Greek word · G5077
τεφρόω
tephroō
to turn to ashes
To reduce to ashes, to incinerate; also to cover with ash. It comes from tephra, 'ash, cinders' (the word volcanologists still use for volcanic debris).
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
- Range of meaning
To reduce to ashes, to incinerate; also to cover with ash. It comes from tephra, 'ash, cinders' (the word volcanologists still use for volcanic debris).
- Against the English
'Turning into ashes' (KJV, WEB) and 'reducing to ashes' (BSB) are accurate. Paraphrases such as 'burning them' lose the picture of a landscape left as cinders.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Used only here in the New Testament and not found in the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament). It appears in other Greek writers. Commentators (e.g. Bauckham) note that Dio Cassius uses it for the ash of Vesuvius (Roman History 66.23). Jewish writers describe the Sodom region in matching terms: Wisdom 10:7 speaks of 'a continually smoking wasteland', and Josephus (Jewish War 4.483–485) says the 'traces of the five cities' and ash-filled fruit could still be seen. Philo also describes the area as burnt (Life of Moses 2.56).
Where it appears
2 Peter · 1
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2 Peter 2:6 τεφρώσας having reduced to ashes
if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes as an example of what is coming on the ungodly;
Here: A vivid and rare word, used only here in the New Testament: 'having turned [them] to ash.' The past-tense participle describes the act by which the condemnation was carried out. It brings to mind a landscape of ash and cinders, which ancient writers said could still be seen by the Dead Sea.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.