StrongerBible

apagō

ἀπάγω

GreekG0520led away, take, ...

Appears 17 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 7:13Mat 7:14Mat 26:57Mat 27:2Mat 27:31Mrk 14:44Mrk 14:53Mrk 15:16Luk 13:15Luk 21:12Luk 22:66Luk 23:26Jhn 19:16Act 12:19Act 23:17Act 24:71Co 12:2
Compound of
Names & words formed with this
Word studyah-PAH-gohverb

What apagō means

to lead or take away: to conduct a person or thing from one place to another, often under compulsion

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

ἀπάγω joins the everyday verb for leading or bringing, ἄγω, to a prefix meaning "away," so its plain sense is to lead someone or something off from where they are to somewhere else. The picture is of conducting, marching, or drawing a person along, with the one leading in control.

In the Gospels it is almost a fixed word of the Passion. Jesus is "led away" from one authority to the next: to the high priest, to Pilate, and finally out to be crucified. The same verb covers the whole grim procession, so following it through the trial scenes traces the path from arrest to cross.

Away from that setting the word is quieter. A farmer unties his ox and leads it off to water. A road is said to "lead" to destruction or to life, the path itself carrying the traveler to its end. And once it turns inward: before they knew Christ, Paul reminds the Corinthians, they were "carried away" to voiceless idols, swept along into worship they did not choose, close to what πλανάω names when it speaks of being deceived.

Nuances

1ato march a person off, especially a prisoner led into custody or brought before an authority
TranslatabilityDirect
Mat 26:57Mat 27:2Mrk 14:44Mrk 14:53Mrk 15:16Luk 21:12Luk 22:66Act 23:17Act 24:7
1bto lead someone off to be put to death
Mat 27:31Luk 23:26Jhn 19:16Act 12:19
1cto lead an animal away, as to water or pasture
TranslatabilityDirect
Luk 13:15
1d(of a road) to run toward and deliver the traveler to a destination
TranslatabilityDirect
Mat 7:13Mat 7:14
1eto be swept along into error, carried away after false gods
1Co 12:2

What scholars say about apagō

The lexica treat ἀπάγω as a straightforward compound of ἄγω with the separative prefix ἀπό, "to lead away, carry off." BDAG distinguishes a general sense of leading or bringing (Luke 13:15; the road of Matt 7:13-14) from the frequent judicial use of leading a prisoner away to trial or punishment, and notes the absolute use for leading off to execution in Acts 12:19, a usage well attested in the documentary papyri (Moulton-Milligan). LSJ documents the same range across classical and Hellenistic Greek, including "lead away to prison or to execution" and the intransitive "lead to" of a road. Louw and Nida separate the arrest usage from the general "lead, bring" in distinct semantic domains. The passive participle in 1 Cor 12:2 ("carried away to idols") is widely read as being led or swept along, with some commentators hearing an overtone of the seizure felt in pagan cult.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. ἀπάγωlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. ἀπάγωlexicon
  • Louw & Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domainslexicon
  • Moulton & Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testamentlexicon
  • TDNT, s.v. ἄγω (F. Büchsel)dictionary

All attested forms of ἀπάγω

second-aorist active indicative 3p

ἀπήγαγον

Mat 26:57, Mat 27:2, Mat 27:31, Mrk 14:53, Mrk 15:16, Luk 22:66, Luk 23:26, Jhn 19:16

present active participle nominative f s

ἀπάγουσα

Mat 7:13, Mat 7:14

aorist passive infinitive

ἀπαχθῆναι

Act 12:19

present active imperative 2p

ἀπάγετε

Mrk 14:44

present passive participle accusative m p

ἀπαγομένους

Luk 21:12

present passive participle nominative m p

ἀπαγόμενοι

1Co 12:2

second-aorist active imperative 2s

ἀπάγαγε

Act 23:17

second-aorist active indicative 3s

ἀπήγαγε

Act 24:7

second-aorist active participle nominative m s

ἀπαγαγὼν

Luk 13:15