Greek word · G3189

μέλας

melas

black

Black or dark. Also used as a noun for 'ink'. It describes total darkness, not dimness.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Greek New Testament. · Updated October 23, 2026

What it means

μέλας, -αινα, -αν genitive, -ανος, -αίνης, -ανος,

[in LXX: Song of Songs 1:5, Zechariah 6:2 (שָׁחֹר), etc. ;]

black: Revelation 6:5, 12; opposite to λευκός, Matthew 5:36; neut., τὸ μ., ink : 2 Corinthians 3:3, 2 John 1:12, 3 John 13.†

(AS)

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

Range of meaning: Black or dark. Also used as a noun for 'ink'. It describes total darkness, not dimness.
Against the English: 'Black' is accurate. What it means in context comes from the prophetic tradition of the sun going dark, a sign that the order of creation is coming undone and that judgment is near.
Used elsewhere in the period: The black horse of the third seal (6:5) uses the same adjective. Prophetic parallels include Isaiah 13:10 ('the sun will be dark at its rising'), Amos 8:9 ('I will make the sun go down at noon') and Joel 2:10. The darkness over the land at the crucifixion (Mark 15:33) draws on the same imagery.

Range of meaning: Black, dark in colour. In the NT: black hair (Matt 5:36), and as a noun, “ink” (2 Cor 3:3; 2 John 12; 3 John 13). Elsewhere in Revelation the sun becomes “black as sackcloth of hair” (6:12), a sign of mourning and cosmic disaster.
Against the English: Every version says “black”. The English word is accurate. What changes is what modern readers hear in it (see drift).
How it drifted: Modern associations of black with evil or sinister villains are not what the colour carries here.
Used elsewhere in the period: Zechariah’s night visions have black horses (ἵπποι μέλανες, Zech 6:2, 6) among the coloured teams sent through the earth. John draws his horse imagery from there. In Hebrew poetry famine darkens the face: “their appearance is blacker than soot” (Lam 4:8). In Jeremiah 14:1–2, a drought oracle, the land “mourns” with a verb meaning to be dark, as mourners dressed.

Matthew · 1

Matthew 5:36 μέλαιναν. black.

Nor should you swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black.

Here: Black, the dark hair of youth. Together, 'white or black' covers aging in both directions. You can't speed up the clock and you can't turn it back.

Revelation · 2

Revelation 6:5 μέλας black

And when the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” Then I looked and saw a black horse, and its rider held in his hand a pair of scales.

Here: Black or dark. With the scales and the grain prices that follow, the colour points to famine, mourning and the darkened faces of the starving (see study).
Revelation 6:12 μέλας black

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: Not just dim but black, the color of ink (2 John 12 uses the same word for ink).

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