to fall out of place: to come away from whatever was holding something, whether a blossom from its stem, a ship from its course, or a person from the standing he was in
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong
Greek made this verb out of the ordinary word for falling (πίπτω) plus a prefix meaning "out of." The prefix does all the work. The picture is not of something dropping to the floor but of something coming away from the place that was holding it, and then being left wherever the fall put it.
The New Testament puts that one picture to work in four settings:
a blossom comes loose and drops off its stem, and iron chains drop off a prisoner's wrists
a ship is carried out of its course and onto a shore or a shoal, which is how sailors used the word
a person loses hold of the standing he was in and ends up outside it
a promise falls to the ground without taking effect, which is what Paul denies about God's word
The sailing use is worth pausing over, because it is not a figure of speech. Through the storm chapter of Acts the crew keep fearing exactly this: that the ship will be carried out of open water onto the sandbanks off Africa, or onto rocks in the dark. Luke reaches for the same plain verb a gardener would use of a petal that has dropped. A few verses later he switches to a companion verb (περιπίπτω) for what the ship finally runs into.
The warnings in Galatians and 2 Peter draw on the same image. Falling out of grace, or out of one's own firm footing, is pictured as dropping out of a place a person was standing in rather than as a slow drift. Whether such a fall can be reversed is a question the verb itself does not settle. A different word, the one for deliberately deserting a post (ἀφίστημι), carries the choosing and turning away that this one leaves out.
Nuances
1ato drop off: to come loose and fall away from what was holding it
TranslatabilityDirect
Act 12:7Jas 1:111Pe 1:24
1bof a ship: to be carried out of its course and onto shore, sand, or rocks; also of a boat let go to drift off
TranslatabilityApproximate
Act 27:17Act 27:26Act 27:29Act 27:32*
1cto lose hold of a standing one was in and end up outside it
Gal 5:42Pe 3:17
1dof a word or promise: to fall to the ground without taking effect; to fail
it is the same ordinary verb used of a petal dropping, not a technical sailing term, so the sailors' fear is simply of being carried out of their courseAct 27:17Act 27:26
Both
both describe a vessel ending up somewhere its crew never meant to beAct 27:29
Only run aground
the English phrase is purely nautical and implies the hull actually striking bottom, while the Greek can just as well mean being driven onto a beach or letting a small boat drift off
keeps the concrete picture of a promise dropping to the ground rather than an abstract shortfallRom 9:6
Both
both say that something did not take effect after allRom 9:6
Only fail
English "fail" suggests an attempt that fell short, or a machine or a system breaking down, neither of which the Greek image contains
“drift away”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“fall”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How ekpiptō differs from similar Greek words
πίπτωthe plain verb for falling, usually downward and to the ground; this compound adds the idea of coming out of the place or condition something was in
Carries the sense of falling OFF or AWAY from a fixed position: chains drop off Peter's wrists, a flower's bloom drops away from the plant.Act 12:71Pe 1:24Jas 1:11
Used figuratively for lapsing away from a secure standing one once held: falling away from grace, drifting from one's steadfastness.Gal 5:42Pe 3:17
Used of a ship driven off course or run aground, falling away from its intended track.Act 27:17Act 27:26Act 27:29
Used of a promise or word coming to nothing, having failed rather than held firm.Rom 9:6
Both
Both describe literal physical falling, an uncontrolled drop downward.Act 27:32Act 20:9
The ordinary, broad verb for falling down: people, buildings, and objects dropping to the ground.Mat 7:25Mat 7:27Heb 11:30
Used for falling prostrate, deliberately going down before someone in worship or homage.Mat 2:11Rev 4:10Act 10:25
Used figuratively for collapse, downfall, or moral ruin without any sense of separating from a place.1Co 10:12Rev 14:8Rom 11:11
περιπίπτωto fall in with or run into something, used a few verses later in the same shipwreck for the shoal the vessel strikes; it looks at what is hit, where this word looks at being carried out of the intended course
