+-pō-πω an enclitic particle of indefiniteness; yet, even; used only in the comparative. See G3369 (μηδέπω), G3380 (μήπω), G3764 (οὐδέπω), G3768 (οὔπω), G4455 (πώποτε).G4452
not yet: a thing has not happened up to this point, while it is still left open that it may happen later
TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled
This word simply joins the ordinary Greek word for "not" with the little word for "yet," and it means exactly what those two English words mean together: something has not happened so far. The force is about time, and it looks forward. To say a thing is "not yet" true reports where matters stand at this moment and quietly leaves the door open that it will become true later, which is why the word so often sits on the edge of expectation.
Across the New Testament it turns up in a few recurring settings:
a moment that has not arrived, as when Jesus says his "hour" or his "time" has not yet come
a slowness to understand, as when the disciples still do not yet grasp what they have just seen
a promise still outstanding, as when believers do not yet see everything placed under Christ, or do not yet know what they will become
In those last cases the word carries real weight for the New Testament's sense of living between two moments: God's work is genuinely begun but "not yet" finished. Even so, the adverb itself is doing no more than marking time. It is the near-opposite of ἔτι ("still"), which says a thing goes on; this word says a thing has not started. The theology lives in whatever the word is applied to, never in the little adverb.
still says only "not up to now," reporting where matters stand while leaving the future openMrk 11:2
Both
both deny that the thing has happened so far, up to the moment in viewLuk 23:53
Only never yet
the English "never" sounds like an absolute denial for all time, a claim the Greek word does not make on its own
How oupō differs from similar Greek words
ἔτιThe positive counterpart, "still" or "yet," saying a thing is ongoing. This word is essentially its negation: the thing has not started.
οὐδέπωA stronger "not yet," closer to "not yet at all" or "never yet." This word is the plainer, more common form of the same idea.
μηδέπωAlso "not yet," but used in cautious, commanded, or supposed statements rather than in a flat report of fact. This word states plainly that something has not happened.
πώποτεMeans "ever, at any time," and paired with a negative comes out as "never yet." This word marks the ordinary "not up to now" without that lifelong reach.
Denies only up to the present moment and leaves the door wide open, so the thing withheld is still expected: "my hour has not yet come" says the hour is coming.Jhn 2:4Jhn 7:30Jhn 7:39
Places an event on a timeline as a stage not yet reached, so what is missing now is promised for later: the end is "not yet", and what believers will be has not yet appeared.Mat 24:6Heb 2:81Jn 3:2
In a rebuke it faults slowness rather than a blank record: the disciples should have understood by this point, and the readers should have gone further than they have.Mrk 8:17Mrk 8:21Heb 12:4
Times one narrative event against another, telling the reader where the story stands at that instant: John had not yet been put in prison, and Jesus had not yet reached the village.Jhn 3:24Jhn 6:17Jhn 11:30
Both
Both wipe the record clean up to the moment being described, so nothing of the kind has happened yet: the man at Lystra had never walked, and no one had yet sat on the colt.Act 14:8Mrk 11:2Luk 23:53
Both turn up in questions that press hearers about what is still missing in them, one asking whether they have ever grasped the point, the other whether they have grasped it by now.Mat 21:16Mat 16:9Mrk 4:40
Shuts the door on every moment, past and future alike, with no hint that the thing will ever happen. Jesus tells the false workers "I never knew you", and Hebrews says the repeated sacrifices can never take sins away.Mat 7:23Heb 10:111Co 13:8
Can look forward as a flat promise or vow about what will never be done, as when Peter swears he will never fall away.Mat 26:33Act 10:14Act 11:8
Marks something as without precedent in all of memory, the way the crowds say nothing like this was ever seen in Israel and the officers report that no one ever spoke like this man.Mat 9:33Mrk 2:12Jhn 7:46
In a rebuke it treats a person's record as already complete, asking whether they have ever done the thing at all in their whole life, as with "Have you never read?" and the older son's claim that he never once disobeyed.Mat 21:42Mrk 2:25Luk 15:29
oupō in the other biblical languages
טֶרֶםHebrew“before”The Hebrew adverb for "not yet" or "before," marking something that had not happened by a given point in time.
What scholars say about oupō
Standard lexicons treat οὔπω as a transparent compound of the negative οὐ and the enclitic πω ("yet"), with the settled meaning "not yet." BDAG and LSJ record both the plain temporal use and the strengthened "not at all yet, never yet" nuance that surfaces when the adverb stands with a universal negative (e.g. Mark 11:2;Luke 23:53). Its concentration in John, above all the recurring statement that Jesus' "hour" or "time" has not yet come (2:4; 7:6, 8, 30; 8:20), has drawn steady comment in the commentary literature for its structuring role in that Gospel's account of the timing of Jesus' ministry and glorification. In Hebrews 2:8 and 1 John 3:2 the same adverb frames the New Testament's "already / not yet" tension between what is accomplished and what awaits consummation, though the eschatological weight rests on the clauses, not on the adverb itself.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. οὔπωlexicon
LSJ, s.v. οὔπωlexicon
Balz and Schneider, Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (EDNT), s.v. οὔπωtheological-dictionary