καινός

G2537 is an adjective meaning new, fresh, unused, or new in kind. Forty-two primary forms occur in thirty-six verses across fourteen books. It can describe ordinary new things, including wineskins, cloth, a tomb, teaching, a name, and a song. It also modifies major theological realities: the new covenant, new creation, one new humanity, the new self, a new commandment, new heavens and earth, the new Jerusalem, and all things made new. The noun it modifies and the passage's argument determine what kind of newness is in view.

A familiar contrast with G3501 can help readers notice newness in quality versus recency, but it must not become an absolute rule because the two words overlap. Nor does G2537 mean that every new thing is wholly unrelated to what came before. Jesus' new commandment is joined to the command to love while being measured by His own love. The new covenant fulfills God's promise and is established through Christ. New creation is God's work in Christ, not a claim of present sinlessness. Two traditional-reading-only rows add the adjective to covenant wording in Matthew 26:28 and Mark 14:24; those rows must remain distinct from the forty-two primary forms.

G2537 modifies both ordinary objects and redemptive realities. New wine, teaching, covenant, creation, humanity, commandment, song, name, heaven, earth, Jerusalem, and all things receive their exact force from context.