StrongerBible

euperistatos

εὐπερίστατος

GreekG2139“entangles, besets, ...”

Appears 1 time · tap a cell to see the verses

Heb 12:1
Compound of
euεὖwell/well done!5G2095
periπερίabout336G4012
histēmiἵστημιto stand156G2476
Word studyResearch-gradeyoo-per-IS-tah-tosadjective

What euperistatos means

closely besetting: (of sin) surrounding and clinging to a person like a loose garment that wraps around a runner's legs and trips him

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyContested

This word appears only once in the whole Bible, in Hebrews 12:1, and the writer of Hebrews seems to have coined it for that one sentence. The verse pictures the Christian life as a footrace and urges the runner to throw off "the sin that so easily besets us." Because it is a made-up compound, its exact force has to be reconstructed from its parts and from the race image around it.

The most widely held reading takes it actively: sin closes in on the runner and clings to him, like a loose robe wrapping around the legs and tripping him. The same verse tells the runner to strip off both this sin and every "weight" (ὄγκος); the sin is the more dangerous of the two, because it does not merely slow the runner but actively wraps him up, much as a person gets tangled in competing pursuits (ἐμπλέκω).

Underneath the picture of entangling, many scholars also hear a fainter note of "trouble" or "distress," since the word is built on a stem that elsewhere names a hard circumstance or calamity. On that reading the besetting sin is not only what trips the runner but what lands him in real danger. One early copy of Hebrews even has a slightly different word meaning "easily distracting," so that the sin pulls the runner's eyes away from the goal. These are not separate uses of the word, since it occurs only here; they are competing attempts to pin down a single, deliberately rich coinage.

Heb 12:1

What scholars say about euperistatos

εὐπερίστατος is a hapax legomenon and almost certainly a coinage by the author of Hebrews: it is unattested in earlier Greek literature, the documentary papyri, and inscriptions, and every later occurrence is a lexicographer's gloss or a citation of Hebrews. J. H. Moulton (Grammar of NT Greek II, §106c) set out four possible parsings: passive "easily avoided" (from περιίσταμαι, "shun"), passive "much admired" (from περίστατος, "surrounded by a throng"), active "easily besetting" (sin closing in), and a sense derived from περίστασις, "productive of distress." John Chrysostom (Hom. Heb. 28) recognized the ambiguity and inclined to "easily avoided," as did the Byzantine lexicographers Hesychius, the Suda, and Photius, but modern exegetes almost uniformly reject the passive readings as incompatible with ἀποθέμενοι, "stripping off." The mainstream reading (Westcott, Moffatt, Bruce, Ellingworth, O'Brien, Cockerill; BDAG "easily ensnaring, constricting, obstructive") is active and clothing-oriented, taking sin as a garment that entangles the runner. Attridge (Hermeneia), with LSJ tentatively and Spicq, shades the sense toward περίστασις and "distress," reviving Theophylact's ancient interpretation and Deissmann's appeal to περίστασις = "calamity" at 2 Maccabees 4:16. On the text, Papyrus 46 (c. 200 CE), minuscule 1739, and Old Latin witnesses read εὐπερίσπαστον, "easily distracting" (from περισπάω); Zuntz (The Text of the Epistles) and Lane (WBC) defend it as original, while Metzger and the UBS committee judge it a secondary reading, a visual slip or a scribal simplification of an opaque word. TDNT has no dedicated entry.

Where scholars disagree about euperistatos

What the coined word εὐπερίστατος means in Hebrews 12:1, its only occurrence.

  • majorityActive sense: sin that surrounds, clings to, and entangles the runner, like a loose garment wrapping the legs or a hostile crowd closing in. Read through the athletic imagery of Hebrews 12:1-3.; B. F. Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Macmillan, 1889/92), 392; F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews (NICNT rev.; Eerdmans, 1990), 335-36; Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews (NIGTC; Eerdmans, 1993), 638; BDAG (3rd ed., 2000), s.v. εὐπερίστατος
  • minorityA shade toward "productive of distress or peril," derived from περίστασις ("adverse circumstance") rather than from the verb: sin as what precipitates crisis for the believer.; Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Hermeneia; Fortress, 1989), 354-55; Ceslas Spicq, L'Epître aux Hébreux (Gabalda, 1952-53); LSJ, s.v. εὐπερίστατος (tentative)
  • minorityThe early variant reading εὐπερίσπαστον, "easily distracting" (from περισπάω): sin that pulls the runner's gaze from the goal. Attested in Papyrus 46, minuscule 1739, and Old Latin witnesses.; Günther Zuntz, The Text of the Epistles (British Academy, 1953), 25-29; William L. Lane, Hebrews 9-13 (WBC 47B; Word, 1991), 408-09
  • minorityPassive "easily avoided": the compound read as sin that can readily be shunned or circumvented. The earliest native-Greek exegesis, now generally rejected as incompatible with the call to strip sin off.; John Chrysostom, Homilies on Hebrews 28 (NPNF1 14)
  • minorityPassive "much admired" or "popular": the socially applauded sin, surrounded by admirers, on the analogy of Isocrates' περίστατος. Enshrined as a Revised Version margin, but with almost no modern following.; J. H. Moulton, A Grammar of New Testament Greek, vol. II (T&T Clark, 1929), §106c
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 (3rd ed., 2000), s.v. εὐπερίστατοςlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. εὐπερίστατοςlexicon
  • J. H. Moulton, A Grammar of New Testament Greek, vol. II (T&T Clark, 1929), §106creference
  • Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Hermeneia; Fortress, 1989), 354-55commentary
  • F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews (NICNT rev.; Eerdmans, 1990), 335-36commentary
  • Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews (NIGTC; Eerdmans, 1993), 638commentary
  • James Moffatt, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (ICC; T&T Clark, 1924), 193commentary
  • Günther Zuntz, The Text of the Epistles (British Academy, 1953), 25-29monograph
  • William L. Lane, Hebrews 9-13 (WBC 47B; Word, 1991), 398, 408-09commentary
  • Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (2nd ed.; UBS, 1994), 605reference
  • John Chrysostom, Homilies on Hebrews 28 (NPNF1 14)commentary

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

All attested forms of εὐπερίστατος

accusative f s

εὐπερίστατον

Heb 12:1