Sword
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The Greek noun rhomphaia names a large sword and appears in the New Testament literally or symbolically. Simeon tells Mary that a sword will pierce her own soul, an image of profound personal anguish within the revelation surrounding Jesus.
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Full entry for ῥομφαία (G4501) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Greek noun rhomphaia names a large sword and appears in the New Testament literally or symbolically. Simeon tells Mary that a sword will pierce her own soul, an image of profound personal anguish within the revelation surrounding Jesus.
The BSB source-word alignment has 7 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include sword (6), a sword (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Luke 2:35. Its strongest book concentrations include Revelation (6), Luke (1).
The Greek noun rhomphaia names a large sword and appears in the New Testament literally or symbolically. Simeon tells Mary that a sword will pierce her own soul, an image of profound personal anguish within the revelation surrounding Jesus. Revelation presents a sharp sword proceeding from the risen Christ's mouth, linking judgment to His authoritative word rather than placing a weapon in the church's hand.
Other visions use the sword among agents of death or portray Christ judging rebellious powers. Apocalyptic imagery is intentionally vivid, but it does not provide operational instructions, identify modern enemies, or authorize believers to imitate divine judgment. Responsible teaching distinguishes Mary's grief from physical assault, symbolic mouth imagery from ordinary weapons, and God's final authority from human vengeance.
It names the horror of death rather than enjoying it, protects people affected by violence, and refuses to use sword texts to threaten dissenters, religious minorities, political opponents, or abuse reporters. Christian witness follows the crucified and risen Lord through truth, endurance, justice, and nonretaliation.
Rhomphaia appears as a soul-piercing image of anguish and as sword imagery in Revelation's visions of Christ's word, death, warning, and final judgment. Genre, source, target, and location distinguish metaphor from weapon and divine action from human imitation.
So that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your soul as well.”
Simeon tells Mary that a sword will pierce her soul amid the revealing conflict surrounding Jesus.
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 risen Christ is portrayed with a sharp double-edged sword proceeding from His mouth.
Therefore repent! Otherwise I will come to you shortly and wage war against them with the sword of My mouth.
Christ warns the compromised church to repent before He comes with the sword of His mouth.
Then I looked and saw a pale green horse. Its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed close behind. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill by sword, by famine, by plague, and by the beasts of the earth.
The pale horse vision includes sword among multiple agents through which Death devastates the earth.
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.
A sharp sword from Christ's mouth depicts His authority to judge nations and establish rule.
And the rest were killed with the sword that proceeded from the mouth of the One seated on the horse. And all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.
The vision ends with deadly judgment by the sword proceeding from the enthroned Christ's mouth.
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.
Greek word. Large broad sword; in NT used symbolically for divine judgment or piercing affliction of soul.
Large broad sword; in NT used symbolically for divine judgment or piercing affliction of soul.
a large broad sword, used by the Thracians (see DB, iv, 634); then generally (in LXX used interchangeably with μάχαιρα, which see), a sword: Rev.1:16 2:12, 16 6:8 19:15, 21; metaphorically, Luk.2:35.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
7 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a sword, piercing grief
Read versea sword, piercing grief
Read versea sword, piercing grief
Read versea sword, piercing grief
Read versea sword, piercing grief
Read versea sword, piercing grief
Read versea sword, piercing grief
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 3 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.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 7 lexical occurrence verses.
ῥομφαία is of foreign origin - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Rhomphaia requires disciplined attention to image and agent. In Luke 2, the sword pierces Mary's soul, not her body. Simeon's words prepare for the conflict and grief through which hearts will be revealed, and the image gives theological weight to personal anguish without prescribing suffering for mothers. Revelation relocates the sword to Christ's mouth. The placement matters: His truthful and judicial authority confronts compromise, nations, and rebellious powers.
The church hears a call to repent and endure; it is not handed the sword. Revelation 6 includes sword among the terrifying means associated with Death, refusing to sanitize violence. Revelation 19's final scenes are severe and belong to the victorious Christ, not to private vengeance or a timetable for targeting contemporary groups. Faithful teaching keeps divine judgment and human agency distinct, speaks soberly of those harmed by war, abuse, and threats, and refuses weaponized preaching.
It directs communities toward repentance, truthful witness, protection of endangered people, lawful accountability, lament, and confidence that final judgment belongs to God.
Rev.1.16
Rhomphaia is a Greek feminine noun for a large sword. Luke uses it metaphorically with Mary's soul, while Revelation repeatedly places it in visionary scenes, often proceeding from Christ's mouth; syntax and genre govern the image.
Prophets use sword imagery for warfare and divine judgment while also promising peace and condemning bloodshed. Jesus rejects armed defense of His arrest and teaches enemy love, guiding churches to receive Revelation as a call to faithful witness rather than violent imitation.