StrongerBible

agrupneō

ἀγρυπνέω

GreekG0069“watch, stay awake, ...”

Appears 4 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mrk 13:33Luk 21:36Eph 6:18Heb 13:17
Compound of
Alphaα, ἈλφαAlpha4G1
hupnosὕπνοςsleep6G5258
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeah-groop-NEH-ohverb

What agrupneō means

to keep watch without sleeping: to give up rest in order to stay alert to something that matters.

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

The plain picture behind this word is a night spent awake. In ordinary Greek it described the anxious wife lying awake for a husband far from home, the guard who cannot let his eyes close, and the sick person who cannot get to sleep. Sleep is the natural thing to do at night, and this word names the deliberate giving up of it.

The New Testament never uses it of ordinary insomnia. All four times it is a picture: a way of saying that a certain kind of attention costs something, the way a missed night of sleep costs something. The Greek Old Testament had already trained the word this way, using it for a Hebrew word meaning wakeful watching (שָׁקַד) that covers a mourner lying awake, a sentry on a city wall, and God himself keeping watch over what he has promised.

The New Testament turns that picture in three directions:

  • in the end-time warnings of Jesus it is readiness for an arrival nobody can put on a calendar
  • in the closing call to prayer in Ephesians it is attention that does not slacken partway through
  • in Hebrews it is the costly watch a leader keeps over the people entrusted to him

The New Testament has several words for watchfulness and they overlap a great deal. The most common of them (γρηγορέω) pictures being roused and staying awake; another (νήφω) means being sober and clear headed; a third (βλέπω) is looking hard at what is in front of you and taking the warning. Writers use them almost interchangeably. What this one adds, when it adds anything, is the night: rest surrendered for the sake of watching.

Nuances

1ato stay ready for something that is certainly coming but cannot be timed.
Mrk 13:33Luk 21:36
1bto keep praying with attention that does not slacken.
Eph 6:18
Eph 6:18

Whether the watchfulness of Ephesians 6:18 continues the military imagery of the armor passage (6:14-17) or is a general call to alert perseverance in intercession.

  • contestedThe section is a peroratio cast as a general's battle speech, so the watchfulness is the alertness of a soldier who cannot afford to sleep at his post, alert to unseen powers.; Andrew T. Lincoln, Ephesians, Word Biblical Commentary 42; Clinton E. Arnold, Ephesians, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament
  • contestedThe watchfulness recalls Jesus' watch and pray commands in the Gospels rather than a literal sentry, so it is the eschatological and pastoral alertness of a praying community.; Stephen E. Fowl, Ephesians, New Testament Library; Ernest Best, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Ephesians, International Critical Commentary
1cto keep watch over people in your care, at cost to your own rest.
Heb 13:17

Disputed

Whether this verb carries a distinct nuance of sleeplessness or is effectively interchangeable with the other New Testament vigilance verbs.

  • majorityThe vigilance verbs overlap heavily as members of one semantic domain; no fixed, load-bearing distinction should be pressed in a given verse, so Mark's stacking of them is rhetorical reinforcement and Luke's substitution is stylistic variation.; J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, domain 23.72; Moisés Silva, Biblical Words and Their Meaning, rev. ed. (1994)
  • minorityThe classic synonym tradition holds that this verb expresses simply the absence of sleep and a wakeful frame of mind, while γρηγορέω represents wakefulness produced by rousing effort and νήφω names sobriety; the distinction is connotative but real.; C. L. W. Grimm and J. H. Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. ἀγρυπνέω (synonym note); G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), s.v. ἀγρυπνέω

