to bring a hidden wrong into the open so the wrongdoer must face it, whether by exposing the deed, proving the guilt, rebuking the person, or correcting them in love
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong
At its core this verb takes something wrong that has been hidden or denied and forces it into the light, where it can no longer be ignored. The point is never simply to pass on information. It is moral confrontation aimed at a response: the person is meant to see their own wrong and do something about it.
English needs several different words for this verb because the same basic act shows up in very different settings.
In a courtroom it means proving someone guilty.
Between two people, or within a church, it means confronting a member with their fault and calling them to change.
From a loving parent it means correction and discipline.
When light falls on dark deeds it means exposure, showing them for what they are.
The reason one Greek word stretches this far is that the translators of the Old Testament into Greek used it to carry a Hebrew word (יכח) that already covered arguing a legal case, reproving a friend, and chastening a son.
The result of this confrontation runs two ways. The person whose wrong is brought into the open is either hardened, refusing to admit it, or broken open and brought back. Very often the whole aim is to restore rather than to destroy, which is why the same verb can describe both a final verdict of guilt and a father's tender correction of a child he loves.
Nuances
1ato drag hidden deeds into the open, so that what was concealed is seen for what it is
Jhn 3:20Eph 5:11*Eph 5:13
Eph 5:11
Whether the command in Ephesians 5:11 is to expose the deeds of darkness or to actively rebuke them in words.
majorityExpose them: a holy life and witness show the deeds of darkness up for what they are.; H. W. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary (2002), 678–684; P. T. O'Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians, Pillar (1999), 371–375
minorityReprove them: the emphatic wording demands active verbal censure, not silent example.; E. Best, Ephesians, ICC (1998), 493–499
1bto prove someone guilty, showing beyond dispute that they are in the wrong
Jhn 8:9Jhn 8:46Jhn 16:8*1Co 14:24Jas 2:9Jud 1:15
Jhn 16:8
What the Spirit does to the world here, and toward whom, given the debated sense of the verb and the reference of the terms sin, righteousness, and judgment.
contestedConvict the world of its guilt, bringing it to self-conscious recognition of its sin, righteousness, and judgment.; D. A. Carson, JBL 98 (1979): 547–566
contestedProve the world wrong, with the Spirit's action directed to the disciples about the world rather than at the world itself.; R. E. Brown, The Gospel According to John XIII–XXI, AB 29A (1970), 705, 711–714
contestedCall the world's sin, righteousness, and judgment into question, redefining its understanding of them.; R. Bultmann, The Gospel of John (1971), 561–566
contestedProsecute the world, the Spirit continuing Jesus' role in a cosmic trial.; A. T. Lincoln, Truth on Trial (2000); C. S. Keener, The Gospel of John (2003), 2:1030
1cto confront a person with their wrong to their face and call them to change
Mat 18:15Luk 3:191Ti 5:202Ti 4:2Tit 1:13Tit 2:15
1dto argue an opponent's error down, showing a false claim to be false
Tit 1:9
1eto correct someone out of love, the way a caring parent corrects a child
English "convince" means bringing someone to agree with you, but this verb proves a person guilty whether or not they ever accept it, so "convince" misses the point entirely
Aims to expose a fault and bring it into the light so the person sees it and is convicted; the goal is to convince, not merely to command.Jhn 3:20Jhn 16:81Co 14:24
Belongs to the settled work of correcting believers and refuting error, done in teaching, discipline, and pastoral care.Mat 18:151Ti 5:20Tit 1:9
Both
Both name a firm verbal correction of someone in the wrong, and Paul pairs them as tools of the same pastoral task.2Ti 4:2
A sharp verbal command that halts an action or silences someone on the spot, with the speaker's authority stopping the behavior at once.Mrk 4:39Mrk 8:33Luk 4:35
Often used when Jesus orders demons, disease, or people to be quiet or to stop, and when the disciples try to hold others back.Mrk 1:25Mat 19:13Luk 18:39
παιδεύωto train and chasten, the whole shaping work of correction; this verb is the pointed act of confronting the fault, and the two are paired in the letter to Laodicea
Brings hidden wrong out into the open, dragging it into the light so it can no longer be denied.Jhn 3:20Eph 5:11Eph 5:13
Convicts a person of guilt, proving them in the wrong so their own conscience must admit it.Jhn 16:8Jhn 8:461Co 14:24
A spoken confrontation that names someone's specific fault to their face.Mat 18:151Ti 5:20Tit 1:13
Both
Both are corrective acts aimed at someone the corrector loves, meant to turn that person back to what is right; Revelation 3:19 sets them side by side as two sides of loving correction.Rev 3:19
The broad work of educating and raising someone, teaching them the way they should go.Act 7:22Act 22:3Tit 2:12
Corrective discipline that shapes character over time, often through hardship, the way a parent trains a child for their good.Heb 12:6Heb 12:71Co 11:32
Reaches as far as bodily punishment, including a flogging handed down as chastisement.Luk 23:16Luk 23:22
ἀνακρίνωto examine and cross-question, the probing that searches a person out; this verb is the verdict that brings the resulting guilt to light, and the two stand side by side when an outsider hears prophecy
Names the neutral act of investigating: sifting evidence and questioning to reach a verdict, without any assumption that the person is guilty.Luk 23:14Act 24:8Act 28:18
Used of a formal legal hearing or interrogation, the courtroom process of examining a defendant or a witness.Act 4:9Act 12:19
