Greek word · G1584
ἐκλάμπω
eklampō
to shine out
To shine out, beam forth, blaze out. Used of light breaking out or emerging, and of sudden splendour. Rare in the New Testament; this is its only occurrence.
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
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 Matthew 13:43
- Range of meaning
To shine out, beam forth, blaze out. Used of light breaking out or emerging, and of sudden splendour. Rare in the New Testament; this is its only occurrence.
- Against the English
KJV, NASB and YLT keep 'shine forth', which preserves the outward burst. BSB, ESV, NIV and WEB have plain 'shine', which is accurate but loses the sense of light coming out from concealment.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Theodotion's Greek version of Daniel 12:3 reads οἱ συνιέντες ἐκλάμψουσιν ὡς ἡ λαμπρότης τοῦ στερεώματος ('those who understand will shine forth like the brightness of the firmament'). In Daniel this comes right after the resurrection promise of 12:2. Compare Judges 5:31 ('may those who love him be like the sun when it goes out in its strength'), 4 Ezra 7:97 (the faces of the righteous 'shine like the sun') and 2 Baruch 51:3, 10.
Where it appears
Matthew · 1
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Matthew 13:43 ἐκλάμψουσιν will shine forth
Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
Here: A future tense, so it is a promise. The prefix ek- ('out') gives the picture of light bursting out, like the sun breaking from behind cloud. It is the same verb Theodotion's Greek Daniel uses at Daniel 12:3.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.