It looks back at what is left behind, so it can say a person has fallen out of a standing once held: out of grace (Galatians 5:4), or out of his own settled footing (2 Peter 3:17).Gal 5:42Pe 3:17
It covers something simply coming loose from whatever held it, with no danger involved at all: the chains slip off Peter's wrists while he sleeps, and the blossom drops off the sun-scorched grass.Act 12:71Pe 1:24Jas 1:11
It can say that a promise has come to nothing, that God's word has not dropped out of force (Romans 9:6), a use that involves no one running into anything.Rom 9:6
Of a ship it names the loss of the intended route rather than the impact: the crew dread being driven off toward the sandbanks, they are told they must be run aground on some island, and the small boat is cut loose and left to drift away.Act 27:17Act 27:26Act 27:32
Both
Either word can report a ship coming to grief, and both do so in the same voyage: the crew fear being carried onto rough ground, and the vessel finally strikes the shoal where two seas meet.Act 27:29Act 27:41
Both leave the plain physical fall behind and describe a serious turn in a person's life, one as falling out of grace and the other as running into many kinds of testing.Gal 5:4Jas 1:2
It names what the traveler or the ship runs into, and that thing takes over the scene: robbers strip and beat the man on the Jericho road, and the shoal where two seas meet holds the ship fast while the waves break up its stern. Where the fall started is never in view.Luk 10:30Act 27:41
Because the trouble is something met rather than something lost, it can describe an experience a believer is told to count as pure joy: running into all sorts of testing costs no standing (James 1:2).Jas 1:2
ἀφίστημιto withdraw or desert, a deliberate stepping away from a person or a position; this word pictures losing hold and dropping out rather than choosing to leave
Is the plain word for a thing coming loose and dropping off: the chains dropped from Peter's wrists, the flower drops off the plant when the sun scorches it, and the ship's boat was let go to drop away once the ropes were cut.Act 12:7Jas 1:111Pe 1:24Act 27:32
Describes a ship carried where nobody on board wants it to go, and Luke uses it three times in one storm: the crew fear being driven onto the sandbanks or onto rocks, and are told they must end up on some island.Act 27:17Act 27:29Act 27:26
Can say that a promise has come to nothing: Paul denies that God's word has dropped to the ground and failed, a claim about a word's outcome rather than about anyone walking away.Rom 9:6
Both
Both describe losing a standing before God that a person once held: hearers who "fall away" when trouble comes and hearts that turn from the living God on one side, and those who have "fallen from" grace or who lose their own firm footing on the other.Luk 8:13Heb 3:12Gal 5:42Pe 3:17
English versions render both as "fall away" or "fall from", so a reader cannot tell from the translation which word is behind a warning, though the pictures differ: one is walking off, the other is dropping out.1Ti 4:12Pe 3:17
Both are aimed at people already inside the community rather than at outsiders, and both are used in warnings about what could still happen to them.Heb 3:121Ti 4:12Pe 3:17
Describes a person simply going away from a place or from other people, with nothing lost and no failure implied: the devil left Jesus for a while, the angel left Peter once the gate was passed, Anna never left the temple, and the officers backed off from Paul once they learned he was a Roman.Luk 4:13Act 12:10Luk 2:37Act 22:29
Can be an instruction, because the leaving is something a person decides to do: Gamaliel tells the council to "keep away" from the apostles, Timothy is told to "withdraw" from the money-driven teachers, and the Lord's people are told to leave wrongdoing behind.Act 5:381Ti 6:52Ti 2:19Luk 13:27
Can name the abandoning of a shared commitment that others feel as desertion: Mark left Paul and Barnabas partway through the work and Paul judged him unfit to be taken along again.Act 15:38Act 19:9
Can be done TO someone else, so that one man pulls a crowd away with him into revolt, as Judas the Galilean drew a following after himself.Act 5:37
Is used of asking that an affliction be taken away, so the word can describe something unwanted leaving a person rather than the person leaving anything.2Co 12:8
