TR: sukkah → skēnē (Booth / Tabernacle)¶

The Chain¶

Hebrew OT              LXX (Greek OT)          Greek NT
───────────            ───────────────          ────────
סֻכָּה (sukkah)    →   σκηνή (skēnē)        →   σκηνή (skēnē)
H5521, 29x            20x as translation        20x in NT
"booth/hut/pavilion"  of sukkah                "tent/tabernacle"

OT Usage (Hebrew)¶

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
H5521	סֻכָּה (sukkah)	29	booth, hut, pavilion, tabernacle
H5520	סֹךְ (sok)	4	root noun: thicket, den, lair

Key OT passages: - Lev 23:42–43 — "Ye shall dwell in booths (sukkot) seven days...that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of Egypt" - Neh 8:16–17 — Post-exilic restoration of the Feast; Israel made booths and sat under them "for since the days of Joshua" they had not done so - Amos 9:11 — "I will raise up the tabernacle (sukkah) of David that is fallen"

[H5521 canonical word study: H5521-cukkah.md]

LXX Bridge¶

Hebrew	Greek Translation	Count	Notes
sukkah (H5521)	σκηνή (G4633)	20x	Primary rendering: tent/booth/tabernacle
sukkah (H5521)	σκηνοπηγία (G4634)	5x	"Booth-Pitching" = Feast of Tabernacles specifically
sukkah (H5521)	ἑορτή (G1859)	10x	"feast" — festival context emphasized over physical structure

Note on G4633 as a shared bridge: The LXX uses σκηνή to translate multiple Hebrew tent/dwelling words — H168 אֹהֶל (ohel, 230x), H4908 מִשְׁכָּן (mishkan, 88x), and H5521 sukkah (20x). The word is not uniquely "derived from" sukkah, but the Feast of Tabernacles (σκηνοπηγία, G4634) is specifically grounded in sukkah's meaning.

Semantic shift: Hebrew sukkah has a range from mundane temporary shelter (animal booth, watchman's hut, military tent) to divine pavilion. The LXX σκηνή preserves the structural/physical sense but in NT contexts the word gravitates toward the sacred — the Mosaic tabernacle and its heavenly counterpart.

NT Usage (Greek)¶

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
G4633	σκηνή (skēnē)	20	tent, tabernacle (earthly or heavenly)
G4634	σκηνοπηγία (skenopēgia)	1	Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:2)
G4637	σκηνόω (skēnoō)	5	to dwell in a tent, to tabernacle
G4638	σκήνωμα (skēnōma)	3	dwelling-place, tent as body metaphor

Key NT passages: - Mat 17:4 // Mk 9:5 // Lk 9:33 — At the Transfiguration, Peter says "let us make three tabernacles (σκηναί)" — widely understood as an allusion to the Feast of Tabernacles; the three booths echo the festival's memorial character - Heb 8:2 — "A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle (σκηνή), which the Lord pitched, and not man" — the heavenly σκηνή as the original; the earthly as shadow - Rev 21:3 — "The tabernacle (σκηνή) of God is with men, and he will dwell (σκηνόω) with them" — eschatological fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles promise; God permanently "booths" with humanity - John 7:2 — "The Jews' feast of tabernacles (σκηνοπηγία) was at hand" — the one NT occurrence of the exact compound derived from sukkah

[G4633 canonical word study: G4633-skene.md]

Direct OT→NT Connections¶

NT Verse	OT Background	Shared Concept	Significance
Mat 17:4	Lev 23:42–43	sukkah → σκηνή	Peter's three tabernacles = Feast of Tabernacles allusion; Moses and Elijah present = law and prophets
Rev 21:3	Lev 23:43; Ezek 37:27	sukkah → σκηνή → σκηνόω	Eschatological "dwelling with" parallels the Feast's commemorative dwelling; now permanent
John 7:2	Deu 16:13	חַג סֻכּוֹת → σκηνοπηγία	Direct lexical link; Jesus' "living water" discourse (John 7:37–38) echoes the water-pouring ceremony of the Feast
Heb 8:5; 9:24	Lev 23; Exod 25	sukkah/mishkan → σκηνή	The Mosaic tabernacle (where the Feast was observed) as shadow of the heavenly

Continuity and Shifts¶

What stays the same across testaments: - The physical image of a temporary booth/tent as a place of divine meeting or protection - The corporate, memorial character — people dwelling together in temporary structures before God - The eschatological forward-pointing: a sukkah is inherently temporary, awaiting something more permanent

What shifts: - Hebrew sukkah spans mundane (animal stall, military tent) to sacred (God's pavilion); NT σκηνή gravitates almost entirely toward the sacred — the Mosaic tabernacle, the heavenly sanctuary, the body as tent - The Feast of Tabernacles pattern (sukkah → σκηνοπηγία) shifts from historical commemoration (exodus) to eschatological fulfillment (Rev 21:3) and present typology (Heb 8–9) - The bodily dimension: NT introduces σκῆνος (G4636) as the body-as-tent metaphor (2 Cor 5:1–4), absent from sukkah usage

Generated from: gather_trace_data.py, search_strongs.py (--lxx-map, --hebrew-source, --lookup) Last updated: 2026-04-02