StrongerBible

apataō

ἀπατάω

GreekG0538“deceive, mislead”

Appears 3 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Eph 5:61Ti 2:14Jas 1:26
Root family
Names & words formed with this
Word studyResearch-gradea-pa-TAH-ohverb

What apataō means

to deceive: to lead a person into a false belief or a wrong course by misrepresentation

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

At its core this verb means to lead someone into error: to make a person believe or do the wrong thing by giving them a false picture of reality. From the oldest Greek writers onward it named trickery in war, in the law courts, and in persuasive speech, and the New Testament keeps that plain sense. What sets it apart from a cold-blooded lie is its edge of enticement: the deceiving often works by making the false thing look attractive or true, so that the victim is drawn in rather than simply told an untruth.

The verb points in two directions. Usually one person leads another astray, as when someone deceives a congregation with empty words or when the serpent deceived Eve in the garden. But it can also be turned back on oneself: in James a person who talks piously while failing to control his speech deceives his own heart, holding a flattering but false view of his own religion.

The most-discussed occurrence is the statement that Adam "was not deceived" while the woman was (1 Timothy 2:14). The same passage uses a slightly longer form of the verb (ἐξαπατάω) for Eve, and older writers built a case that hers was a stronger or more complete deception. Most scholars today, across the range of views on the passage, judge that the two forms mean the same thing in this period and that the change is only a matter of style.

Nuances

1ato deceive another: to lead someone else into a false belief or wrong course
Eph 5:61Ti 2:14
1Ti 2:14

Whether the change from the shorter verb form used of Adam ("was not deceived") to the longer form used of Eve signals a real difference in meaning, or is merely stylistic.

  • majorityThe two forms are interchangeable in the Greek of this period, so the switch is stylistic and carries no difference in meaning; the shorter form used of Adam most likely echoes the Greek of Genesis 3:13.; A. Oepke, ἀπατάω, in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 1:384-385; I. Howard Marshall, The Pastoral Epistles (ICC, 1999), 462-466; A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament, 563
  • minorityThe longer form used of Eve intensifies the deception ("thoroughly deceived"), marking her experience as different from Adam's.; Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. ἐξαπατάω; C. J. Ellicott, The Pastoral Epistles of St. Paul, on 1 Timothy 2:14
1bto deceive oneself: to hold a flattering but false view of one's own standing
Jas 1:26

What scholars say about apataō

The verb ἀπατάω belongs to a word-group meaning "deceive, mislead, cheat" attested from Homer on, covering trickery in war and speech, forensic fraud, and (passively) mistaken judgment (LSJ). In the Hellenistic period the cognate noun ἀπάτη drifted toward "pleasure, enticing delight," a development stressed by Oepke (TDNT 1:384-385) and Spicq (TLNT 1:161-165) and codified as a distinct sense in BDAG; this seductive coloring is more at home in the noun than in the three verb occurrences treated here. In the Septuagint the verb chiefly renders פָּתָה (Exod 22:16; Judg 14:15; 16:5; Jer 20:7) and stands at Genesis 3:13 (ἠπάτησέν με), opening the Eden intertext that Paul echoes. A once-common claim that the compound ἐξαπατάω means "deceive thoroughly" (Thayer; Ellicott) is rejected by current grammar and lexicography: BDF, Robertson (Grammar, 563), Oepke, and Louw-Nida treat simplex and compound as interchangeable in Koine. On 1 Timothy 2:14 this equivalence is now affirmed across both complementarian (Knight, NIGTC) and egalitarian (Marshall, ICC; Towner, NICNT; Perriman, TynBul 44 [1993]) scholarship, so the simplex used of Adam and the compound used of Eve are taken as stylistic variants, with the simplex most likely echoing the Greek of Genesis 3:13. James 1:26 (ἀπατῶν καρδίαν αὐτοῦ) is distinctive for its reflexive self-deception, read within Jewish wisdom's discourse of self-examination (Johnson, AB 37A, 210-211).

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

  • Danker, BDAG, s.v. ἀπατάω and ἀπάτηlexicon
  • Liddell-Scott-Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. ἀπατάωlexicon
  • A. Oepke, ἀπατάω, ἀπάτη, in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 1:384-385theological-dictionary
  • C. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (TLNT) 1:161-165theological-dictionary
  • M. Silva, ed., New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis (NIDNTTE), s.v. ἀπατάωtheological-dictionary
  • A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, 563, 596, 826grammar
  • I. Howard Marshall, The Pastoral Epistles (ICC, 1999), 462-466commentary
  • George W. Knight III, The Pastoral Epistles (NIGTC, 1992)commentary
  • Luke Timothy Johnson, The Letter of James (AB 37A, 1995), 210-211commentary
  • Andrew Perriman, What Eve Did, Tyndale Bulletin 44 (1993): 129-142article

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

All attested forms of ἀπατάω

aorist passive indicative 3s

ἠπατήθη

1Ti 2:14

present active imperative 3s

ἀπατάτω

Eph 5:6

present active participle nominative m s

ἀπατῶν

Jas 1:26