σκηνοπηγία
skēnopēgía
G4634 noun
SILEX Entry
Definition
A festival involving the construction or erection of booths or temporary shelters; specifically, the festival known in Judean custom as the 'Feast of Booths,' marked by the building and dwelling in tents or leafy shelters for a set period, commemorating earlier periods of wandering or agricultural celebration. In Hellenistic and Roman-period Judean contexts, denotes the specific festival prescribed in Torah for the seventh month, characterized by both religious and communal observance.
Semantic Range
construction of booths, festival involving booths, Sukkot, Feast of Booths, Judean autumn festival marked by shelter-building
Root / Etymology
From σκῆνος ('tent, booth') + πηγνύω ('to fix, erect, set up'); literally, act of setting up booths.
Historical & Contextual Notes
σκηνοπηγία is found in Hellenistic Greek texts as a designation for the biblical Sukkot/festival of booths, mentioned in the Septuagint (e.g., Zechariah 14:16) and New Testament (John 7:2). In the Second Temple and New Testament periods, the term referred specifically to the Judean festival held in the month of Tishri (early autumn; see Leviticus 23:34-43). While commonly rendered as 'the Feast of Tabernacles' or simply 'Tabernacles' in English Bibles, the term conveys the distinct practice of erecting temporary shelters, integral to the festival's identity for Judean communities. In Greco-Roman sources, the word rarely appears outside Jewish or Judean contexts, marking it as a specialized festival term rather than a general term for tent-making. Later English translations have often used 'Tabernacles,' but this may be misleading due to associations with other meanings of 'tabernacle' outside this context. The word highlights the embodied, material practice (building and living in booths) more than just ritual observance, and is closely associated with both religious and social dimensions of Judean communal life in antiquity.
Original Strong's Gloss (1890)
from σκῆνος and πήγνυμι; the Festival of Tabernacles (so called from the custom of erecting booths for temporary homes):--tabernacles.
Root Family
σκην-, πηγ- (skēnopēgía) — to construct a tent, to set up a booth
Word Forms
1 distinct form
| SIDANCE | Surface | Transliteration | Morphology | Common | SIBI-P1 | SIBI-P2 | Occurrences |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
G4634-01 |
σκηνοπηγία | skenopegia | N NOM F SG |
Feast of Tabernacles | Feast of Booth-Setting | Feast of Booth-Setting | 1 |
Occurrences in Scripture
1 occurrence
| SIDANCE | Reference | Word | Transliteration | Morphology | Common | SIBI-P1 | SIBI-P2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
G4634-01 |
John 7:2 | σκηνοπηγία | skenopegia | N NOM F SG |
Feast of Tabernacles | Feast of Booth-Setting | Feast of Booth-Setting |