What does θυσία (thysía) mean in the Bible?
G2378 names a sacrifice or offering. Its twenty-nine forms occur in twenty-nine verses across ten books, with fifteen uses in Hebrews.
Greek · G2378
θυσία
Sacrifice (the act or the victim, literally or figuratively)
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θυσία G2378
Pronunciation thysía
What does θυσία (thysía) mean in the Bible?
G2378 names a sacrifice or offering. Its twenty-nine forms occur in twenty-nine verses across ten books, with fifteen uses in Hebrews.
Reader summary
Full entry for θυσία (G2378) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G2378?
The BSB source-word alignment has 28 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include sacrifices (14), sacrifice (9), [a] sacrifice (1), [the] sacrifice (1), a sacrifice (1).
Where does θυσία (thysía) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 9:13. Its strongest book concentrations include Hebrews (15), Acts (2), Luke (2), Matthew (2).
What This Word Actually Means
G2378 names a sacrifice or offering. Its twenty-nine forms occur in twenty-nine verses across ten books, with fifteen uses in Hebrews. The word can describe sacrifices offered to an idol, gifts and sacrifices under the priestly system, Christ's self-offering, and responsive offerings of praise, generosity, and embodied obedience. Those settings belong together within Scripture's sacrificial vocabulary, but they are not interchangeable.
Hebrews contrasts repeated priestly sacrifices with Christ's one sacrifice for sins. Romans, Philippians, Hebrews 13, and 1 Peter use sacrificial language for lives, gifts, praise, sharing, and spiritual service that are acceptable to God. These responses flow through God's mercy and through Jesus Christ; they do not add saving power to His completed work.
How the Bible Uses It
G2378 spans idolatrous sacrifice, Israel's ritual offerings, Christ's decisive offering, and the worship and generosity of believers. Each passage identifies the offerer, recipient, object, and theological function.
- Act.7.41
At that time they made a calf and offered a sacrifice to the idol, rejoicing in the works of their hands.
The idolatrous recipient makes this sacrifice an act of rebellion.
- Rom.12.1
Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
Embodied obedience answers God's mercy; it is not another atoning act.
- Eph.5.2
And walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.
Christ's self-giving grounds Paul's call to walk in love.
- Heb.10.12
But when this Priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God.
The verse places Christ's singular offering against the preceding repeated sacrifices.
- Heb.13.15
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess His name.
Praise is offered through Jesus and continues alongside practical good and sharing in the next verse.
- 1Pe.2.5
You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
The acceptability of these sacrifices is explicitly through Jesus Christ.
Passage context
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It sacrifices 14× Mark 12:33, Luke 13:1, Romans 12:1, 1 Corinthians 10:18
sacrifice 9× Matthew 9:13, Matthew 12:7, Philippians 2:17, Philippians 4:18
[a] sacrifice 1× Hebrews 13:15
[the] sacrifice 1× Luke 2:24
a sacrifice 1× Acts 7:41
offerings 1× Acts 7:42
sacrificial 1× Ephesians 5:2
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 9:13 θυσίαν to sacrifice Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Matthew 12:7 θυσίαν to sacrifice Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Mark 12:33 θυσιῶν to sacrifices Noun - Genitive Feminine Plural Luke 2:24 θυσίαν to [the] sacrifice Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Luke 13:1 θυσιῶν to sacrifices Noun - Genitive Feminine Plural Acts 7:41 θυσίαν to a sacrifice Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Acts 7:42 θυσίας to offerings Noun - Accusative Feminine Plural Romans 12:1 θυσίαν to sacrifices Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 1 Corinthians 10:18 θυσίας to sacrifices Noun - Accusative Feminine Plural Ephesians 5:2 θυσίαν to sacrificial Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Matthew 9:13
Aligned rows 28
Books represented 10
Matthew 2 Mark 1 Luke 2 Acts 2 Romans 1 1 Corinthians 1 Ephesians 1 Philippians 2 Hebrews 15 1 Peter 1
Source forms
θυσίαν 10x thysian Matthew 9:13, Matthew 12:7, Luke 2:24, Acts 7:41
θυσίας 8x thysias Acts 7:42, 1 Corinthians 10:18, Hebrews 5:1, Hebrews 7:27
θυσίαις 3x thysiais Hebrews 9:23, Hebrews 10:1, Hebrews 13:16
θυσιῶν 2x thysiōn Mark 12:33, Luke 13:1
θυσία 1x thysia Hebrews 10:26
θυσίᾳ 1x thysia Philippians 2:17
θυσίαι 1x thysiai Hebrews 9:9
Θυσίαν 1x Thysian Hebrews 10:5
Parsing patterns
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 11x Matthew 9:13, Matthew 12:7, Luke 2:24, Acts 7:41
Noun - Accusative Feminine Plural 8x Acts 7:42, 1 Corinthians 10:18, Hebrews 5:1, Hebrews 7:27
Noun - Dative Feminine Plural 3x Hebrews 9:23, Hebrews 10:1, Hebrews 13:16
Noun - Genitive Feminine Plural 2x Mark 12:33, Luke 13:1
Noun - Dative Feminine Singular 1x Philippians 2:17
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular 1x Hebrews 9:26
Noun - Nominative Feminine Plural 1x Hebrews 9:9
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular 1x Hebrews 10:26
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Begin application with God's mercy and Christ's completed work before calling for sacrificial service.