παραπίπτωused once, in Hebrews, of falling away from the faith; it names the defection itself, where this word supplies the picture of dropping out of the standing a person held
ἐκλείπωto give out or come to an end, said of light dying and money running out; it overlaps with this word only where a promise is said to have failed
ἐκπίπτω describes something coming loose and dropping off whatever had been holding it: the chains drop off Peter's wrists, and the wildflower drops from its stalk once the heat hits it.Act 12:7Jas 1:111Pe 1:24
ἐκπίπτω is the sailors' word for a ship being driven off its course onto ground it should never have touched, whether the sandbanks of Syrtis, some unknown island, or a stretch of rocks; it also covers the ship's small boat being cut loose to drift off.Act 27:17Act 27:26Act 27:29Act 27:32
ἐκπίπτω can say that a person slips out of a standing once held securely: those who look to law-keeping have fallen out of grace, and readers are warned not to lose the firm footing they have. The person has not run out of anything; he has dropped away from where he stood.Gal 5:42Pe 3:17
Both
Both are rendered "fail" in English when something counted on gives way, and both show up in denials that it ever will: Jesus prays that Peter's faith will not fail, and Paul insists that God's word has not failed. The overlap sits only here, and even here the images differ, since ἐκλείπω pictures the thing running out while ἐκπίπτω pictures a promise dropping to the ground unfulfilled.Luk 22:32Rom 9:6
ἐκλείπω is the word for a supply giving out. The sun's light gives out at midday, and dishonest wealth gives out so that it can no longer do anything for the man who held it. The picture is of something being used up until there is none of it left, never of something coming loose from what held it.Luk 23:45Luk 16:9
ἐκλείπω can be said of a stretch of time reaching its end, so that denying it makes a claim about permanence: the heavens wear out like a garment, but God's years will never run out. ἐκπίπτω is never used this way.Heb 1:12
ἀποπίπτωused once, of scales dropping off a man's eyes; it matches the plain dropping-off use of this word but never reaches its sailing, forfeiting, or failing uses
Only this word is used of something coming loose from whatever was holding it. Chains drop off a prisoner's wrists, and a blossom drops off its stem and is gone. The picture starts with a thing attached and ends with it detached.Act 12:7Jas 1:111Pe 1:24
Only this word describes a person losing a standing he was already secure inside. Paul tells the Galatians they have dropped out of the kindness they were living in, and Peter warns his readers not to lose the firm footing they have. In both places the loss is of ground the reader once held.Gal 5:42Pe 3:17
Only this word belongs to the vocabulary of sailing. Luke uses it four times in one storm for a ship driven off its intended course onto sandbanks or rocks, and once for a lifeboat cut loose and left to drift away.Act 27:17Act 27:26Act 27:29Act 27:32
Only this word is used of a promise coming to nothing. Paul insists that God's word has not dropped to the ground unfulfilled, and the verb is often rendered "failed" there because nothing lands anywhere: the promise simply stops holding.Rom 9:6
Both
Both are the same falling word underneath, and the only difference is the small piece attached to the front: one points out of somewhere, the other points into somewhere. Neither describes a fall anyone chose. A ship is driven onto the shore and a sheep tumbles into a pit; in both cases the fall happens to them.Act 27:26Mat 12:11
Both are used for spiritual danger and not only for physical falls, and both show up in warnings addressed to people who think they are safe. One warns about dropping out of a standing you hold; the other warns about landing in a trap you did not see.Gal 5:42Pe 3:171Ti 6:9
In both words the fall leaves a person somewhere he cannot simply walk back from. The sailors need daylight and a beach to get off the rocks, and the man in the ditch needs someone to lift him out.Act 27:29Luk 6:39
Only this word names the place that receives the fall. An animal ends up down in a pit on the Sabbath, and a blind guide leads another blind man into a ditch, where both of them stay until someone hauls them out.Mat 12:11Luk 6:39
