:18
1dfire marking God's own presence and power: flame in which God appears or acts
Act 2:3Act 7:30Heb 1:7Heb 12:18Heb 12:29Rev 1:14Rev 2:18Rev 4:5Rev 8:5Rev 10:1Rev 15:2Rev 19:12
1efire as a picture of destructive force in human life and speech
Rom 12:20Jas 3:6

What scholars say about pur

Standard lexica treat πῦρ as a single word, fire, whose New Testament range runs from literal flame to two heavily developed figures, eschatological judgment and refining trial, plus appearances marking God's presence. BDAG organizes the entry by these uses (ordinary fire; fire of judgment; fire as a means of testing; fire associated with theophany) rather than as distinct words, and LSJ documents the same span in wider Greek. TDNT (Lang) traces the Old Testament and Jewish background that gives the judgment and purifying images their force, noting that the New Testament fire of judgment stands in continuity with the prophets' day of the Lord and that the refining picture draws on Malachi and the wisdom tradition.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. πῦρlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. πῦρlexicon
  • F. Lang, "πῦρ, πυρόω, κτλ.," TDNT 6:928-952theological-dictionary

All attested forms of πῦρ

genitive n s

πυρὸς, πυρός

Act 2:3, Act 7:30, Rom 12:20, Heb 1:7, Heb 10:27, 1Pe 1:7, Jud 1:7, Jud 1:23

accusative n s

πῦρ, Πῦρ

Mat 3:10, Mat 7:19, Mat 17:15, Mat 18:8, Mat 25:41, Mrk 9:22, Mrk 9:43, Mrk 9:44

dative n s

πυρὶ, πυρί

Mat 3:12, Mat 13:40, Mrk 9:49, Luk 3:17, 1Co 3:13, 2Th 1:8, Heb 12:18, 2Pe 3:7

nominative n s

πῦρ

Mrk 9:46, Mrk 9:48, 1Co 3:13, Heb 12:29, Jas 3:5, Jas 3:6, Jas 5:3, Rev 8:7