to hold something in mind so that it shapes what you do: to remember, keep in mind, be mindful of
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong
In the New Testament this is rarely bare recall. It is active, ongoing mindfulness that leans toward action: to keep something before you, take it to heart, and stay loyal to it. Its close relative μιμνήσκομαι tends to describe a memory that surfaces on its own, while this word is the deliberate, sustained kind of remembering you choose to keep up.
The one word covers a spread of shades:
calling a plain fact back to mind ("do you not remember the loaves?")
taking a warning or example to heart so you act on it ("Remember Lot's wife")
holding fast to a person or truth in loyalty ("Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead")
keeping someone in mind before God in prayer
and, of God, remembering wrongdoing so as to judge it
This active quality is inherited from the Hebrew word for remembering (זכר), where to remember is to act on what you recall: God remembers his promise and rescues, and his people remember the exodus and obey. Reading these commands as a call merely to think about something quietly loses their force.
Nuances
1ato call a fact or event back to mind; recall
Mat 16:9Mrk 8:18Jhn 16:4Jhn 16:21Act 20:311Th 2:92Th 2:5Heb 11:15*
Heb 11:15
Whether the verb here means "kept remembering, longed for" the earthly homeland or "made mention of, spoke of" it.
majorityDurative remembering and affective longing: had they still yearned for the country they left, they could have returned.; Harold Attridge, Hebrews (Hermeneia); Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews (NIGTC)
minoritySpeaking of, making mention of the homeland, matching the speech sense in the next paragraph.; BDAG, s.v. μνημονεύω
1bto take a warning or example to heart and act on it; heed
Luk 17:32Jhn 15:20Eph 2:11Rev 2:5Rev 3:3
1cto hold fast to someone or something in loyalty; cherish, stay faithful to, commemorate
Act 20:35Gal 2:10*Col 4:182Ti 2:8Heb 13:7
Gal 2:10
Whether "the poor" means the Jerusalem church (and the request concerns Paul's relief collection) or poor people in general (ongoing charity).
majority"The poor" is a designation for the Jerusalem community, and the request looks ahead to Paul's collection for it.; F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Galatians (NIGTC); H. D. Betz, Galatians (Hermeneia); J. L. Martyn, Galatians (Anchor Yale)
minority"The poor" means the economically poor in general, and the wording signals ongoing benevolence Paul already practiced.; Bruce W. Longenecker, Remember the Poor: Paul, Poverty, and the Greco-Roman World (Eerdmans, 2010)
1dto hold someone in mind before God in prayer
1Th 1:3
1eof God: to remember wrongdoing so as to act on it in judgment
Rev 18:5
Disputed
How much distinct covenant and loyalty weight the verb itself carries in the New Testament, as opposed to ordinary Greek "remember" that draws any such weight only from its context.
contestedThe verb carries a distinct freight of covenant fidelity and loyal remembrance, inherited from Hebrew usage and from its role in honorific inscriptions and letters.; Otto Michel, TDNT 4:675-683; Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament 2.465-475
contestedThe verb is ordinary Koine "remember"; any covenant force comes from the surrounding text, not from the word, and should not be read into every occurrence.; Moises Silva, NIDNTTE 3.303-309
2
to make mention of, speak about: to bring something up out loud
TranslatabilityDirectCertaintyStrong
Alongside the dominant "remember" sense, this word can also mean to speak of something or bring it up in speech. This was the ordinary sense among Greek historians, who used it for "recording" or "reporting" events, and it survives at the edges of the New Testament.
The clearest case is Joseph on his deathbed, who "spoke of" the coming exodus and gave instructions about his bones. Here the meaning has shifted from private memory to public utterance.
often calls for sustained loyalty and follow-through, not just a mental image2Ti 2:8Gal 2:10Heb 13:7
Both
both name the bringing of a past fact or person back to mindMat 16:9Jhn 16:21
Only remember
in ordinary English "remember" suggests a passing act of recall that need not change anything
“be mindful of”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“make mention of”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How mnēmoneuō differs from similar Greek words
μιμνήσκομαιthe more common verb for remembering; it leans toward a memory that comes to mind on its own, and is the usual word for God remembering his covenant, where this word leans toward deliberate, sustained mindfulness.
The standard word for the command "Remember!", laying on the hearer a standing duty to keep a person or truth constantly before them.Luk 17:322Ti 2:8Heb 13:7
Describes steady, caring attentiveness that continues over time rather than a single act of recall, such as keeping the poor in view or holding a church in mind while praying.Gal 2:101Th 1:3Col 4:18
Can shade past recalling into speaking, so that to "remember" a thing is to make mention of it aloud.Heb 11:22
Both
Both are used for bringing to mind the words the Lord had spoken, so that the saying is recovered and taken to heart.Act 11:16Act 20:35
Both can summon a person to recall the past so that the memory reshapes present conduct.Luk 16:25Rev 2:5
Marks a sudden flash of recollection: something said earlier is jolted back to mind, often the moment a prediction comes true.Mat 26:75Jhn 2:22Luk 24:8
Used of God "remembering," which means He moves to act, whether keeping His covenant mercy or calling a guilty city to account.Luk 1:72Luk 1:54Rev 16:19
Carries the striking promise that God will NOT remember sins, meaning He refuses to bring them up or hold them against the forgiven.Heb 8:12Heb 10:17
ἀναμιμνῄσκωto bring back to mind, recall something once known; it stresses the act of retrieval, while this word stresses keeping something present and acting on it.
