used of a stretch of time: to set in and so be the one now here, rather than one still on its way
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong
The picture inside this word is standing: a season of time takes its stand where people are living. In the New Testament it is used of times and not of people or objects, so English Bibles almost always turn it into the adjective "present": the present age, the present crisis, things present.
Because it pictures a stretch of time taking its stand, the same word covers both the moment a season arrives and the settled state of that season being here. That is why its uses fall into recognizable shapes:
what is now in force, listed against whatever is still to come, as in Romans 8:38 and 1 Corinthians 3:22, where it is paired with the word for what is about to be (μέλλω)
a whole age with a character of its own, the "present evil age" of Galatians 1:4
a hardship already bearing down, the "present crisis" of 1 Corinthians 7:26
a season that will begin later, the hard times that "will set in" in the last days in 2 Timothy 3:1
It is worth hearing what the word does not say. It is not the general verb for being on hand or in attendance (πάρειμι), and it is not the verb for drawing near (ἐγγίζω). What this word describes has actually arrived. That difference carries real weight in 2 Thessalonians 2:2, where the unsettling report Paul answers is that the day of the Lord is already underway.
Nuances
1anow here: the time, age, or hardship currently in force, as against whatever is still to come
TranslatabilityDirect
Rom 8:381Co 3:221Co 7:26Gal 1:4Heb 9:9*
1bto set in: for a season or a day to arrive and begin pressing on people
names a time that has actively set in and is bearing down on people, not just a neutral slice of the calendar1Co 7:26Gal 1:4
Both
both mark what is now in force, set against what is still to comeRom 8:381Co 3:22
Only present
in English, "present" often means simply in attendance or here in the room, which this word is never used for
English "the present" suggests a neutral point between past and future, losing the sense of a season that has taken hold
“come”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“set in”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“at hand”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How enistēmi differs from similar Greek words
πάρειμιthe ordinary verb for being present or on hand, used of people who have arrived and of things available, where this word is used of a stretch of time that has set in.
Marks a person as physically here, having arrived and standing in the roomMat 26:50Jhn 11:28Act 10:33
Sets bodily presence against absence, above all Paul being with a church or away from it1Co 5:32Co 13:2Gal 4:18
Says a thing is on hand and available to someone right nowHeb 13:52Pe 1:122Pe 1:9
μέλλωnames what is still about to happen, the standing counterpart to what has already set in, and the word paired with it in the lists of "things present or things to come."
It can say that something has actually arrived and is here now. The panic Paul writes to calm in Thessalonica was a report that the day of the Lord "has come" already, and the whole verse only makes sense because this word claims arrival rather than approach.2Th 2:2
It labels the stretch of time the readers are standing inside, the world as it currently is: "this present evil age" that Christ rescues people out of, and "the present time" in which the old sacrifices were still being offered.Gal 1:4Heb 9:9
Even when it points ahead, the picture is of a thing taking its stand and then staying: hard times that will set in during the last days, and the pressure already bearing down on the Corinthians as they weigh whether to marry.2Ti 3:11Co 7:26
Both
Both sort events by where they fall in relation to right now, which is exactly why Paul can set them side by side to sweep up the whole of time in one breath: neither what is here nor what is coming can separate believers from God's love, and both alike belong to the church.Rom 8:381Co 3:22
Both can name a whole era rather than a single event, and the New Testament uses them as the two halves of one map: the age going on now, and the age still to arrive.Gal 1:4Eph 1:21Heb 2:5
Both get used of trouble closing in on people, so English Bibles reach for overlapping words: "the present distress" and hard times that will set in for one, "the coming wrath" for the other. The difference is whether the trouble is already on top of you or still bearing down.1Co 7:262Ti 3:1Mat 3:7
It keeps the event on the far side of now: still on its way, not yet done. Jesus tells the disciples he is about to be handed over, and John notes that his words signalled the kind of death he was going to die.Mat 17:22Jhn 18:32
It reports a plan or intention already formed but not yet carried out, so it works as well for a person's purpose as for a coming event: Herod means to hunt down the child, Judas is the one who is going to hand Jesus over, Paul is set on sailing for Syria.Mat 2:13Jhn 12:4Act 20:3
It can mark an act on the very verge of happening, which is why it so often describes something stopped just short: sailors slipping the ship's boat into the water as though to run out anchors, and a jailer with his sword drawn on himself.Act 27:30Act 16:27
It can make a future event sound settled and certain rather than merely possible: God has fixed the day on which he will judge the world, and John warns the crowds to flee "the coming wrath" as a fact already in motion.Act 17:31Mat 3:7
ἐγγίζωsays a time or event has come near without yet arriving, which is exactly the difference at stake when this word is rendered "is at hand."
