astonishment so strong that it knocks a person out of their normal composure
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
Greek built this word out of the idea of standing outside yourself, and in the Gospels it names what happens to onlookers when something occurs that their world has no room for. A dead girl gets up and walks. A paralyzed man picks up the mat he was carried in on. A beggar who had never walked stands at the temple gate. The bystanders are not merely surprised: they are knocked loose from their ordinary footing.
This state is not simply a happy one. It regularly comes mixed with fear. In Luke 5:26 the crowd praises God and is filled with fear in the same breath, and in Mark 16:8 the women leaving the tomb are gripped by trembling along with it, so that they run away and tell no one. English "amazement" can sound mild and pleasant; this word is closer to being overwhelmed.
It is also stronger than the ordinary vocabulary of wonder. The plainer word for awe (θάμβος) names the feeling that hits a person, and the common verb for marveling (θαυμάζω) covers everything from curiosity to admiration. This word names the condition of someone displaced from their usual frame of mind, which is why Mark stacks it with the matching verb (ἐξίστημι) for emphasis: "they were amazed with a great amazement."
Mrk 5:42Mrk 16:8Luk 5:26Act 3:10
2
a trance: the state of someone whose ordinary awareness gives way while God shows them something
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong
In Acts the same word describes something quite different from a crowd's reaction. Here it is a condition God brings on one person. Peter is on a rooftop at midday, hungry and praying, when it comes over him and he sees a vision (ὅραμα) of a sheet lowered from heaven. Paul is praying in the temple in Jerusalem when it happens to him and he hears Jesus tell him to leave the city. What follows in each case is a message the man could not have reached by thinking it through.
The same features hold in all three places:
It arrives while the man is praying, not while he is chasing an experience.
It is done to him rather than worked up by him, and Peter even argues with what he is shown.
He comes out of it able to report the whole scene, which is how Luke can tell Peter's story twice over.
The Greek Old Testament had already used this word for the deep sleep (תַּרְדֵּמָה) that God brought on Adam and later on Abraham, and that is likely where the use in Acts gets its shape: normal awareness set aside so that God can act or speak.
It can name a state a person is put into, not just a reaction to something witnessed. On the roof at Joppa it falls on Peter while he waits for a meal, he sees a vision while he is in it, and Paul says the same thing happened to him as he prayed in the temple. This is the sense English Bibles render "trance".Act 10:10Act 11:5Act 22:17
The picture is of people knocked out of their normal bearings, so it can leave them unable to do anything with what they saw. The women who find the tomb empty are held by trembling and this together, and they run away and tell no one; at the raising of the little girl the word is piled up for emphasis to say how completely the onlookers were thrown.Mrk 16:8Mrk 5:42
Because the underlying picture is of being outside oneself, one word has to cover two very different scenes, and a translator must choose between "amazement" for a stunned crowd and "trance" for a man receiving a vision.Luk 5:26Act 10:10
Both
Both name what overtakes a crowd that has just watched a healing, and at the temple gate they are stacked side by side for the same people, filled with both at once over the man lame from birth who is now on his feet.Act 3:10
Both arrive on people rather than being worked up by them, and both take a whole group at once: one comes upon everyone in the synagogue, the other takes hold of all of them after the paralyzed man walks home.Luk 4:36Luk 5:26
Both are strong enough that English Bibles reach for the same words for either one, "amazement" and "astonishment", which is why the two read as a doubling for weight rather than as a contrast when they stand together.Luk 5:9Luk 5:26
The fear is inside the word itself, so it needs nothing beside it to supply the shiver: this is awe at power that has just shown itself as authority. When the catch of fish nearly swamps the boats, this is what closes around Peter and his partners, and he ends up on his knees calling himself a sinful man.Luk 5:9Luk 4:36
It always names the feeling that comes over people who have watched something happen, never a condition someone is placed in, so it never shades toward a vision or an altered state.Luk 4:36Luk 5:9
It leaves people able to speak and to reason about what they saw. The awe settles on everyone in the synagogue at Capernaum and they immediately turn to one another, asking what kind of word this is that orders unclean spirits out and is obeyed.Luk 4:36
