StrongerBible

apothnēskō

ἀποθνήσκω

GreekG0599die, be dead

Appears 112 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 8:32Mat 9:24Mat 22:24Mat 22:27Mat 26:35Mrk 5:35Mrk 5:39Mrk 9:26Mrk 12:19Mrk 12:20Mrk 12:21Mrk 12:22Mrk 15:44Luk 8:42Luk 8:52Luk 8:53Luk 16:22 (2×)Luk 20:28Luk 20:29Luk 20:31Luk 20:36Jhn 4:47Jhn 4:49Jhn 6:49Jhn 6:50Jhn 6:58Jhn 8:21Jhn 8:24 (2×)Jhn 8:53Jhn 11:16Jhn 11:25Jhn 11:26Jhn 11:37Jhn 11:50Jhn 11:51Jhn 12:24 (2×)Jhn 12:33Jhn 18:14Jhn 18:32Jhn 19:7Jhn 21:23 (2×)Act 7:4Act 9:37Act 21:13Act 25:11Rom 5:7 (2×)Rom 5:15Rom 6:2Rom 6:7Rom 6:8
Compound of
Names & words formed with this
Word studyah-poth-NAY-skoverb

What apothnēskō means

to die: to come to the end of life, whether of the body, in sin, or to an old way of living.

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

At its core this verb names one thing: the end of life. The basic prefix on the front strengthens the plain word for dying, so it points to death as something completed, a person who has died rather than someone simply fading. Most of its uses are exactly that ordinary: people, animals, even sea creatures stop living.

What makes the word worth studying is how the New Testament writers, above all John and Paul, stretch this one plain word across more than one kind of death at once. The same verb that buries a body can describe a person who dies still cut off from God, or a believer who has died to an old master, or a seed that has to die in the ground before it can grow. The writers do this on purpose, often setting two kinds of death side by side in a single sentence so the reader feels the jolt.

So the senses below are not separate words. They are one idea, the ending of life, carried over from the body to a person's standing before God and to the picture of a seed. Where a verse balances physical dying against a deeper kind, that double force is usually the point, not an accident of translation.

Nuances

1ato die a physical death; of people, animals, or living things, to stop living.
Mat 9:24Mat 22:24Mat 22:27Mrk 5:35Mrk 5:39Mrk 9:26Mrk 12:19Mrk 12:20Mrk 12:21Mrk 12:22Mrk 15:44Luk 8:42
1bto die in a deeper, lasting sense: to perish in one's sins, the death from which trusting Christ delivers.
Jhn 6:50Jhn 8:21Jhn 8:24 (2×)Jhn 11:26Rom 5:15Rom 7:10(9)Rom 8:13
1cto die with Christ and so to die to sin, to the law, or to an old way of living; a death the believer has already undergone.
Rom 6:2Rom 6:7Rom 6:8Rom 6:10Rom 7:61Co 15:31Gal 2:19Col 2:20Col 3:3
1dto die as a seed dies in the ground: a death that is the necessary gateway to new life.
Jhn 12:24 (2×)1Co 15:36

What scholars say about apothnēskō

The standard lexicons (BDAG, LSJ) and the theological dictionaries (TDNT, EDNT, NIDNTT) treat this compound as the common New Testament verb for dying, the prefix giving a completed, perfective force (to die off) over against the simple verb. They group its uses along one line running from literal physical death, the great majority of its occurrences, to figurative and theological extensions. BDAG and EDNT note the distinctly Johannine and Pauline development: in John the word is set against eternal life so that physical death and the death of unbelief are played against each other (notably John 11:25 to 26), and in Paul the believer has died with Christ and so died to sin and to the law (Romans 6 to 7, Galatians 2:19 to 20, Colossians 2:20 to 3:3). These are widely held to be deliberate extensions of the one verb, not separate words. There is no significant dispute over the word's basic meaning; the live questions belong to the theology of the passages (death in Adam, dying to sin, the deeper death) rather than to the lexical sense of the verb.

Sources

  • BDAG (Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich), s.v. ἀποθνῄσκωlexicon
  • LSJ (Liddell-Scott-Jones), s.v. ἀποθνῄσκωlexicon
  • Rudolf Bultmann, "θάνατος, θνῄσκω, ἀποθνῄσκω," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 3:7-25dictionary
  • L. Coenen and others, "Death," in New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (NIDNTT) 1:429-447dictionary
  • W. Bieder, "ἀποθνῄσκω," in Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (EDNT) 1:130-131dictionary
  • C. E. B. Cranfield, The Epistle to the Romans, ICC (1975)commentary
  • Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John, Anchor Bible (1966-1970)commentary

All attested forms of ἀποθνήσκω

second-aorist active indicative 3s

ἀπέθανεν

Mat 9:24, Mat 22:27, Mrk 5:35, Mrk 5:39, Mrk 9:26, Mrk 12:21, Mrk 12:22, Mrk 15:44

second-aorist active infinitive

ἀποθανεῖν

Mat 26:35, Luk 16:22, Luk 20:36, Jhn 4:49, Jhn 18:14, Jhn 19:7, Act 7:4, Act 9:37

second-aorist active subjunctive 3s

ἀποθάνῃ

Mat 22:24, Mrk 12:19, Luk 20:28, Jhn 6:50, Jhn 11:25, Jhn 11:26, Jhn 11:37, Jhn 11:50

second-aorist active indicative 3p

ἀπέθανον

Mat 8:32, Luk 20:31, Jhn 6:49, Jhn 6:58, Jhn 8:53, Rom 5:15, 2Co 5:14, Heb 11:13

present active indicative 3s

ἀποθνῄσκει

Jhn 21:23, Jhn 21:23, Rom 6:9, Rom 14:7, Heb 10:28

present active infinitive

ἀποθνῄσκειν

Jhn 4:47, Jhn 11:51, Jhn 12:33, Jhn 18:32, Rom 8:13

future middle indicative 2p

ἀποθανεῖσθε

Jhn 8:21, Jhn 8:24, Jhn 8:24

present active participle nominative m p

ἀποθνῄσκοντες

2Co 6:9, Heb 7:8, Rev 14:13

second-aorist active participle nominative m s

ἀποθανὼν

Rom 6:7, Rom 8:34, Heb 11:4

present active indicative 1p

ἀποθνῄσκομεν

Rom 14:8, 1Co 15:32

present active participle nominative m s

ἀποθνῄσκων

Mrk 12:20, Heb 11:21

present active subjunctive 1p

ἀποθνῄσκωμεν

Rom 14:8, Rom 14:8

second-aorist active indicative 1p

ἀπεθάνομεν

Rom 6:2, Rom 6:8

second-aorist active indicative 1s

ἀπέθανον

Rom 7:10, Gal 2:19

second-aorist active indicative 2p

ἀπεθάνετε

Col 2:20, Col 3:3

future middle indicative 3s

ἀποθανεῖται

Rom 5:7

imperfect active indicative 3s

ἀπέθνῃσκεν

Luk 8:42

present active indicative 1s

ἀποθνῄσκω

1Co 15:31

present active indicative 3p

ἀποθνῄσκουσιν

1Co 15:22

second-aorist active participle dative m s

ἀποθανόντι

2Co 5:15

second-aorist active participle genitive m s

ἀποθανόντος

1Th 5:10

second-aorist active participle nominative m p

ἀποθανόντες

Rom 7:6

second-aorist active participle nominative n p

ἀποθανόντα

Jud 1:12

second-aorist active subjunctive 1p

ἀποθάνωμεν

Jhn 11:16