Darkness
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G4655 names darkness or obscurity. Its thirty governed forms include physical or cosmic darkness at the crucifixion and before the day of the Lord, temporary darkness in Elymas's judgment, and figurative darkness for evil deeds, hidden matters, ignorance, hostile power, judgment, false teaching, or a former way of life.
Reader summary
Full entry for σκότος (G4655) · Open the biblical lexicon
G4655 names darkness or obscurity. Its thirty governed forms include physical or cosmic darkness at the crucifixion and before the day of the Lord, temporary darkness in Elymas's judgment, and figurative darkness for evil deeds, hidden matters, ignorance, hostile power, judgment, false teaching, or a former way of life.
The BSB source-word alignment has 30 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include darkness (23), of darkness (4), [the] darkness (1), in darkness (1), to [the] darkness (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 6:23. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (6), Luke (4), Acts (3), Ephesians (3).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
G4655 names darkness or obscurity. Its thirty governed forms include physical or cosmic darkness at the crucifixion and before the day of the Lord, temporary darkness in Elymas's judgment, and figurative darkness for evil deeds, hidden matters, ignorance, hostile power, judgment, false teaching, or a former way of life. The noun does not make every use moral or every shadow a symbol. Immediate context decides whether the darkness is visible, apocalyptic, relational, ethical, spiritual, or judicial.
The New Testament contrasts darkness with God's light, the light revealed in Christ, truthful conduct, readiness for the Lord's day, and the calling of God's people. Yet the metaphor must never be attached to skin color, ethnicity, disability, depression, trauma, grief, neurodivergence, or limited knowledge. Visual impairment is not moral corruption. Racialized light-dark language contradicts the passages' moral and theological referents and can cause grave harm.
Calls to expose deeds of darkness require truthful evidence and accountable process, not surveillance, rumor, forced disclosure, retaliation, or public shaming. First Corinthians 4 warns against judging hidden motives before the Lord's time. Second Corinthians 6 cannot be turned into a ban on interracial marriage, a command to remain with an abuser, or a tool for controlling relationships without reading Paul's covenantal concern. Pastoral use should join honest repentance with protection, reporting, medical and mental-health care, accessibility, privacy, fair investigation, and hope in Christ.
Thirty governed forms range from visible darkness to moral, spiritual, apocalyptic, and judicial images governed by their passages.
Men loved the darkness rather than the Light
The verdict is tied to evil deeds and response to Christ's light.
Let light shine out of darkness
Paul recalls creation's command as he describes divine knowledge shining through Christ.
Rescued us from the dominion of darkness
Rescue leads into the kingdom of God's beloved Son and is God's work rather than human superiority.
Called you out of darkness
The calling forms a people who proclaim God's excellencies, not an elite authorized to despise outsiders.
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. Physical and spiritual darkness; moral/spiritual blindness and evil's domain in NT theology
Physical and spiritual darkness; moral/spiritual blindness and evil's domain in NT theology
darkness: Heb.12:18, Rec.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 32 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
darkness
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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.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 30 lexical occurrence verses.
σκότος 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.
Darkness is powerful biblical imagery precisely because the passages use it in different ways. It can cover the land at the cross, mark an apocalyptic sign, describe a temporary judgment, name evil deeds, portray hostile spiritual power, or contrast a former life with God's calling. The church should not turn that range into a label for unwanted people. Skin color, blindness, depression, trauma, grief, cultural difference, and unanswered questions are not darkness in the moral sense.
Exposure is also not a license for spectacle. Truthful accountability listens, preserves evidence, protects reporters, permits response, and distinguishes privacy from concealment. The light of Christ produces honest conduct, hope, and love, not racial hierarchy, mind-reading, or institutional surveillance.
John.3.19
The thirty neuter singular forms appear in genitive, dative, accusative, and nominative cases; Matthew 6:23 has two nominatives. Case serves syntax. Only the passage determines whether darkness is literal, cosmic, moral, spiritual, relational, or judicial.
Creation's light-dark distinction, prophetic day-of-the-Lord imagery, and promises of light for people in gloom shape New Testament use. These themes do not make darkness a racial, medical, or psychological identity.
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Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain