τεσσαράκοντα
tessarakonta
forty
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
ExploredThe Greek word τεσσαράκοντα (tessarakonta) refers to the number forty. This word occurs 22 times in the Bible, indicating its importance in biblical narrative and theology. In its basic sense, τεσσαράκοντα simply denotes a quantity of forty, which was not an unusual number in the ancient Near East. The significance of forty in the Bible goes beyond numerical value. It often represents a transitional period of testing, preparation, or separation. For example, Moses spent 40 years grazing sheep in the wilderness, while Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the desert. This usage suggests that the number forty is being used to convey a symbolic duration or timeframe rather than merely a numerical value.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
22 total occurrences across the text
When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward.
Matthew 4:2When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward.
Mark 1:13He was there in the wilderness forty days tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals; and the angels were serving him.
Luke 4:2for forty days, being tempted by the devil. He ate nothing in those days. Afterward, when they were completed, he was hungry.
John 2:20The Jews therefore said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple! Will you raise it up in three days?”
Acts 1:3To these he also showed himself alive after he suffered, by many proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking about God’s Kingdom.
Acts 4:22For the man on whom this miracle of healing was performed was more than forty years old.
Acts 7:30“When forty years were fulfilled, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.
Acts 7:36This man led them out, having worked wonders and signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.
Acts 7:42But God turned, and gave them up to serve the army of the sky, as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘Did you offer to me slain animals and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
Acts 13:21Afterward they asked for a king, and God gave to them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.
Acts 23:13There were more than forty people who had made this conspiracy.
Acts 23:21Therefore don’t yield to them, for more than forty men lie in wait for him, who have bound themselves under a curse to neither eat nor drink until they have killed him. Now they are ready, looking for the promise from you.”
2 Corinthians 11:24Five times I received forty stripes minus one from the Jews.
Hebrews 3:10Therefore I was displeased with that generation, and said, ‘They always err in their heart, but they didn’t know my ways.’
Hebrews 3:17With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
Revelation 7:4I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel:
Revelation 11:2Leave out the court which is outside of the temple, and don’t measure it, for it has been given to the nations. They will tread the holy city under foot for forty-two months.
Revelation 13:5A mouth speaking great things and blasphemy was given to him. Authority to make war for forty-two months was given to him.
Revelation 14:1I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him a number, one hundred forty-four thousand, having his name, and the name of his Father, written on their foreheads.
Revelation 14:3They sing a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the one hundred forty-four thousand, those who had been redeemed out of the earth.
Revelation 21:17Its wall is one hundred forty-four cubits, by the measure of a man, that is, of an angel.