ἔκθαμβοςan adjective that calls people astonished, describing the crowd itself rather than naming the state that has gripped it
Names the state itself, something that comes over people and grips them, so it can be what does the gripping: amazement took hold of everyone watching, and those in the room with the twelve-year-old girl were seized by great amazement.Luk 5:26Mrk 5:42
Only this word also covers the trance in which a vision comes, a being carried out of ordinary awareness rather than a reaction to something witnessed: Peter on the rooftop and Paul praying in the temple both fall into it and then see.Act 10:10Act 11:5Act 22:17
Its amazement can be shot through with fear and end in silence rather than in a crowd pressing forward: trembling and amazement hold the women leaving the empty tomb, and they say nothing to anyone.Mrk 16:8
Both
Both name the overwhelmed reaction of onlookers to a healing they cannot explain, and Luke uses them of the same scene one verse apart: the people are filled with amazement at the man who had been begging at the temple gate, then come running utterly astonished.Act 3:10Act 3:11
Both go well past ordinary surprise to people knocked out of their composure by an act of healing power, which is why English versions reach for strong wording such as "overcome with amazement" or "utterly astonished" rather than "surprised".Mrk 5:42Act 3:11
Describes the people themselves as astonished rather than naming the feeling that came over them: the crowd rushing toward Peter and John at Solomon's portico is simply an astonished crowd.Act 3:11
It is the strengthened form of the plain word for wonder, and the New Testament saves it for one moment only: the public reaction to a man crippled from birth walking and holding on to the apostles.Act 3:11
ἐξίστημιthe verb of the same root, stretching from amazing a crowd to being out of one's mind
Names the overwhelmed state itself as a thing that comes over people, so the text can say it seized them or fell upon them rather than reporting what they did.Mrk 16:8Luk 5:26Act 10:10
It is the word for a praying person's trance, the suspended state in which God gives Peter and Paul a vision they did not go looking for.Act 10:10Act 11:5Act 22:17
It sits in a list beside words for trembling and wonder, naming part of the mood left hanging over a scene instead of narrating a crowd's response.Mrk 16:8Act 3:10
Both
Both report the same shock at something God has visibly done, so interchangeably that two accounts of the one healing use one word and then the other: Mark says the crowd was astonished, Luke says astonishment took hold of them all.Mrk 2:12Luk 5:26
They stand side by side in one sentence for emphasis, the action and the state doubled up when the dead girl gets up and walks.Mrk 5:42
In both, the amazement is a raw reaction mixed with fear or bewilderment and short of understanding: the women flee the tomb and say nothing, and the Pentecost crowd is left asking what this could possibly mean.Mrk 16:8Act 2:12
It can run the other direction, describing one person knocking a whole crowd off balance: Simon kept the Samaritans dazzled with his magic, and the women back from the tomb left the disciples stunned.Act 8:9Act 8:11Luk 24:22
It can tip past astonishment into the charge of being out of one's senses: Jesus' family says it of him, and Paul repeats it as an accusation against himself.Mrk 3:212Co 5:13
It frequently reports amazement at something HEARD rather than seen: a boy's answers in the temple, foreign languages spoken by Galileans, Saul suddenly preaching the name he had attacked.Luk 2:47Act 2:7Act 9:21
θαυμάζωthe everyday verb for marveling, which can be no more than curiosity and need not overwhelm anyone
Names the overwhelmed condition itself, something that comes over people and takes hold of them rather than something they do: amazement seized everyone who watched the paralyzed man walk home, a great one gripped the witnesses at Jairus's house, and it filled the crowd at the temple gate.Luk 5:26Mrk 5:42Act 3:10
Can name a state in which God gives a vision, with no astonishment at a miracle in view at all: Peter on the rooftop at prayer, retelling it later to the church, and Paul praying in the temple. This is the sense English Bibles usually render "trance".Act 10:10Act 11:5Act 22:17
Tips toward dread that shuts people down rather than opening them up: it comes paired with trembling on the women who flee the empty tomb and say nothing to anyone, and with fear on the crowd at the healing in Galilee.Mrk 16:8Luk 5:26
Both
Both name the astonishment of onlookers at a mighty work, and the two sit so close that one scene uses each in turn: the crowd is filled with amazement at the man healed at the temple gate, and Peter immediately asks them why they are astonished.Act 3:10Act 3:12
Neither one implies faith, and either can leave a person stopped short at the wonder itself: trembling amazement sends the women away from the tomb in silence, and Peter walks home from the same tomb astonished at what has happened without yet understanding it.Mrk 16:8Luk 24:12
