StrongerBible

exaireō

ἐξαιρέω

GreekG1807“deliver, rescue, ...”

Appears 8 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 5:29Mat 18:9Act 7:10Act 7:34Act 12:11Act 23:27Act 26:17Gal 1:4
Compound of
ekἐκout from938G1537
ahireōαἱρέωto choose3G138
Word studyex-eye-REH-ohverb

What exaireō means

1

to take something out and be rid of it: to pull a part out of the place where it sits

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

The verb is built out of two pieces: a common Greek verb for taking hold of something, and a prefix meaning "out of". The prefix does all the work here. The thing is not merely taken, it is taken out of where it was, and in the two verses that use the word this way it is an eye taken out of a head.

Both times the command comes in a pair: take it out, and throw it away from you. The second half shows how absolute the first one is. Nothing is being adjusted, bandaged, or covered over; the part that keeps causing the trouble is removed and disposed of. That is the whole force of the word, and it is why the saying is so hard to hear.

Greek had other ways to say something similar, and the difference is worth noticing. A verb for gouging or digging something out (ἐξορύσσω) puts the picture in the digging, and a verb for taking something off a person (ἀφαιρέω) puts it in the loss. This word puts it simply in the taking out.

Mat 5:29Mat 18:9
2

to rescue someone by pulling them out: to get a person clear of the grip or the situation holding them

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

Wherever the New Testament speaks of rescue with this verb, the picture is the same. Someone reaches into a bad place and draws a person out of it, and the text usually names the bad place exactly:

  • Joseph is pulled out of all his troubles
  • Israel is to be brought out of Egypt
  • Peter is taken out of the hand of Herod
  • Paul is pulled out of a crowd that is about to kill him
  • believers are taken out of the present evil age

Set beside the other Greek words for saving, this one is the least abstract. The broad word for saving (σῴζω) is wide enough to cover healing a body, surviving a shipwreck, and being saved at the end of all things. The word for snatching someone clear (ῥύομαι) pictures a danger closing in and a person pulled out of its path. This verb keeps the reader's eye on what a person is taken out of, so the rescue is always a rescue from something you can point at.

In Acts the rescuer is nearly always God, working through an angel, a vision, or the ordinary machinery of a Roman garrison; once it is simply a Roman commander pulling a prisoner out of a mob. Either way the pattern holds. People are taken out of situations they had no way out of on their own, and the same word covers a slave sold into Egypt, a nation under forced labor, and an apostle in chains.

Nuances

2ato rescue a person out of danger, oppression, or hostile hands
Act 7:10Act 7:34Act 12:11Act 23:27Act 26:17
2bto take someone out of a whole way of life rather than out of one particular danger
Gal 1:4

What scholars say about exaireō

The verb is a compound of αἱρέω with ἐξ, and in the New Testament its two senses track voice almost exactly. The two active forms, both aorist imperative ἔξελε at Matt 5:29 and 18:9, carry BDAG's first sense, to take out or tear out; the six middle forms carry the second, to set free, rescue, deliver (Acts 7:10, 34; 12:11; 23:27; 26:17; Gal 1:4). LSJ documents a broader middle range in classical Greek that includes taking out for oneself and hence choosing or selecting, which is why ἐξαιρούμενός σε ἐκ τοῦ λαοῦ at Acts 26:17 has occasionally been read as selection rather than deliverance; commentators such as Barrett prefer rescue there, since the commission wording echoes Jer 1:8 LXX, where ἐξαιρεῖσθαι renders the hiphil of נצל in God's promise to deliver the prophet from his opponents. In the Septuagint the verb is the ordinary equivalent of נצל in the hiphil and stands frequently for חלץ and מלט, which accounts for its concentration in Stephen's speech and in the account of Peter's release, both of which retell exodus-shaped rescues (Exod 3:8 LXX lies directly behind Acts 7:34). At Gal 1:4 the aorist subjunctive with ἐκ τοῦ αἰῶνος τοῦ ἐνεστῶτος πονηροῦ gives the verb an apocalyptic object rather than a personal or circumstantial one; Martyn presses the resulting sense of being snatched out of the grasp of the present evil age rather than merely pardoned inside it.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. ἐξαιρέωlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. ἐξαιρέωlexicon
  • C. K. Barrett, The Acts of the Apostles, Volume II: Acts 15-28 (ICC)commentary
  • J. Louis Martyn, Galatians (Anchor Bible 33A)commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of ἐξαιρέω

second-aorist active imperative 2s

ἔξελε

Mat 5:29, Mat 18:9

second-aorist middle indicative 3s

ἐξείλατο, ἐξείλατό

Act 7:10, Act 12:11

present middle participle nominative m s

ἐξαιρούμενός

Act 26:17

second-aorist middle indicative 1s

ἐξειλάμην

Act 23:27

second-aorist middle infinitive

ἐξελέσθαι

Act 7:34

second-aorist middle subjunctive 3s

ἐξέληται

Gal 1:4