μνῆμα
mnēma
tomb
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
ExploredThe Greek word μνῆμα (mnēma) has a clear and straightforward meaning as "tomb." It is listed as one of the more frequently occurring words in the Bible, found in its texts 8 times. This word appears to be a basic term used to refer to a final resting place, likely where a deceased person was buried. Given its definition, μνῆμα is likely used in contexts where there is a specific reference to a deceased individual, such as a burial site, a grave, or a monument dedicated to someone's memory. Its occurrence in the Bible may pertain to various narratives and themes, such as burial customs, the significance of death and the afterlife, and the commemoration of deceased individuals. As a fundamental term, μνῆμα contributes to our understanding of how ancient Greeks and early Christians conceptualized death and the dead, possibly serving as a point of reference for various aspects of life, death, and the human experience.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
8 total occurrences across the text
He lived in the tombs. Nobody could bind him any more, not even with chains,
Mark 5:5Always, night and day, in the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out, and cutting himself with stones.
Luke 8:27When Jesus stepped ashore, a certain man out of the city who had demons for a long time met him. He wore no clothes, and didn’t live in a house, but in the tombs.
Luke 23:53He took it down, and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb that was cut in stone, where no one had ever been laid.
Luke 24:1But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they and some others came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared.
Acts 2:29“Brothers, I may tell you freely of the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
Acts 7:16and they were brought back to Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver from the children of Hamor of Shechem.
Revelation 11:9From among the peoples, tribes, languages, and nations, people will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not allow their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb.