What does τάφος (táphos) mean in the Bible?
The Greek noun taphos names a tomb or grave. Matthew uses it for decorated prophetic tombs, Jesus’ guarded burial place, and the tomb visited by the women at dawn.
Greek · G5028
τάφος
A grave (the place of interment)
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τάφοςG5028
Pronunciationtáphos
What does τάφος (táphos) mean in the Bible?
The Greek noun taphos names a tomb or grave. Matthew uses it for decorated prophetic tombs, Jesus’ guarded burial place, and the tomb visited by the women at dawn.
Reader summary
Full entry for τάφος (G5028) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G5028?
The BSB source-word alignment has 7 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include tomb (3), tombs (2), graves (1), vvv (1).
Where does τάφος (táphos) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 23:27. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (6), Romans (1).
Are there verse guides for τάφος (táphos)?
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
What This Word Actually Means
The Greek noun taphos names a tomb or grave. Matthew uses it for decorated prophetic tombs, Jesus’ guarded burial place, and the tomb visited by the women at dawn. Jesus also uses a whitewashed tomb as a severe image for outward beauty concealing death and impurity. Romans quotes a psalm that compares deceptive throats to open graves. These metaphors depend on literal burial places but do not make actual tombs or bereaved people morally unclean.
The guarded tomb underscores the reality of Jesus’ burial and the opponents’ attempt to secure it; the empty-tomb narrative then announces that death did not hold Him. Responsible teaching preserves historical and literary context, avoids antisemitic generalization, honors bodies and mourners, and does not use tomb imagery to humiliate people. Resurrection hope should accompany factual grief, safeguarding, and reverent care rather than spectacle or denial.
How the Bible Uses It
Taphos refers to literal tombs surrounding Jesus’ death and resurrection and appears in metaphors for concealed corruption and destructive speech. The literal and figurative uses must remain distinguishable.
- Matt.23.27
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of impurity.
Jesus compares hypocritical religious display to whitewashed tombs whose attractive exterior conceals death and impurity within.
- Matt.27.61
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary remain opposite Jesus’ tomb, witnessing the place of burial amid grief.
- Matt.27.66
So they went and secured the tomb by sealing the stone and posting the guard.
Authorities seal and guard the tomb, showing the deliberate attempt to secure Jesus’ body and prevent contrary claims.
- Matt.28.1
After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.
The women return to see the tomb at dawn, entering the narrative in which the angel announces Jesus has risen.
- Rom.3.13
“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The venom of vipers is on their lips.”
Paul quotes the Psalms to portray deceptive speech as an open grave within a wider indictment of universal sin.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders Ittomb3×Matthew 27:61, Matthew 27:64, Matthew 28:1
tombs2×Matthew 23:27, Matthew 23:29
graves1×Romans 3:13
vvv1×Matthew 27:66
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 23:27τάφοιςtotombsNoun - Dative Masculine PluralMatthew 23:29τάφουςtotombsNoun - Accusative Masculine PluralMatthew 27:61τάφουtotombNoun - Genitive Masculine SingularMatthew 27:64τάφονtotombNoun - Accusative Masculine SingularMatthew 27:66τάφονtovvvNoun - Accusative Masculine SingularMatthew 28:1τάφονtotombNoun - Accusative Masculine SingularRomans 3:13τάφοςtogravesNoun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowMatthew 23:27
Aligned rows7
Books represented2
Matthew6Romans1
Source forms
τάφον3xtaphonMatthew 27:64, Matthew 27:66, Matthew 28:1
τάφοις1xtaphoisMatthew 23:27
τάφος1xtaphosRomans 3:13
τάφου1xtaphouMatthew 27:61
τάφους1xtaphousMatthew 23:29
Parsing patterns
Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular3xMatthew 27:64, Matthew 27:66, Matthew 28:1
Noun - Accusative Masculine Plural1xMatthew 23:29
Noun - Dative Masculine Plural1xMatthew 23:27
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular1xMatthew 27:61
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular1xRomans 3:13
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- When institutional wrongdoing is alleged, protect reporters, preserve records, use independent investigation, and comply with safeguarding and legal duties.
