Bible word study

Sabbaton (Strong’s G4521): Meaning in the Bible

Sabbaton (σάββατον) is the Greek word numbered G4521 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as the Sabbath (i.e. Shabbath), or day of weekly repose from secular avocations (also the observance or institution itself); by extension, a se'nnight, i.e. the interval between two Sabbaths; likewise the plural in all the above applications. In the King James Bible it is translated sabbath (day), week..

• Original wordσάββατον
• Transliterationsábbaton
• Pronunciationsab'-bat-on
• Strong’s numberG4521
• LanguageGreek

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. of Hebrew origin (H7676);

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Sabbaton appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Sabbaton (G4521) stands behind 68 English renderings in 62 verses across 7 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Luke (20), John (13), Mark (12).

How the King James Bible renders Sabbaton, by count

• day21 of 68 (31 percent)
• sabbath15 of 68 (22 percent)
• week8 of 68 (12 percent)
• days4 of 68 (6 percent)
• on the sabbath days4 of 68 (6 percent)
• the sabbath4 of 68 (6 percent)

Three places to read Sabbaton

• Matthew 12:1 At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.
• Luke 4:16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
• John 5:16 And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.

Counts are made at build time from the King James text tagged with Strong’s numbers (eBible.org, public domain). Verses are read from the stored King James text, never typed.

Why the word matters

Every word the biblical writers chose carries weight. Studying Sabbaton in the original Greek lets you read the passages where it appears more carefully, closer to what the first hearers understood, so the meaning is drawn from the text itself rather than from the English alone.

The lexical data on this page comes from the public-domain Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890), a Hebrew and Greek dictionary keyed to the King James Bible. It is a reference tool, not a settled verdict: no single word decides a doctrine, and meaning is finally shaped by how a word is used in its sentences. Read the passages themselves, prayerfully, and in full.

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