Strong’s G4501 · Greek

ῥομφαία
rhomphaía

Definition

a sabre, i.e. a long and broad cutlass (any weapon of the kind, literally or figuratively)

Etymology

probably of foreign origin;

Where the KJV renders it

  • sword

Every distinct English word the King James Version uses to translate this Greek term. The variety shows what readers in English receive across many different surface words — the same underlying word, scattered across the English Bible under different names.

What the first audience heard

A deep-dive treatment of this word is in the works. The featured chapter above carries the long form of what this word meant to its first audience.