Greek word · G4693

σπήλαιον

spēlaion

cave

A cave or cavern. It could be a natural refuge, a burial cave (John 11:38), or a hiding place for people on the run (Hebrews 11:38; Revelation 6:15). Combined with "bandits", it means a robbers' hideout: the place they return to between raids, where they stash their loot and feel safe.

Appears 6 times in 6 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

σπήλαιον, -ου, τό

[in LXX chiefly for מְעָרָה ;]

a cave, cavern: John 11:38, Hebrews 11:38, Hebrews 6:15; σ. (EV, den) λῃστῶν (John 7:11), Matthew 21:13, Mark 11:17, Luke 19:46.†

(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 Matthew 21:13

Range of meaning

A cave or cavern. It could be a natural refuge, a burial cave (John 11:38), or a hiding place for people on the run (Hebrews 11:38; Revelation 6:15). Combined with "bandits", it means a robbers' hideout: the place they return to between raids, where they stash their loot and feel safe.

Against the English

"Den" is a fair translation, but modern English usually hears it in phrases like "den of iniquity": a place where the wrongdoing goes on. The Greek, and Jeremiah's Hebrew behind it (me'arah, "cave"), describes where bandits hide after doing wrong somewhere else.

How it drifted

The English idiom "den of thieves" took on a life of its own, and "den" came to mean a place full of shady dealing. That shifted attention from the temple as a refuge to the temple as a scene of fraud.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint) renders Jeremiah 7:11 as σπήλαιον λῃστῶν, word for word what Matthew has. Josephus describes Herod the Great clearing brigands out of the cliff caves near Arbela in Galilee by lowering soldiers in chests on ropes (Antiquities 14.415–430). Judean listeners knew bandits lived in caves.

From the study of John 11:38

Range of meaning

Cave, cavern. It can be natural or cut into rock, and it can serve as a hideout (the 'den of robbers' of Mark 11:17), a shelter or a tomb.

Against the English

Every version has 'cave'. It is accurate.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Greek Old Testament, Genesis 23 uses it for the cave of Machpelah, Abraham's family burial cave. Archaeology around Jerusalem has found hundreds of rock-cut family tombs from the Second Temple period (roughly 500 BC to AD 70).

From the study of Luke 19:46

Range of meaning

A cave or cavern. It could be a natural refuge, a tomb (John 11:38) or a hiding place for fugitives (Hebrews 11:38). With "robbers" it means a bandits' lair, the place they withdraw to after a raid.

Against the English

English "den" can suggest a busy scene of vice ("a den of iniquity"), as if the crime happened inside. The Greek and Hebrew picture is a hideout: robbers do their robbing out on the roads and come back to the cave to be safe.

How it drifted

"Den of thieves" became an English proverb for a crooked place where wrongdoing goes on. That pulls the meaning toward what happens inside the place and away from the sense of refuge.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jeremiah 7:11, Greek "Is my house... a spēlaion lēstōn in your eyes?" (Hebrew me'arat paritsim, "a cave of violent men"). Josephus describes Herod's campaign against brigands who lived in cliff caves near Arbela in Galilee (Antiquities 14.415–430). To Jesus' hearers, caves full of bandits were a familiar picture.

Where it appears

Matthew · 1

  1. Matthew 21:13 σπήλαιον a den

    And He declared to them, “It is written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer.’ But you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”

    Here: A cave. In Judea caves were the classic hideout where bandits retreated after a raid. The word is taken from the Greek of Jeremiah 7:11.

Mark · 1

  1. Mark 11:17 σπήλαιον a den

    Then Jesus began to teach them, and He declared, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

    Here: "Cave, den". A cave was where bandits hid and stored their loot between raids. It was not where they did their robbing. The word comes from Jeremiah 7:11.

Luke · 1

  1. Luke 19:46 σπήλαιον a den

    He declared to them, “It is written: ‘My house will be a house of prayer.’ But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

    Here: A cave, here the kind bandits used as a hideout. The word comes straight from Jeremiah 7:11 in the Greek Old Testament. The picture is a refuge where wrongdoers go to be safe, not the place where they commit the robbery.

John · 1

  1. John 11:38 σπήλαιον, a cave,

    Jesus, once again deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.

    Here: A cave, natural or cut into the rock. This was typical for Judean family tombs of the period.

Hebrews · 1

  1. Hebrews 11:38 σπηλαίοις in caves

    The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and hid in caves and holes in the ground.

    Here: Caves big enough to shelter in, like the ones in the Judean wilderness where prophets and Maccabean loyalists hid.

Revelation · 1

  1. Revelation 6:15 σπήλαια caves

    Then the kings of the earth, the nobles, the commanders, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and free man hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains.

    Here: Caves or caverns, the age-old refuge in war and disaster in the Levant and Asia Minor. It is the same word Isaiah 2:19 uses in the Greek Old Testament.

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