all, without exception: the complete number of persons or things, or a single thing in its entirety
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
This is a strengthened form of the ordinary Greek word for "all," πᾶς. The two are close to interchangeable in the New Testament, and translations render both simply as "all." The difference is mostly one of emphasis: this word gathers up a group or a thing and insists that nothing and no one is left out.
Its exact English word shifts with what it describes:
With a group of people or things, it means "all" of them counted one by one: everyone in a crowd, all the things in view.
With a single thing taken as one mass, it means "the whole" or "the entire": the whole crowd, the whole region, all of a person's patience.
The underlying idea is the same in both cases, namely completeness. English just needs a different word ("all" versus "the whole") depending on whether the total is a set of individuals or one undivided thing.
Nuances
1aall, everyone, everything: the totality of a group counted as individuals
It is the strengthened form of the common word for "all," stressing that literally everyone is included and none is left out.Act 16:28Jas 3:2
Both
Both simply gather a group into one total: everyone in view, without listing them.Mrk 1:27
Only all
Plain English "all" can sound loose or approximate, as in "all sorts" or "all kinds"; this word insists on genuine completeness.
“everyone”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“everything”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“whole”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“all things”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How hapas differs from similar Greek words
πᾶςthe ordinary, everyday word for "all, every"; this word is its strengthened form, used for emphasis and often preferred right after a word ending in a consonant.
Sums up a crowd as one undivided whole, the entire company taken together rather than counted person by person, as in "the whole multitude".Luk 8:37Luk 23:1
Gathers a group's response into a single sweep, "they were all filled", "they were all amazed", casting the whole company as acting as one body.Act 4:31Luk 5:26Mrk 1:27
Both
The two are plain synonyms for total inclusion, used of the very same objects in a single breath: one verse says the Gentiles seek all these things and the Father knows you need all these things, once with each word.Mat 6:32
They stand together in one sentence with a natural division of labor, the strengthened form for the whole taken together and the ordinary form for each part: go into all the world and preach to every creature.Mrk 16:15
Reaches down to the single member of a class, "every tree", "every word", "every one that asks", viewing the group one item at a time rather than only as a mass.Mat 3:10Mat 4:4Mat 7:8
Is the ordinary, all-purpose word the New Testament reaches for by default, carrying "all" through sweeping statements and set phrases alike in places where the strengthened form never appears.Mat 11:27Mat 12:31Mat 4:23
ὅλοςviews a thing as one complete whole ("the whole loaf"); this word instead sums up all the parts or individuals that make up the total.
hapas in the other biblical languages
כֹּלHebrew“all”the standard Hebrew word for totality, "all, every, the whole," covering the same ground across the Old Testament.
What scholars say about hapas
BDAG classifies ἅπας as a strengthened form of πᾶς, glossing it "whole, all, every" and organizing it by the same singular ("the whole, entire") versus plural ("all, everybody, everything") pattern used for πᾶς. Grammarians debate whether the alpha is intensive or merely a euphonic byform: BDF (§275) and Robertson note that in classical usage ἅπας was felt as more emphatic and was preferred after a consonant for sound, but that in Koine the two forms are largely interchangeable, with manuscripts often varying between them. The word is concentrated in Luke and Acts (about two thirds of its occurrences), consistent with those authors' more literary register. There is no dispute over the word's meaning; the only scholarly question concerns the degree of emphasis it retains over πᾶς.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. ἅπαςlexicon
F. Blass, A. Debrunner, R. W. Funk, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, §275grammar
A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, pp. 771-772grammar