ekkoptō

ἐκκόπτω

GreekG1581“cut down, cut off, ...”

Appears 10 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 3:10Mat 5:30Mat 7:19Mat 18:8Luk 3:9Luk 13:7Luk 13:9Rom 11:22Rom 11:242Co 11:12

Compound of

ekἐκout from938G1537

koptōκόπτωto cut/mourn8G2875

Word studyek-KOP-tohverb

What ekkoptō means

to cut off or cut down: to sever something from what it grew on or belonged to, and be rid of it

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This verb joins the ordinary word for cutting to a prefix meaning "out of," and that is exactly what it pictures: something severed from the place it was attached to and then discarded. All ten New Testament uses keep that picture. What changes is only what gets cut. A tree is felled at the root, a hand is taken off and thrown away, a branch is cut out of the trunk it fed from, and in one case an opening someone was reaching for is taken away.

The uses hold together because the cut is always meant to be final and always costs something that was still living or still useful. The tree does not grow again where it stood. The hand is gone for good. The branch no longer draws anything from the root. Even the one use with no wood or flesh in view works the same way: what is removed is removed for good, not merely blocked for now.

In the Gospels this is the standard image for God's judgment on fruitlessness. John the Baptist says the axe is already lying at the root, and the fig tree in the vineyard gets one more year before the order is carried out. Paul then keeps the same picture in Romans 11, where Gentile believers are warned that they too can be cut off from the tree they were grafted into. Because English needs a different verb for each object (a tree is cut down, a hand cut off, a branch cut out), the thread running through these passages is easy to miss in translation, though the Greek uses one word throughout.

The cutting is severing, not pulling up: a plant torn out of the ground root and all takes a different verb (ἐκριζόω). The axe in Matthew 3:10 lies at the root, but what it does is go through the trunk.

Nuances

1ato cut down a tree: to fell it because it bears no fruit

TranslatabilityDirect

Mat 3:10Mat 7:19Luk 3:9Luk 13:7Luk 13:9

1bto cut off a hand or a foot: to take a limb off the body and throw it away

TranslatabilityDirect

Mat 5:30Mat 18:8

1cto cut a branch out of the tree it was growing on

Rom 11:22Rom 11:24

1dto take something away for good, so that no one can use it any longer

TranslatabilityPartial

2Co 11:12

What ekkoptō does not mean

Some older word lists gloss this verb as "to prevent," which misleads. It never simply means to stop something from happening. Even in the one place where nothing physical is cut, the picture is of taking away something already within reach, cutting off the handle a critic meant to grab.

Three further traps:

Do not read "cut down" as uprooting. This verb severs what is growing and leaves the root in the ground, while a different word (ἐκριζόω) pulls the whole plant out.
In Romans 11 being cut off names removal from a place of blessing, not being wiped out. Two verses later Paul says God is able to graft the same branches back in, so take the claim from the passage rather than from what the English verb suggests on its own.
In Matthew 5:30 and 18:8 the word is as blunt and physical as it gets, which is why the sayings shock. The verb itself says nothing about whether the command is a literal instruction or a stark picture, so that question is settled by reading the saying, not by the vocabulary.

Related words

The English words used to translate ekkoptō

“cut down”

ekkoptō1 distinctshared1cut down1 distinct

Only ekkoptō

the Greek uses this same verb for taking off a hand and for cutting a branch out of a tree, so felling a fruitless tree belongs to one connected picture of decisive removal that English spreads across several different verbs.Mat 3:10Luk 13:7

Both

both describe felling a growing tree so that it no longer stands.Mat 7:19Luk 3:9

Only cut down

English "cut down" also means to reduce or scale back, as in cutting down on spending, and it can mean to humiliate someone with words; the Greek carries neither idea.

“cut off”

ekkoptō1 distinctshared1cut off1 distinct

Only ekkoptō

the Greek word always involves a real severing and a getting rid of what is severed, whether a limb thrown away or a branch that will draw nothing from the root again.Mat 5:30Rom 11:22

Both

both describe separating a part from the whole it belonged to.Mat 18:8

Only cut off

English "cut off" often means only to interrupt, block, or isolate: a driver cuts you off, a speaker is cut off mid sentence, a village is cut off by snow. None of that involves anything being cut, and the Greek never means it.

“cut out”

ekkoptō1 distinctshared1cut out1 distinct

Only ekkoptō

in Romans the branch cut out of its own tree is grafted at once into another, so the Greek pictures a transfer and not only a loss.Rom 11:24

Both

both describe removing something from the place or material it was part of.Rom 11:24

Only cut out

English "cut out" also means to stop doing something, as in telling a child to cut it out, and to shape something by cutting around it; the Greek means only the severing of what was growing there.

“eliminate”

ekkoptō1 distinctshared1eliminate1 distinct

Only ekkoptō

the Greek keeps the picture of cutting even here: what is removed is cut away from the people who were reaching for it.2Co 11:12

Both

both describe getting rid of something so that it no longer works for anyone.2Co 11:12

Only eliminate

English "eliminate" is flat and clinical, with no picture behind it, and used of a person it can mean killing; the Greek suggests neither.

What scholars say about ekkoptō

The lexicons are unanimous on the sense. BDAG gives two numbered senses under one entry: (1) to cut off or cut down, remove by cutting, covering the fruitless tree (Mt 3:10; 7:19; Lk 3:9; 13:7, 9), the offending limb (Mt 5:30; 18:8), and the olive branch (Rom 11:22, 24); and (2) a figurative use, to remove or do away with, for 2 Cor 11:12. LSJ documents a much wider classical range for the compound, including knocking out teeth or eyes, breaching walls and gates, and a derived use for hindering or frustrating, from which the older gloss "prevent" descends; that hindering use is not attested in the New Testament, where the verb consistently denotes severing. On the individual passages, Davies and Allison treat the imperative in Mt 5:30 as deliberate hyperbole within the antithesis and note Mark's use of the near-synonym apokopto in the parallel saying; Fitzmyer reads the vineyard order in Lk 13:7, 9 against the prophetic tradition of Israel as an unfruitful planting; Cranfield and Dunn take the passive in Rom 11:22 as horticultural language for removal from the place of covenant privilege, held in tension with the regrafting Paul asserts in 11:23-24; Thrall discusses the awkward double purpose clause of 2 Cor 11:12 and takes the object as the pretext or basis for boasting that Paul's refusal of support removes.

Sources

BDAG (Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich), s.v. ἐκκόπτωlexicon
LSJ (Liddell-Scott-Jones), s.v. ἐκκόπτωlexicon
W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, ICC (1988-1997)commentary
Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke, Anchor Bible (1981-1985)commentary
C. E. B. Cranfield, The Epistle to the Romans, ICC (1975-1979)commentary
James D. G. Dunn, Romans 9-16, Word Biblical Commentary (1988)commentary
Margaret E. Thrall, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, ICC (1994-2000)commentary

ekkoptō

What ekkoptō means

to cut off or cut down: to sever something from what it grew on or belonged to, and be rid of it

Nuances

What scholars say about ekkoptō

Sources

All attested forms of ἐκκόπτω

aorist active imperative 2s

present passive indicative 3s

aorist active subjunctive 1s

future active indicative 2s

second-aorist passive indicative 2s

second-future passive indicative 2s

What ekkoptō means

to cut off or cut down: to sever something from what it grew on or belonged to, and be rid of it

Nuances

Related words

The English words used to translate ekkoptō

How ekkoptō differs from similar Greek words

ekkoptō in the other biblical languages

What scholars say about ekkoptō

Sources

All attested forms of ἐκκόπτω

aorist active imperative 2s

present passive indicative 3s

aorist active subjunctive 1s

future active indicative 2s

second-aorist passive indicative 2s

second-future passive indicative 2s