StrongerBible

ekzēteō

ἐκζητέω

GreekG1567“seek, seek out, ...”

Appears 7 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Luk 11:50Luk 11:51Act 15:17Rom 3:11Heb 11:6Heb 12:171Pe 1:10
Compound of
ekἐκout from938G1537
zēteōζητέωto seek119G2212
Word studyek-zay-TEH-ohverb

What ekzēteō means

1

to search something out: to go after a person, a thing, or an answer with real effort, until it is found or understood

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

This is the ordinary Greek verb for seeking, ζητέω, with a prefix attached. Older word studies took that prefix to mean the seeking is harder or holier, which is where the King James Version's "diligently seek" comes from. Most scholars now read it more modestly: at most it pictures searching something out or looking it up, rather than simply looking for it, and often it says little more than the plain verb does.

What holds the meaning together is that the searching has a definite object and real effort behind it:

  • prophets combing their own writings to learn when and how rescue would come
  • nations from every quarter turning toward the Lord to find him
  • a man begging in tears to get back what he had thrown away

The ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament shaped this word more than anything else did. Its translators used it over and over for the Hebrew verb for seeking and inquiring (דָּרַשׁ), above all in the summons to seek the Lord and the promise that he lets himself be found. So when Paul says no one seeks God, and the letter to the Hebrews says God rewards those who seek him, both are speaking that older, borrowed language rather than coining a new religious term.

Nuances

1ato seek God: to turn toward him and go after him, wanting to find him
Act 15:17Rom 3:11Heb 11:6
1bto search a matter out: to dig into a question or a text to learn what it means
TranslatabilityDirect
1Pe 1:10
1cto go after something one wants back, pressing hard to get it
Heb 12:17

Disputed

Whether the ἐκ- prefix on ἐκζητέω adds genuine force to the simplex ζητέω, so that the verb lexically means "seek out, seek diligently," or whether the compound is essentially equivalent to the simplex in Koine, any intensity being supplied by context.

  • majorityThe compound is not lexically stronger than the simplex. Koine prepositional compounds frequently lost their distinctness from the simple verb, so renderings such as "diligently seek" (KJV at Heb 11:6) overtranslate; where the seeking is urgent, the urgency comes from the scene and the surrounding wording.; F. Blass, A. Debrunner, and R. W. Funk, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, sections 116, 148, 202; H. Greeven, "ζητέω κτλ.," TDNT 2:892-96; M. Silva, ed., NIDNTTE (2014), s.v. ζητέω
  • minorityThe prefix retains a directive or perfective force, so the verb means to search out, to seek until found, which is why the lexica gloss it "seek out" rather than simply "seek."; BDAG, s.v. ἐκζητέω; LSJ, s.v. ἐκζητέω; J. H. Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. ἐκζητέω
2

to require a reckoning: to demand that blood already shed be traced back and answered for

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

In two verses of Luke the word turns legal. The blood of the prophets is "sought out" from a generation, and what that means is that old killings are traced back to their door and the bill is presented. English versions reach for "required of," "charged against," or "held responsible for," and none of those is obvious to a modern reader.

This is not a second, unrelated word. It is the same searching, aimed at a crime: blood spilled and covered over is hunted down until it is found and paid for. The wording comes straight out of the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, where God says he will require a reckoning for the blood of every life from whoever takes it (Genesis 9:5).

Reading the verses as ordinary seeking loses the point of the saying. Jesus is not describing people who go looking for prophets. He is describing a court in which a very long account finally comes due.

