StrongerBible

deigmatizō

δειγματίζω

GreekG1165“expose, disgrace, ...”

Appears 2 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 1:19Col 2:15
Names & words formed with this
Word studyResearch-gradedayg-mat-EE-zoverb

What deigmatizō means

to expose someone to public view in a way that brings shame: to hold a person, or a defeated enemy, up as an open spectacle

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

At heart this is a verb of public exhibition. It puts someone on display before others, and the display is not neutral: it holds the person up to shame. How heavy that shame is depends on who is being exposed and why, so the word draws its exact force from its setting rather than carrying a fixed emotional weight of its own.

The two places it appears in the New Testament show that range. In Matthew, Joseph does not want to do this to Mary: exposing her publicly would have meant open disgrace, whether through a formal accusation before the community or plain social humiliation. In Colossians, God puts the defeated spiritual powers on open display, showing them off as beaten enemies for all to see.

One caution about the imagery. The word itself does not mean a Roman victory parade. In Colossians that vivid picture of a conqueror marching captives through the streets comes from a neighboring word, while this verb only supplies the idea of exposing someone to open view. Ancient business documents, rediscovered in the last century, show that it was ordinary Greek rather than a Christian invention, and could even mean plainly to certify or record goods, though the New Testament always uses it of shaming exposure.

Nuances

1ato hold a person up to public shame by exposing them, especially their alleged wrongdoing
Mat 1:19
1bto put a defeated enemy on open display as a public spectacle of their defeat
Col 2:15
Col 2:15

Whether the verb in Colossians 2:15 denotes the shameful public display of the defeated powers, colored by the triumphal-procession imagery of the following verb, or a neutral public proclamation carrying no note of shame.

  • majorityIt exposes the defeated powers to public shame, presenting them as conquered enemies put on open display, with the accompanying triumph-word supplying the victory-parade picture.; Peter T. O'Brien, Colossians, Philemon (Word Biblical Commentary 44), pp. 126-32; Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (Pillar), pp. 212-15; Roy Yates, 'Colossians 2:15: Christ Triumphant,' New Testament Studies 37 (1991) 573-91
  • minorityIt means simply to make known or publicize, with the accompanying triumph-word also read as "proclaim," so no shame is implied.; Rory B. Egan, 'Lexical Evidence on Two Pauline Passages,' Novum Testamentum 19 (1977) 34-62

What scholars say about deigmatizō

δειγματίζω is a rare Koine verb, attested only twice in the New Testament (Matthew 1:19; Colossians 2:15) and absent from the Septuagint, which uses the older compound παραδειγματίζω. Once judged a Christian coinage (Thayer), it was rehabilitated by documentary papyri catalogued in Moulton and Milligan, which show a spread from neutral administrative usage (furnish a sample, certify, register) to plain public disgrace (BGU I.246). The lexicographical near-consensus (BDAG p. 214; Louw-Nida semantic domain 25.R, Shame and Disgrace) glosses it "expose publicly, hold up as an example, disgrace," treating it as a general verb of public exhibition whose shaming force is set by object and context. In Matthew 1:19 the reading δειγματίσαι is preferred over the assimilated compound παραδειγματίσαι (Metzger); commentators divide over whether Joseph avoids a formal legal accusation (Davies-Allison; France; Nolland) or Mary's personal humiliation (Keener; Luz; Hagner), a distinction first-century honor-shame culture largely dissolves. In Colossians 2:15 the dominant reading sets ἐδειγμάτισεν within the imagery of a Roman triumph supplied by the accompanying verb θριαμβεύω (Lohse; O'Brien; Moo; Dunn; Wright; Yates), while Barth and Blanke caution that δειγματίζω itself lies outside triumph vocabulary, and Egan's minority proposal to read the pair as neutral publicity was largely rebutted (Hafemann; Marshall). The cognate παραδειγματίζω (Hebrews 6:6), rooted in Septuagint exposure texts (Numbers 25:4; Jeremiah 13:22; Ezekiel 28:17), sharpens the note of public, deterrent shame.

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

  • BDAG (Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich), s.v. δειγματίζω, p. 214lexicon
  • J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, pp. 137-38lexicon
  • J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, domain 25.Rlexicon
  • Roy Yates, 'Colossians 2:15: Christ Triumphant,' New Testament Studies 37 (1991) 573-91journal-article
  • Rory B. Egan, 'Lexical Evidence on Two Pauline Passages,' Novum Testamentum 19 (1977) 34-62journal-article
  • Peter T. O'Brien, Colossians, Philemon (Word Biblical Commentary 44), pp. 126-32commentary
  • W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew (International Critical Commentary), vol. 1, pp. 202-4commentary
  • Craig S. Keener, A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, pp. 91-93commentary
  • Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Hermeneia), pp. 168-72commentary

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

All attested forms of δειγματίζω

aorist active indicative 3s

ἐδειγμάτισεν

Col 2:15

aorist active infinitive

δειγματίσαι

Mat 1:19