Word study
Sacrifice
10 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
In brief
The Hebrew zevah and the Greek thysia name a sacrifice, an animal slaughtered and offered; the verbs are zavah and thyō. Hebrew has separate words for each kind of offering, such as the burnt offering (olah, "what goes up"). The New Testament uses thysia for Christ's death and, by extension, for the offering of praise and of one's own life.
Written and reviewed by our editorial team.
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: sacrifice, sacrifices, sacrificed, sacrificing. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “sacrifice” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- זֶבַח zebachsacrificetranslated this way 112 times of its 121 uses · Strong’s H2077Noun · Translated: sacrifices 55, sacrifice 49, offerings 6, other sacrifices 5Full study and all 114 verses →
Genesis 31:54 Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his relatives to eat a meal. And after they had eaten, they spent the night on the mountain.
Exodus 10:25 But Moses replied, “You must also provide us with sacrifices and burnt offerings to present to the LORD our God.
- זָבַח zâbachslaughter for sacrificetranslated this way 92 times of its 132 uses · Strong’s H2076Verb · Translated: sacrifice 38, sacrificed 29, offer 17, offered 11Full study and all 127 verses →
Exodus 3:18 The elders of Israel will listen to what you say, and you must go with them to the king of Egypt and tell him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Now please let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’
Leviticus 9:4 an ox and a ram for a peace offering to sacrifice before the LORD, and a grain offering mixed with oil. For today the LORD will appear to you.’”
- עָלָה âlâhgo up, ascend, climbtranslated this way 15 times of its 873 uses · Strong’s H5927Verb · Translated: go 118, went 107, brought 56, come 42Full study and all 807 verses →
- עָשָׂה âsâhdo, maketranslated this way 13 times of its 2,478 uses · Strong’s H6213Verb · Translated: done 292, made 265, make 143, did 112Full study and all 2,206 verses →
- עָבַר âbarpass over, through, by, pass ontranslated this way 8 times of its 542 uses · Strong’s H5674Verb · Translated: pass 62, crossed 57, cross 52, passed 35Full study and all 487 verses →
Leviticus 18:21 You must not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.
Deuteronomy 18:10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, practices divination or conjury, interprets omens, practices sorcery,
- תָּמִיד tâmîdcontinuitytranslated this way 4 times of its 99 uses · Strong’s H8548Adverb · Translated: always 26, regular 20, continually 14, regularly 7Full study and all 99 verses →
Daniel 8:11 It magnified itself, even to the Prince of the host; it removed His daily sacrifice and overthrew the place of His sanctuary.
Daniel 8:12 And in the rebellion, the host and the daily sacrifice were given over to the horn, and it flung truth to the ground and prospered in whatever it did.
- קָטַר qâṭarmake sacrifices smoke, send them up in smoketranslated this way 3 times of its 114 uses · Strong’s H6999Verb · Translated: burn 33, burned incense 21, burn incense 14, burning incense 13Full study and all 112 verses →
2 Chronicles 2:6 But who is able to build a house for Him, since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain Him? Who then am I, that I should build a house for Him, except as a place to burn sacrifices before Him?
2 Chronicles 25:14 When Amaziah returned from the slaughter of the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the Seirites, set them up as his own gods, bowed before them, and burned sacrifices to them.
- פֶּסַח pesachpassovertranslated this way 2 times of its 48 uses · Strong’s H6453Noun · Translated: Passover 36, Passover lamb 4, Passover sacrifice 2, Passover lambs 2Full study and all 45 verses →
Deuteronomy 16:2 You are to offer to the LORD your God the Passover sacrifice from the herd or flock in the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for His Name.
Deuteronomy 16:6 You must only offer the Passover sacrifice at the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for His Name. Do this in the evening as the sun sets, at the same time you departed from Egypt.
- מִנְחָה minchâhgift, tribute, offeringtranslated this way 2 times of its 201 uses · Strong’s H4503Noun · Translated: grain offering 86, offering 21, grain offerings 21, tribute 16Full study and all 190 verses →
1 Kings 18:36 At the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet approached the altar and said, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and have done all these things at Your command.
Daniel 9:21 while I was still praying, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice.
- קֹדֶשׁ qôdeshsacred, sanctitytranslated this way 2 times of its 437 uses · Strong’s H6944Noun · Translated: holy 192, sanctuary 42, sacred 31, according to the sanctuary 24Full study and all 379 verses →
Greek words (New Testament)
- θυσία thysíaa sacrificetranslated this way 26 times of its 28 uses · Strong’s G2378Noun · Translated: sacrifices 14, sacrifice 12, offerings 1, sacrificial 1Full study and all 28 verses →
Matthew 9:13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Mark 12:33 and to love Him with all your heart and with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. This is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
- εἰδωλόθυτον eidōlóthytonsacrificed to an imagetranslated this way 9 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s G1494Adjective · Translated: food sacrificed to idols 4, sacrificed to idols 3, sacrificed to an idol 1, food sacrificed to an idol 1Full study and all 10 verses →
Acts 15:29 You must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.
1 Corinthians 8:1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
- θύω thýōI sacrifice, killtranslated this way 6 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s G2380Verb · Translated: kill 5, sacrificed 3, killed 2Full study and all 13 verses →
Mark 14:12 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed, Jesus’ disciples asked Him, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?”
Luke 22:7 Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed.
- ἱλασμός hilasmósa propitiation, atoning sacrificetranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G2434Noun · Translated: atoning sacrifice 2Full study and all 2 verses →
1 John 2:2 He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 John 4:10 And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.