Greek word · G596

ἀποθήκη

apothēkē

storehouse

A storehouse, granary, or place where something is put away for safekeeping.

Appears 6 times in 6 verses of the Greek New Testament. · Updated October 31, 2026

What it means

ἀπο-θήκη, -ης, ἡ

(ἀποτίθημι), [in LXX for אוֹצָר, טֶנֶא, etc. ;]

a storehouse, granary: Matthew 3:12 6:26 13:30, Luke 3:17 12:18, 24.†

(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 storehouse, granary, or place where something is put away for safekeeping.
Against the English: 'Barn' (KJV, BSB, WEB) suggests to modern readers a building for animals and hay. YLT's 'storehouse' is closer: a place for keeping threshed grain safe.
Used elsewhere in the period: Used in the Greek Old Testament for royal and temple storehouses (e.g., Jeremiah 50:26 [27:26 in the Greek]). In the New Testament: Matthew 3:12; 6:26; Luke 12:18, 24.

Range of meaning: A storehouse, granary, or barn, any place where produce is put away (from a verb meaning 'put away, store up').
Against the English: 'Barn' is fine. English readers usually don't notice that it is the same word as the rich fool's barns a few verses earlier.
Used elsewhere in the period: Luke 12:18: 'I will tear down my barns (apothēkas) and build bigger ones.' Also Luke 3:17 and Matt 3:12 (the wheat gathered into the barn), Matt 6:26, Matt 13:30. In papyri the word is common for granaries.

Matthew · 3

Matthew 3:12 ἀποθήκην barn

His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Here: A grain store, not an animal barn. Grain stored there is kept safe and preserved.
Matthew 6:26 ἀποθήκας, barns —

Look at the birds of the air: They do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Here: A granary or storeroom: a family's stored food, which in a farming village is its savings and its protection against famine. Compare the rich fool's barns (Luke 12:18) and 'treasures on earth' (Matthew 6:19).
Matthew 13:30 ἀποθήκην barn

Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat into my barn.’”

Here: A storehouse or granary where grain was kept safe. It echoes John the Baptist in 3:12: 'gather his wheat into the barn'.

Luke · 3

Luke 3:17 ἀποθήκην barn

His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Here: A granary where grain was kept safe and dry. It is not an animal barn. Luke uses the same word for the rich fool's barns (12:18).
Luke 12:18 ἀποθήκας barns

Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and will build bigger ones, and there I will store up all my grain and my goods.
Luke 12:24 ἀποθήκη, barn —

Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storehouse or barn; yet God feeds them. How much more valuable you are than the birds!

Here: A granary or barn for stored harvest. It is the very word used for the rich fool's 'barns' that he planned to tear down and build bigger (12:18). The echo is deliberate.

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