UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament

Sense 1: wood

Semantic entry: 3.60

Semantic domains: Plants

Subdomains: Wood and Wood Products

Definition: wood as a substance

Notes: A number of languages make a clear distinction between wood as a substance used in artifacts and constructions and wood used for heating or cooking. A further distinction may be made between durable wood (not readily subject to rot or to the effects of termites and borers) and less durable and therefore relatively unsatisfactory wood.

Sense 2: firewood

Semantic entry: 3.61

Semantic domains: Plants

Subdomains: Wood and Wood Products

Definition: wood as a substance used to burn for heat

Notes: ξύλον in RV LUK 23:31 · LV LUK 23:31 · Read together LUK 23:31 may also be interpreted as a live green tree (see 3.4: ξύλον). If one assumes that the meaning here is ‘firewood,’ then it may be necessary to translate ‘wood which has not had an opportunity to dry out’ or ‘wood which is still green’ or ‘… which is still wet with sap.’

Sense 3: tree

Semantic entry: 3.4

Semantic domains: Plants

Subdomains: Trees

Definition: large perennial plant, usually having a woody central stem, called a trunk, with secondary branches growing from it.

Notes: It is also possible to understand ξύλον in RV LUK 23:31 · LV LUK 23:31 · Read together LUK 23:31 as ‘firewood.’ One may therefore translate the first part of this conditional sentence as ‘if they do these things to firewood which has recently been cut’ or ‘if they do these things to firewood which hasn’t dried out’ (see 3.61: ξύλον).|In RV REV 2:7 · LV REV 2:7 · Read together REV 2:7 and RV REV 22:2 · LV REV 22:2 · Read together REV 22:2 ξύλον τῆς ζωῆς ‘tree of life’ may cause certain complications if the passage is translated more or less literally ‘I will give him to eat of the tree of life.’ In some languages a literal rendering would mean ‘to gnaw on the tree of life,’ that is to say, to eat the wood or the bark. It may therefore be necessary to translate ‘to eat the fruit of the tree of life’ or ‘… the fruit from the tree that causes life’ or ‘… causes people to live.’

Sense 4: club

Semantic entry: 6.31

Semantic domains: Artifacts

Subdomains: Weapons and Armor

Definition: a heavy stick used in fighting

Sense 5: stocks

Semantic entry: 6.21

Semantic domains: Artifacts

Subdomains: Instruments Used in Binding and Fastening

Definition: an instrument consisting of heavy blocks of wood through which the legs were placed and then securely fastened

Notes: Stocks were employed primarily as an instrument for imprisonment, but also as a means of punishment.

Sense 6: cross

Semantic entry: 6.28

Semantic domains: Artifacts

Subdomains: Instruments Used in Punishment and Execution

Definition: (a figurative extension of meaning of ξύλον[a] ‘wood,’ 3.60: ξύλον) an instrument of execution.

Notes: Outside the NT ξύλον[f] often refers to a gallows, but in the NT contexts speaking of capital punishment, the reference is to the cross on which Jesus was crucified.