noun · neuter
stēthem
Strong’sG4738
the breast
stem stēth-5 times in the New Testamentin 3 of 27 books0 of 6 forms occur
What it means
What the word means, in the words of the lexicons out of copyright — Abbott-Smith, Strong's, and Liddell-Scott-Jones, wherever each has an entry for it.
στῆθος, -ους, τό
[in LXX: Ex 28:23, 26 (29, 30) (לֵב), etc.;]
G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 1922 — public domain. References open in the reader.
Strong’s G4738 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from
Saidstay'-thos
the (entire external) bosom, i.e. chest
Fromfrom G2476 (as standing prominently);
King Jamesbreast.
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
breast, of both sexes, being the front part of the θώραξ, divided into two μαστοί Refs 8th c.BC+ in post-Homeric verse; found once in Refs 8th c.BC+; of animals, Refs 5th c.BC+; σ. φάσσης ἑψημένης Refs 2nd c.AD+: as the seat of the voice and breath, Refs 8th c.BC+; more frequently as the seat of the heart, Refs 8th c.BC+; chest, Refs 5th c.BC+; τὰ σ. breasts of a woman, Refs 5th c.BC+
II metaphorically, the breast as the seat of feeling and thought, as we use heart, frequently in Refs 8th c.BC+, but always in plural, θυμὸν ἐνὶ στήθεσσιν ὄρινε Refs 8th c.BC+; ἔχει κότον.. ἐν σ. ἑοῖσιRefs 8th c.BC+
III ={στέρνον} Refsbreastbone, Refs 5th c.BC+
III.2 ball of the foot, Refs 4th c.BC+; ball of the hand (below the thumb), Refs 2nd c.AD+; palm, uncertain in Refs 5th c.BC+
III.3 swelling, tumour, ἐν τῷ ἥπατι Refs 2nd c.AD+
IV breastshaped hill or bank, Refs 2nd c.BC+ has pan-Hellenic η, Refs 7th c.BC+
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 or object direct | stēthem | stētheim |
| of, belonging to genitive | stētheu | stētheiu |
| to, for dative | stēthe | stēthei |
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
stēthe 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.
5 occurrences, every one of them listed
stēthem3×
Luke 18:13… eis ton ouranon, alla tuptate tem stēthem autou legarōntos; Tos theor, hilaskisar mi …… to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on …
John 13:25“chest”anapiptarantos ekeinos houtōs epi tem stēthem tou Iēsu legatō auto; Kurior, tinos …Leaning back against Jesus, he asked, “Lord, who is it?”
John 21:20“breast”… anapiptata en te deipne epi tem stēthem autou kai legata; Kurior, tinos atō …Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them. He was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper to ask, “Lord, who is going to …
stētheim2×
Luke 23:48… houtan, theōrarantois teim generanteim, tuptarōntois teim stētheim hupostrefale.… happened, they returned home beating their breasts.
Revelation 15:6… katharem lamprem kai perizōnorēntois peri teim stētheim zōnain chrusouain.… girded with golden sashes around their chests.