adjective
tesserakonta
Strong’sG5062
forty
stem tesserakont-22 times in the New Testamentin 8 of 27 books0 of 26 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
Forty, the cardinal number, indeclinable in Greek 1234.
In classical Greek writers, the same word could also refer to "the Forty," a body of officials who traveled through the Attic districts to hear minor legal cases 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
Strong’s G5062 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from
Saidtes-sar-ak'-on-tah
forty
Fromthe decade of G5064;
King Jamesforty.
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
Attic dialect τεττᾰράκοντα Refs; Ionic dialect τεσσεράκοντα (which see); Sicilian Ionic τετράϟοντα Refs 6th c.BC+; Doric dialect τετρώκοντα Refs 4th c.BC+ and see at {τεσσαρακοστός}; once Doric dialect τεταράκοντα Refs; Boeotian dialect πετταράκοντα (which see): οἱ, αἱ, τά, indeclinable:—forty, Refs 8th c.BC+
II οἱ τ. the Forty, a body of justices who went round the Attic demes to hear all causes up to ten drachmae, Refs 5th c.BC+; also cases of assault, Refs 4th c.BC+: changed from Thirty to “Forty” after the expulsion of the Thirty Tyrants, Refs 4th 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 | masculine singular | feminine singular | neuter singular | masculine plural | feminine plural | neuter plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| subject nominative | tesserakonta | tesserakonta | tesserakonta | tesserakonta | tesserakonta | tesserakonta |
| object accusative | tesserakonta | tesserakonta | tesserakonta | tesserakonta | ||
| direct address vocative | tesserakonta | tesserakonta | tesserakonta | tesserakonta | ||
| of, belonging to genitive | tesserakonta | tesserakonta | tesserakonta | tesserakonta | tesserakonta | tesserakonta |
| to, for dative | tesserakonta | tesserakonta | tesserakonta | tesserakonta | tesserakonta | tesserakonta |
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
same in every form varies — every value shown
Where it appears
Every verse the word appears in, filed under the form it takes there.
22 occurrences, every one of them listed
tesserakonta21×
Matthew 4:2kai nēsteuarantos hēmerain tesserakonta kai nuktain tesserakonta husterem peinata.After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was …
Matthew 4:2kai nēsteuarantos hēmerain tesserakonta kai nuktain tesserakonta husterem peinata.After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry.
Mark 1:13kai ate en ta erēma tesserakonta hēmerain peirazorōntos hupo tou Satanou, kai …and He was there for forty days, being tempted by Satan. He …
Luke 4:2hēmerain tesserakonta peirazorōntos hupo tou diabolou. kai ouk …where for forty days He was tempted by the …
Acts 1:3… auton en pollei tekmēriei, dia hēmeraiu tesserakonta optanorōntos autoi kai legarōntos teim peri …… to them over a span of forty days and spoke about the kingdom …
Acts 4:22eteiu gar ate pollotereiu tesserakonta tos anthrōpos epi hon genatelē tem …… who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.
Acts 7:30Kai plēriranteiu eteiu tesserakonta horita auto en ta erēma teu …After forty years had passed, an angel appeared …
Acts 7:36… Thalassa kai en ta erēma eteim tesserakonta.… at the Red Sea, and for forty years in the wilderness.
Acts 7:42… sfagieim kai thusiain prosferava mi eteim tesserakonta en ta erēma, oikor Israēl?… you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house …
Acts 13:21… Kis, andron ek fulau Beniamin, eteim tesserakonta;… the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years.
Acts 23:13ale de polloterois tesserakonta tois houtan tan sunōmosian poierantois;More than forty of them were involved in this …
Acts 23:21… gar auton ek autoiu androis polloterois tesserakonta, hotinois anathematizala heautoin mēte esthiara mēte …… them persuade you, because more than forty men are waiting to ambush him …
2 Corinthians 11:24hupo Ioudaioiu pentakis tesserakonta para henan labama,… I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.
Hebrews 3:10“forty”tesserakonta eteim; dio prosochthizama ta genea houta …Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I …
Hebrews 3:17tinoi de prosochthizata tesserakonta eteim? ouchi toi hamartarantoi, hoiu teim …… with whom was God angry for forty years? Was it not with those …
Revelation 7:4“forty”… akouama ton arithmon toiu sfragizorēntoiu, hekaton tesserakonta tessares chiliadais, sfragizorēntois ek pantau fulau …And I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 from all the …
Revelation 11:2“forty”… tan polan tan hagian patali mēnoin tesserakonta duo.… they will trample the holy city for 42 months.
Revelation 13:5“forty”… kai dōita aute exousias poiara mēnoin tesserakonta duo.… words, and authority to act for 42 months.
Revelation 14:1“(and) forty”… orem Siōn, kai meta autou hekaton tesserakonta tessares chiliadais echarōntais tem onomem autou …… standing on Mount Zion, and with Him 144,000 who had His name and His …
Revelation 14:3“forty”… tan ōdan ei mē tais hekaton tesserakonta tessares chiliadais, tois agorazorēntois apo tau …… could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.
Revelation 21:17“(and) forty”kai metrata tem teichem autau hekaton tesserakonta tessares pēchoiu, metrem anthrōpou, hem atō …And he measured its wall to be 144 cubits, by the human measure the …
Tesserakonta1×
John 2:20“in forty”legala oun tois Ioudaiois; Tesserakonta kai hex etei oikodomita tos naos …“This temple took forty-six years to build,” the Jews replied, “and …