noun · feminine
petras
Strong’sG4073
rock
stem petr-15 times in the New Testamentin 7 of 27 books7 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
πέτρα denotes a rock – a mass of solid, native rock, as opposed to a loose stone or boulder that has been broken off 1. It is used of the rocky ground on which a house may be built, of the rock split at the crucifixion, of the rock from which a tomb is cut, and of rocky, unproductive soil 1. Strong's and Dodson likewise give the plain sense "rock," with Strong's noting it can be used literally or figuratively 24. LSJ shows the same range in wider Greek usage, covering cliffs, ridges, and rock as a mass or as building material 3. The word also covers a hollow rock, i.e. a cave, the sense found where people hide in mountain caves 13.
πέτρα is also used figuratively, of a firm foundation and of a spiritual rock, and, in places where it corresponds to πέτρος, of a stone that causes stumbling 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
πέτρα, -ας, ἡ,
[in LXX chiefly for סֶלַע, צוּר;]
G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 1922 — public domain. References open in the reader.
Strong’s G4073 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from
Saidpet'-ra
a (mass of) rock (literally or figuratively)
Fromfeminine of the same as G4074;
King Jamesrock.
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
Ionic dialect and Epic dialect πέτρη, ἡ, rock; frequently of cliffs, ledges, etc. by the sea, λισσὴ αἰπεῖά τε εἰς ἅλα πέτρη Refs 8th c.BC+; χῶρος λεῖος πετράων free from rocks, of a beach,Refs 8th c.BC+; χοιρὰς π. Refs 5th c.BC+; also, rocky peak or ridge, αἰγίλιψ π. Refs 8th c.BC+; λιττὰς π. Refs 6th c.BC+; π. Λευκάς, Ὠλενίη, etc., Refs 8th c.BC+; π. σύνδρομοι, Συμπληγάδες, Refs 5th c.BC+; πρὸς πέτραις ὑψηλοκρήμνοις, of Caucasus, Refs 4th c.BC+; π. Δελφίς, π. δίλοφος, of Parnassus, Refs 5th c.BC+; π. Κεκροπία, of the Acropolis, Refs 5th c.BC+
2 π. γλαφυρή a hollow rock, i.e. a cave, Refs 8th c.BC+; σπέος κοιλῇ ὑπὸ π. Refs 8th c.BC+; δίστομος π. cave in the rock with a double entrance, Refs 5th c.BC+; κατηρεφεῖς αὐτῇ τῇ π. Refs 5th c.BC+; ἕως τῆς π. down to virgin rock, NT+3rd c.BC+
3 mass of rock or boulder, Refs 8th c.BC+
4 stone as material, π. λαρτία, Τηΐα, Refs 3rd c.BC+, which is variant in X.[same place]; πέτρᾳ should be read in Refs 5th c.BC+; the distinction is minimized by Refs 2nd c.AD+
II proverbial, οὐκ ἀπὸ δρυὸς οὐδ᾽ ἀπὸ πέτρης, etc. (see. δρῦς); as a symbol of firmness, ὁ δ᾽ ἐστάθη ἠΰτε π. ἔμπεδον Refs 8th c.BC+; of hard-heartedness, ἐκ πέτρας εἰργασμένος Refs 5th c.BC+ in a text with musical accompaniment, Refs
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 | petras2×πέτρα | petrais1×πέτραι |
| object accusative | petran5×πέτραν | petrain1×πέτρας |
| direct address vocative | petrar | petrair |
| of, belonging to genitive | petrau3×πέτρας | petraiu |
| to, for dative | petra2×πέτρᾳ | petrai1×πέτραις |
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
petra 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.
15 occurrences, every one of them listed
petras“rock”subjectnominative singular2×
1 Corinthians 10:4… gar ek pneumatikau akoloutharōntau petrau, tas petras de ate tos Christos;… rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
1 Peter 2:8kai lithos proskommeu kai petras skandaleu; hois proskoptalō to logo apeitharōntois; …… A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they …
petran“rock”objectaccusative singular5×
Matthew 7:24… oikodomata autou tan oikian epi tan petran.… who built his house on the rock.
Matthew 7:25… ouk piptata, themeliotelē gar epi tan petran.… because its foundation was on the rock.
Luke 6:48… bathunata kai tithata themelion epi tan petran; plēmmurau de generantau prosrēgata tos potamos …… and laid his foundation on the rock. When the flood came, the torrent …
Luke 8:6“rock”kai heterem katapiptata epi tan petran, kai fuirantem xēranita dia tem mē …Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the seedlings withered because they had no moisture.
Romans 9:33… tithamō en Siōn lithon proskommeu kai petran skandaleu, kai tos pisteuarōntos epi auto …… a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; and the one who …
petrau“rock”of, belonging togenitive singular3×
Mark 15:46… en mnēmeie hem ate latomorēntem ek petrau, kai proskuliata lithon epi tan thuran …… had been cut out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone against …
Luke 8:13“rock”tois de epi tau petrau hois hotan akoualeia meta charau decholō …The seeds on rocky ground are those who hear the word and receive it with joy, but they …
1 Corinthians 10:4… pomem, pinale gar ek pneumatikau akoloutharōntau petrau, tas petras de ate tos Christos;… for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock …
petra“rock”to, fordative singular2×
Matthew 16:18… asō Petros, kai epi houta ta petra oikodomami mu tan ekklēsan, kai pulais …… you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and …
Matthew 27:60… autou mnēmeie hem latomata en ta petra, kai proskuliarantos lithon megon ta thura …… that he had cut into the rock. Then he rolled a great stone …
petrais“rocks”subjectnominative plural1×
Matthew 27:51… kai tas gēas seiita, kai tais petrais schizila,… bottom. The earth quaked, and the rocks were split.
petrain“rocks”objectaccusative plural1×
Revelation 6:15… eis teim spēlaieim kai eis tain petrain teiu oreiu;… in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains.
petrai“rocks”to, fordative plural1×
Revelation 6:16kai legalō tei orei kai tai petrai; Piptavar epi nin kai kruptavar nin …… said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us …