StrongerBible

anepilēptos

ἀνεπίληπτος

GreekG0423“above reproach, blameless, ...”

Appears 3 times · tap a cell to see the verses

1Ti 3:21Ti 5:71Ti 6:14
Compound of
Alphaα, ἈλφαAlpha4G1
epilambanōἐπιλαμβάνωto catch19G1949
Word studyResearch-gradean-eh-PEE-lep-tosadjective

What anepilēptos means

above reproach: so upright in public life that no fair accusation can find anything to grab hold of

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

The word paints a picture: a critic reaches out to accuse this person and finds nothing to grip. It is built from a verb meaning to seize or lay hold of, with a "not" fixed in front, so at root it means "not able to be grabbed." In everyday Greek it described a public figure, a general or a magistrate, whose conduct gave enemies no material for a charge, and it was even used of legal contracts so airtight they could not be overturned.

That background matters, because this is not a claim of flawless private perfection. It is about how a life holds up under public scrutiny: whether an opponent examining it can find a legitimate opening for accusation. In 1 Timothy the word carries the weight of leadership. It is the leading requirement for a church overseer (3:2), summing up all the qualities that follow. It is the standard the widows and the wider church are urged to meet so that outsiders have nothing to fault (5:7). And it is how Timothy is to keep his charge until Christ appears (6:14).

Across those three uses the courtroom quietly grows. In the first two, the judges are neighbors and outsiders watching the church. In the last, the judge is Christ himself at his return. The word stays the same; the one doing the examining changes.

1Ti 3:21Ti 5:71Ti 6:14

Disputed

How much of the word's underlying image, a life that gives an opponent no handle to grab, should be pressed: whether it makes a pointed claim about being publicly invulnerable to accusation, or functions more loosely as a heading for the good character expected of a leader in the moral literature of the wider Greek world.

  • majorityIt retains a strong public and forensic force: the leader's life must offer critics no legitimate opening for accusation, as a respected public figure's did.; C. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. ἀνεπίληπτος; George W. Knight III, The Pastoral Epistles (NIGTC); William D. Mounce, Pastoral Epistles (WBC 46)
  • minorityIt is chiefly a conventional virtue-heading borrowed from Hellenistic lists describing the ideal leader, without a sharp accusation-and-scrutiny edge.; Dibelius and Conzelmann, The Pastoral Epistles (Hermeneia); Luke Timothy Johnson, The First and Second Letters to Timothy (Anchor Bible)

Whether this word differs in meaning from its close relative ἀνέγκλητος ("without charge"), which Paul uses of deacons and of elders, or whether he treats the two as interchangeable labels for the same requirement.

  • majorityThey are effectively interchangeable headings for parallel qualification lists, and the variation is a matter of style.; I. Howard Marshall, The Pastoral Epistles (ICC); George W. Knight III, The Pastoral Epistles (NIGTC); Philip H. Towner, The Letters to Timothy and Titus (NICNT)
  • minorityThey keep a real distinction: ἀνέγκλητος is the strictly courtroom term (no charge has been lodged), while this word is broader and stronger, implying a life that gives no handle at all and is deservedly of good report.; R. C. Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament, §ciii; Moulton and Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, s.v. ἀνεπίληπτος

What scholars say about anepilēptos

The word is a verbal adjective of ἐπιλαμβάνω ("to lay hold of, seize") with the alpha-privative, so its root sense is "not able to be laid hold of." A scholiast on Thucydides glossed it as providing no starting point for an accusation, and Plutarch's phrase about not wishing to give a handle captures the same image. LSJ tracks three registers: military ("not open to attack," Thucydides 5.17), moral ("blameless," Euripides, Orestes 922; Xenophon, Cyropaedia 1.2.15), and legal ("unassailable," of contracts). The Ptolemaic papyri (P.Taur. 1.7.15; P.Teb. 5.48) use it of contracts that cannot be cancelled and of persons not liable to prosecution. On that basis Moulton-Milligan and Abbott-Smith judge it stronger than ἄμεμπτος or ἀνέγκλητος, implying a person not only of good report but deservedly so. BDAG and Louw-Nida render it more neutrally ("beyond reproach," "without fault"), a flattening of the forensic image that Spicq, EDNT, and most recent commentators resist. Its sole Septuagint-corpus occurrence, 3 Maccabees 5:31, describes loyal Jews against whom no legitimate charge can be laid. In 1 Timothy it heads the overseer's qualifications (3:2), sets the goal for the widows and the wider church (5:7), and at 6:14 shifts the measure from present human scrutiny to Christ's appearing.

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, s.v. ἀνεπίληπτοςlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. ἀνεπίληπτοςlexicon
  • C. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. ἀνεπίληπτοςlexicon
  • Moulton and Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, s.v. ἀνεπίληπτοςlexicon
  • Balz and Schneider, Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (EDNT), s.v. ἀνεπίληπτοςtheological-dictionary
  • R. C. Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament, §ciiireference
  • I. Howard Marshall, The Pastoral Epistles (ICC)commentary
  • William D. Mounce, Pastoral Epistles (WBC 46)commentary
  • Philip H. Towner, The Letters to Timothy and Titus (NICNT)commentary
  • George W. Knight III, The Pastoral Epistles (NIGTC)commentary
  • Dibelius and Conzelmann, The Pastoral Epistles (Hermeneia)commentary

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

All attested forms of ἀνεπίληπτος

accusative f s

ἀνεπίλημπτον

1Ti 6:14

accusative m s

ἀνεπίλημπτον

1Ti 3:2

nominative m p

ἀνεπίλημπτοι

1Ti 5:7