Exploring the Meaning of Semeron in Greek

σήμερον expresses the time reference “today,” locating speech, requests, events, and comparisons within the present day. In the passages where it appears, it can mark immediacy (“today… even this night”), present provision (“Give us today”), present fulfillment (“Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled”), and the continuing reach of past actions “until today” or “to this day.”

Occurrences

Matthew 6:11 — “Give us today our daily bread.”

Here σήμερον anchors the request in the present day. The petition is framed as a present need rather than a distant reserve: the ask is for bread for “today,” matching the prayer’s plain, daily rhythm.

Matthew 6:30 — “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today exists, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, won’t he much more clothe you, you of little faith?”

σήμερον forms part of a tight time contrast: “today exists” set against “tomorrow.” The word highlights the brief span of the grass’s life—present and visible now, yet quickly gone—supporting the argument from what is clothed today to what can be trusted for those addressed.

Matthew 11:23 — “You, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, you will go down to Hades. For if the mighty works had been done in Sodom which were done in you, it would have remained until today.”

In “until today,” σήμερον marks the present moment as the endpoint of an unreal, conditional history (“if… it would have remained”). The word gives the comparison a concrete reference point: the imagined outcome would still be standing at the speaker’s “today,” sharpening the seriousness of the warning.

Matthew 16:3 — “In the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but you can’t discern the signs of the times!”

σήμερον is used in ordinary forecasting speech: “foul weather today.” The word locates the prediction in the immediate day and, in context, serves as the everyday example that exposes a mismatch between reading the sky for “today” and failing to read what is presented as “the signs of the times.”

Matthew 21:28 — “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first, and said, ‘Son, go work today in my vineyard.’”

σήμερον sets the father’s instruction within the current day. The call is not open-ended; it asks for prompt action, giving the command a practical deadline and making the response a test of present obedience.

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

With “to this day,” σήμερον points from a past event to a present result that still holds. The naming of the field is portrayed as persisting up to the narrator’s “today,” conveying continuity of memory and consequence in a simple time marker.

Matthew 27:19 — “While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of him.””

σήμερον places the wife’s distress in the same day as the legal proceeding (“While he was sitting on the judgment seat”). “Today” intensifies the immediacy of her warning: the suffering from the dream is not remote, but current, pressing upon the moment of decision.

Matthew 28:15 — “So they took the money and did as they were told. This saying was spread abroad among the Jews, and continues until today.”

Again, σήμερον appears in “until today,” marking the present as the continuing endpoint of an ongoing report. The word underscores persistence: what began with the taking of money and the chosen action still has force in the narrator’s present day.

Mark 14:30 — “Jesus said to him, “Most certainly I tell you, that you today, even this night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.””

σήμερον is paired with an even narrower specification (“even this night”), compressing the time frame. “Today” is not a vague near future; it includes the coming hours, and the sequence “before the rooster crows twice” makes the prediction measurable within the same day-and-night cycle.

Luke 2:11 — “For there is born to you today, in David’s city, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

σήμερον announces the birth as a present-day event. The word supplies immediacy to the proclamation: what is being declared is not merely true in general, but has happened “today,” tied to a specific place (“in David’s city”) and a specific identity (“a Savior, who is Christ the Lord”).

Luke 4:21 — “He began to tell them, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.””

Here σήμερον functions as a pointed temporal claim: “Today” is the moment of fulfillment. The time word presses fulfillment into the listeners’ present experience—“in your hearing”—so that the meaning is not postponed; it is asserted as realized within the day of the speaking.

Luke 5:26 — “Amazement took hold on all, and they glorified God. They were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen strange things today.””

σήμερον frames the crowd’s reaction as testimony about the day’s experience. “We have seen strange things today” gathers what they witnessed into a single day’s account, emphasizing how the day itself has become marked by unusual events that provoke amazement, glory to God, and fear.

Sense and Usage

Across these scenes, σήμερον consistently places an action, condition, or report within the compass of the present day, but the rhetorical effect shifts with context. In requests and instruction, “today” can function like a practical boundary: the prayer’s need is for the present day’s bread (Matthew 6:11), and the father’s command expects labor within the day (Matthew 21:28). In comparisons, the word can highlight transience by setting “today” beside “tomorrow” (Matthew 6:30), making the present day the fragile point from which change is easily imagined.

In several passages, σήμερον serves as a narrative or explanatory endpoint in phrases like “until today” and “to this day” (Matthew 11:23; 27:8; 28:15). There it does more than label the date; it draws a line from past to present, stating that an imagined alternative (“it would have remained”) or a tangible outcome (a field’s name) or a circulating saying continues up through the narrator’s present. “Today” becomes the hinge that connects then to now, showing how actions and words can persist in their effects.

In proclamations and predictions, σήμερον heightens immediacy. The announcement “there is born to you today” (Luke 2:11) makes the good news time-specific and present. “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21) uses the time word to claim realization in the current moment of listening, turning the day into the decisive setting. Mark 14:30 shows σήμερον at its most compressed: “today, even this night,” where the day is not merely daylight hours but the whole near-term period culminating before the rooster’s crowing. In personal testimony, “I have suffered many things today in a dream” (Matthew 27:19) and communal witness, “We have seen strange things today” (Luke 5:26), the adverb grounds emotion and interpretation in an experience fresh enough to shape immediate counsel and shared speech.

Imagery

These passages give “today” a vivid range of textures: bread requested for the day (Matthew 6:11), grass that exists today and is gone tomorrow (Matthew 6:30), weather expected today from a threatening sky (Matthew 16:3), and work assigned for today in a vineyard (Matthew 21:28). Alongside such ordinary day-markers stand weightier “todays”: a warning framed by what would have lasted “until today” (Matthew 11:23), a legal moment shadowed by suffering “today” in a dream (Matthew 27:19), a rumor that “continues until today” (Matthew 28:15), a prediction confined to “today… even this night” (Mark 14:30), and announcements and reactions that make the present day the stage for birth, fulfillment, and astonished witness (Luke 2:11; 4:21; 5:26).

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).