Describes the person doing the remembering themselves: holding something in mind, bearing it in memory, keeping it before them. It is regularly a command to the hearer to remember on their own.Luk 17:32Rev 2:5Col 4:18
Can widen from private recollection to keeping someone in active concern, so that remembering shades into caring for and not neglecting.Gal 2:10Heb 13:7
Sometimes moves from inward memory to outward speech, meaning to make mention of something aloud.Heb 11:22
Both
Both are used of calling back to mind words that were spoken earlier, so each can center on recovering an earlier teaching of Jesus.Jhn 16:4Luk 22:61
Is causative: one person makes another remember, that is, reminds them or puts them in mind of something. The memory is prompted from outside, not summoned by the rememberer.Jhn 14:262Ti 2:14Tit 3:1Jud 1:5
In the passive it names the moment a person is brought to recollection by an outside trigger rather than reaching for the memory themselves.Luk 22:61
ἀνάμνησιςthe noun for an act of remembrance or memorial ("do this in remembrance of me"); this word is the ongoing verb of keeping in mind rather than a set commemorative act.
Names a set, instituted memorial act, a commemoration that brings something back before God or the gathered people rather than a private recollection.Luk 22:191Co 11:241Co 11:25
Can be the formal reminder built into a rite, as the yearly sacrifices that bring sin back to mind before God.Heb 10:3
mnēmoneuō in the other biblical languages
זָכַרHebrew“to remember”the main Hebrew verb for remembering, where remembering means acting on what one recalls (God remembers his promise and rescues); this Greek word carries that same active force in covenant and moral contexts.
In the New Testament this word most often calls a specific audience to stay mindful of a person who has gone away, so that memory shapes present loyalty. Paul tells the Ephesian elders to remember his three years among them, and the writer to the Hebrews tells readers to remember their former leaders and imitate their faith.Act 20:31Heb 13:7
It also names an ongoing practical care for someone, not a single recollection of a fact. Paul asks the Jerusalem leaders that he keep remembering the poor, and he asks the Colossians to remember his imprisonment, meaning to keep it in view and act on it through prayer or help, not merely to recall that it happened.Gal 2:10Col 4:18
Both
Both verbs stretch beyond silent recollection into speech: to remember someone or something can mean to name it aloud. Joseph, near death, made mention of Israel's coming departure from Egypt, and Israel was told not to let the name of other gods be mentioned by their mouths.Heb 11:22Exo 23:13
This is the verb of Israel's covenant memory. God is repeatedly said to remember his covenant or his people, and that remembering is itself what moves him to act and rescue them, not just an inward recollection.Gen 8:1Exo 2:24Psa 106:45
The law repeatedly commands Israel to remember a past event as the reason for keeping an ongoing practice, tying memory directly to festival and legal observance: remembering the Sabbath, remembering the exodus from Egypt, remembering what Amalek did.Exo 20:8Deu 5:15Deu 25:17
It can also describe memory as its own source of grief, when calling something to mind reopens the pain of it. The exiled community is pictured remembering its affliction, and remembering Zion while weeping.Lam 3:19Psa 137:1
What scholars say about mnēmoneuō
Every major lexicon (LSJ; BDAG p. 655; Louw-Nida, which places the verb in both Domain 29 "Memory" and Domain 33 "Communication") organizes the word under two poles: "call to mind, be mindful of" and "make mention of." In the New Testament the first dominates (roughly 19 of 21 occurrences), with Hebrews 11:22 (peri plus the genitive) the clearest instance of the speech sense. Case syntax is not a reliable semantic switch in Koine, though peri plus genitive reliably marks "make mention of" (Blass-Debrunner-Funk 175; Wallace, Beyond the Basics 131-134). The Hebrew zakar background of effective, action-oriented remembering (Childs, Memory and Tradition in Israel; H. Eising, TDOT 4:64-82; Sarna) is real for biblical remembering broadly, but the Septuagint transmits it mainly through the synonym mimneskomai, so any covenant freight in this verb comes largely through context. Michel (TDNT 4:675-683) and Spicq (TLNT 2.465-475) press the verb's covenant and loyalty weight, drawing on the Hellenistic prayer formula documented in the papyri (Moulton-Milligan; Horsley, New Documents 3.24); Silva (NIDNTTE 3.303-309) cautions against overloading ordinary Koine usage.
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., s.v. μνημονεύω, p. 655lexicon
LSJ, s.v. μνημονεύωlexicon
Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 29.16; 33.26lexicon
Otto Michel, μιμνήσκομαι ktl., TDNT 4:675-683dictionary
Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament 2.465-475dictionary
Moises Silva, NIDNTTE 3.303-309dictionary
H. Eising, זָכַר, TDOT 4:64-82dictionary
Brevard S. Childs, Memory and Tradition in Israel (SBT 37, 1962)monograph
Bruce W. Longenecker, Remember the Poor: Paul, Poverty, and the Greco-Roman World (Eerdmans, 2010)monograph