noun · masculine
luchnos
Strong’sG3088
a lamp
stem luchn-14 times in the New Testamentin 6 of 27 books5 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
λύχνος refers to a lamp — a portable light, usually set on a stand, used to give light indoors 1234. It could be filled with oil, lit, and put out, and its lighting marked the approach of nightfall 3. The word is used of ordinary household lamps that are lit and placed so as to give light to a room 13.
The word is also used figuratively, of the eye as the body's source of light, of John the Baptist, of the Lamb, of prophecy, and, in the plural, of a state of spiritual readiness 1.
Separately, the same word could denote a fish, an unrelated sense found in later Greek writers 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
λύχνος, -ου, ὁ,
[in LXX for נֵר (Ex 25:36 (37), al.);]
SYN.: λαμπάς, q.v.
G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 1922 — public domain. References open in the reader.
Strong’s G3088 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from
Saidlookh'-nos
a portable lamp or other illuminator (literally or figuratively)
Fromfrom the base of G3022;
King Jamescandle, light.
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
plural λύχνοι Refs 7th c.BC+. (fragment λυκ-sno-, compare Λύκη):—portable light, lamp, χρύσεος λ. Refs 8th c.BC+; λύχνα καίειν, ἀνάπτειν, light lamps, Refs 5th c.BC+; λύχνους ἅπτειν to have an illumination, Refs 5th c.BC+; λ. ἀπεσβήκει had been put out, Refs 5th c.BC+; περὶ λύχνων ἁφάς about lamp-lighting time, i. e. towards nightfall, Refs 5th c.BC+; πάννυχος λ. παρακαίεται lamps are kept burning all night, Refs 5th c.BC+; ἔλαιον ἡμῖν οὐκ ἔνεστ᾽ ἐν τῷ λύχνῳ Refs 5th c.BC+; compare κεράτινος.
2 in plural, οἱ λύχνοι or τὰ λύχνα the lamp-market, οὑκ τῶν λ. Refs
II a fish, Refs 1st c.BC+; cf. Latin lucerna, Refs 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.
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 | luchnos6×λύχνος | luchnois1×λύχνοι |
| object accusative | luchnon4×λύχνον | luchnoin |
| direct address vocative | luchnor | luchnoir |
| of, belonging to genitive | luchnou2×λύχνου | luchnoiu |
| to, for dative | luchno1×λύχνῳ | luchnoi |
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
luchno 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
Words built on the same stem
Other words sharing the exact same stem — not merely related in meaning.
Where it appears
Every verse the word appears in, filed under the form it takes there.
14 occurrences, every one of them listed
luchnos“lamp”subjectnominative singular6×
Matthew 6:22Tos luchnos teu sōmeu atō tos ofthalmos. ean …The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes …
Mark 4:21Kai legate autoi; Mēti erchotō tos luchnos hina hupo ton modion tithiteia ē …… them, “Does anyone bring in a lamp to put it under a basket …
Luke 11:34tos luchnos teu sōmeu atō tos ofthalmos su. …Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes …
Luke 11:36… eti fōteinem holem hōs hotan tos luchnos ta astrapa fōtizateiō sin.… will be radiant, as though a lamp were shining on you.”
John 5:35ekeinos ate tos luchnos tos kaiorōntos kai fanarōntos, vis de …John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and …
Revelation 21:23… tou theou fōtizata autan, kai tos luchnos autau tem arniem.… city, and the Lamb is its lamp.
luchnon“lamp”objectaccusative singular4×
Matthew 5:15oude kaialō luchnon kai tithalō auton hupo ton modion …Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket …
Luke 8:16Oudenos de luchnon haptarantos kaluptatō auton skeve ē hupokatō …No one lights a lamp and covers it with a jar …
Luke 11:33Oudenos luchnon haptarantos eis kruptan tithatō oude hupo …No one lights a lamp and puts it in a cellar …
Luke 15:8… ean apolateia drachman henan, ouchi haptatō luchnon kai saratō tan oikian kai zētatō …… of them does not light a lamp, sweep her house, and search carefully …
luchnou“lamp”of, belonging togenitive singular2×
Revelation 18:23kai fōtem luchnou ouk mē fanateia en si ēti, …The light of a lamp will never shine in you again …
Revelation 22:5… ēti, kai ouk echalō chreian fōteu luchnou kai fōtem hēliou, hoti kurios tos …… need for the light of a lamp or of the sun. For the …
luchno“lamp”to, fordative singular1×
2 Peter 1:19… logon, ho kalōs poiavō prosecharōntois hōs luchno fanarōnto en auchmēro topo, heōs hou …… attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until …
luchnois“lamps”subjectnominative plural1×
Luke 12:35… vu tais osfuais perizōnorēntais kai tois luchnois kaiorōntois,… dressed for service and keep your lamps burning.