μαστός, μαζός (mastos, mazos)
mastos, mazos
breast
Quick Reference
- Language
- Koine Greek
- Testament
- New Testament
- Occurrences
- 3 verses
- Root
- —
Word Overview
The noun mastos refers to the breast or nipple, appearing in the New Testament with striking physical immediacy. In Luke 11:27, a woman in the crowd raises her voice to bless Jesus, declaring that those who ate His food are blessed. Her exclamation highlights the natural human instinct to honor a mother’s body as the source of life and nourishment.
This same bodily imagery resurfaces in Luke 23:29 during Jesus’ journey to the cross. He tells the mourning women not to weep for Him, but for themselves and their children, because days are coming when people will say, "Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed." Here, the absence of nursing becomes a grim symbol of desolation and lost fertility in times of severe judgment.
The word also appears in Revelation 1:13, describing one like the Son of Man with a garment reaching to the foot and a golden sash around His chest. While the Greek text varies between mastos and mazos in different manuscripts, both terms point to the same anatomical region. This visual detail grounds the heavenly vision in tangible human form, emphasizing Christ’s full humanity alongside His divine glory.
Translators consistently render this word as "breast," preserving its literal meaning without spiritualizing it away. The term carries no metaphorical abstraction in these contexts; instead, it anchors profound theological statements in the reality of the physical body—whether in praise, warning, or vision.
The usage across Luke and Revelation shows how early Christian writers employed familiar human anatomy to convey deep truths about blessing, judgment, and incarnation. The word remains a simple yet powerful reminder that faith engages the whole person, including the physical dimensions of life and suffering.
Based on public-domain lexicons (Strong's, Thayer, Gesenius, Brown-Driver-Briggs and others).
What This Word Means for Your Faith
The word mastos brings us face-to-face with the physical reality of human life. In Luke 11:27, a woman in the crowd calls out to Jesus, praising the womb that bore Him and the breasts that nursed Him. This simple exclamation acknowledges the deep, natural bond between mother and child. It reminds us that God entered into our most basic human experiences, honoring the physical acts of nourishment and care that sustain life.
Yet this same word appears in a starkly different context in Luke 23:29. As Jesus walks to the cross, He warns that there will come days when people will wish they had never been born, saying, "Blessed are the barren... and the breasts that never nursed." Here, the absence of nursing symbolizes profound grief and desolation. It shows how deeply our physical bodies are tied to our emotional and spiritual states, whether in joy or in deep sorrow.
In Revelation 1:13, we see Jesus described with a golden sash around His chest. This detail grounds His divine glory in tangible human form. It affirms that Christ is fully human, sharing in our physical nature. These verses remind us that faith is not just about abstract ideas; it engages the whole person, including our bodies and our deepest human connections.
How it's translated
How this word is rendered word-by-word in the 3 verses where it appears, by frequency.
- breasts2×
- [the] breasts1×
Forms in the text
The inflected forms of this word as they appear in Scripture, by frequency.
- μαστοὶ2×
- μαστοῖς1×
Key Verses
-
Luke 11:27
It came to pass, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the multitude lifted up her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts which nursed you!”
This verse captures a spontaneous moment of honor where a woman blesses Jesus through the physical imagery of maternal nourishment.
-
Luke 23:29
For behold, the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’
Jesus uses the image of nursing breasts to illustrate the extreme suffering and desolation that will characterize future judgment.
-
Revelation of John 1:13
And among the lamp stands was one like a son of man, clothed with a robe reaching down to his feet, and with a golden sash around his chest.
The description of a sash around the chest grounds the visionary figure of the Son of Man in tangible, human anatomy.