Greek word · G5469
χαλινός
chalinos
bridle
The bridle or bit placed in a horse's mouth to control it.
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of 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
From the study of Revelation 14:20
- Range of meaning
The bridle or bit placed in a horse's mouth to control it.
- Against the English
'Bridle(s)' is fine. NIV and ESV, like BSB, add 'rising as high as'. The Greek simply says 'up to the bridles'.
- Used elsewhere in the period
James 3:3, bits in horses' mouths. The idiom of blood reaching up a horse is known from Jewish writings. 1 Enoch 100:3 (probably 2nd–1st century BC): 'the horse will walk up to its breast in the blood of sinners, and the chariot will sink up to its height'. The later Christian addition to 4 Ezra (15:35–36) has 'blood from the sword up to the horses' bellies'. Rabbinic tradition about the Roman massacre at Bethar in AD 135 says the slaughter went on 'until the horses sank in blood up to their nostrils' (Jerusalem Talmud, Taanit 4; Lamentations Rabbah 2.2).
Similar words
Where it appears
James · 1
-
James 3:3 χαλινοὺς bits
When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can guide the whole animal.
Revelation · 1
-
Revelation 14:20 χαλινῶν bridles
And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and the blood that flowed from it rose as high as the bridles of the horses for a distance of 1,600 stadia.
Here: The bit and bridle at a horse's mouth, roughly the height of a man's head. With this word the vineyard becomes a cavalry battlefield. It anticipates the armies of 19:14–21.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.