Darkness
ζόφοςStrong’s G2217zophos
Appears in 5 verses of the New Testament
In short
Zophos is the Greek word usually translated “gloom”, “gloomy darkness” and “darkness”. It appears in 5 verses of the New Testament.
“For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;”
Meaning
Usually translated “gloom”, “gloomy darkness” and “darkness”. Open the dictionary entry below for the full range of meaning, with the verses it cites.
How it's translated
- gloom 2
- to gloom 1
- of gloomy darkness 1
- darkness 1
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- 2 Peter 2
- Jude 2
- Hebrews 1
3 books in all.
Explore in Scripture
- 2 Peter 2:17In contextThese are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.
- Jude 1:6In contextAnd the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
- Jude 1:13In contextRaging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
- Hebrews 12:18For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
Greek dictionary
ζόφος zophos · darkness
ζόφος, -ου, ὁ (akin to γνόφος, which see), [in Sm.: Exo.10:22, Job.28:3, Psa.11:2 91:6, Isa.59:9 * ;] in Hom, the gloom of the under-world; hence, darkness, deep gloom (poët. and late prose writers): Heb.12:18, 2Pe.2:4 2:17, Ju 6 13.† ὁμίχλη, -ης, ἡ, [in LXX for עֲרָפֶל, etc. ;] a mist: 2Pe.2:17 SYN.: νέφος, νεφέλη, both thicker than ὁ (AS)
From STEPBible’s Greek lexicon (based on Abbott-Smith).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “darkness” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
D'ARKNESS, noun
- Absence of light.“And darkness was on the face of the deep” Genesis 1:2
- Obscurity; want of clearness or perspicuity; that quality or state which renders any thing difficult to be understood; as the darkness of counsels.
- A state of being intellectually clouded; ignorance.“Men loved darkness rather than light” John 3:19
- A private place; secrecy; privacy.“What I tell in darkness that speak ye in light” Matthew 10:27
All definitions
- Infernal gloom; hell; as utter darkness Matthew 22:13
- Great trouble and distress; calamities; perplexities.“A day of clouds and thick darkness Is” Joel 2:2
- Empire of Satan.“Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness” Colossians 1:13
- Opakeness.
Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.
Verses are from the King James Version. Word meanings come from the original Greek, not from any one translation.