StrongerBible

metreō

μετρέω

GreekG3354“measure, measure out, ...”

Appears 11 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 7:2 (2×)Mrk 4:24 (2×)Luk 6:382Co 10:12Rev 11:1Rev 11:2Rev 21:15Rev 21:16Rev 21:17
Root family
Names & words formed with this
Word studyResearch-grademeh-TREH-ohverb

What metreō means

to measure: to find the size or amount of something against a standard, and so to mete it out or size it up by that measure

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

At its root this is a plain, practical word. You measure a room to learn its dimensions, you measure out grain into a customer's sack, you measure a person against a yardstick to judge them. The New Testament uses it in exactly these three ordinary ways, but pours weighty meaning into each scene: the same act of measuring becomes a picture of God's judgment, God's overflowing generosity, and the security of the world to come.

Three strands run through its eleven uses:

  • Determining size or dimensions, as when John is told to measure the temple and an angel measures the New Jerusalem into a perfect cube.
  • Dealing out a quantity by measure (the measure itself being the noun μέτρον), the marketplace image behind the saying "with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you": the amount you scoop out for others is the amount scooped back to you, and in Luke pressed down and overflowing.
  • Sizing something up against a standard, which is how Paul mocks rivals who keep "measuring themselves by themselves" (the verb συγκρίνω, to compare, stands right beside it), taking their own opinion as the only ruler.

What holds the strands together is a single instinct that surfaces most clearly in Revelation and in the words of Jesus: whoever seems to be doing the measuring, the final measure belongs to God. The standard you carry is never the last standard.

Nuances

1ato take the measurements of something; to determine its size or dimensions
Rev 11:1Rev 11:2Rev 21:15Rev 21:16Rev 21:17
Rev 11:1

What John's command to measure the temple, its altar, and its worshipers signifies, given that in the same breath he is told NOT to measure the outer court because it has been handed to the nations.

  • majorityThe measuring marks the worshiping community out for God's protection and preservation through the coming time of persecution, echoing the earlier sealing of God's servants and the restoration measuring of Ezekiel's temple vision.; G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (NIGTC; Eerdmans, 1999), 557-71; David E. Aune, Revelation 6-16 (WBC 52B; Nelson, 1998), 597-610; Grant R. Osborne, Revelation (BECNT; Baker Academic, 2002), 408-13
  • minorityThe measuring simply draws a dividing line, separating the faithful who worship inside from the compromised who are left outside, and in itself implies neither rescue nor ruin.; Marko Jauhiainen, "The Measuring of the Sanctuary Reconsidered (Rev 11,1-2)," Biblica 83 (2002) 507-26
  • minorityThe measuring marks the temple out for destruction, in line with prophetic passages where a measuring line signals coming judgment.; Matthijs den Dulk, "Measuring the Temple of God: Revelation 11.1-2 and the Destruction of Jerusalem," NTS 54 (2008) 436-49
1bto deal out by measure; to mete out a quantity, which is then measured back
Mat 7:2 (2×)Mrk 4:24 (2×)Luk 6:38
1cto size up or evaluate something by a chosen standard
2Co 10:12

What scholars say about metreō

The lexica are united on the word group: LSJ, BDAG, and Louw-Nida distinguish a spatial sense (take the measurement of; Louw-Nida domain 81) from a transfer sense (give out, deal out, apportion; domain 57), with BDAG adding a figurative "estimate" for 2 Cor 10:12. Moulton-Milligan document the term as the ordinary commercial word for measuring out grain, wine, and oil in Ptolemaic and Roman papyri, the marketplace background of the Synoptic aphorism. In the Septuagint the verb and its compounds almost always render Hebrew מָדַד (H4058), carrying it into the theology of divine sovereignty (Isaiah 40:12), judgment and apportioning (2 Samuel 8:2; Isaiah 65:7 LXX, whose ἀπομετρήσω and εἰς τὸν κόλπον supply the skeleton of Luke 6:38), and the measuring of sacred space (Ezekiel 40-48; Zechariah 2). On the Synoptic saying, the reciprocity form ἐν ᾧ μέτρῳ μετρεῖτε has rabbinic parallels (m. Sotah 1:7's middah keneged middah) noted by Davies-Allison; Marshall and the major Lukan commentators read Luke's ἀντιμετρηθήσεται (G0488) as overflowing rather than strict return. In 2 Cor 10:12 every major commentator (Thrall, Harris, Furnish, Barnett) reads the verb figuratively as ironic self-appraisal, tied to the Hellenistic rhetorical conventions of comparison and self-praise (Forbes). The genuine disagreements over Revelation 11 (Beale, Aune, Osborne for preservation; Jauhiainen for demarcation; den Dulk and Witulski for judgment) are contextual and symbolic, not lexical: no lexicon disputes what the verb means.

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 (Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 3rd ed. (2000), s.v. μετρέωlexicon
  • LSJ (Liddell-Scott-Jones), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. (1940), s.v. μετρέωlexicon
  • J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 2nd ed. (1989), domains 81 and 57lexicon
  • James Hope Moulton and George Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (Hodder & Stoughton, 1930), s.v. μετρέωlexicon
  • Karl Deissner, "μέτρον κτλ.," in TDNT 4:632-34theological-dictionary
  • Takamitsu Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (Peeters, 2009), s.v. μετρέωlexicon
  • G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (NIGTC; Eerdmans, 1999)commentary
  • David E. Aune, Revelation 6-16 and Revelation 17-22 (WBC 52B, 52C; Nelson, 1998)commentary
  • Murray J. Harris, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC; Eerdmans, 2005)commentary
  • Margaret E. Thrall, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians (ICC; T&T Clark, 1994-2000)commentary
  • I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke (NIGTC; Eerdmans, 1978)commentary
  • W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, The Gospel According to Saint Matthew (ICC; T&T Clark, 1988)commentary
  • Marko Jauhiainen, "The Measuring of the Sanctuary Reconsidered (Rev 11,1-2)," Biblica 83 (2002) 507-26article
  • Christopher Forbes, "Comparison, Self-Praise and Irony," NTS 32/1 (1986) 1-30article

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

All attested forms of μετρέω

present active indicative 2p

μετρεῖτε

Mat 7:2, Mrk 4:24, Luk 6:38

aorist active indicative 3s

ἐμέτρησεν

Rev 21:16, Rev 21:17

future passive indicative 3s

μετρηθήσεται

Mat 7:2, Mrk 4:24

aorist active imperative 2s

μέτρησον

Rev 11:1

aorist active subjunctive 2s

μετρήσῃς

Rev 11:2

aorist active subjunctive 3s

μετρήσῃ

Rev 21:15

present active participle nominative m p

μετροῦντες

2Co 10:12