Keen; by analogy, rapid
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Sharpness describes a cutting edge; in another context this Greek adjective describes swiftness of movement. Revelation uses it for swords and sickles within its visions, while Romans 3:15 describes feet swift to shed blood.
Reader summary
Full entry for ὀξύς (G3691) · Open the biblical lexicon
Sharpness describes a cutting edge; in another context this Greek adjective describes swiftness of movement. Revelation uses it for swords and sickles within its visions, while Romans 3:15 describes feet swift to shed blood.
The BSB source-word alignment has 8 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include a sharp (4), sharp (3), swift (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Romans 3:15. Its strongest book concentrations include Revelation (7), Romans (1).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
Sharpness describes a cutting edge; in another context this Greek adjective describes swiftness of movement. Revelation uses it for swords and sickles within its visions, while Romans 3:15 describes feet swift to shed blood. A reader must therefore identify what the adjective modifies. A sharp instrument and rapid movement are related lexical uses, but the theological and moral significance comes from the action and its agent. The adjective does not itself mean holy judgment or virtuous decisiveness.
The difference is especially important when placing Romans beside Revelation. Paul's swift feet belong to an indictment of human sin, while Revelation's sharp sword belongs to the vision of Christ's authority and its sharp sickle to judgment imagery. Those assignments cannot be exchanged. Condemnation of violent human eagerness does not weaken divine judgment, and the vision of divine judgment does not authorize believers to enact violence against people they label enemies. The word study serves faithful reading by keeping instrument, movement, agency, and genre clearly in view.
Romans uses swiftness to expose readiness for bloodshed, while Revelation describes sharp swords and sickles in its visions. These witnesses require different senses and agents to remain distinct even though they share the same lexical entry.
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Swift feet describe eagerness toward bloodshed within Paul's gathered indictment of sin. This is exposure of wrongdoing, not praise for decisive action or permission to condemn others from a position of innocence.
He held in His right hand seven stars, and a sharp double-edged sword came from His mouth. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest.
The sharp double-edged sword comes from the mouth of the exalted figure in the vision. Its placement and the surrounding revelation govern interpretation; it is not an instruction for human weapon use.
Still another angel, with authority over the fire, came from the altar and called out in a loud voice to the angel with the sharp sickle, “Swing your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the vine of the earth, because its grapes are ripe.”
The sharp sickle belongs to a commanded harvest of grapes within the judgment vision. Verse 19 identifies the winepress of God's wrath, preventing a neutral productivity reading of this scene.
And from His mouth proceeds a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
The sharp sword proceeds from the mouth of the reigning Christ in a scene naming God's wrath. The vision assigns judgment to Him rather than delegating coercive religious power to readers.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. keen; by analogy, rapid
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
8 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
sharp, swift, eager
Read versesharp, swift, eager
Read versesharp, swift, eager
Read versesharp, swift, eager
Read versesharp, swift, eager
Read versesharp, swift, eager
Read versesharp, swift, eager
Read versesharp, swift, eager
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.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 4 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.
ὀξύς is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Romans 3:15 uses speed to expose a corrupt direction of action. The problem is not merely that people move quickly; it is what their feet are quick to do. The following lines describe ruin and the absence of peace, and the argument proceeds toward the whole world's accountability before God. Readers are not invited to stand outside the indictment and classify everyone else as its guilty subjects.
The gospel movement appears when Paul announces God's righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ and justification freely by grace through His redemption. The word swift does not contain that doctrine, but it serves the account of sin from which the argument proceeds. Teaching should therefore refuse both admiration of aggressive decisiveness and despair that leaves sinners without the offered grace. The moral charge is serious, and the saving answer rests in Christ rather than in a boast that one's own feet have always followed peace.
Rom.3.15
The local comparator gives sharpness for an edge and swiftness for motion. Romans 3:15 modifies feet, whereas Revelation modifies sword or sickle. The noun and clause identify the sense; an English gloss of sharp cannot be imported unchanged into Paul's description of movement.
Romans 3 gathers scriptural accusations into its account of human sin, and Revelation uses familiar sword and harvest imagery in its visions. This companion limits its claims to the verified local contexts; it does not identify an exact Hebrew equivalent or resolve the source history of every image.