Only this word is used of falling into someone's power, so that the fall ends with another party holding you. The traveler on the Jericho road ends up in the hands of robbers, and the warning in Hebrews is about ending up in the hands of the living God.Luk 10:36Heb 10:31
Only this word describes landing inside a ruined condition that was waiting there: a guilty verdict for the leader who is puffed up, public disgrace, and the trap that money sets for people who want to be rich. The condition exists before the person arrives in it.1Ti 3:61Ti 3:71Ti 6:9
ekpiptō in the other biblical languages
נָפַלHebrew“to fall: fall”the ordinary Hebrew verb for falling, which also covers a promise falling to the ground unfulfilled, the same thought Paul denies in Romans 9:6
Sailors used it of a vessel carried out of the course it was holding and onto sand or rocks, and of a boat cut loose and let drift away. Through the storm at sea this is the crew's standing fear, and it is plain seamanship, not a picture of anything moral. The Hebrew verb, for all the ground it covers, is never used of a ship losing its course.Act 27:17Act 27:26Act 27:29Act 27:32
The fall is measured from the place that was holding something rather than from a height, so nothing has to reach the ground at all: a blossom comes away from its stem, iron chains come off a prisoner's wrists. What the word reports is the parting, not the landing.Jas 1:111Pe 1:24Act 12:7
It can name a person losing hold of a standing he was in and ending up outside it, with God's free favor itself as the thing fallen out of. The Hebrew verb's nearest reach is a soldier going over to the enemy in wartime, which is a change of sides rather than being left outside a condition.Gal 5:42Pe 3:17
Both
Both picture a promise dropping to the ground without taking effect. Joshua says that not one word of everything the Lord promised had fallen, and Paul denies the same thing of God's word in exactly this image, which is why English reaches for "fail" in both testaments.Jos 21:451Ki 8:56Rom 9:6
Both are plain, everyday verbs for a physical object coming down out of someone's control, with no figure attached: an axe head slips into the water, a flower's blossom drops off in the heat. Neither word needs a special setting to be used this way.2Ki 6:5Jas 1:11
It is the ordinary Hebrew way of saying that people were killed. Soldiers fall by the sword and whole armies fall in a day, and the word alone carries the death without any further verb.Exo 32:28Jos 8:251Sa 4:101Sa 31:1
It covers going down on purpose, face to the ground, in worship, homage, grief, or pleading. This is a chosen act of reverence rather than an accident, which is why English needs "fell on his face" or "bowed down" here.Gen 17:3Lev 9:24Jos 5:14Ezk 1:28
A whole city or nation can be its subject, meaning conquered and brought to an end. The prophets announce a kingdom's collapse with this one verb, so "Babylon is fallen" needs no further explanation.Isa 21:9Jer 51:8Amo 5:2
A share of land, a temple duty, or a decision can fall to someone by lot. Here the falling is a gain rather than a loss: the thing that falls is the portion a person or family receives.Num 34:2Jos 17:51Ch 26:14Jon 1:7Est 3:7
Something can come over a person from outside and be said to fall on him: a deep sleep, dread, terror of an approaching army, or a night vision. The person is the place the falling lands, not the thing that falls.Gen 2:21Gen 15:12Exo 15:16Job 4:13
In one warm family idiom a person falls on another's neck, meaning he throws his arms around him and weeps. Every reunion scene in Genesis reaches for this, and nothing in the word suggests going down at all.Gen 33:4Gen 45:14Gen 46:29
נָבֵלHebrew“to wither”the Hebrew word for a flower withering and drooping in Isaiah 40, the line 1 Peter quotes, where the Greek translators used this word for it
Names the single moment something comes loose from whatever was holding it, with no idea of drying out first: the chains simply dropped off Peter's wrists, and the sailors cut the ropes so the ship's boat fell away.Act 12:7Act 27:32
Used at sea of a ship being driven off its course onto sandbars or rocks, a disaster the crew spends the whole night trying to prevent.Act 27:17Act 27:26Act 27:29
Reaches into losing a standing a person once held, so that someone drops out of a place of favor or slips from a firm footing they had.Gal 5:42Pe 3:17
