StrongerBible

katagelaō

καταγελάω

GreekG2606“laughed at, laughed him to scorn, ...”

Appears 3 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 9:24Mrk 5:40Luk 8:53
Word studyResearch-gradekah-tah-geh-LAH-ohverb

What katagelaō means

to laugh at someone with scorn; to jeer at, deride, or ridicule

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This word joins the ordinary verb for laughing (γελάω) to a prefix that turns the laughter against its target. So it never describes friendly or delighted laughter; it always means laughter aimed at someone in order to belittle them. Across a thousand years of Greek writing the sense stays the same: to jeer, to sneer, to laugh a person to scorn.

In the New Testament it appears only three times, and all three are the same moment: the mourners at the house of Jairus laugh at Jesus after he says the dead girl is only sleeping (Matthew 9:24; Mark 5:40; Luke 8:53). The form of the verb pictures ongoing jeering rather than a single burst, which is part of why Jesus clears the room before raising the child.

The Greek Old Testament had used this same word for the way the arrogant deride the poor and the way enemies mock God's faithful. First readers would therefore have heard the mourners' laughter as an act of contempt, standing in sharp contrast to the faith shown by Jairus and by the woman Jesus heals in the same scene.

Mat 9:24Mrk 5:40Luk 8:53

What scholars say about katagelaō

The lexicons are unanimous: BDAG glosses καταγελάω as "laugh scornfully at, ridicule, deride"; LSJ finds only pejorative senses and no neutral use; Louw-Nida places it in the "Mock, Ridicule" domain (33.406-411); and Rengstorf's TDNT article on the γελάω word-group treats the compound as an intensification meaning "laugh loudly" or "sneer," what the older lexica call risus derisorius, "mocking laughter." Moulton-Milligan document the same scornful sense in the papyri (BGU III.814.21) and inscriptions (Sylloge 802), showing the word was current in ordinary Koine speech. In the Septuagint it renders chiefly the Hebrew roots לעג and שׂחק (and בּוּז once, in Genesis 38:23), clustering in Job, Proverbs, and scenes of covenant conflict such as 2 Chronicles 30:10. The three Synoptic occurrences (Matthew 9:24; Mark 5:40; Luke 8:53) are a single triple-tradition agreement, the imperfect κατεγέλων depicting sustained jeering; Marcus, France, Fitzmyer, Marshall, Nolland, Yarbro Collins, and Davies-Allison read the mockery as narrative certification that the girl was genuinely dead and as a foil to faith, with Luke's added εἰδότες ὅτι ἀπέθανεν foreclosing any suggestion that she was merely in a coma.

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), 515, s.v. καταγελάωlexicon
  • LSJ (9th ed. with revised supplement), s.v. καταγελάωlexicon
  • J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the NT Based on Semantic Domains (2nd ed., 1989), 33.406-411lexicon
  • K. H. Rengstorf, "γελάω, καταγελάω, γέλως," TDNT 1:658-662theological-dictionary
  • J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (1930), s.v. καταγελάωlexicon
  • H. Balz and G. Schneider, eds., Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 2 (1991), s.v. καταγελάωtheological-dictionary
  • J. Marcus, Mark 1-8 (Anchor Yale Bible 27; 2000), 355-375commentary
  • R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark (NIGTC; 2002), 236-244commentary
  • J. A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel according to Luke I-IX (Anchor Bible 28; 1981), 739-746commentary

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

All attested forms of καταγελάω

imperfect active indicative 3p

κατεγέλων

Mat 9:24, Mrk 5:40, Luk 8:53