Exploring the Meaning of Haima in Greek

αἷμα means “blood,” a concrete bodily substance that in these passages becomes a vivid way to speak about human limitations, physical suffering, violence, guilt, and covenantal significance. The occurrences below show how the same word can function in ordinary description (a medical condition) and in weighty moral and ritual language (innocent blood, bloodshed, and blood “poured out”).

Occurrences

Matthew 16:17 Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

Here αἷμα appears in the fixed pairing “flesh and blood,” which points to ordinary human life as a whole. Blood, alongside flesh, marks what belongs to human nature and capacity; the disclosure Peter has just made is explicitly separated from what “flesh and blood” could supply.

Matthew 23:30 and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn’t have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’

In this sentence blood is tied to past violence: “the blood of the prophets.” The wording treats blood as the visible outcome of killing, and “partakers” frames that bloodshed as something one can share in—here, by moral association with those who shed it.

Matthew 23:35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar.

Blood is repeated to intensify the charge: “all the righteous blood shed on the earth,” then “from the blood of…to the blood of….” αἷμα functions as a metonymy for the act of wrongful killing and its consequence. The scene’s specificity (“between the sanctuary and the altar”) brings the language of bloodshed into a sacred setting, heightening the sense of violation and accountability.

Matthew 26:28 for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins.

Blood is identified as Jesus’ own: “my blood of the new covenant.” The verb “poured out” makes αἷμα the substance expended in a sacrificial-like action, and the stated purpose (“for the remission of sins”) connects this blood to forgiveness. In this usage, blood is not merely evidence of death but the means through which a covenant is spoken of and sins are addressed.

Matthew 27:4 saying, “I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? You see to it.”

“Innocent blood” uses αἷμα to emphasize the blamelessness of the one harmed; blood stands for the life wrongfully handed over. Judas’ confession treats the betrayal as guilt specifically because it concerns blood that is “innocent,” making the moral weight of the act hinge on the character of the bloodshed.

Matthew 27:6 The chief priests took the pieces of silver, and said, “It’s not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is the price of blood.”

Blood here is the moral taint attached to money: “the price of blood.” αἷμα points to a transaction connected to a death (or intended death), so that the silver is judged unfit for the treasury. Blood thus functions as a category of defilement or illegitimacy, not by physical contact but by what it represents in the chain of actions.

Matthew 27:8 Therefore that field was called “The Field of Blood” to this day.

Blood becomes a place-name marker. By calling it “The Field of Blood,” the narrative shows how αἷμα can fix the memory of an event onto a landscape; the word evokes the circumstances surrounding the field’s acquisition and preserves the association in communal speech.

Matthew 27:24 So when Pilate saw that nothing was being gained, but rather that a disturbance was starting, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this righteous person. You see to it.”

In Pilate’s declaration, blood is the liability for a death: “the blood of this righteous person.” Claiming to be “innocent of” that blood treats αἷμα as a burden of responsibility that can be assigned or disclaimed. The public handwashing dramatizes this attempt to separate himself from the consequences attached to the shedding of blood.

Matthew 27:25 All the people answered, “May his blood be on us, and on our children!”

This response uses blood as a way to speak of collective responsibility. “May his blood be on us” frames αἷμα as a kind of culpability that can rest upon persons and even be extended “on our children,” giving the word generational reach beyond the immediate event.

Matthew 27:49 The rest said, “Let him be. Let’s see whether Elijah comes to save him.”

In this line the immediate focus is on waiting to see if rescue comes, within the wider crucifixion scene. αἷμα in the surrounding context contributes to the portrayal of a death that others watch and comment on, where the stakes of “innocent blood” and responsibility have already been voiced in the preceding exchanges.

Mark 5:25 A certain woman, who had a discharge of blood for twelve years,

Here αἷμα is straightforwardly physical: a “discharge of blood.” The word anchors the account in bodily suffering over a long duration (“twelve years”), emphasizing chronic weakness, loss, and the personal cost of a condition defined by ongoing blood flow.

Mark 5:29 Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.

Blood remains the measurable sign of the woman’s condition: “the flow of her blood.” The language “was dried up” depicts a sudden end to the problem, and her bodily awareness (“she felt in her body”) connects the cessation of blood flow to experienced healing.

Sense and Usage

Across these passages αἷμα operates on two closely related levels. At the most literal level it refers to the bodily substance whose flowing can signal illness and whose cessation can signal recovery (Mark 5:25, 5:29). These lines treat blood as something that can be described in terms of duration (“twelve years”), movement (“flow”), and physical change (“dried up”), grounding the term in observable, embodied experience.

In Matthew’s scenes, blood is repeatedly the vocabulary for life taken and the moral reckoning that follows. “Blood of the prophets” and “righteous blood shed on the earth” compress acts of violence into a single, stark image: the spilling of blood (Matthew 23:30, 23:35). When blood is qualified—“innocent blood,” “blood of this righteous person”—the word carries an evaluative force: the problem is not merely that blood is shed, but that it belongs to one characterized as innocent or righteous (Matthew 27:4, 27:24). This makes αἷμα an efficient way to speak of wrongful death while simultaneously insisting on the victim’s moral status.

Several verses also show blood as transferable responsibility or contamination in social terms. One can be a “partaker” in blood (Matthew 23:30), blood can “come” upon a group as accrued accountability (Matthew 23:35), a ruler can claim to be “innocent of” blood (Matthew 27:24), a crowd can invoke blood “on us” and even “on our children” (Matthew 27:25), and money can be labeled “the price of blood” and treated as unsuitable for sacred funds (Matthew 27:6). In each case blood is more than a physical substance: it becomes a moral identifier that marks persons, decisions, and even objects within a community’s judgment.

Matthew 26:28 places αἷμα in a distinct, covenantal frame: “my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins.” The concrete substance remains in view—blood can be “poured out”—but the statement pushes beyond mere description. Blood becomes the declared medium of covenant and the stated means connected with “remission of sins,” giving αἷμα a ritual and redemptive prominence in Jesus’ own interpretation of his impending death.

Imagery

The imagery attached to αἷμα in these texts is sharply physical and publicly consequential. Blood can be hidden in the body as an affliction or suddenly stopped as a sign of healing (Mark 5:25, 5:29); it can also be spoken aloud in courts and crowds as the language of innocence, guilt, and responsibility (Matthew 27:4, 27:24–25). In Matthew 26:28 blood is pictured as something poured out, a concrete action that is given covenantal meaning and tied to the remission of sins; in Matthew 27:8 it even names a field, fixing the memory of blood-related events onto the map of daily life.

Sources: Lexical data from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and the Translators Brief Lexicon of Extended Strongs for Greek (STEPBible, CC BY). Occurrence data from the Translators Amalgamated Greek New Testament (STEPBible, CC BY). Scripture quotations from the World English Bible (public domain).