noun · feminine
heortas
Strong’sG1859
a festival, feast
stem heort-25 times in the New Testamentin 5 of 27 books4 of 10 forms occur
What it means
A plain-English reading of the word, with the lexicons it draws on — Abbott-Smith, Strong's, and Liddell-Scott-Jones — right below it, in full.
AI Summary
ἑορτή means a feast, festival, or holy day — a set religious festival kept at an appointed time, such as Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or the Feast of Tabernacles 124. It is used of these festivals as the season or occasion itself (being "at the feast," going "up to the feast," or the custom "of the feast"), and can also denote such an occasion kept annually or by custom 1.
In wider Greek usage beyond the Bible, the same word could also describe holiday-making or amusement generally, and even the crowd of people gathered at a festival 3.
Sources: 1 Abbott-Smith 2 Strong's 3 LSJ 4 Dodson. Condensed by anthropic/claude-sonnet-5 on 2026-09-23 — it may still misstate what these say; check them yourself if it matters to you.
The lexicons it was drawn from, in full:
Abbott-Smith — the 1922 lexicon entry, in full
ἑορτή, -ῆς, ἡ
[in LXX for חַג (chiefly), מוֹעֵד;]
G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 1922 — public domain. References open in the reader.
Strong’s G1859 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from
Saidheh-or-tay'
a festival
Fromof uncertain affinity;
King Jamesfeast, holyday.
James Strong, Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, 1890 — public domain. The numbers in it link to the entries here.
Liddell-Scott-Jones — the classical dictionary this word appears in
in Ionic dialect Prose ὁρτή (so Refs 5th c.BC+, probably in Ion Trag.21, but ἑορτή Refs 6th c.BC+, ἡ, feast, festival, holiday, ἐπεὶ καὶ πᾶσιν ἑ. Refs 8th c.BC+; ὁρτὴν ἄγειν keep a feast,Refs 5th c.BC+
2 generally, holiday-making, amusement, pastime, παιδιᾶς καὶ ἑορτῆς χάριν Refs 5th c.BC+
3 proverbial, κατόπιν ἑορτῆς ἥκειν to have come the day after the fair, Refs 5th c.BC+; ἀεργοῖς αἰὲν ἑορτά every day's a holiday to those who don't work, Refs 3rd c.BC+
4 assembled multitude at a festival, ὄχλος καὶ ἑ. καὶ στρατὸς καὶ πλῆθος Refs 3rd c.AD+
H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, H. S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (9th ed., 1925–1940) — digitised by the Perseus Digital Library and corrected and expanded by Tyndale House, Cambridge, via STEPBible-Data's TFLSJ table, CC BY 4.0. Covers all of Greek literature, not just the Bible.
Translated as
Every occurrence, sorted by the English it was actually given — the evidence for what the word means, not a gloss of it.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), dedicated to the public domain — berean.bible.
Biblang forms
Every form this word takes in Biblang, with the Greek it corresponds to and how often the New Testament uses it.
| Job in the sentence case | one singular | more than one plural |
|---|---|---|
| subject nominative | heortas4×ἑορτὴ | heortais |
| object accusative | heortan9×ἑορτήν | heortain |
| direct address vocative | heortar | heortair |
| of, belonging to genitive | heortau5×ἑορτῆς | heortaiu |
| to, for dative | heorta7×ἑορτῇ | heortai |
Tinted cells are forms the New Testament never uses, so there is no Greek to show against them — but they are still correct Biblang, built from the slots below like any other.
Why these forms, and no others — the slots that make them
heorta is this word in every one of its forms. The slots after it make all the rest.
same in every form varies — every value shown
Where it appears
Every verse the word appears in, filed under the form it takes there.
25 occurrences, every one of them listed
heortas“feast”subjectnominative singular4×
Luke 22:1Engizate de tas heortas teiu azumeiu tas legorōntas Pascha.Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover …
John 5:1Meta houteim ate heortas toiu Ioudaioiu, kai anabainata Iēsus eis …Some time later there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went …
John 6:4ate de engus tem pascha, tas heortas toiu Ioudaioiu.Now the Jewish Feast of the Passover was near.
John 7:2ate de engus tas heortas toiu Ioudaioiu tas skēnopēgias.However, the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near.
heortan“feast”objectaccusative singular9×
Matthew 27:15Kata de heortan eiōthatelē tos hēgemonos apoluarō henon to …… was the governor’s custom at the feast to release to the crowd a …
Mark 15:6Kata de heortan apoluate autoi henon desmion hon paraitole.… it was Pilate’s custom at the feast to release to the people a …
John 4:45“feast”… kai autois gar erchala eis tan heortan.… seen all the great things He had done in Jerusalem at the feast, for they had gone there as …
John 7:8vis anabainavar eis tan heortan; mis ouk anabainamō eis tan heortan …Go up to the feast on your own. I am not …
John 7:8… heortan; mis ouk anabainamō eis tan heortan houtan, hoti tos ēmos kairos oupō …… am not going up to this feast, because My time has not yet …
John 7:10… anabainala tois adelfois autou eis tan heortan, tote kai autos anabainata, ouk fanerōs …… brothers had gone up to the feast, He also went — not publicly, but …
John 11:56… hoti ouk mē erchateia eis tan heortan?… think? Will He come to the feast at all?”
John 12:12… ochlos pollos tos ercharantos eis tan heortan, akouarantois hoti erchotō tos Iēsus eis …… crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to …
John 13:29… Agorazasar heiu chreian echanō eis tan heortan, ē toi ptōchoi hina tinem dōateia.… buy what was needed for the feast, or to give something to the …
heortau“feast”of, belonging togenitive singular5×
Luke 2:42… anabainarōntoiu autoiu kata tem ethem tau heortau… according to the custom of the Feast.
John 7:14Ēdē de tau heortau mesarōntau anabainata Iēsus eis tem hierem …About halfway through the feast, Jesus went up to the temple …
John 7:37… ta eschata hēmera ta mega tau heortau stēatelē tos Iēsus, kai krazata legarōntos; …… last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out …
John 13:1Pro de tau heortau teu pascha horarēntos tos Iēsus hoti …… was now just before the Passover Feast, and Jesus knew that His hour …
Colossians 2:16“festival”… ē en posia ē en mere heortau ē noumēniau ē sabbateiu,… you eat or drink, or with regard to a feast, a New Moon, or a Sabbath.
heorta“feast”to, fordative singular7×
Matthew 26:5legale de; Mē en ta heorta, hina mē thorubos geneteia en to …“But not during the feast,” they said, “or there may be …
Mark 14:2legale gar; Mē en ta heorta, mēpote eti thorubos tou laou.“But not during the feast,” they said, “or there may be …
Luke 2:41… autou kata etem eis Ierousalēm ta heorta teu pascha.… parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover.
John 2:23… Hierosolumei en te pascha en ta heorta, pollois pisteuala eis tem onomem autou, …… was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the signs He …
John 4:45… hoseim poiata en Hierosolumei en ta heorta, kai autois gar erchala eis tan …… had done in Jerusalem at the feast, for they had gone there as …
John 7:11… oun Ioudaiois zētale auton en ta heorta kai legale; Pou atō ekeinos?… were looking for Him at the feast and asking, “Where is He?”
John 12:20… toiu anabainarōntoiu hina proskunaleia en ta heorta;… went up to worship at the feast.