hilasmos

Strong’sG2434

a propitiation, atoning sacrifice

stem hilasm-2 times in the New Testament2 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

Ἱλασμός refers to something that atones for or appeases sin — the act or means by which sin is forgiven or wiped away ¹³. It is used concretely of an atoning sacrifice, a propitiation or expiator ²⁴. In the New Testament it describes a means of appeasing, a propitiation ¹³.

In the Greek Old Testament the word is also used simply for forgiveness itself ¹.

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

† ἱλασμός, -οῦ

(< ἱλάσκομαι), [in LXX: Le 25:9, Nu 5:8 (כִּפֻּרִים), Ps 129(130):4, Da TH 9:9 (סְלִיחָה), Am 8:14 (אַשְׁמָה), Ez 44:27 (חַטָּאת), I Ch 28:20, Si 18:20 A, II Mac 3:33*;]

1. an appeasing (Plut.).

2. a means of appeasing, propitiation (Philo; Nu 5:8, Ez 44:27): I Jo 2:2 4:10.

3. In LXX also forgiveness (Ps 129(130):4, Da TH 9:9).†

G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 1922 — public domain. References open in the reader.

Strong’s G2434 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from

Saidhil-as-mos'

atonement, i.e. (concretely) an expiator

King Jamespropitiation.

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

ἱλᾰσ-μός [ῑ], ὁ,
a means of appeasing, in plural, Refs 1st c.AD+
2 atonement, sinoffering, LXX+NT+1st 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.

propitiation2×

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	hilasmos1×ἱλασμός	hilasmois
object accusative	hilasmon1×ἱλασμὸν	hilasmoin
direct address vocative	hilasmor	hilasmoir
of, belonging to genitive	hilasmou	hilasmoiu
to, for dative	hilasmo	hilasmoi

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

hilasmstem+ogender+snru—its job in the sentence case+—ione · more than one number

hilasmo 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.

2 occurrences, every one of them listed

hilasmos“propitiation”subjectnominative singular1×

1 John 2:2“propitiation”kai autos hilasmos atō peri taiu hamartaiu nu, ouk …He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for …

hilasmon“propitiation”objectaccusative singular1×

1 John 4:10“propitiation”… nin kai apostelata ton huion autou hilasmon peri taiu hamartaiu nu.… He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.