StrongerBible

hēkō

ἥκω

GreekG2240come, have come, ...

Appears 26 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 8:11Mat 23:36Mat 24:14Mat 24:50Mrk 8:3Luk 12:46Luk 13:29Luk 13:35Luk 15:27Luk 19:43Jhn 2:4Jhn 4:47Jhn 6:37Jhn 8:42Rom 11:26Heb 10:7Heb 10:9Heb 10:372Pe 3:101Jn 5:20Rev 2:25Rev 3:3 (2×)Rev 3:9Rev 15:4Rev 18:8
Names & words formed with this
Word studyHAY-koverb

What hēkō means

to have arrived and so be present; to come

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This verb looks at coming from its endpoint. It does not picture the journey so much as the arrival and the being-here that results, which is why it so often means "has come" and "is now present" rather than "is on the way." Its present-tense forms already carry that finished sense: when Jesus says his hour has not yet come, or when the prodigal's brother is reported to have come home, the word marks a state reached, not motion still underway.

From that single core the word stretches naturally across three kinds of subject. Most often a person arrives or is present: people stream in from east and west, the Son of God has come, the Deliverer will come from Zion. It is used the same way of a time or an event that arrives: the hour, the end, the day of the Lord. And it can describe trouble that comes upon someone, where the arrival lands on a person as consequence: judgment on a generation, days of siege, plagues in a single day.

Because the shades all turn on one idea, they are senses of a single word rather than separate meanings. The right English word is almost always "come" (or "have come"); what shifts is only what is doing the arriving and, in the third use, that it arrives against someone.

Nuances

1aof a person or group: to have come, to arrive, to be present
Mat 8:11Mat 24:50Luk 12:46Luk 13:29Luk 15:27Jhn 4:47Jhn 6:37Jhn 8:42Rom 11:26Heb 10:7Heb 10:9Heb 10:37
1bof a time or event: to arrive, to come
Mat 24:14Luk 13:35Jhn 2:42Pe 3:10
1cof judgment or calamity: to come upon someone
Mat 23:36Luk 19:43Rev 18:8

What scholars say about hēkō

The lexica are unanimous on the sense: ἥκω denotes having arrived and being present, with the characteristic feature (already classical) that its present forms function with resultative force, effectively "I have come, I am here," and its future is a plain "will come." BDAG divides the New Testament uses into arrival/presence of persons, the coming of a period or event, and the coming of adversity upon someone, all as facets of one verb. LSJ documents the same present-as-perfect usage across classical Greek. TDNT notes its prominence in eschatological contexts, where the arrival of the promised one or of the appointed day is in view.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. ἥκωlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. ἥκωlexicon
  • J. Schneider, "ἥκω," TDNT 2:926-928theological-dictionary

All attested forms of ἥκω

future active indicative 3s

ἥξει

Mat 23:36, Mat 24:14, Mat 24:50, Luk 12:46, Luk 13:35, Jhn 6:37, Rom 11:26, Heb 10:37

future active indicative 3p

ἥξουσιν

Mat 8:11, Luk 13:29, Luk 19:43, Rev 3:9, Rev 15:4, Rev 18:8

present active indicative 3s

ἥκει

Luk 15:27, Jhn 2:4, Jhn 4:47, 1Jn 5:20

present active indicative 1s

ἥκω

Jhn 8:42, Heb 10:7, Heb 10:9

future active indicative 1s

ἥξω

Rev 3:3, Rev 3:3

aorist active subjunctive 1s

ἥξω

Rev 2:25

perfect active indicative 3p

ἥκασιν

Mrk 8:3