StrongerBible

aphoraō

ἀφοράω

GreekG0872“looking to, see”

Appears 2 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Php 2:23Heb 12:2
Compound of
apoἀπόaway from684G575
horaōὁράωto see: see61G3708
Word studyResearch-gradeaf-or-AH-ohverb

What aphoraō means

1

to fix one's eyes on someone: to look toward a single object with concentrated attention, turning away from all else

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

This is the word behind the famous call in Hebrews to run the race of faith while "fixing our eyes on Jesus." It is built from a common verb for seeing plus a prefix meaning "away from," so at full strength it pictures a runner who pulls his gaze off everything else and locks it onto a single figure ahead. Whether that "away from" idea is fully active here, or the word simply means intense, undivided attention, is debated; but either way the picture is the same: one object holds the whole of the runner's focus.

The closest parallels outside the Bible make the image vivid. A Jewish martyr text praises those who endured torture "looking to God," and the Greek teacher Epictetus described the true philosopher as one who acts in everything, great and small, while "looking to God." A near neighbor in Greek, ἀτενίζω, describes the same kind of fixed stare; this word adds the note of deliberately turning away from all else onto that one object.

Heb 12:2
Heb 12:2

Whether the prefix meaning "away from" carries real "look away from everything else" force in Hebrews 12:2, or is merely intensive, so that the exclusion is supplied only by the surrounding imagery.

  • contestedThe directional force is active: the verb urges believers to look away from every rival and hindrance and fix the gaze on Jesus alone, deliberately paired with the earlier participle "having laid aside" every weight.; Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 1:244-46; Peter T. O'Brien, The Letter to the Hebrews (Pillar), 452-54; Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews (NIGTC), 640-43; F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews (NICNT), 336-39
  • contestedThe prefix is effectively neutralized: the verb signals intense concentration on Jesus, and any "away from" flavor comes from the context rather than the word itself.; Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Hermeneia), 355-58; Craig R. Koester, Hebrews (Anchor Bible 36), 521-24; Luke Timothy Johnson, Hebrews (New Testament Library), 316-19
2

to see how a situation turns out: to wait and find out how things will go

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

In Paul's letter to the Philippians the same verb has cooled into an everyday expression. Paul says he will send Timothy "as soon as I see how things go with me," meaning he is waiting for his imprisonment to resolve before he acts. There is no special force to the prefix here; the word simply means to watch and find out how a situation will end.

This ordinary use was common in the Greek of the period. The Greek Old Testament uses the same verb of Jonah sitting down outside Nineveh "until he might see what would happen to the city." The wording is almost identical to Paul's, which shows how natural and unremarkable the expression was.

Php 2:23

What scholars say about aphoraō

ἀφοράω is a transparent compound of ἀπό ("away from") and ὁράω ("see"), and its two New Testament occurrences sit at opposite ends of one wide range. LSJ gives the primary sense "look away from all others at one, have in view," bundling classical authors with Hebrews 12:2. BDAG splits the two uses into distinct senses: "to fix one's eyes trustingly on" (Hebrews) and "to determine on the basis of facts observed, see, know" (Philippians); Louw-Nida likewise separate them across semantic domains. Michaelis (TDNT) and EDNT hold that the ἀπό force is often weakened in Hellenistic usage but is contextually revived in Hebrews 12:2 by the athletic imagery and the preceding participle ἀποθέμενοι; Spicq (TLNT) and NIDNTTE press the directional "turn the gaze away from every other object" reading for Hebrews. Commentators divide along a spectrum: O'Brien, Spicq, Bruce, Ellingworth, Cockerill, and deSilva keep the "away from" force, while Attridge, Koester, and Johnson treat the prefix as intensive only; almost none read the verse as urging believers to look away from the cloud of witnesses. The decisive parallel for Hebrews is 4 Maccabees 17:10 (εἰς Θεὸν ἀφορῶντες, "looking to God," in an athletic-martyr epitaph), with close Stoic analogues in Epictetus, Discourses 2.19.29 and 3.24.16. For Philippians 2:23 the modern verdict is nearly unanimous that ἀφίδω is ordinary Hellenistic Greek for "see how things turn out," its closest parallel being Jonah 4:5 LXX ("until he might see what would happen to the city"); an older minority (Kennedy, and more mildly O'Brien and Bockmuehl) keeps a faint directional flavor. The reading ἀφίδω (aspirated) over ἀπίδω is an orthographic matter treated by BDF as analogical aspiration, not a semantic issue.

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

  • Walter Bauer, F. W. Danker et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (BDAG), 3rd ed., 158lexicon
  • Liddell, Scott, Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (LSJ), 9th ed., s.v. ἀφοράωlexicon
  • Wilhelm Michaelis, "ὁράω κτλ.," Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT), 5:315-82dictionary
  • Horst Balz, Gerhard Schneider, Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (EDNT), 1:183dictionary
  • Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (TLNT), 1:244-46lexicon
  • Peter T. O'Brien, The Letter to the Hebrews (Pillar), 452-54commentary
  • Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Hermeneia), 355-58commentary
  • William L. Lane, Hebrews 9-13 (WBC 47B), 408-13commentary
  • Gordon D. Fee, Paul's Letter to the Philippians (NICNT), 269-71commentary
  • John Reumann, Philippians (Anchor Yale Bible 33B), 435-37commentary
  • Victor C. Pfitzner, Paul and the Agon Motif (NovTSup 16), 82-86, 195-200monograph

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

All attested forms of ἀφοράω

present active participle nominative m p

ἀφορῶντες

Heb 12:2

second-aorist active subjunctive 1s

ἀφίδω

Php 2:23