StrongerBible

aparneomai

ἀπαρνέομαι

GreekG0533“deny, disown”

Appears 11 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 16:24Mat 26:34Mat 26:35Mat 26:75Mrk 8:34Mrk 14:30Mrk 14:31Mrk 14:72Luk 12:9Luk 22:34Luk 22:61
Compound of
apoἀπόaway from684G575
arneomaiἀρνέομαιto deny33G720
Word studyResearch-gradeah-par-NEH-oh-mighverb

What aparneomai means

to disown: to state publicly that you have nothing to do with a person, whether someone else or yourself

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This word is not mainly about denying that something is true. It is about a relationship. Used of a person, it means announcing out loud that you have no tie to them: I do not know him, he is nothing to me. That is why English versions often prefer "disown" here over the older "deny".

In the Gospels it shows up in only two settings, and they mirror each other. Jesus warns Peter that he will disown him before the rooster crows, and Peter swears he never will. Jesus also tells anyone who wants to follow him to do this very thing to himself first. The follower is to say of his own self what Peter would soon say of Jesus: I have nothing to do with him.

That second use is the one most easily misheard. It is not about going without comforts. It is about giving up the right to run your own life and handing that authority over to Jesus. The words that come next, taking up the cross, keep it from sounding mild.

The ordinary Greek word for saying no, ἀρνέομαι, ranges much wider: turning down a job, rejecting a teaching, denying a fact. This one stays inside the Gospels and stays on people. Its true opposite is ὁμολογέω, to acknowledge someone openly.

Nuances

1ato disown a person to their face or in public: to say you do not know them and have no tie to them
TranslatabilityApproximate
Mat 26:34Mat 26:35Mat 26:75Mrk 14:30Mrk 14:31Mrk 14:72Luk 22:34Luk 22:61
1bto be disowned by Jesus before God's angels: the answering refusal on the day of judgment
TranslatabilityApproximate
Luk 12:9
1cto renounce every claim on yourself: to treat your own wants and authority as no longer yours to obey
Mat 16:24Mrk 8:34

Disputed

Whether the prefix on this compound verb adds intensity, so that it means to disown utterly, or whether in the Greek of the New Testament it is used with no more force than the simple verb for denying.

  • majorityThe compound carries no added force in the New Testament. The two verbs stand in strictly parallel Gospel passages, alternate inside a single sentence at Luke 12:9, and trade places in the manuscript tradition at Luke 9:23 and John 13:38.; Heinrich Schlier, "ἀρνέομαι, ἀπαρνέομαι," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, 1:471; Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 1:199; James Hope Moulton and George Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, s.v. ἀπαρνέομαι
  • minorityThe prefix gives the verb a sense of completion, so the compound means to disown outright. The older lexical tradition reads it this way, and a minority argue that Mark's restriction of the compound to two scenes, and Luke's shift to it in the second half of Luke 12:9, look deliberate.; Joseph Henry Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. ἀπαρνέομαι; Herbert Weir Smyth, Greek Grammar, §1680

What scholars say about aparneomai

The lexica converge on a relational sense. Thayer glosses the verb "to affirm that one has no acquaintance or connection with someone"; Abbott-Smith gives "to refuse to recognize, to ignore"; Louw and Nida place the relevant sense in the domain of Association. LSJ traces the compound from Herodotus and Plato with the sense "deny utterly," including forensic use for denying an accusation, and notes its role in Aristotelian logic as the opposite of κατηγορεῖν. The single Septuagint instance, Isaiah 31:7, renders מָאַס of Israel disowning its silver idols, though LSJ marks that form textually doubtful. On the compound's force, Schlier (TDNT 1:471) states that it "in no sense differs" from the simplex ἀρνέομαι, and Spicq (Theological Lexicon 1:199) argues the same from strictly parallel Synoptic texts; Moulton and Milligan reach that conclusion from the papyri and explicitly reject a distinction between Mark 8:34 and Mark 14:72. Against this, the older tradition (Cremer, Thayer's "utterly") and Smyth's grammar (§1680) on perfectivizing prefixes support a culminative reading, argued for Mark's usage by Larry Perkins, who concedes the minority position. On the discipleship saying, Yarbro Collins (Hermeneia) and Marcus (Anchor Yale) read it against persecution and the Roman cross, while France (NIGTC), Luz, and Davies and Allison read ἀπαρνησάσθω ἑαυτόν as a deliberate echo of Peter's later disowning; the ascetic reading of "deny yourself" is rejected across the modern commentary tradition as a later devotional overlay.

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

  • Heinrich Schlier, "ἀρνέομαι, ἀπαρνέομαι," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Gerhard Kittel, 1:469-471dictionary
  • Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 1:199lexicon
  • Walter Bauer, Frederick W. Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (BDAG), s.v. ἀπαρνέομαιlexicon
  • Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon (LSJ), s.v. ἀπαρνέομαιlexicon
  • Joseph Henry Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. ἀπαρνέομαιlexicon
  • James Hope Moulton and George Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament Illustrated from the Papyri and Other Non-Literary Sources, s.v. ἀπαρνέομαιlexicon
  • Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, domain 34 (Association)lexicon
  • Herbert Weir Smyth, Greek Grammar, §1680grammar
  • Adela Yarbro Collins, Mark, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007), on Mark 8:34commentary
  • Joel Marcus, Mark 8-16, Anchor Yale Bible 27A (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), on Mark 8:34commentary
  • R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), on Mark 8:34commentary
  • W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, ICC, on Matthew 16:24commentary
  • Ulrich Luz, Matthew 8-20, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001), on Matthew 16:24commentary
  • Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke I-IX, Anchor Bible 28 (New York: Doubleday, 1981), on Luke 9:23commentary

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

All attested forms of ἀπαρνέομαι

future middle indicative 2s

ἀπαρνήσῃ

Mat 26:34, Mat 26:75, Mrk 14:30, Mrk 14:72, Luk 22:61

aorist middle imperative 3s

ἀπαρνησάσθω

Mat 16:24, Mrk 8:34

future middle indicative 1s

ἀπαρνήσομαι

Mat 26:35, Mrk 14:31

aorist middle subjunctive 2s

ἀπαρνήσῃ

Luk 22:34

future passive indicative 3s

ἀπαρνηθήσεται

Luk 12:9