StrongerBible

gemizō

γεμίζω

GreekG1072fill, fill up, ...

Appears 8 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mrk 4:37Mrk 15:36Luk 14:23Jhn 2:7 (2×)Jhn 6:13Rev 8:5Rev 15:8
Root family
Word studygheh-MID-zohverb

What gemizō means

to fill something up: to put contents into a container or space until it will hold no more

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This is the ordinary Greek verb for filling a container, and what goes into the container is always something you could see or touch: water in stone jars, sour wine in a sponge, burning coals in a censer, leftover bread in baskets. The word never reaches for anything grander, which is why it belongs to scenes of ordinary work rather than to the New Testament's language about people being filled with the Spirit.

Its close relative γέμω reports the finished state, that a thing is full. This verb reports the event that gets it there. It usually names both the container and what is going into it, and it puts the reader in the moment when the level is rising.

When no one is said to be doing the filling, the sentence simply watches a space reach capacity: the storm driving waves into the boat in Mark 4:37, the master sending his servant out to the roads until the house is full in Luke 14:23, smoke pouring into the heavenly temple in Revelation 15:8. What matters in those verses is not the hand doing the work but that the container is being brought to its limit.

Nuances

1asomeone fills a container: water poured into jars, fire scooped into a censer, scraps packed into baskets
Mrk 15:36Jhn 2:7 (2×)Jhn 6:13Rev 8:5
1ba vessel or space fills up, with the focus on it reaching capacity rather than on who is filling it
Mrk 4:37Luk 14:23Rev 15:8

What scholars say about gemizō

γεμίζω is the causative formation built on the stative γέμω, and in classical and Hellenistic Greek its home domain is nautical and commercial: to load a ship or a pack animal, a use preserved in the cognate noun γόμος, cargo. LSJ documents the loading sense from Herodotus onward, and BDAG keeps the container-and-contents frame as the word's defining construction in the New Testament, with the material supplied either in the genitive (Mark 15:36; John 2:7; John 6:13; Revelation 15:8) or with ἐκ (Revelation 8:5). All eight New Testament instances are concrete, and the lexica record no figurative extension, in contrast to πίμπλημι and πληρόω, both of which develop inward and temporal senses; EDNT notes the same restriction. A Byzantine variant at Luke 15:16 reads this verb (γεμίσαι τὴν κοιλίαν αὐτοῦ) where the critical text has χορτασθῆναι, which is why that verse does not appear among the attested occurrences here. Septuagint usage is sparse and follows the same concrete pattern.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. γεμίζωlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. γεμίζωlexicon
  • EDNT, s.v. γεμίζωtheological-dictionary
  • Louw and Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, s.v. γεμίζωlexicon

All attested forms of γεμίζω

aorist active indicative 3p

ἐγέμισαν

Jhn 2:7, Jhn 6:13

aorist active imperative 2p

γεμίσατε

Jhn 2:7

aorist active indicative 3s

ἐγέμισεν

Rev 8:5

aorist active participle nominative m s

γεμίσας

Mrk 15:36

aorist passive indicative 3s

ἐγεμίσθη

Rev 15:8

aorist passive subjunctive 3s

γεμισθῇ

Luk 14:23

present passive infinitive

γεμίζεσθαι

Mrk 4:37