Says the season has actually set in and is now underway, not that it is on its way. That is the whole force of the report Paul answers, that the day of the Lord had already begun, and of the warning that hard times will have arrived in the last days.2Th 2:22Ti 3:1
Works as the name for "now" in a pair of opposites, what is currently in force set against whatever is still to come. The other word never labels the present; it only measures how close something is.Rom 8:381Co 3:22
Describes the stretch of time people are living inside and gives it a character: a whole age that is evil, a crisis already squeezing them, an arrangement that holds for the time being.Gal 1:41Co 7:26Heb 9:9
Both
Both are used of a decisive time bearing down on believers, and both come attached to instructions about how to live in light of it, so the two can sound alike in English.1Pe 4:7Jas 5:82Ti 3:11Co 7:26
Both turn up in claims about God's coming day and the judgment that goes with it, which is exactly why the difference matters: one says the day has drawn close, the other says it has already set in, and translating both as "is at hand" hides the argument in 2 Thessalonians 2:2.Luk 21:20Rom 13:122Th 2:2
Covers real physical distance: people and crowds closing the space between themselves and a town, a gate, or another person. This word travels; the other one never describes motion or people at all.Mat 21:1Luk 18:35Luk 24:15Act 9:3
When it is used of a time or an awaited event, the claim is that the thing is close but not yet here. The gap has shrunk to almost nothing, which is why English Bibles reach for "is at hand" and "has come near".Mat 3:2Mrk 1:15Rom 13:12Jas 5:8
Reaches into the relationship between a person and God: coming close to God in worship and prayer, or getting close only with the lips while the heart stays far off. The other word is never used of anyone approaching God.Heb 7:19Jas 4:8Mat 15:8
enistēmi in the other biblical languages
בּוֹאHebrew“to come (in): come”Hebrew has no verb for a time being present, so it says the time "has come" with the ordinary verb for coming, as in the prophets' announcement that the day has arrived.
Names the stretch of time a person is standing in, so it can be set directly against whatever is still ahead. Paul's lists of things that cannot separate us from God, and of things that belong to us, pair what is present with what is still to come, and this is the word for the first half of that pair.Rom 8:381Co 3:22
Labels a hardship, an age, or an arrangement as the one now in force around the people living under it: the pressure they are under at the moment, the wicked age they have been rescued from, the era of worship still running when Hebrews was written. English usually carries it with the single word "present".1Co 7:26Gal 1:4Heb 9:9
Both
Both can announce that a time has now arrived. Hebrew has no separate verb for it and simply says the time or the day "has come", using its ordinary verb of coming, while Greek has this dedicated verb for the time that has set in and is now here. Ezekiel's announcement that the time has come and Paul's report of a rumor that the day of the Lord had arrived are making the same kind of claim.Ezk 7:122Th 2:2
Both can also put that arrival in the future, warning of a hard stretch of time on its way. The prophets' repeated "days are coming" and the warning that difficult times will set in during the last days do the same work with each language's own verb.Amo 8:11Isa 39:62Ti 3:1
Covers plain physical movement, which the Greek word never does: a man going into a boat, guests going into a house, a family arriving in a new land.Gen 7:1Gen 19:3Gen 12:5
Also means to make something arrive: God brings the animals and then the woman to the man, and Cain brings an offering. The Greek word can never take an object like this.Gen 2:19Gen 2:22Gen 4:3
Keeps the picture of travel even when a time is what arrives, so a coming doom can be said to walk toward the person it will strike, arriving "to you". The Greek word has no such picture of motion in it.Ezk 7:7
What scholars say about enistēmi
BDAG treats ἐνίστημι in two divisions, both used of time: of a period that comes on or is impending (the future middle in 2 Tim 3:1, καιροὶ χαλεποί), and, in the perfect, of a period that is present or has come (the participial uses in Rom 8:38,1 Cor 3:22,1 Cor 7:26,Gal 1:4,Heb 9:9, and the indicative in 2 Thess 2:2). LSJ documents the wider classical range of the compound, including the concrete "to stand in the way, set upon" that lies behind the temporal use; the New Testament preserves only the temporal application. EDNT notes that the perfect participle functions in practice as an adjective for "present," frequently in the eschatological contrast with τὰ μέλλοντα. The exegetical crux is 2 Thess 2:2, where the perfect ἐνέστηκεν is generally taken to assert that the day of the Lord has already arrived rather than that it is imminent; so Malherbe (AB 32B) and Bruce (WBC 45), against the older "is at hand" rendering. On the difficult εἰς τὸν καιρὸν τὸν ἐνεστηκότα of Heb 9:9, Attridge (Hermeneia) surveys whether the phrase designates the era of the old cultus or the author's own time.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. ἐνίστημιlexicon
LSJ, s.v. ἐνίστημιlexicon
EDNT, s.v. ἐνίστημιtheological-dictionary
Abraham J. Malherbe, The Letters to the Thessalonians (Anchor Bible 32B)commentary
F. F. Bruce, 1 & 2 Thessalonians (Word Biblical Commentary 45)commentary
Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Hermeneia)commentary