StrongerBible

katallassō

καταλλάσσω

GreekG2644“reconcile”

Appears 6 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Rom 5:10 (2×)1Co 7:112Co 5:182Co 5:192Co 5:20
Compound of
kataκατάaccording to484G2596
allassōἀλλάσσωto change6G236
Root family
Names & words formed with this
Word studyResearch-gradekah-tal-LAH-soverb

What katallassō means

to reconcile: to restore a broken relationship, replacing hostility with friendship and peace

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

The word began in the marketplace, where it meant to exchange one thing for another, especially to change money from one currency into another. From there it came to mean exchanging hostility for friendship, that is, reconciling. By New Testament times it was an ordinary word for repairing a relationship that had broken down, whether between warring cities or estranged people.

Paul uses it in two settings that share one core idea: two parties who were at odds are brought back together and their hostility gives way to peace. In everyday life it describes a wife and husband setting aside their split (1 Corinthians 7:11). At the heart of the gospel it describes God restoring people to himself.

What makes Paul's use striking is the direction. In ordinary Greek, and in the Old Testament, it is usually the offended party who must be won over: the guilty side works to regain favor. Paul turns this around. God, the offended party, is the one who takes the initiative and reconciles his enemies to himself while they are still hostile. Reconciliation, for Paul, is a gift God gives, not a peace we negotiate or a favor we earn.

Nuances

1ato patch up a broken relationship between people, as an estranged wife and husband setting aside their split and coming back together
TranslatabilityDirect
1Co 7:11
1bfor God to restore people to himself, ending the estrangement between them and making peace, with God as the one who acts first
Rom 5:10 (2×)2Co 5:182Co 5:192Co 5:20

Disputed

Whether reconciliation involves a change in God himself, his setting aside his own hostility toward sin, or only a change in human beings toward God.

  • majorityReconciliation is bilateral: God lays aside his hostility toward sinners while the cross also breaks human hostility toward God.; C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans (ICC), 1:266-269; I. Howard Marshall, 'The Meaning of Reconciliation,' in Unity and Diversity in New Testament Theology (1978)
  • minorityReconciliation addresses God's own holy opposition to sin, so it has value for God and not for us alone.; James Denney, The Death of Christ (1902); Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross (3rd ed., 1965); Thomas R. Schreiner, Romans (BECNT), 261-265
  • minorityGod's disposition never changes; reconciliation alters only the human side of the relationship.; Ernst Kasemann, Commentary on Romans

What scholars say about katallassō

The standard lexica agree on the sense: BDAG defines the verb as reestablishing friendly relations after they have been broken, and Louw-Nida groups it with its cognates in the semantic domain of reconciliation and forgiveness. The verb derives from allasso (to change, exchange), and its earliest sense of exchanging money is well documented in the papyri (Spicq; Moulton-Milligan); the reconciliation sense is attested from the fifth century BCE in political and diplomatic contexts (LSJ). Buchsel (TDNT 1:251-259) first stressed that Paul reverses the ordinary pattern by making God the active subject, and Porter's comprehensive study confirms that Paul is the first attested writer to use the active verb with the offended party taking the initiative to reconcile the offender. On the background there is a live debate: Breytenbach derives Paul's usage from Hellenistic diplomatic peacemaking and argues it is conceptually distinct from sacrificial atonement, while Stuhlmacher and Hofius tie it to Isaiah 53 and the sacrificial tradition. Thrall reads the shift from completed aorist (2 Corinthians 5:18) to ongoing imperfect (5:19) to imperative (5:20) as marking reconciliation both as an accomplished act and as something still to be received.

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, s.v. καταλλάσσωlexicon
  • Louw-Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, domain 40lexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. καταλλάσσωlexicon
  • Friedrich Büchsel, 'ἀλλάσσω, καταλλάσσω,' TDNT 1:251-259theological dictionary
  • Stanley E. Porter, Καταλλάσσω in Ancient Greek Literature, with Reference to the Pauline Writings (EFN 5, 1994)monograph
  • Cilliers Breytenbach, Versöhnung: Eine Studie zur paulinischen Soteriologie (WMANT 60, 1989)monograph
  • Margaret E. Thrall, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (ICC)commentary

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

All attested forms of καταλλάσσω

aorist active participle genitive m s

καταλλάξαντος

2Co 5:18

present active participle nominative m s

καταλλάσσων

2Co 5:19

second-aorist passive imperative 2p

καταλλάγητε

2Co 5:20

second-aorist passive imperative 3s

καταλλαγήτω

1Co 7:11

second-aorist passive indicative 1p

κατηλλάγημεν

Rom 5:10

second-aorist passive participle nominative m p

καταλλαγέντες

Rom 5:10