Describes something a person does in response to what they see or hear, so it can be told to stop: Jesus tells Nicodemus not to be astonished at being born again, tells a crowd not to be astonished at the coming resurrection, and John tells believers not to be astonished that the world hates them.Jhn 3:7Jhn 5:281Jn 3:13
Can be a considered verdict on someone rather than a reaction to a spectacle, and the one delivering it may be Jesus himself: he is struck by the soldier's faith, struck by his hometown's unbelief, and Paul opens a letter struck that his readers have switched allegiance so fast.Mat 8:10Mrk 6:6Gal 1:6
Can be admiring wonder aimed at the wrong object, and Revelation treats that as the danger: the whole earth is drawn after the healed beast, John himself is caught up in wonder at the woman riding it, and the angel challenges him for it.Rev 13:3Rev 17:6Rev 17:7
Can also point the other way, naming not the wondering but the one wondered at: Christ is the one to be marveled at among all who have believed when he comes.2Th 1:10
φόβοςfear itself, which often stands beside this word in the same verse but names the dread rather than the state of being thrown out of one's bearings
Names a person being thrown outside their normal state of mind, so overwhelmed by what they have seen that they lose their bearings; the word covers being stunned at a miracle and also the trance in which a vision comes.Mrk 5:42Act 10:10Act 22:17
Describes a reaction so total it leaves people speechless or shaking rather than afraid of a threat; after the empty tomb the women fled because this astonishment had gripped them.Mrk 16:8Act 3:10
Both
Both name an overwhelming reaction to a display of God's power, and the two can pile up together: when the paralyzed man walked, the crowd was seized by astonishment and filled with awe at once.Luk 5:26
Names fear in the ordinary sense of dread before a danger or a threat: the disciples terrified at a figure on the water, guards shaking at the angel, people afraid to speak openly.Mat 14:26Mat 28:4Jhn 7:13
Carries a settled, ongoing reverence toward God or those in authority, an attitude believers are told to live in; this is a steady disposition, not a momentary jolt.Act 9:312Co 7:11Pe 1:17
Used for the awe that falls on a crowd after a display of God's power, an emotion that can settle and spread through a whole community rather than passing in a moment.Luk 1:65Act 2:43Act 5:11
ὅραμαthe vision a person sees, where this word names the state he is in while seeing it
Names what happens inside people rather than anything they see: the overwhelming reaction that sweeps over witnesses right after God acts in public.Mrk 5:42Luk 5:26Act 3:10
Can carry fear rather than delight, describing a shock that leaves people shaking and unable to speak about what has happened.Mrk 16:8
Also names the altered state itself, the suspension of ordinary awareness that comes over someone while praying and makes room for revelation to arrive.Act 10:10Act 22:17
Both
Both belong to the language of God breaking in on ordinary perception, and they can describe one and the same episode: at Joppa Peter is in the one when he sees the other, which is why English needs both "trance" and "vision" in a single sentence.Act 11:5
Names the sight itself, the thing that was seen, so it can be talked about afterwards as a definite event with content: Jesus tells the disciples to keep quiet about what they saw on the mountain, and Moses turns aside to look closely at what appeared to him.Mat 17:9Act 7:31
Regularly carries a message with instructions, in which the person is addressed by name and told where to go or what to do next.Act 9:10Act 10:3Act 16:9Act 18:9
Has content that has to be worked out, so a person can puzzle over what it meant, learn of one given to someone else, or mistake a real rescue for one of these sights.Act 10:17Act 10:19Act 9:12Act 12:9
Is decisive for what people do next: seeing one settles a question of direction, and the group acts on it at once.Act 16:10
ekstasis in the other biblical languages
תַּרְדֵּמָהHebrew“deep sleep”the deep sleep God brought on Adam and on Abraham, a Hebrew word for awareness suspended by God rather than for astonishment
Names the stunned amazement of onlookers who have just seen something impossible, a fully awake and public reaction rather than any kind of sleep.Mrk 5:42Luk 5:26Act 3:10
Can carry fear alongside the wonder, the shaken response of people confronted by the holy or the inexplicable.Mrk 16:8
Both
Both can name a God-given state in which ordinary awareness shuts down and the passive person receives a vision or revelation.Gen 15:12Job 33:15Act 10:10Act 11:5
A literal, heavy bodily sleep that falls over a person, sometimes so complete that events happen around them without their knowing.Gen 2:211Sa 26:12
Used as a picture of dullness and torpor: the sluggishness of the lazy, or a numbing stupor God pours out so that people can no longer perceive.Pro 19:15Isa 29:10
