Greek word · G1407

δρέπανον

drepanon

sickle

Drepanon is a curved hand blade. It was used both as a harvest sickle for grain and as a pruning or vintage knife for vines, and Revelation 14 uses it for both harvests (vv. 14–16 grain, vv. 17–20 grapes). Oxys means 'sharp' and in other contexts 'swift'.

Appears 8 times in 7 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

δρέπανον, -ου, τό

(later form of Attic δρεπάνη, δρέπω, to pluck), [in LXX for מַזְמֵדָה, חֶרְמֵשׁ, etc. ;]

a sickle, pruning-hook; Mark 4:29, Revelation 14:14-19.†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Revelation 14:14

Range of meaning

Drepanon is a curved hand blade. It was used both as a harvest sickle for grain and as a pruning or vintage knife for vines, and Revelation 14 uses it for both harvests (vv. 14–16 grain, vv. 17–20 grapes). Oxys means 'sharp' and in other contexts 'swift'.

Against the English

'A sharp sickle' is accurate. The modern reader may miss that a sickle in Scripture is almost always part of a stock end-of-age image, the harvest, rather than a weapon.

Used elsewhere in the period

Joel 3:13 (4:13 LXX): 'Send out the sickles (drepana), for the harvest is ripe… the winepress is full', the passage behind Rev 14:15–20. Mark 4:29: 'he sends the sickle, because the harvest has come'. Harvest as judgment or ingathering: Isa 17:5; Jer 51:33; Hos 6:11; Matt 13:30, 39 ('the harvest is the end of the age'). Revelation's other 'sharp' blade is the sword from Christ's mouth (1:16; 2:12; 19:15).

From the study of Revelation 14:17

Range of meaning

A curved cutting blade. It covers the reaping sickle for grain and the hooked pruning or vintage knife used on vines. In Greek literature it can also mean a curved sword.

Against the English

'Sickle' in modern English suggests a grain-cutting tool, and many people picture the long scythe of the 'Grim Reaper'. Here the blade is used to cut grape clusters (v. 18), so 'vine-knife' or 'pruning hook' is closer to the actual work. The Greek word covers both, which is why one word serves for both harvests in vv. 14–20.

How it drifted

English has separate words for the grain sickle, the scythe and the pruning hook. Greek drepanon covered all of them. Later art merged the harvest imagery of this chapter into the figure of a reaper with a scythe.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the LXX, Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3 say spears will be beaten into drepana, 'pruning hooks'. Joel 4:13 LXX (3:13 in English Bibles) reads: 'Send out sickles (drepana), for the vintage has come; go in, tread, for the winepress is full.' That verse joins sickle, vintage and winepress in a picture of judgment on the nations, and it lies directly behind Rev 14:14–20. Mark 4:29 uses the word for the grain harvest.

From the study of Revelation 14:19

Range of meaning

A curved blade held in one hand: a sickle for grain or a pruning hook or vine-knife for the vineyard.

Against the English

Every major English version has 'sickle'. That fits grain (vv.14–16) but is less exact for grapes, where the same Greek word means the hooked vine-knife used to cut clusters.

How it drifted

The modern figure of the Grim Reaper with a long scythe comes from late medieval art. It leads readers to picture this angel as Death personified swinging a scythe. That is not the image.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isa 2:4 and Mic 4:3 LXX: spears beaten into drepana, 'pruning hooks'. Joel 4:13 LXX: 'send out the sickles (drepana)'. In Revelation it occurs only in 14:14–19, seven times.

Where it appears

Mark · 1

  1. Mark 4:29 δρέπανον sickle

    And as soon as the grain is ripe, he swings the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Revelation · 7

  1. Revelation 14:14 δρέπανον a sickle

    And I looked and saw a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was One like the Son of Man, with a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand.

    Here: A curved hand blade for cutting grain stalks, also used in the vineyard. It draws on the prophetic picture of the end as a harvest (Joel 3:13).

  2. Revelation 14:15 δρέπανόν sickle

    Then another angel came out of the temple, crying out in a loud voice to the One seated on the cloud, “Swing Your sickle and reap, because the time has come to harvest, for the crop of the earth is ripe.”

    Here: A curved blade for cutting grain stalks, the tool of the grain harvest. It also appears in the grape harvest in vv.17–19.

  3. Revelation 14:16 δρέπανον sickle

    So the One seated on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.

  4. Revelation 14:17 δρέπανον a sickle

    Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.

    Here: A curved blade used for cutting grain or vine clusters. Verse 18 shows this one is for the grape harvest, so the picture is a vine-dresser's hooked knife cutting bunches from the vine.

  5. Revelation 14:18 δρέπανον δρέπανον sickle

    Still another angel, with authority over the fire, came from the altar and called out in a loud voice to the angel with the sharp sickle, “Swing your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the vine of the earth, because its grapes are ripe.”

    Here: A curved blade used for cutting grain and for cutting grape clusters from the vine. Here it is a vintage knife.

  6. Revelation 14:19 δρέπανον sickle

    So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the grapes of the earth, and he threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath.

    Here: A curved hand blade. In a vineyard it is the hooked knife used to cut grape clusters from the vine, not a long-handled scythe.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.