ἥλιος

Matthew 5:45 ἥλιον sun

that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Here: Sunlight, the source of warmth, daylight and harvest. It is placed first for emphasis: 'his sun he raises…'.

Matthew 13:6 ἡλίου when [the] sun

But when the sun rose, the seedlings were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.

Here: The ordinary Mediterranean sun, the same sun a plant needs in order to grow. It comes first in the sentence, so the clause opens on the sun: the thing that tests the seedling.

Matthew 13:43 ἥλιος sun

Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

Here: The highest picture of brightness and glory. Matthew also uses it for Jesus' face at the Transfiguration (17:2). Earlier the Father 'makes his sun rise on the evil and the good' (5:45); here the righteous themselves shine.

Matthew 17:2 ἥλιος, sun,

There He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.

Here: The strongest light in the ancient world, and a common image in Jewish writings for the radiance of the righteous in the age to come (Daniel 12:3; Matthew 13:43; 4 Ezra 7:97) and of heavenly figures (Revelation 1:16).

Matthew 24:29 ἥλιος sun

Immediately after the tribulation of those days: ‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’

Here: The greatest light in the sky. In Genesis 1 it rules the day, and in the wider ancient world it was worshipped as a god.

Mark 1:32 ἥλιος, sun,

That evening, after sunset, people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed,

Here: The sun. In Jewish time-keeping its setting marked the end of one day and the start of the next, and here that means the end of the Sabbath (1:21).

Mark 4:6 ἥλιος, sun

But when the sun rose, the seedlings were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.

Mark 13:24 ἥλιος sun

But in those days, after that tribulation: ‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light;

Here: The greatest light in the sky. For ancient hearers it was the most stable sign of ordered creation (Gen 1:14–18; Jer 31:35), and in the nations around Israel it was also worshipped as a god.

Mark 16:2 ἡλίου. sun.

Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they went to the tomb.

Luke 4:40 ἡλίου sun

At sunset, all who were ill with various diseases were brought to Jesus, and laying His hands on each one, He healed them.

Here: The sun. Its going down marked the end of one Jewish day and the start of the next.

Luke 21:25 ἡλίῳ sun

There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among the nations, bewildered by the roaring of the sea and the surging of the waves.

Here: The first of the great lights. Genesis 1:14 says they were made 'for signs and seasons'. In the prophets, a darkened sun is a standard picture of God's judgment on a power (Isa 13:10; Joel 2:31).

Luke 23:45 ἡλίου sun

The sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn down the middle.

Acts 2:20 ἥλιος sun

The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and glorious Day of the Lord.

Here: The sun, the most reliable light in the ancient world, which marked days and seasons (Gen 1:14–16). The picture only works because people counted on the sun never failing.

Acts 13:11 ἥλιον sun

Now look, the hand of the Lord is against you, and for a time you will be blind and unable to see the light of the sun.” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand.

Here: Not even the sun, the brightest thing there is. The blindness is total, with no sense of light at all. It echoes the covenant curse of groping 'at noon' like a blind man (Deut 28:29).

Acts 26:13 ἡλίου sun

About noon, O king, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions.

Acts 27:20 ἡλίου sun

When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the great storm continued to batter us, we abandoned all hope of being saved.

1 Corinthians 15:41 ἡλίου, of [the] sun,

The sun has one degree of splendor, the moon another, and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

Ephesians 4:26 ἥλιος sun

“Be angry, yet do not sin.” Do not let the sun set upon your anger,

Here: The sun as the clock of the day. In Jewish reckoning sunset closed one day and began the next.

James 1:11 ἥλιος sun

For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its flower falls and its beauty is lost. So too, the rich man will fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

Here: The sun, which does the destroying in this picture. James is drawing on how the sun scorches in the Near East, not on the friendly sun of a cooler climate.

Revelation 1:16 ἥλιος sun

He held in His right hand seven stars, and a sharp double-edged sword came from His mouth. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest.

Here: The sun, the brightest thing an ancient person could look at, and impossible to look at directly at full strength.

Revelation 6:12 ἥλιος sun

And I watched as the Lamb opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black like sackcloth of goat hair, and the whole moon turned blood red,

Here: The sun was the great sign of a stable created order (Genesis 1:14–18; Jeremiah 31:35). If it goes dark, the world as people knew it is coming apart.

Revelation 7:2 ἡλίου of [the] sun

And I saw another angel ascending from the east, with the seal of the living God. And he called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea:

Here: 'Of the sun.' It completes the stock phrase 'rising of the sun' (also in 16:12) and keeps the dawn imagery: help and light come from where the day begins.

Revelation 7:16 ἥλιος sun

‘Never again will they hunger, and never will they thirst; nor will the sun beat down upon them, nor any scorching heat.’

Here: The sun as a source of harm: sunstroke, the punishing heat of travel and outdoor work. It is not the sun as light.

Revelation 8:12 ἡλίου sun

Then the fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun and moon and stars were struck. A third of the stars were darkened, a third of the day was without light, and a third of the night as well.

Here: The 'greater light' of Genesis 1:16 that rules the day.

Revelation 9:2 ἥλιος sun

The star opened the pit of the Abyss, and smoke rose out of it like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the pit.

Here: The sun, the source of daylight. The previous trumpet had already darkened a third of it (8:12). Now it is screened again, this time by smoke from below.

Revelation 10:1 ἥλιος, sun,

Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head. His face was like the sun, and his legs were like pillars of fire.

Here: The sun: blinding brightness that is impossible to look at directly. It repeats the description of the risen Christ in 1:16.

Revelation 12:1 ἥλιον, sun,

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.

Here: Her garment is the brightest thing in creation. It speaks of glory that comes from God (compare Ps 104:2, where God wraps himself in light). It is also the first item of Joseph's dream in Gen 37:9.

Revelation 16:8 ἥλιον, sun,

Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was given power to scorch the people with fire.

Here: The sun as a created light set in the sky by God (Gen 1:16). In the Greek world 'Helios' was also the name of a god. Here the sun is a tool in God's hand and has no power of its own.

Revelation 16:12 ἡλίου.¶ of the sun.

And the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings of the East.

Here: "Of the sun". "From the rising of the sun" is the full form of the idiom, used for the angel with God's seal in 7:2 and, in the Greek of Isaiah, for Cyrus, who conquered Babylon (Isa 41:25).

Revelation 19:17 ἡλίῳ, sun,

Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out in a loud voice to all the birds flying overhead, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God,

Here: The sun is the most visible point in the sky, and from it a voice could carry to every creature under heaven. The setting probably also suggests brilliance and heavenly authority.

Revelation 21:23 ἡλίου sun

And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its lamp.

Here: The sun, the great daytime light. In the Greek world it was also a god, Helios.

Revelation 22:5 ἡλίου of [the] sun

There will be no more night in the city, and they will have no need for the light of a lamp or of the sun. For the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.

Here: The sun is the greatest light of the old creation (Genesis 1:16). Even it is now unnecessary.