Quick Definition
θηρίον, ου, τό n.n. a wild beast, animal
Strong's Definition
diminutive from the same as 2339; a dangerous animal
KJV Usage: (venomous, wild) beast
UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament
noun, n. | -ου | θηρεύω
4.3 · Animals · Animals
animal any living creature, not including man
MRK 1:13 · ACT 11:6 · ACT 28:4 · ACT 28:5 · HEB 12:20 · REV 6:8 · REV 18:2
4.4 · Animals · Animals
animal, quadruped any four-footed animal, either wild or domesticated A high percentage of languages appear to have no generic term to identify all kinds of quadrupeds whether wild or domesticated. Rather, they tend to make quite clear distinctions between wild and domesticated animals, and therefore it may be necessary to indicate both types in those contexts where the reference is to both wild as well as domesticated animals. For example, one may sometimes speak of ‘animals of the grass and animals of the forest’ or ‘animals of the barn and animals of the mountains.’
In ACT 10:12 the reference is primarily to wild animals, since for the most part wild animals would be those designated as unclean. However, swine were also regarded as unclean, and they were domesticated.
In REV 13:1ff two visionary creatures are referred to by the term θηρίον ‘beast.’ Despite their strange symbolic appearance, they would no doubt be included within the potential range of reference of θηρίον[b] .
MRK 1:13 · ACT 11:6 · HEB 12:20 · JAS 3:7 · REV 6:8 · REV 11:7 · REV 13:1 · REV 13:2 · REV 13:3 · REV 13:4 · REV 13:4 · REV 13:4 · REV 13:11 · REV 13:12 · REV 13:12 · REV 13:14 · REV 13:14 · REV 13:15 · REV 13:15 · REV 13:15 · REV 13:17 · REV 13:18 · REV 14:9 · REV 14:11 · REV 15:2 · REV 16:2 · REV 16:10 · REV 16:13 · REV 17:3 · REV 17:7 · REV 17:8 · REV 17:8 · REV 17:11 · REV 17:12 · REV 17:13 · REV 17:16 · REV 17:17 · REV 18:2 · REV 19:19 · REV 19:20 · REV 19:20 · REV 20:4 · REV 20:10
88.119 · Moral and Ethical Qualities and Related Behavior · Bad, Evil, Harmful, Damaging
bad person, wicked person, evil beast (a figurative extension of meaning of θηρίον[b] ‘(wild) animal,’ 4.4) a bad person, in the sense of being both harmful and dangerous The translation of θηρίον[c] as merely ‘wild animal’ may be seriously misunderstood in some languages, since speaking of a person as ‘a wild animal’ might be a compliment based upon the idea of strength and courage. It may, therefore, be necessary to use some such expression as ‘dangerous animal’ or ‘harmful wild animal.’
1 ACT 28:4 · HEB 12:20 · JAS 3:7 θηρίον[a] (4.3) in ACT 28:4 includes reptiles and is thus more highly generic in meaning than θηρίον[b] (4.4) which in JAS 3:7 involves a contrast between (1) quadrupeds and (2) birds, reptiles, and fish. In a number of contexts it is quite impossible to determine whether θηρίον[a] or θηρίον[b] refers to wild or to domesticated animals. For example, in HEB 12:20 the reference would seem to be to domesticated animals that might wander over to the holy mountain, but in JAS 3:7 the context points clearly to wild animals, since the reference is to the taming of such animals. But whether the reference is to wild or domesticated animals depends primarily upon the context, and there seems to be no way in which one can clearly distinguish two different meanings of θηρίον, based on wild versus domesticated distinctions.
UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament © United Bible Societies, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Thayer's Greek Lexicon
θηρίον, -ov, τό, (dimin. of 6p; hence a Little beast, little animal; Plat. Theaet. p. 171 e.; of bees, Theoer. 19, 6; but in usage it had almost always the force of its primitive; the later dimin. is θηρίδιον [ef. Epictet. diss. 2, 9, 67); [fr. Hom. down]; Sept. for 7°m and 773, an animal; a wild animal, wild beast, beast : prop., Mk. i. 13; Acts x. 12 Ree.; xi. 6; xxviii. 4sq.; Heb. xii. 20; [Jas. iii. 7]; Rev. vi. 8; in Rev xi. 7 and chh. xiii.—xx., under the fig. of a ‘beast’ is depicted Antichrist, both his person and his kingdom and power, (see ἀντίχριστος); metaph. a brutal, bestial man, savage, ferocious, Tit. i. 12 [colloq. ‘ugly dogs’], (so in Arstph. eqq. 273; Plut. 439; nub. 184; [ef. Schmidt ch. 70,2; apparently never with allusion to the stupidity of beasts]; still other exx. are given by Kypke, Observy. ii. p. 379; θηρία ἜΣ Ignat. Smyrn. 4, οἵ. Δα Ephes. 7). [Syn. see (@ov. |
Mounce Concise Greek Dictionary
θηρίον thērion 46x
a beast, wild animal, Mk. 1:13; Acts 10:12; met. a brute, brutish man, Tit. 1:12
Abbott-Smith Greek Lexicon
θηρίον, -ου, τό
(dimin. of θήρ), [in LXX chiefly for חַיָּה;]
a wild beast, beast: Mk 1:13, Ac 11:6 28:4, 5, Tit 1:12, He 12:20, Ja 3:7, Re 6:8; of Antichrist, Re 11:7, 13-20.†
Trench — Synonyms of the New Testament
In passages out of number one of these words might be employed quite as fitly as the other, even as there are many in which they are used interchangeably, as by Plutarch, De Cap. ex Inim. Util. ἃ. This does not however prove that there is no distinction between them, if other passages occur, however few, where one is fit and the other not; or where, though neither would be unfit, one would possess a greater fitness than the other. The distinction, latent in other cases, because there is nothing to evoke it, reveals itself in these. The difference between ζῶον (by Lachmann always more correctly accented ζῷον) and θηρίον is not that between two coordinate terms ; but one, the second, is wholly subordinate to the first, a less included in a greater. All creatures that live on earth, including man himself, λογικὸν καὶ πολιτικὸν ζῶον, as Plutarch (De Am. Prol. 8) so grandly describes him, are Coa (Aristotle, Hist. Anim. i. 5.1); nay, God himself, according to the Definitions of Plato, is ζῶον ἀθάνατον, being indeed the only One to whom life by absolute right belongs (φαμὲν δὲ τὸν Θεὸν εἶναι ζῶον ἀΐδιον ἄριστον, Aristotle, Metaph. xii. 7). It is true that ζῶον is nowhere employed in the N. T. to designate man (but see Plato, Pol. 271 e; Xenophon, Cyrop. i. 1. 8; Wisd. xix. 21); still less to designate God; for whom, as not merely living, but as being absolute Life, the one fountain of life, the αὐτοζῶον, the πηγὴ ζωῆς, the fitter as the more reverent ζωή is retained (John i. 4; 1 John i. 2). In its ordinary use ζῶον covers the same extent of meaning as ‘animal’ with us, having generally, though by no means universally (Plutarch, De Garr. 22; Heb. xiii. 11), ἄλογον or some such epithet attached (2 Pet. 11, 12; Jude 10). §LXxxI SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 289 @npiov looks like a diminutive of 6yp, which in its Molic form φήρ reappears as the Latin ‘fera,’ and in its more usual shape in the German ‘ Thier’ and in our own ‘deer.’ Like χρυσίον, βιβλίον, φορτίον, ἀγγεῖον, and so many other words (see Fischer, Prol. de Vit. Lex. N. T. p. 256), it has quite left behind the force of a diminutive, if it ever possessed it. That it was already without this at the time when the Odyssey was composed is sufficiently attested by the μέγα θηρίον which there occurs (x. 180); compare Xenophon, Cyrop.i. 4.11. It would be a mistake to regard θηρία as exclusively mischievous and ravening beasts, for see Heb. ΧΙ. 20; Exod. xix. 18; however such by this word are generally intended (Mark i. 18; Acts xxviii. 4, 5); θηρία at Acts xi. 6 being distinguished from τετράποδα; while yet Schmidt says rightly: ‘In θηρίον liegt eine sehr starke Nebenbeziehung auf Wildheit und Grausamkeit.’ It is worthy of notice that, numerous as are the passages of the Septuagint where beasts of sacrifice are mentioned, it is never under this name. The reason is evident, namely, that the brutal, bestial element is in θηρίον brought prominently forward, not that wherein the inferior animals are akin to man, not that therefore which gives them a fitness to be offered as substitutes for man, and as his representatives. Here, too, we have an explanation of the frequent transfer of θηρίον and θηριώδης, as in Latin of ‘ bestia’ and “ bellua,’ to fierce and brutal men (Tit. i. 12; 1 Cor. xv. 82; Josephus, Antt. xvii. 5.5; Arrian, in Epict. ii. 9). All this makes us the more regret, and the regret has been often expressed—it was so by Broughton almost as soon as our Version was published—that in the Apocalypse our Translators should have rendered θηρίον and ζῶον by the same word, “ beast’’; and should thus for the English reader have obliterated the distinction between them. Both play important parts in this book; both belong to its higher symbolism ; while at the same time they move in spheres as far removed from one another as heaven is fromhell. The ζῶα or “ living creatures,’ which stand before the throne, and in which dwells U 290 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT §.Lxxxu the fulness of all creaturely life, as it gives praise and glory to God (iv. 6-9; v. 6; vi. 1; and often), constitute a part of the heavenly symbolism; the θηρία, the first beast and the second, which rise up, one from the bottomless pit (xi. 7), the other from the sea (xiii. 1), of whom the one makes war upon the two Witnesses, the other opens his mouth in -blasphemies, these form part of the hellish symbolism. To confound these and those under a common designation, to call those ‘ beasts’ and these ‘ beasts,’ would be an oversight, even granting the name to be suitable to both; it is a more serious one, when the word used, bringing out, as does θηρίον, the predominance of the lower animal life, is applied to glorious creatures in the very court and presence of Heaven. The error is common to all the English translations. That the Rheims should not have escaped it is strange; for the Vulgate renders ζῶα by ‘ animalia’ (‘ animantia’ would have been still better), and only θηρίον by ‘bestia.’ If ζῶα had always been rendered “living creatures,’ this would have had the additional advantage of setting these symbols of the Apocalypse, even for the English reader, in an unmistakeable connexion with Ezek. i. 5, 18, 14, and often ; where “ living creature” is the rendering in our English Version of ΠΡ, as ζῶον is in the Septuagint.
Liddell-Scott-Jones — Greek-English Lexicon
θηρίον (thērion) — wild animal. θηρίον, τό (in form diminutive of θήρ), wild animal, especially of such as are hunted, μάλα γὰρ μέγα θηρίον ἦεν, of a stag, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; in Trag. only in Satyric drama, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; of the spider's prey, [Refs 4th c.BC+]; frequently of elephants, [Refs 2nd c.BC+]: plural, beasts, opposed to men, birds, and fishes, [Refs 5th c.BC+]
2. generally, animal, [Refs]; of men, ἄνθρωπος πάντων θ. θεειδέστατον [Refs 5th c.BC+]; of the dog, [Refs 3rd c.BC+]; of fishes, [Refs 4th c.BC+]; of eels, [Refs 4th c.BC+]; of leeches, [Refs]; of other small creatures, [Refs 5th c.BC+], either above or below the nature of man, [Refs 4th c.BC+]
3. beast, especially as hostile and odious to man, θηρία τε καὶ βοτά carnivora and graminivora, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; monster, creature, of sharks, etc., [Refs 5th c.BC+]; of Typhon, etc., [Refs 5th c.BC+]; of the Satyrs, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; ταυτὶ ποδαπὰ τὰ θ.; [Refs 5th c.BC+]
3. b poisonous animal, [NT+1st c.AD+]
II. in Medicine texts,= θηρίωμα, [Refs 5th c.BC+]
III. as a term of reproach, beast, creature, ὦ δειλότατον σὺ θηρίον [Refs 6th c.BC+]; δυσνουθέτητον θ., of poverty, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; τί δέ, εἰ αὐτοῦ τοῦ θηρίου ἠκούσατ; said by Aeschines of Demosthenes, [Refs 1st c.AD+]; θ. συνεστιώμενον, of woman, [Refs 2nd c.AD+]
IV. Astron., the constellation [Refs 4th c.BC+]