StrongerBible

analogizomai

ἀναλογίζομαι

GreekG0357“consider, weigh, ...”

Appears 1 time · tap a cell to see the verses

Heb 12:3
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeah-nah-log-IHD-zoh-myverb

What analogizomai means

to reckon something up in the mind: to weigh it point by point and set it against something else

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This is a bookkeeping word for the mind. It is built on the ordinary verb for reckoning or adding up a sum (λογίζομαι), and it means to draw up a mental account of something: to go back over it item by item, tally the total, and take that total into account before you act. Greek speakers still heard the counting-house in it, so it asks for deliberate mental work, not a passing thought.

In its one appearance, Hebrews 12:3, the reckoning is comparative. The readers are told to add up everything Jesus endured and set that sum beside their own weariness, so that their fatigue looks small next to his. The word sits inside a picture of a runner about to collapse, and it does the pivotal work of the sentence: once you have done the sums on what Christ bore, you find the strength not to give out.

Because the word blends three shades at once, no single English word carries it:

  • adding a total up, as in a ledger
  • weighing one thing against another on a scale
  • steady, deliberate reflection on what you have counted

"Consider" is the usual English choice, but it is the palest of the options; "weigh" and "compare" each catch a real part of what the word is doing.

Heb 12:3

Disputed

Which shade of the verb is uppermost in Hebrews 12:3: comparative (setting Christ's endurance beside the readers' own), calculative (weighing and tallying his sufferings point by point), or meditative (plain reflective "consider").

  • contestedComparative: the readers are to bring Christ's endurance into analogy with their own trials, placing their sufferings by the side of his.; James Moffatt, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (ICC, 1924), ad Heb 12:3; Marcus Dods, 'The Epistle to the Hebrews,' in The Expositor's Greek Testament, ad Heb 12:3
  • contestedCalculative: the verb leans on its accounting root, so the readers are to weigh and reckon up Christ's sufferings point by point, as on a balance-scale.; William L. Lane, Hebrews 9-13, WBC 47B (1991), ad Heb 12:3; B. F. Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews (1889), ad Heb 12:3; Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament, s.v. ἀναλογίζομαι
  • contestedMeditative: the verb here means plain reflective consideration, the comparative work being carried by the context rather than the word itself.; F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, rev. ed., NICNT (1990), ad Heb 12:3; Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Hermeneia (1989), ad Heb 12:3

What scholars say about analogizomai

LSJ files the verb primarily under "reckon up, sum up" and groups Heb 12:3 with that arithmetical sense (Plato Prot. 332d, Rep. 330e, 524d; Xen. Mem. 2.1.4), rather than the softer "consider." BDAG glosses "to give careful thought to, consider closely," and notes as unusual that Heb 12:3 takes an accusative of person; Louw-Nida places it in domain 30.9 with διαλογίζομαι ("think or reason with thoroughness"). Thayer distinguishes the accusative of thing ("ponder") from the accusative of person in Heb 12:3 ("consider by weighing, comparing"), the clearest lexical witness to a comparative reading. Moulton-Milligan, citing P. Tor. I.1 (116 BC) where the participle tallies regnal years, argue the arithmetical sense ("reckoned up," cf. λόγος = account) is the oldest for the whole group and remains audible in Hebrews, where ἀναλογίσασθε follows the "balancing" of the προκειμένη χαρά against the cost. TDNT has no dedicated article but Heidland's treatment of λογίζομαι (4:284-292) documents the family's twin roots in commercial reckoning and deliberative reasoning; EDNT treats the ἀνά- prefix as intensifying. Morphologically the compound is ἀνά + λογίζομαι, in the series with διαλογίζομαι, συλλογίζομαι, and παραλογίζομαι, correcting the older Strong's/Thayer derivation from the noun ἀναλογία. In the Septuagint the verb appears in Greek-composed apocrypha with an administrative-deliberative coloring: 3 Macc 7:7 (Ptolemy exonerates the Jews "having taken into account" their goodwill) and the A-text of 2 Macc 12:43 ("taking account of the resurrection"), both a reasoned reckoning grounding decisive action. Commentators divide into comparative (Moffatt, Delitzsch, Alford, Dods, Ellicott), calculative/weighing (Lane, Westcott, Moulton-Milligan), and meditative (Bruce and most moderns: Attridge, Koester, Cockerill, Johnson, O'Brien, deSilva, Ellingworth), though the three are better read as complementary facets of one precise verb than as rivals. Chrysostom (Hom. 28 on Hebrews), the leading native-Greek expositor, reads it comparatively.

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

  • Liddell, Scott, Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., s.v. ἀναλογίζομαιlexicon
  • Bauer-Danker (BDAG), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 3rd ed. (2000), p. 67, s.v. ἀναλογίζομαιlexicon
  • Joseph Henry Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. ἀναλογίζομαιlexicon
  • Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament, s.v. ἀναλογίζομαιlexicon
  • Louw and Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, domain 30.9lexicon
  • H. W. Heidland, 'λογίζομαι, λογισμός,' in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT), vol. 4, pp. 284-292dictionary
  • Balz and Schneider, eds., Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (EDNT), vol. 1, s.v. ἀναλογίζομαιdictionary
  • James Moffatt, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (ICC, 1924), ad Heb 12:3commentary
  • William L. Lane, Hebrews 9-13, WBC 47B (Dallas: Word, 1991), ad Heb 12:3commentary
  • B. F. Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews (London: Macmillan, 1889), ad Heb 12:3commentary
  • F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, rev. ed., NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), ad Heb 12:3commentary
  • Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993), ad Heb 12:3commentary

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

All attested forms of ἀναλογίζομαι

aorist middle imperative 2p

ἀναλογίσασθε

Heb 12:3