StrongerBible

paradeigmatizō

παραδειγματίζω

GreekG3856“put to open shame, hold up to contempt, ...”

Appears 1 time · tap a cell to see the verses

Heb 6:6
Compound of
paraπαράfrom/with/beside196G3844
deigmatizōδειγματίζωto disgrace2G1165
Word studyResearch-gradepa-ra-dayg-ma-TID-zoverb

What paradeigmatizō means

to publicly disgrace someone: to hold a person up before others as an object of shame, contempt, or warning

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

This verb pictures an active, public act of shaming: putting someone on display so that onlookers will scorn them. In wider Greek it covered a whole range of such treatment. It could describe a criminal executed and left on view as a warning to others, a defeated enemy paraded in humiliation, or even a busybody who makes a fool of himself in front of everyone. The common thread is never a mild, private disapproval but a deliberate exposure of a person to public disgrace.

In the New Testament the word appears only once, in Hebrews 6:6, where those who fall away are said to be "crucifying the Son of God all over again and holding him up to contempt." The word makes the sin vivid and concrete. The apostate is not merely turning away quietly; the apostate is publicly disgracing Christ, siding with the crowd that mocked him and re-enacting the scorn of the cross. Many interpreters point out that this is why the passage says such a person cannot be brought back to repentance: to restore them would mean putting Christ through that public shaming yet again.

A shorter, closely related verb, δειγματίζω, carries the same idea and is the word Paul uses when he says Christ publicly disgraced the defeated powers. When the Old Testament was translated into Greek, this verb was chosen for the solemn public execution "before the sun" in Numbers 25:4, the Hebrew יקע, where wrongdoers were put on display as a warning to the nation.

Heb 6:6

What scholars say about paradeigmatizō

παραδειγματίζω is a compound verb built on παράδειγμα ("example, pattern"), and the major reference tools converge on a single semantic core: to expose someone to public shame, whether as a warning, a humiliation, or an object of contempt. BDAG defines it as "to disgrace someone publicly, expose, make an example of," distinguishing an older sense of public punishment (well attested in Polybius and the Septuagint) from a broader "expose/shame" sense, and glosses Hebrews 6:6 as "hold up to contempt." LSJ divides it into "make an example of" (Numbers 25:4; Polybius 2.60.7; 29.19.5) and "make a show or spectacle of" (Matthew 1:19; Plutarch). Louw and Nida place both this verb and its shorter sibling δειγματίζω in Semantic Domain 25 ("Shame, Disgrace, Humiliation"), entry 25.200, glossing them together as "to cause someone to suffer public disgrace." Muraoka renders the Septuagint usage "to expose someone to public gaze in shame or as an object-lesson," and Spicq stresses the military and juridical flavor the word carries in Polybius, applying that atmosphere to Hebrews 6:6. Moulton and Milligan treat δειγματίζω as a shortened Koine form of the older παραδειγματίζω, with the two functionally equivalent in first-century usage, though the classic distinction of J. H. H. Schmidt (δεῖγμα as bare sample versus παράδειγμα as example carrying a warning) suggests the compound historically leaned toward admonitory display. The Septuagint supplies the primary background: Numbers 25:4 (rendering the disputed Hebrew verb וְהוֹקַע, of a solemn execution "before the sun"), Jeremiah 13:22 and Ezekiel 28:17 (public sexual and political humiliation), Daniel 2:5 Old Greek, and Psalms of Solomon 2:12. Extra-biblical usage runs from punitive execution held up as a warning (Polybius 2.60.7) through diplomatic humiliation (Polybius 29.19.5) to social exposure to ridicule (Plutarch, Moralia 520B). On Hebrews 6:6 there is striking scholarly convergence: Attridge ("hold him up to contempt"), Lane ("hold up to open shame"), Ellingworth ("the apostate causes the shame of the cross to be re-enacted"), Bruce, Koester, O'Brien, Cockerill, Westcott, and Moffatt all read it as an active, ongoing, hostile exposure of Christ to public disgrace. DeSilva develops this through Mediterranean honor-and-shame categories, naming apostasy as a flagrant public dishonoring of one's benefactor. The reading of the verb as merely passive exposure, or as declaring Jesus a failed messiah, finds virtually no support in current scholarship.

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 and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., 2000), s.v. παραδειγματίζωlexicon
  • LSJ (Liddell-Scott-Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. with Supplement), s.v. παραδειγματίζω, δειγματίζωlexicon
  • J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains (2nd ed., 1996), §25.200lexicon
  • Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (trans. J. Ernest, 1994), s.v. παραδειγματίζωtheological-dictionary
  • T. Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (2009), s.v. παραδειγματίζωlexicon
  • Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Hermeneia (1989)commentary
  • William L. Lane, Hebrews 1–8, Word Biblical Commentary 47A (1991)commentary
  • Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, NIGTC (1993)commentary
  • David A. deSilva, Perseverance in Gratitude: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (2000)commentary
  • F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, NICNT (rev. ed. 1990)commentary
  • Craig R. Koester, Hebrews, Anchor Bible 36 (2001)commentary

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

All attested forms of παραδειγματίζω

present active participle accusative m p

παραδειγματίζοντας

Heb 6:6