Bible Lexicons

Berry's Synonyms of the New TestamentBerry's NT Synonyms

Animal

ζῶον, θηρίον.

ζῶον is a general term, meaning living creature, which may include all living beings, in classical Greek even including man. In the N.T. it means ordinarily animal. θηρίον is beast, usually wild beast. It implies perhaps not necessarily wildness and ferocity, but at least a certain amount of brutality which is wanting in ζῶον. ζῶον emphasizes the qualities in which animals are akin to man, θηρίον, those in which they are inferior.