What scholars say about agrupneō

BDAG, LSJ, Grimm-Thayer and Abbott-Smith agree on a literal base sense, "be sleepless, keep awake, lie awake," extended tropically to "be watchful, vigilant, circumspect"; BDAG glosses the figurative use "to be alertly concerned about." Abbott-Smith notes the metaphorical development is mediated chiefly by Septuagint usage, where the verb renders שָׁקַד roughly ten times in the Old Greek plus the deuterocanonical books (2 Esdras 8:29; Job 21:32; Ps 126[127]:1; Ps 101[102]:8; Prov 8:34; Wis 6:15; Sirach; Dan 9:14; Bar 2:9), ranging from literal guard duty and grief-born insomnia to devotional vigilance, with both God and humans as subject. Thayer already distinguished the New Testament constructions: absolute at Mark 13:33 and Luke 21:36; with εἰς τι, "to be intent upon a thing," at Ephesians 6:18; with ὑπέρ τινος, "to exercise constant vigilance over," which he described as an image drawn from shepherds, at Hebrews 13:17. Mark commentators (France, Yarbro Collins, Marcus, Hooker, Gundry, Pesch) read 13:33 as eschatological alertness within a cluster of near-synonymous vigilance verbs, and editors judge the Byzantine longer reading καὶ προσεύχεσθε a later assimilation to Luke 21:36 and Mark 14:38. Lukan specialists (Fitzmyer, Nolland, Marshall, Bovon, Bock) treat Luke's ἀγρυπνεῖτε as redactional substitution for Markan γρηγορεῖτε, consistent with Luke's reframing toward sustained faithfulness ἐν παντὶ καιρῷ; the critical text's κατισχύσητε is preferred over the Byzantine καταξιωθῆτε. At Ephesians 6:18 the participle is generally taken as modal, dependent on the prayer clause rather than a further piece of armor, though Lincoln and Arnold hear continuing sentry overtones while Fowl and Best are reserved. Hebrews specialists (Attridge, Ellingworth, Koester, Lane, deSilva, Cockerill, Johnson) combine shepherd night-watch and Ezekielian watchman imagery at 13:17, taking ὡς λόγον ἀποδώσοντες of an account rendered to God; Chrysostom's Homily 34 on Hebrews reads the verse with marked pastoral dread. On etymology, Frisk, Chantraine and Beekes derive ἄγρυπνος from ἀγρός plus ὕπνος (on the pattern of ἄγραυλος), with Frisk noting that the early association with ἀγρέω influenced the sense; Barr and Silva supply the methodological caution against treating that history as meaning. Moulton and Milligan document ordinary Koine usage in the papyri (P Giss I.19.7; P Ryl II.62.9) and in a defixio from Adrumetum cited by Deissmann. The cognate noun ἀγρυπνία at 2 Corinthians 6:5 and 11:27 is taken literally by Thrall, Furnish, Harris and Barnett.

Where scholars disagree about agrupneō

Where the word came from: whether its first element is the word for hunting or the word for a field. The question is historical only, since both sides agree on what the verb meant by the New Testament period.

  • minorityThe ancient and traditional derivation joins ἀγρέω or ἄγρα, to hunt or the hunt, to ὕπνος, sleep, yielding the image of chasing sleep away or pursuing sleep in vain.; Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament, on Hebrews 13:17
  • majorityModern etymological dictionaries derive ἄγρυπνος from ἀγρός, field, plus ὕπνος, sleep, on the pattern of ἄγραυλος, so that the base image is sleeping out in the open; the sense was later reshaped by association with ἀγρέω.; Hjalmar Frisk, Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, s.v. ἄγρυπνος; Pierre Chantraine, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque, s.v. ἄγρυπνος; Robert Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, s.v. ἄγρυπνος
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDAG (Bauer, Danker, Arndt, Gingrich), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., s.v. ἀγρυπνέωlexicon
  • Liddell, Scott and Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., s.v. ἀγρυπνέωlexicon
  • C. L. W. Grimm and J. H. Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. ἀγρυπνέωlexicon
  • G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), s.v. ἀγρυπνέωlexicon
  • J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, domain 23lexicon
  • Hjalmar Frisk, Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, s.v. ἄγρυπνοςlexicon
  • Pierre Chantraine, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque, s.v. ἄγρυπνοςlexicon
  • Robert Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, s.v. ἄγρυπνοςlexicon
  • J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament Illustrated from the Papyri and Other Non-Literary Sources, s.v. ἀγρυπνέωlexicon
  • James Barr, The Semantics of Biblical Language (Oxford, 1961)monograph
  • Moisés Silva, Biblical Words and Their Meaning: An Introduction to Lexical Semantics, rev. ed. (Zondervan, 1994)monograph
  • R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark, New International Greek Testament Commentarycommentary
  • Joel Marcus, Mark 8:27-16:8, Anchor Yale Bible 27Acommentary
  • Adela Yarbro Collins, Mark, Hermeneiacommentary
  • Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke X to XXIV, Anchor Bible 28Acommentary
  • John Nolland, Luke 18:35 to 24:53, Word Biblical Commentary 35Ccommentary
  • I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke, New International Greek Testament Commentarycommentary
  • Andrew T. Lincoln, Ephesians, Word Biblical Commentary 42commentary
  • Clinton E. Arnold, Ephesians, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testamentcommentary
  • Stephen E. Fowl, Ephesians, New Testament Librarycommentary
  • Ernest Best, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Ephesians, International Critical Commentarycommentary
  • Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Hermeneiacommentary
  • Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, New International Greek Testament Commentarycommentary
  • Craig R. Koester, Hebrews, Anchor Yale Bible 36commentary
  • William L. Lane, Hebrews 9 to 13, Word Biblical Commentary 47Bcommentary
  • Gareth Lee Cockerill, The Epistle to the Hebrews, New International Commentary on the New Testamentcommentary
  • Murray J. Harris, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, New International Greek Testament Commentarycommentary
  • Margaret E. Thrall, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, International Critical Commentarycommentary
  • John Chrysostom, Homily 34 on Hebrewsprimary-source

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of ἀγρυπνέω

present active imperative 2p

ἀγρυπνεῖτε

Mrk 13:33, Luk 21:36

present active indicative 3p

ἀγρυπνοῦσιν

Heb 13:17

present active participle nominative m p

ἀγρυπνοῦντες

Eph 6:18