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diaphthora

διαφθορά

GreekG1312“corruption, decay”

Appears 6 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Act 2:27Act 2:31Act 13:34Act 13:35Act 13:36Act 13:37
Root family
Word studydee-ah-fthoh-RAHnoun

What diaphthora means

decay: the breaking down of a dead body in the grave

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

Every use of this word in the New Testament belongs to one argument, made twice. Peter in Acts 2 and Paul in Acts 13 both quote the same line from Psalm 16:10, "you will not let your Holy One see decay", and both draw the same conclusion from it. David died, was buried, and his body broke down like anyone else's, so the promise in the psalm was never finally about him.

The phrase "to see decay" is a Greek way of saying "to undergo decay". Nobody is watching anything. The word names what a grave does to a body over time. Set beside the broader Greek word for decay (φθορά), which stretches to moral rot and to the perishing of everything created, this one stays fixed on the physical outcome of death.

One verse steps outside that quoted phrase. In Acts 13:34 Jesus is raised "no more to return to decay", which treats decay less as an event than as a condition, a place a person can be in or out of. Resurrection is the way out of it.

It is worth knowing that the Hebrew of the psalm uses a word (שַׁחַת) that normally means "the Pit", the grave itself, while the Greek translation quoted in Acts names what the grave does to a body. Both point at the same rescue, but the Greek sharpens it into a claim about flesh that did not rot.

Nuances

1athe rotting of a dead body in the grave, named in the fixed expression "to see decay"
Act 2:27Act 2:31Act 13:35Act 13:36Act 13:37
1bdecay as a state or condition, something a person can be brought back into
Act 13:34

What scholars say about diaphthora

The lexicons gloss διαφθορά as "destruction, ruin," and in Hellenistic usage it ranges from the wrecking of a thing to the decomposition of a corpse (LSJ; BDAG). In the New Testament it is confined to six occurrences, all within the Acts kerygma's argument from Psalm 15:10 LXX (16:10 MT), where it renders Hebrew שַׁחַת. The Masoretic noun is usually derived from שׁוח, "to sink down," and glossed "pit, grave" (HALOT, BDB); the Septuagint's διαφθορά, evidently associating the noun with שׁחת, "to ruin," supplies the nuance of decomposition on which both the Petrine and the Pauline speeches turn. Harder treats the term with the φθείρω group in TDNT and notes its concentration in Acts, and Barrett's ICC commentary discusses the text-form of the citation at Acts 2:27 and its bearing on the argument. Because the word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, its attested range there is narrow, and the only real question of sense is whether the accusative phrase at Acts 13:34 keeps the specific reference to bodily decomposition or reverts to the wider classical sense of ruin.

Where scholars disagree about diaphthora

Whether the argument in Acts turns on a nuance supplied by the Greek translation of Psalm 16:10 rather than by the Hebrew text itself.

  • majorityThe Hebrew noun שַׁחַת means "pit, grave," derived from שׁוח, "to sink down." The Septuagint's διαφθορά introduces the specific idea of decomposition, and the speeches in Acts 2 and Acts 13 argue from that Greek wording.; HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. שַׁחַת; BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. שַׁחַת; C. K. Barrett, The Acts of the Apostles, International Critical Commentary, vol. 1 (1994)
  • minorityThe Hebrew noun can be associated with שׁחת, "to ruin, spoil," so that the Septuagint's rendering represents the Hebrew rather than replacing it, and the apostolic argument does not rest on the translation alone.; Gesenius' Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures, s.v. שַׁחַת

Sources

  • BDAG (Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich), s.v. διαφθοράlexicon
  • LSJ (Liddell-Scott-Jones), s.v. διαφθοράlexicon
  • HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. שַׁחַתlexicon
  • BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. שַׁחַתlexicon
  • Günther Harder, "φθείρω κτλ.," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 9:93-106dictionary
  • C. K. Barrett, The Acts of the Apostles, International Critical Commentary, vol. 1 (1994)commentary
  • Darrell L. Bock, Acts, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (2007)commentary

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

All attested forms of διαφθορά

accusative f s

διαφθοράν

Act 2:27, Act 2:31, Act 13:34, Act 13:35, Act 13:36, Act 13:37