Can be denied of a promise, saying that God's word has not fallen through or failed, a use built on the idea of dropping out rather than of drying up.Rom 9:6
Both
They meet at one famous picture: the flower of the field that will not last. Isaiah says the grass dries and the flower "fades", and when 1 Peter quotes that passage the Greek word carries the same line, describing the flower's petal dropping off. This is a genuine rendering link, not just a similar image.Isa 40:71Pe 1:24
Both are turned into a picture of human glory ending: what looks fresh and beautiful is precisely the thing that goes, whether it is the proud crown of a city or a rich man's brief show of wealth.Isa 28:1Jas 1:11
Each sets the perishing thing against something that stays, so the fading or falling is not the last word: Isaiah contrasts the withering flower with the word of God that stands, and 1 Peter carries that same contrast over.Isa 40:81Pe 1:24
Names the slow drying and drooping itself, a gradual loss of freshness rather than a moment of separation, which is why it can be denied of a well watered tree whose leaf stays green.Psa 1:3Ezk 47:12Isa 1:30
Stretches over whole landscapes and even the earth itself, so that the fields, the vine and the fig tree, and the land as a whole all dry up together.Isa 24:4Jer 8:13Isa 64:6
Applied to people, nations and human strength giving out: foreigners shrink away before a king, the wicked dry up like grass, and a man wears himself thin under work he cannot carry.Psa 18:45Psa 37:2Exo 18:18
The same Hebrew spelling also carries a wholly different sense of treating someone or something as worthless, which has nothing to do with fading at all.Deu 32:15Mic 7:6Nam 3:6
What scholars say about ekpiptō
The standard lexica treat ἐκπίπτω as a single verb, ἐκ plus πίπτω, whose uses radiate from the sense "fall out of." BDAG distributes the ten New Testament occurrences under four heads: dropping off or away (Jas 1:11;1 Pet 1:24;Acts 12:7), losing or forfeiting something one held (Gal 5:4;2 Pet 3:17), the nautical use of being driven off course or ashore (Acts 27:17, 26, 29, 32), and becoming ineffective or invalid (Rom 9:6). LSJ documents the same spread in classical prose, where the verb is used of exiles driven from their city, of ships driven ashore and wrecked, and of losing a position or an office; the nautical use is common in Herodotus and Thucydides and is the direct background of the Acts 27 material, on which Barrett's ICC commentary and the older nautical study by James Smith are the usual points of reference. Michaelis's TDNT article on πίπτω and its compounds (6:161-73) supplies the wider semantic field, and EDNT summarizes the New Testament distribution. On Rom 9:6 the perfect ἐκπέπτωκεν is generally read with a forensic or documentary flavor, of a word losing its force or validity rather than of a moral lapse, and commentators including Cranfield and Moo take Paul's denial as programmatic for chapters 9 to 11. On Gal 5:4 Bruce and Betz note that τῆς χάριτος ἐξεπέσατε describes exclusion from the sphere in which grace operates, with the perseverance question left to systematic theology rather than settled by the verb; Bauckham reads 2 Pet 3:17 in parallel, the στηριγμός being the firm footing from which the readers are warned not to fall. The 1 Pet 1:24 and Jas 1:11 uses both stand in the tradition of Isa 40:6-8, where the Greek Old Testament renders נָבֵל with this verb, which explains why a word for a wilting flower is expressed in Greek as a flower falling off.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. ἐκπίπτωlexicon
LSJ, s.v. ἐκπίπτωlexicon
W. Michaelis, "πίπτω," TDNT 6:161-73dictionary
EDNT, s.v. ἐκπίπτωdictionary
C. K. Barrett, The Acts of the Apostles, ICC, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1998), on Acts 27commentary
C. E. B. Cranfield, The Epistle to the Romans, ICC, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1979), on Romans 9:6commentary
Douglas J. Moo, The Letter to the Romans, NICNT, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018), on Romans 9:6commentary
F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Galatians, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), on Galatians 5:4commentary
Hans Dieter Betz, Galatians, Hermeneia (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979), on Galatians 5:4commentary
Richard J. Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter, WBC 50 (Waco: Word, 1983), on 2 Peter 3:17commentary