Definition
Soteria (Greek: σωτηρία) is the principal New Testament word for “salvation,” “deliverance,” or “preservation.” The word encompasses the entire scope of God’s saving work: liberation from sin and death, restoration of the relationship with God, and eschatological completion. As the title of the theological discipline soteriology, it serves as the mother-term for all sub-topics in the corpus.
Usage in the Corpus
E.W. Bullinger
Bullinger connects σωτηρία to his numerological exegesis: the number 5 represents grace, and 5² = 25 = σωτηρία (by Greek numerical values). This constructs a direct isomorphism between the number of grace and the word-value of salvation: salvation is literally “grace upon grace.” God names himself the sole Savior (Isa. 43:10-11), a claim which for Bullinger confirms the monergistic character of σωτηρία — salvation is exclusively God’s work, its very numerical structure testifying to that. [Bullinger, Number in Scripture]
Origin
Σωτηρία derives from sōzō (to save, preserve, heal) + the nominalizing suffix -ía. In the Greek world the word was used broadly for political and medical deliverance; in the LXX and NT it narrows to the specifically soteriological meaning of liberation through God’s action.