StrongerBible

eisporeuō

εἰσπορεύω

GreekG1531enter, go in, ...

Appears 18 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 15:17Mrk 1:21Mrk 4:19Mrk 5:40Mrk 6:56Mrk 7:15Mrk 7:18Mrk 7:19Mrk 11:2Luk 8:16Luk 11:33Luk 18:24Luk 19:30Luk 22:10Act 3:2Act 8:3Act 9:28Act 28:30
Compound of
Word studyice-por-YOO-om-eyeverb

What eisporeuō means

to go into a place or thing: to enter, come in, pass in

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

This is a plain verb of motion meaning "to go in." It is built from the ordinary word for going or traveling (πορεύομαι) with the prefix "in-" attached, so it pictures someone making their way into a place: a house, a village, a city, the temple. Mark and Luke are especially fond of it, and most of its uses are simply people walking in through a door or a gate.

The same verb stretches naturally beyond people walking through doorways. It describes food "going into" the body in the teaching about what does and does not defile a person, and it reaches for things that cannot be seen at all: entering the kingdom of God, or worldly cares slipping in to choke a person's faith. In none of these is the meaning strained. English "enter" or "go in" stretches to cover the same range.

One fixed expression uses it in tandem with its opposite, "going out": to be "coming in and going out" among people is an old way of saying someone lives and moves openly and freely in their midst, carrying on public life without hiding. The two verbs together frame the whole of a person's daily comings and goings.

Nuances

1ato walk into a place: a person entering a house, village, city, or the temple
Mrk 1:21Mrk 5:40Mrk 6:56Mrk 11:2Luk 8:16Luk 11:33Luk 19:30Luk 22:10Act 3:2Act 8:3Act 28:30
1bto pass into the body: of food and whatever a person takes in
Mat 15:17Mrk 7:15Mrk 7:18Mrk 7:19
1cto enter the kingdom of God: figurative entrance into God's reign
Luk 18:24
1dto come in, of unseen forces: worldly cares slipping in to choke faith
Mrk 4:19
1eto go in and out: the paired idiom for living and moving openly among people
Act 9:28

What scholars say about eisporeuō

The compound is transparent: the prefix eis- ("into") on the deponent verb poreuomai ("to go, proceed"), yielding "to go into, enter." BDAG organizes the uses under one head of local motion, distinguishing (a) literal entrance into a locality or structure, of persons; (b) of food that goes into the body (Matt 15:17; Mark 7:15, 18, 19); and (c) figurative extensions, of entering the kingdom (Luke 18:24) and of cares that enter and choke (Mark 4:19). It is concentrated in the Synoptics and Acts and is functionally interchangeable with the more frequent eiserchomai, a stylistic preference rather than a semantic distinction. In Acts 9:28 eisporeuomai and its antonym ekporeuomai form the Septuagintal merism "going in and coming out" for the conduct of daily public life (cf. Deut 28:6; 1 Sam 29:6).

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. εἰσπορεύομαιlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. εἰσπορεύομαιlexicon
  • EDNT, vol. 1, s.v. εἰσπορεύομαι (Balz–Schneider)theological-dictionary
  • F. Hauck and S. Schulz, "πορεύομαι κτλ.," TDNT, vol. 6theological-dictionary

All attested forms of εἰσπορεύω

present middle-or-passive participle nominative m p

εἰσπορευόμενοι

Mrk 11:2, Luk 8:16, Luk 11:33, Luk 19:30

present middle-or-passive indicative 3s

εἰσπορεύεται

Mrk 5:40, Mrk 7:19, Luk 22:10

present middle-or-passive participle nominative n s

εἰσπορευόμενον

Mat 15:17, Mrk 7:15, Mrk 7:18

present middle-or-passive indicative 3p

εἰσπορεύονται

Mrk 1:21, Luk 18:24

present middle-or-passive participle nominative m s

εἰσπορευόμενος

Act 8:3, Act 9:28

imperfect middle-or-passive indicative 3s

εἰσεπορεύετο

Mrk 6:56

present middle-or-passive participle accusative m p

εἰσπορευομένους

Act 28:30

present middle-or-passive participle genitive m p

εἰσπορευομένων

Act 3:2

present middle-or-passive participle nominative f p

εἰσπορευόμεναι

Mrk 4:19