- Funeral and resurrection teaching should honor the deceased and bereaved, state uncertainties honestly, and avoid emotional pressure or fundraising spectacle.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that Jewish identity, practice, or community is inherently hypocritical, dead, impure, or opposed to God.
- Do not claim that resurrection faith eliminates grief, permits concealment of harm, or replaces evidence and lawful accountability.
- Do not claim that metaphorical grave language supplies clinical or moral diagnoses of particular people.
Key Verse and Form Guides
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Physical place of burial or tomb, emphasizing the location itself rather than the act of burial
Source Gloss
a grave (the place of interment)
Greek Text Appearances
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.
Matthew 23:27Noun Dative Plural Masculine
τάφοιςtafoiv
a tomb, burial-place
Read verseMatthew 23:29Noun Accusative Plural Masculine
τάφουςtafouv
a tomb, burial-place
Read verseMatthew 27:61Noun Genitive Singular Masculine
τάφου.tafou
a tomb, burial-place
Read verseMatthew 27:64Noun Accusative Singular Masculine
τάφονtafon
a tomb, burial-place
Read verseMatthew 27:66Noun Accusative Singular Masculine
τάφον,tafon
a tomb, burial-place
Read verseMatthew 28:1Noun Accusative Singular Masculine
τάφον.tafon
a tomb, burial-place
Read versetafov
a tomb, burial-place
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 5 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 patterns5Aligned forms7Case patternAccusative (4)Number patternSingular (5)
Genitive · Singular · MasculineMatt 27:611×
Dative · Plural · MasculineMatt 23:271×
Accusative · Singular · MasculineMatt 27:64 · Matt 27:66 · Matt 28:13×
Accusative · Plural · MasculineMatt 23:291×
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
A place of burial, contrasted with honorable vs. dishonorable interment
Showing 1 selected witness from 7 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
τάφος 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
Taphos holds concealment and disclosure together. In Matthew 23, a beautiful tomb becomes a metaphor for religious performance that hides corruption. The warning targets hypocrisy among particular leaders and should first search Christian leaders and communities rather than fuel contempt for Jewish people. At the end of Matthew, the tomb is literal: women see where Jesus is buried, authorities seal it, guards watch it, and the women return after the Sabbath.
The resurrection announcement does not bypass death; it declares that the crucified and buried Jesus is risen. Romans uses open-grave imagery for destructive speech within an argument that places all humanity under sin, preventing self-righteous weaponization. Christian teaching should therefore tell the truth about concealed harm, protect whistleblowers and victims, honor the dead, and receive the women’s witness.
It should never use tomb imagery for dehumanizing insults. Empty-tomb hope supports courage and patient grief, while historical claims, allegations of harm, and burial matters still require evidence, lawful process, and dignified care.
Anchor passage
Matt.28.1
Doctrinal connections
- Jesus exposes religious hypocrisy that maintains an attractive exterior while concealing corruption and death within.
- The women’s presence at burial and return to the tomb provides continuity of witness across death and resurrection.
- The sealed and guarded tomb underscores both the reality of Jesus’ death and human efforts to control the narrative.
- The empty tomb announces God’s victory over death without denying the crucifixion, burial, grief, or bodily identity of Jesus.
- Paul’s open-grave quotation belongs to a universal indictment that removes grounds for ethnic or religious superiority.
- Resurrection faith produces truthful witness, repentance, hope, and care rather than concealment, contempt, or spectacle.
Taphos is a Greek masculine noun for a tomb or grave. Literal references cluster around burial and memorial structures, while metaphorical uses depend on qualities such as concealed death or an open grave’s destructive threat.
From Old to New Testament
Israel’s burial narratives and grave laments supply the background for tomb language, while the apostolic preaching centers on Christ crucified, buried, raised, and witnessed. Revelation directs hope toward the final defeat of death and mourning in God’s renewed creation.