StrongerBible

exagō

ἐξάγω

GreekG1806bring out, lead out, ...

Appears 12 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mrk 15:20Luk 24:50Jhn 10:3Act 5:19Act 7:36Act 7:40Act 12:17Act 13:17Act 16:37Act 16:39Act 21:38Heb 8:9
Compound of
Word studyex-AH-goverb

What exagō means

to lead someone out: to conduct another person or creature from inside a place to outside it

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

This is a plain word for one party taking another out of somewhere. It joins the ordinary verb for leading or bringing (ἄγω) to a prefix meaning "out," so the picture is simple: someone is inside, and someone else conducts them outside. Jesus leads the disciples out as far as Bethany, soldiers lead him out to be crucified, a shepherd leads his flock out of the pen. The word always has a leader and a led; it is never just a person walking out on their own.

In Acts the word keeps turning up for prisoners:

  • an angel opens the prison doors at night and brings the apostles out
  • the Lord brings Peter out of Herod's prison while the guards sleep
  • the magistrates at Philippi are made to come and bring Paul and Silas out in person

It is also the standard word for the exodus, used again and again for God bringing Israel out of Egypt. Those two settings are connected. The Greek translation of the Old Testament used this verb for the exodus so steadily that it became the sound of rescue, so when Luke has an angel bring the apostles out of jail, he is telling a small exodus story in the old words.

The verb itself, though, is not a religious term. It stays the everyday word for taking someone out, and what makes any one instance an act of deliverance is who is doing the leading and what the person is being led out of. The same word carries a condemned man to his execution.

Nuances

1ato escort or take someone out of a place and on to somewhere else
Mrk 15:20Luk 24:50Act 21:38
1bto bring someone out of prison or custody, whether by rescue or by official release
Act 5:19Act 12:17Act 16:37Act 16:39
1cof God, or of Moses acting for God: to bring Israel out of Egypt
Act 7:36Act 7:40Act 13:17Heb 8:9
1dof a shepherd: to lead a flock out of the fold
Jhn 10:3

What scholars say about exagō

The lexica treat this as a single transitive verb of motion, a compound of ἄγω with ἐκ, glossed "lead out, bring out"; the standard New Testament lexicography records no unrelated senses, only contextual applications (out of prison, out of Egypt, out of a city, of livestock to pasture). LSJ documents the wider classical range, including leading out troops and driving cattle out to graze, and the specialised use of leading a condemned person out to execution, which is at least suggestive for Mark 15:20 even though the Synoptic Gospels' more usual verb in the passion narrative is ἀπάγω. The word's theological weight in the New Testament is inherited from the Septuagint, where ἐξάγω is the regular equivalent of the causative of יָצָא in the exodus formula, and Acts 7:36, 7:40, 13:17 and the Jeremiah citation at Hebrews 8:9 reproduce that formula. Commentators on Acts have long noted that the deliverance narratives of Acts 5 and Acts 12 are told in exodus-shaped language, with the Passover setting of Acts 12:3 reinforcing the allusion.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. ἐξάγωlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. ἐξάγωlexicon
  • EDNT, s.v. ἐξάγωdictionary
  • C. K. Barrett, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, ICCcommentary

All attested forms of ἐξάγω

second-aorist active indicative 3s

ἐξήγαγεν, Ἐξήγαγεν

Act 7:36, Act 7:40, Act 12:17, Act 13:17, Luk 24:50

second-aorist active participle nominative m s

ἐξαγαγών, ἐξαγαγὼν

Act 5:19, Act 21:38

present active indicative 3p

ἐξάγουσιν

Mrk 15:20

present active indicative 3s

ἐξάγει

Jhn 10:3

second-aorist active imperative 3p

ἐξαγαγέτωσαν

Act 16:37

second-aorist active infinitive

ἐξαγαγεῖν

Heb 8:9

second-aorist active participle nominative m p

ἐξαγαγόντες

Act 16:39