רָדַםHebrew“to sleep”the Hebrew verb for sleeping heavily, ordinary sleep a person is hard to wake from rather than a state in which God shows him something
Names the overwhelming amazement that seizes onlookers when they witness a miracle, a rush of wonder mixed with fear as people react to God's power. The Hebrew word never carries this sense of astonishment.Mrk 5:42Luk 5:26Act 3:10
Both
Both can describe a person overtaken by God into a state that removes them from ordinary waking control during an encounter with the divine: the deep sleep that falls on a prophet as a vision comes, and the trance in which revelation is given. The person is not acting or perceiving as usual, but is held by God for the moment of disclosure.Dan 10:9Dan 8:18Act 10:10Act 22:17
Describes ordinary, heavy physical sleep, a person so soundly asleep that they are hard to rouse, sometimes through sheer exhaustion and sometimes through blameworthy carelessness. The Greek word never means literal sleep.Jdg 4:21Jon 1:5Pro 10:5
חֲרָדָהHebrew“trembling”trembling or dread at a sudden shock, where the Hebrew stresses the body's shaking more than a mind displaced from itself
In the New Testament it usually names wonder: people are amazed and awestruck at God's power, not afraid of it. This is the dominant note that the Hebrew word never carries.Luk 5:26Act 3:10
It can also name a trance or vision, a state in which ordinary awareness gives way and God shows something. This revelatory sense has no counterpart in the Hebrew word.Act 10:10Act 11:5Act 22:17
Both
Both name a person being seized and overwhelmed, driven out of normal self-possession by something too strong to master. This is why the Septuagint reached for the Greek word to render the Hebrew word's panic scenes, even though the two land on opposite feelings.Gen 27:33Mrk 5:42
It is trembling driven by terror or dread: panic that physically shakes a body, an army, or a city. The overwhelming here is fear, not wonder.1Sa 14:15Ezk 26:16Dan 10:7
It can soften to anxious care or worried attentiveness, the fretting effort someone spends on another's behalf. The Greek word never bends this way.2Ki 4:13
תִּמָּהוֹןHebrew“bewilderment”bewilderment as a mind thrown into confusion, named in warnings of judgment rather than as a response to a wonder
comes over people as a reaction to something wonderful God has just done, so that praise rises out of them even while it grips themLuk 5:26Act 3:10
regularly arrives with fear, so that people run away or keep silent rather than being struck down and left helplessMrk 16:8
in Acts it names a God-given trance: ordinary awareness gives way while a person at prayer is shown something, and afterward he can report the whole of itAct 10:10Act 11:5Act 22:17
is a passing state that the story moves on from, with the people who were seized by it going about their business in the next breathMrk 5:42
Both
both name a condition that comes over someone from outside and takes away their normal grip on what is happening, never a mood a person works up for themselvesAct 10:10Deu 28:28
both sit close to the language of losing one's senses, the Greek word picturing a person standing outside himself and the Hebrew word named in the same breath as madness, so neither is merely being startledMrk 5:42Zec 12:4
belongs to announcements of judgment: it is something God strikes people or animals with, a punishment rather than a response to anything wonderfulDeu 28:28Zec 12:4
is disabling and lasting, standing in the curse alongside madness and blindness so that the sufferer is left groping about with no idea where to turnDeu 28:28
can be inflicted on animals as well as people, thrown over the war horses so that the attacking charge falls apartZec 12:4
What scholars say about ekstasis
The noun is a verbal abstract of ἐξίστημι and denotes displacement: a standing out of one's normal position or state. LSJ documents the classical range (displacement, distraction, trance, astonishment), and BDAG divides the New Testament data into two senses, the visionary state (Acts 10:10; 11:5; 22:17) and profound astonishment or consternation (Mark 5:42; 16:8; Luke 5:26;Acts 3:10); EDNT and Louw and Nida follow the same division. The Septuagint background is decisive for the usage in Acts: ἔκστασις renders תַּרְדֵּמָה at Genesis 2:21 and 15:12, where a God-given deep sleep is the setting for divine action, and it renders חֲרָדָה at Genesis 27:33 (ἐξέστη ... ἔκστασιν μεγάλην), the idiom Mark 5:42 reproduces with ἐξέστησαν ... ἐκστάσει μεγάλῃ; Deuteronomy 28:28 uses it of judicial derangement. TDNT treats the noun together with its cognate verb and cautions against importing Hellenistic mystery-cult ecstatics into Luke, since Luke's ἔκστασις is receptive, tied to prayer, and lucid in recall; Barrett makes the same observation on Acts 10:10, and France notes the emphatic Semitic idiom of a verb reinforced by its cognate noun behind the phrase in Mark 5:42.