Luk 11:50Luk 11:51

What scholars say about ekzēteō

ἐκζητέω is ζητέω compounded with ἐκ-, attested in classical and Hellenistic Greek for seeking out, searching into, and requiring. LSJ gives "seek out" alongside "require, demand"; BDAG divides the New Testament data into seeking out or searching for (with the seeking of God as its central religious application), seeking information about or investigating, and charging with or requiring of, the last reserved for Luke 11:50-51; Thayer had already separated the demanding usage on the same evidence. How much the prefix contributes is contested: BDF (sections 116, 148, 202) documents the general Koine weakening of prepositional compounds toward their simplexes, and Greeven (TDNT 2:892-96) and Silva (NIDNTTE, s.v. ζητέω; cf. Biblical Words and Their Meaning, 40-43) accordingly resist glossing the compound as inherently more intense, against the older tradition behind the KJV's "diligently seek" at Heb 11:6. The decisive background is Septuagintal: ἐκζητέω is a standard rendering of דרשׁ (and less often בקשׁ) in the covenantal summons to seek YHWH and in the oracular sense of inquiring of him (Deut 4:29; Ps 33[34]:5; Amos 5:4; cf. Muraoka, GELS, s.v.), and it carries the forensic idiom of requiring blood at Gen 9:5, 2 Sam 4:11, and Ezek 33:6, where דרשׁ דם is rendered with this verb. Rom 3:11 quotes Ps 13(14):2 LXX (ὁ ἐκζητῶν τὸν θεόν) verbatim within the catena of 3:10-18 (Cranfield, Romans, ICC; Jewett, Romans, Hermeneia), and Acts 15:17 quotes Amos 9:12 LXX, where ἐκζητήσωσιν renders a Hebrew text that MT reads as "possess" (יירשׁו rather than ידרשׁו), the Septuagintal reading being essential to James's argument (Barrett, Acts, ICC; Bauckham, in The Book of Acts in Its Palestinian Setting). At Heb 11:6 the participle is generally read as covenantal seeking in the Septuagintal vein rather than as intensified searching (Attridge, Hebrews, Hermeneia; Ellingworth, Hebrews, NIGTC; Lane, Hebrews 9-13, WBC 47B), and the disputed antecedent of αὐτήν at Heb 12:17 (μετανοίας, the forfeited εὐλογία, or a reversal of Isaac's decision) is a question about the object of the seeking, not about the verb. Luke 11:50-51 is treated across the commentaries as a Septuagintal blood-vengeance formula rather than as a distinct Lukan coinage (Fitzmyer, Luke X-XXIV, AB 28A; Nolland, Luke 9:21-18:34, WBC 35B; Bock, Luke, BECNT).

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. ἐκζητέωlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. ἐκζητέωlexicon
  • T. Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (Peeters, 2009), s.v. ἐκζητέωlexicon
  • J. H. Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. ἐκζητέωlexicon
  • H. Greeven, "ζητέω κτλ.," TDNT 2:892-96dictionary
  • M. Silva, ed., NIDNTTE (2014), s.v. ζητέωdictionary
  • F. Blass, A. Debrunner, and R. W. Funk, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, sections 116, 148, 202grammar
  • C. E. B. Cranfield, The Epistle to the Romans, ICC, vol. 1 (1975), on Rom 3:10-18commentary
  • C. K. Barrett, The Acts of the Apostles, ICC, vol. 2 (1998), on Acts 15:16-18commentary
  • H. W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Hermeneia (1989), on Heb 11:6 and 12:17commentary
  • P. Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, NIGTC (1993), on Heb 11:6 and 12:17commentary
  • W. L. Lane, Hebrews 9-13, WBC 47B (1991), on Heb 12:17commentary
  • J. A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke X-XXIV, AB 28A (1985), on Luke 11:49-51commentary
  • J. Nolland, Luke 9:21-18:34, WBC 35B (1993), on Luke 11:49-51commentary

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

All attested forms of ἐκζητέω

aorist active indicative 3p

ἐξεζήτησαν

1Pe 1:10

aorist active participle nominative m s

ἐκζητήσας

Heb 12:17

aorist active subjunctive 3p

ἐκζητήσωσιν

Act 15:17

aorist passive subjunctive 3s

ἐκζητηθῇ

Luk 11:50

future passive indicative 3s

ἐκζητηθήσεται

Luk 11:51

present active participle dative m p

ἐκζητοῦσιν

Heb 11:6

present active participle nominative m s

ἐκζητῶν

Rom 3:11