Extends to careful study and discernment: weighing the Scriptures for oneself, or the spiritual person appraising all things.Act 17:111Co 2:141Co 2:15
Covers the everyday act of asking questions to find something out, such as raising no scruples of conscience about food at the market.1Co 10:251Co 10:27
Exposing and convicting of wrong: dragging hidden sin into the light so that it stands proven and undeniable.Jhn 3:20Eph 5:11Jhn 16:8
Open confrontation of an offender, sometimes before witnesses or the whole church, and it can fall sharply on the powerful.Mat 18:151Ti 5:20Luk 3:19
Both
Both are corrective speech within the community, aimed at turning a fellow believer away from wrong and back to right. The first word leans toward confronting and exposing; the second toward warning and instructing, but both seek the person's restoration.2Ti 4:21Th 5:14
Warning instruction that shapes the mind: putting right thinking into a person to steer them, whether or not any offense has yet occurred.Col 1:28Col 3:16Rom 15:14
The tender, persistent correction of family: a father counseling his children, even with tears, and cautioning the unruly without treating them as enemies.1Co 4:14Act 20:312Th 3:15
elegchō in the other biblical languages
יָכַחHebrew“to rebuke”the Hebrew verb this word translates in the Greek Old Testament, whose range likewise runs from settling a legal dispute to reproving a neighbor to a father's loving correction of a son
Exposes hidden wrong by dragging it into the light, so that the guilt becomes undeniable; the focus is on bringing sin out into the open.Jhn 3:20Eph 5:11Eph 5:13
Names the inward work of convicting a person of sin, the conscience pierced until the wrongdoer knows the charge is true.Jhn 16:8Jhn 8:46Jas 2:9
Functions as ordered correction within the believing community, the appointed way leaders and members confront a fault.Mat 18:151Ti 5:20Tit 1:13
Both
Both name the act of telling someone plainly that they are in the wrong, a frank reproof meant to set them straight rather than to wound.Lev 19:172Ti 4:2
Both can describe the wise rebuke a person should welcome, the honest correction that a teachable heart receives as a gift.Pro 9:8Rev 3:19
Argues a case as in a courtroom, pressing a complaint and seeking a verdict between two parties.Gen 31:37Job 13:3Job 23:7
Can mean to arbitrate or decide between disputing parties, the work of a judge settling who is right.Gen 31:42Isa 2:4Job 9:33
Covers corrective discipline given out of love, the chastening a father lays on a son.Pro 3:12Psa 6:1Job 5:17
What scholars say about elegchō
The lexica do not agree on a single English gloss. BDAG distributes the verb across four senses (scrutinize or expose, bring to recognize wrongdoing or convict, express disapproval or reprove, and punish or discipline), and Louw and Nida split it across three semantic domains, while Buechsel in TDNT argued that the New Testament narrows the classical breadth to one moral and pastoral core, showing a person their sin and summoning them to repentance, and denied that it ever means merely to scold. Moulton and Milligan and Spicq resist collapsing the milder documentary sense (to expose, to give evidence) that the papyri attest into full forensic conviction, and Spicq traces the inner voice of conscience in Philo as the nearest background for the Johannine and Pauline usage. The single most consequential development is the Septuagint's habit of rendering Hebrew yakach with this verb, which grafted a field of covenantal, familial, and pedagogical reproof onto a Greek word whose classical range had been chiefly the courtroom and the dialectical cross-examination; this is why Matthew 18:15 echoes Leviticus 19:17 and Hebrews 12:5 and Revelation 3:19 quote Proverbs 3:11 to 12 as their paradigm. Mowinckel showed that in Hellenistic Jewish usage the verb establishes guilt and does not require the conversion of the guilty, which is why the older convince or persuade rendering is now widely rejected. The sharpest live debate is John 16:8, where Carson argues for a forensic conviction of the world aimed at self-conscious recognition of guilt, Brown reads it as proving the world wrong for the benefit of the disciples, Bultmann and Beasley-Murray take the three items as being called into question, and Lincoln and Keener set it within a cosmic-trial motif and translate it prosecute.
Where scholars disagree about elegchō
Whether this verb carries a single restrictive New Testament sense or genuinely spans several distinct senses.
majorityThe verb spans a real range in New Testament Greek, from courtroom conviction through exposure to reproof and discipline, and should be distributed across several senses.; BDAG, 315; Louw and Nida, §§33.417, 33.418, 36.10; Moulton and Milligan, s.v. ἐλέγχω
minorityNew Testament usage narrows to a single moral and pastoral core, to show a person their sin and summon them to repentance.; F. Büchsel, TDNT 2:473–476
In-depth research
This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.
Sources
BDAG (Bauer, Danker, Arndt, Gingrich), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 3rd ed. (2000), 315lexicon
J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 2nd ed. (1989), §§33.417, 33.418, 36.10lexicon
LSJ, A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. (1940), s.v. ἐλέγχω, ἔλεγχοςlexicon
F. Büchsel, "ἐλέγχω κτλ.," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT), 2:473–476theological-dictionary
J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (1929), s.v. ἐλέγχωlexicon
C. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (1994), 1:414–417theological-dictionary
T. Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (2009), s.v. ἐλέγχωlexicon
D. A. Carson, "The Function of the Paraclete in John 16:7–11," Journal of Biblical Literature 98 (1979): 547–566journal-article
A. T. Lincoln, Truth on Trial: The Lawsuit Motif in the Fourth Gospel (2000)monograph
H. W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Hermeneia (1989), 361–363commentary