StrongerBible

salpigx

σάλπιγξ

GreekG4536“trumpet, trumpet call”

Appears 11 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 24:311Co 14:81Co 15:521Th 4:16Heb 12:19Rev 1:10Rev 4:1Rev 8:2Rev 8:6Rev 8:13Rev 9:14
Root family
Word studySAL-pinxnoun

What salpigx means

trumpet: a signaling horn blown to give one loud, unmistakable order, and the blast it makes

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

In the Bible a trumpet is not an instrument for making music. It is an instrument for making a signal. Its whole job is to cut through noise and distance with a blast nobody can mistake, so that everyone in earshot knows at once what is happening and what to do.

That is why the New Testament reaches for it at the loudest moments in the story:

  • a battle signal that has to be clear or no one will arm themselves
  • the terrifying sound that shook the mountain when God spoke to Israel
  • the summons that gathers God's scattered people from the four winds
  • the blast that wakes the dead and changes the living in an instant
  • the seven blasts in John's vision, each one loosing a fresh judgment on the earth

Twice the word simply measures volume and clarity. John hears a voice behind him that sounds like a trumpet, meaning it is loud, piercing, and impossible to ignore.

Sometimes the word points to the instrument itself, the thing an angel holds and gets ready to blow, and sometimes it stands for the blast that instrument makes, much as English can say "the last trumpet" and mean the final signal rather than the horn. The act of blowing it has a word of its own (σαλπίζω), which often stands right beside this one.

Nuances

1athe instrument itself: the horn that is held, made ready, and blown to give a signal
Mat 24:311Co 14:8Heb 12:19Rev 1:10Rev 4:1Rev 8:2Rev 8:6Rev 8:13Rev 9:14
1bthe blast itself: the signal that sounds, named after the horn that gives it
1Co 15:521Th 4:16

What scholars say about salpigx

σάλπιγξ is the ordinary Greek word for a trumpet from Homer onward (Iliad 18.219), where it already denotes a war signal rather than a melodic instrument; LSJ records both the instrument and, by metonymy, the blast it produces. In the Septuagint it renders both שׁוֹפָר, the curved ram's horn, and חֲצֹצְרָה, the beaten-silver trumpet prescribed in Numbers 10:1-10, collapsing a distinction the Hebrew maintains and one that the Qumran War Scroll (1QM) and Josephus (Antiquities 3.291) still observe. BDAG accordingly divides New Testament usage between the instrument (1 Cor 14:8; Rev 8:2, 6; 9:14) and the sound it makes (1 Cor 15:52; 1 Thess 4:16), the same metonymy already at home in classical Greek. Friedrich (TDNT 7:71-88) traces the eschatological trumpet from the theophany at Sinai (Exod 19:16, 19) through the prophetic day of the LORD (Isa 27:13; Zeph 1:16; Zech 9:14) into the Pauline and Johannine expectation, with the ingathering trumpet of Isaiah 27:13 standing behind Matthew 24:31; Aune and Beale read the seven trumpets of Revelation 8 to 9 against the same Sinai and Jericho background rather than as cultic music. Text-critically, the witnesses at Matthew 24:31 divide over whether φωνῆς stands between σάλπιγγος and μεγάλης, which decides whether the word there names the horn or the blast.

Sources

  • BDAG (Danker, ed.), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (2000), s.v. σάλπιγξlexicon
  • Liddell-Scott-Jones (LSJ), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., s.v. σάλπιγξlexicon
  • G. Friedrich, "σάλπιγξ, σαλπίζω, σαλπιστής," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 7:71-88theological-dictionary
  • D. E. Aune, Revelation 6-16, Word Biblical Commentary 52B (1998)commentary
  • G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation, New International Greek Testament Commentary (1999)commentary
  • A. C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, New International Greek Testament Commentary (2000)commentary
  • Nestle-Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th ed. (2012), apparatus at Matthew 24:31critical-edition

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

All attested forms of σάλπιγξ

genitive f s

σάλπιγγος

Mat 24:31, Heb 12:19, Rev 1:10, Rev 4:1, Rev 8:13

dative f s

σάλπιγγι

1Co 15:52, 1Th 4:16

accusative f p

σάλπιγγας

Rev 8:6

accusative f s

σάλπιγγα

Rev 9:14

nominative f p

σάλπιγγες

Rev 8:2

nominative f s

σάλπιγξ

1Co 14:8