Bible glossary

What Does ‘Glory’ Mean in the Bible?

Glory is the weight, beauty, and radiant worth of God: the visible shining out of who He is, which He also shares with His people.

The Hebrew word for glory carries the sense of weight, of substance that matters. God's glory is the outshining of His greatness and beauty, sometimes seen as blazing light, sometimes revealed in His character. It is what makes creation itself declare His praise.

Humanity was made to reflect that glory and, the Bible says, has fallen short of it. Yet God's plan is not to keep His glory to Himself but to restore it in us, so that redeemed people become bearers and reflectors of His light.

Key verses

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
Romans 3:23

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”
Psalm 19:1

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14