to make something known by telling it: to report, declare, or proclaim news or a message to others
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong
This verb belongs to the family of Greek words built on the picture of a messenger delivering word. It covers the whole act of putting something into speech for others to hear, whether that is fresh news of an event or a settled message meant to be handed on and believed. The prefix adds a faint sense of carrying the word up and out to the hearers, though in practice the verb works much like its close relatives and carries no special technical weight of its own.
Its range runs along a single line, from plain reporting to solemn proclaiming:
In the plainest use it simply reports what happened, as when travelers tell a gathering everything God had done through them, or a healed man tells the authorities who cured him.
It rises to formal proclamation when the thing announced is a message to be received, such as Paul declaring the whole plan of God, or the good news reaching people who had never heard of it.
Once it describes people openly disclosing their own past deeds as they turn to God.
It sits very close to ἀπαγγέλλω, which leans on carrying word back from a source, and to καταγγέλλω and κηρύσσω, which push further toward public heralding. In the Greek Old Testament this verb regularly stands in for the Hebrew verb נגד, "to tell or make known," which colors its use for the way God discloses himself and his purposes.
Nuances
1ato report or bring back news of what has happened
TranslatabilityDirect
Jhn 5:15Act 14:27Act 15:42Co 7:7
1bto proclaim or declare a message meant to be received, especially divine revelation or the good news
is always verbal telling, making a thing known in wordsJhn 16:13
Both
—
Only show
modern English "show" strongly suggests demonstrating or displaying something to the eye, a sense this verb never has, which is why the older "shew" now misleads
“report”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“tell”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“announce”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How anangellō differs from similar Greek words
ἀπαγγέλλωstresses carrying a report back from a source or errand, delivering word on someone's behalf; this word leans more toward announcing a message forward to the hearers.
Leans toward a full disclosure of what was hidden: the Spirit will make known what is to come (John 16:13), and Paul declares the whole counsel of God without holding anything back.Jhn 16:13Act 20:27
Used for giving a complete account of the mighty acts of God, rehearsing everything he has done.Act 14:27Act 15:4
Both
Both bring word so that something becomes known, and both are used to proclaim the Christian message itself, as in adjacent lines of John's opening.1Jn 1:51Jn 1:3
The ordinary verb for a messenger bringing word back to those who need it: the women run from the tomb to report to the disciples, and herdsmen flee to tell the town what happened.Mat 28:8Mrk 5:14
Carries a command to go and relay a message to a specific person: go and tell John what you have seen and heard.Mat 11:4Luk 7:22
καταγγέλλωa public, solemn proclamation heralded openly, almost always of the gospel; this word is broader and includes plain private report.
κηρύσσωto proclaim as a herald, the act of preaching aloud; this word is the wider verb of making known, not limited to heralding.
anangellō in the other biblical languages
נָגַדHebrew“to tell”the standard Hebrew verb for telling or making known that this Greek word regularly renders in the Greek Old Testament.
Carries word back to the people waiting for it: a messenger returning with a report of what has happened.Act 14:27Act 15:42Co 7:7Jhn 5:15
Covers the steady public work of teaching a whole message over time, not a single answer given on demand.Act 20:20Act 20:271Jn 1:5
Reaches hearers who never asked and had no way of knowing to ask, so the telling begins with the speaker rather than with a question.Rom 15:211Pe 1:12
Can be a person owning up in public, bringing their own past conduct out into the open.Act 19:18
Both
Both name a real speaker putting into a hearer's hands something the hearer does not yet have.Dan 2:16Jhn 4:25
Both are used for making known what God has done, told to an audience that did not see it.Dan 4:2Act 14:27
When Daniel's Aramaic was put into Greek, this Greek verb was the habitual choice for the Aramaic one, so both stand for the same act of announcing what a hearer could not find out alone.Dan 2:24Jhn 16:13
What gets told is always something unreachable: a dream nobody witnessed, its meaning, or writing nobody can read.Dan 2:4Dan 2:7Dan 5:7
Spoken under royal pressure, with rich reward for success and death for failure riding on the answer.Dan 2:6Dan 2:9Dan 5:15
It is the word of the flat human protest: no one on earth can do this, and only a god could.Dan 2:10Dan 2:11Dan 2:27
Names a rare recognized skill that marks a person out from the rest of the court.Dan 5:12Dan 2:24
What scholars say about anangellō
ἀναγγέλλω is a compound of ἀνά and ἀγγέλλω, standard prose for "to report, announce, proclaim" from classical Greek onward (LSJ). BDAG groups the New Testament uses in two: (1) to carry back word, report (Acts 14:27; 15:4; 2 Cor 7:7), and (2) to disclose, announce, proclaim, particularly of religious instruction and the gospel (Acts 20:20, 27; John 16:13-15; 1 John 1:5). In the Septuagint it frequently renders the Hebrew verb נגד and related verbs of telling, and this recurring equivalence shapes its use for God's self-disclosure and the announcing of his acts. Julius Schniewind's treatment of the ἀγγέλλω word-group in TDNT stresses that the compound carries no fixed technical force setting it apart from ἀπαγγέλλω or καταγγέλλω, the choice among the three being largely stylistic. Louw and Nida place it in the semantic domain of communication (33.198), "to announce, to make known."
Sources
BDAG, s.v. ἀναγγέλλωlexicon
LSJ, s.v. ἀναγγέλλωlexicon
J. Schniewind, "ἀγγελία, ἀγγέλλω, ἀναγγέλλω κτλ.," TDNT, vol. 1theological-dictionary
H. Balz and G. Schneider, EDNT, s.v. ἀναγγέλλωtheological-dictionary
J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 33.198lexicon