Greek word · G2966

κῶλον

kōlon

corpse

A limb or member of the body. In the plural (kōla) it was used for corpses, especially bodies left lying where they fell.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. · Updated October 25, 2026

What it means

κῶλον, -ου, τό

a limb, member of a body,

hence, carcase: Hebrews 3:17 (LXX).†

(AS)

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

Range of meaning: A limb or member of the body. In the plural (kōla) it was used for corpses, especially bodies left lying where they fell.
Against the English: KJV "carcases" and YLT "carcasses" keep the bluntness. BSB, ESV, NASB and WEB have "bodies", which is accurate but softer. NIV turns the phrase into "bodies perished", which loses the picture of corpses falling.
How it drifted: Modern translations soften it. This is not a change in what the word means, only a loss of its harsh tone.
Used elsewhere in the period: Septuagint Numbers 14:29, 32, 33: "your kōla will fall in this wilderness", translating Hebrew pegārîm, "corpses". Septuagint Isaiah 66:24 uses it for the dead bodies of rebels lying exposed. Elsewhere in Greek it means "limb".

Hebrews · 1

Hebrews 3:17 κῶλα bodies

And with whom was God angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

Here: Literally "limbs". In the plural it is a blunt word for dead bodies, taken from the Greek of Numbers 14:29, 32: "your carcasses will fall in this wilderness." It pictures bodies lying unburied along the route, not a quiet death.

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