- Use sacrificial language to describe faithful worship, not to excuse coercion or preventable harm.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim a believer's living sacrifice adds saving merit to Christ's offering.
- Do not claim every occurrence of G2378 refers directly to atonement.
- Do not claim sacrifice is acceptable regardless of its recipient or purpose.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. The act of offering or the victim offered; encompasses both literal Temple sacrifices and metaphorical spiritual offerings.
Strong's G2378
Lexical occurrences 28 verses Greek text appearances 29 times 16 shown below Word forms 8 forms 28 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link Ephesians 5:1-2 Source Gloss
sacrifice (the act or the victim, literally or figuratively)
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 29 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Matthew 9:13 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
θυσίαν· qusian
a sacrifice
Read verse Matthew 12:7 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
θυσίαν, qusian
a sacrifice
Read verse Mark 9:49 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
θυσία qusia
a sacrifice
Read verse Mark 12:33 Noun Genitive Plural Feminine
θυσιῶν. qusiwn
a sacrifice
Read verse Luke 2:24 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
θυσίαν qusian
a sacrifice
Read verse Luke 13:1 Noun Genitive Plural Feminine
θυσιῶν qusiwn
a sacrifice
Read verse Acts 7:41 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
θυσίαν qusian
a sacrifice
Read verse Acts 7:42 Noun Accusative Plural Feminine
θυσίας qusiav
a sacrifice
Read verse Romans 12:1 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
θυσίαν qusian
a sacrifice
Read verse 1 Corinthians 10:18 Noun Accusative Plural Feminine
θυσίας qusiav
a sacrifice
Read verse Ephesians 5:2 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
θυσίαν qusian
a sacrifice
Read verse Philippians 2:17 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
θυσίᾳ qusia
a sacrifice
Read verse Philippians 4:18 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
θυσίαν qusian
a sacrifice
Read verse Hebrews 5:1 Noun Accusative Plural Feminine
θυσίας qusiav
a sacrifice
Read verse Hebrews 7:27 Noun Accusative Plural Feminine
θυσίας qusiav
a sacrifice
Read verse Hebrews 8:3 Noun Accusative Plural Feminine
θυσίας qusiav
a sacrifice
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 8 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Form patterns 8 Aligned forms 28 Case pattern Accusative (19) Number pattern Plural (14)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Plural · Feminine Heb 9:9 1×
Nominative · Singular · Feminine Heb 10:26 1×
Genitive · Plural · Feminine Mark 12:33 · Luke 13:1 2×
Genitive · Singular · Feminine Heb 9:26 1×
Dative · Plural · Feminine Heb 9:23 · Heb 10:1 · Heb 13:16 3×
Dative · Singular · Feminine Phil 2:17 1×
Accusative · Singular · Feminine Matt 9:13 · Matt 12:7 · Luke 2:24 · Acts 7:41 · Rom 12:1 · Eph 5:2 · Phil 4:18 · Heb 10:5 · Heb 10:12 · Heb 11:4 · Heb 13:15 11×
Accusative · Plural · Feminine Acts 7:42 · 1 Cor 10:18 · Heb 5:1 · Heb 7:27 · Heb 8:3 · Heb 10:8 · Heb 10:11 · 1 Pet 2:5 8×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
Christ's self-sacrifice as a fragrant offering to God, metaphorical spiritual sacrifice
literal animal sacrifices offered at the temple in Jewish religious practice
ritual sacrifice contrasted with justice and righteousness as more acceptable to God
material offering distinguished from prayer and righteous conduct in divine acceptance
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 28 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
θυσία is built from this root:
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
G2378 helps teachers keep Christ's sacrifice and the believer's responsive sacrifice in their proper order. Hebrews does not leave assurance resting on the intensity of worship, generosity, or self-denial. It directs attention to the Priest who offered one sacrifice for sins and sat down. Romans 12 then begins its call to living sacrifice with God's mercy, Hebrews 13 offers praise through Jesus, and 1 Peter says spiritual sacrifices are acceptable through Him.
That order protects grace and also gives obedience its proper dignity. Christian service matters deeply, but it is grateful worship made possible by Christ, not a payment added to His work. Pastoral application should invite embodied mercy, praise, generosity, and holiness without using sacrificial language to coerce neglect, abuse, or unsafe self-erasure.
Anchor passage
Heb.10.12
Doctrinal connections
- Mat.9.13 - mercy exposes ritual severed from faithful love.
- Act.7.41 - an offering to an idol shows that sacrifice is not self-validating.
- Eph.5.2 - Christ's loving self-giving is a fragrant offering to God.
- Heb.9.26 - Christ appears to put away sin through His sacrifice.
- Heb.10.11-12 - repeated priestly service contrasts with one sacrifice and a seated Priest.
- Heb.13.15-16 - praise, good, and sharing are offered through Jesus.
- 1Pe.2.5 - spiritual sacrifices are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
The twenty-nine feminine noun forms occupy eight case-and-number patterns. Accusative singular and plural forms predominate, while nominative, genitive, and dative forms show the noun serving different grammatical roles rather than carrying one fixed theological function.
From Old to New Testament
Levitical sacrifices, the prophets' critique of ritual without mercy, and the Psalms' praise offerings form the background. The New Testament places Christ's self-offering at the center and describes praise, sharing, generosity, and embodied obedience as responses offered through Him.
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain