StrongerBible

metabainō

μεταβαίνω

GreekG3327depart, pass over, ...

Appears 12 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 8:34Mat 11:1Mat 12:9Mat 15:29Mat 17:20 (2×)Luk 10:7Jhn 5:24Jhn 7:3Jhn 13:1Act 18:71Jn 3:14
Compound of
Word studymeh-tah-BAH-ee-noverb

What metabainō means

to go over from one place or condition to another: to depart, move on, or pass across

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

At heart this is a simple word for going across: leaving one place and turning up in another. In the Gospels it is mostly Jesus on the move, departing one region and arriving at the next (Matthew 12:9; Matthew 15:29), or an instruction to relocate, whether that is a missionary told not to shuttle from house to house (Luke 10:7) or a mountain commanded to shift from here to there (Matthew 17:20).

The same verb also carries the weight of a bigger crossing. John uses it for the believer who "has passed from death to life" (John 5:24; 1 John 3:14): the ordinary moving word now names a change of state, a transfer from one condition into another, and the wording treats it as already accomplished. In between sits Jesus' own departure "out of this world to the Father" (John 13:1), where a plain leaving quietly stands for his death.

The two poles are one idea seen at two depths, which is why they belong to a single meaning rather than two: crossing over from where you are to somewhere else, whether that somewhere is a town down the road or a wholly new standing before God. It is close in force to μεταίρω for moving on, and its Hebrew counterpart is עָבַר, the verb for crossing over that likewise reaches from a literal ford to a change of state.

Nuances

1ato leave one place and move to another: to depart, go on elsewhere, or be relocated
TranslatabilityDirect
Mat 8:34Mat 11:1Mat 12:9Mat 15:29Mat 17:20 (2×)Luk 10:7Jhn 7:3Jhn 13:1Act 18:7
1bto pass over from one state or condition into another
Jhn 5:241Jn 3:14

What scholars say about metabainō

The lexica treat μεταβαίνω (a compound of βαίνω "to go" with the prefix μετά, here "across, over") as a single verb with two well-recognized poles of use. BDAG gives (1) movement in space, to go or pass over, take leave of a locale, and (2) to change from one state or condition to another, and files John 13:1 under the spatial sense as a euphemistic departure. LSJ documents the same range in wider Greek, from literal passing over to transition of subject or condition; the documentary papyri (Moulton-Milligan) attest the mundane sense of changing one's residence. The Johannine figurative use (John 5:24; 1 John 3:14), with its perfect-tense "has passed," presses the ordinary verb into a claim of an accomplished transfer from death to life.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. μεταβαίνωlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. μεταβαίνωlexicon
  • Moulton and Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, s.v. μεταβαίνωlexicon

All attested forms of μεταβαίνω

second-aorist active participle nominative m s

μεταβὰς

Mat 12:9, Mat 15:29, Act 18:7

second-aorist active imperative 2s

μετάβα, μετάβηθι

Mat 17:20, Jhn 7:3

second-aorist active subjunctive 3s

μεταβῇ

Mat 8:34, Jhn 13:1

future middle indicative 3s

μεταβήσεται

Mat 17:20

perfect active indicative 1p

μεταβεβήκαμεν

1Jn 3:14

perfect active indicative 3s

μεταβέβηκεν

Jhn 5:24

present active imperative 2p

μεταβαίνετε

Luk 10:7

second-aorist active indicative 3s

μετέβη

Mat 11:1