StrongerBible

parapiptō

παραπίπτω

GreekG3895“fall away, commit apostasy”

Appears 1 time · tap a cell to see the verses

Heb 6:6
Compound of
paraπαράfrom/with/beside196G3844
piptōπίπτωto collapse90G4098
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradepa-ra-PIP-tohverb

What parapiptō means

to fall away: to turn aside decisively and deliberately from a commitment one had truly entered, abandoning it

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

The word is built from two pieces, one meaning "beside" or "aside" and one meaning "to fall," so at root it is "to fall alongside" or to slip aside from a path. In older Greek it usually meant something quite ordinary: an event that happened by chance, an opportunity that came to hand, or simply a blunder. Only over time did it take on a moral edge, coming to mean "to stray, to go wrong, to slip off the right road."

Its heavier meaning comes from the Greek translation of the Old Testament, above all in Ezekiel, where it became the regular word for breaking faith with God, the treachery that brought on exile. There it translates a Hebrew term for covenant betrayal (מָעַל). That background of deliberate unfaithfulness is what the writer of Hebrews reaches for.

In the New Testament the word appears exactly once, in Hebrews 6:6, describing people who "have fallen away" after fully sharing in the Christian life. It is used with no object, leaving the reader to supply what has been abandoned, and it names a considered, decisive turning away from Christ rather than a stumble or a passing lapse. It stands close in force to another word for turning away, ἀφίστημι, used earlier in the same letter of falling away from the living God.

Heb 6:6

Disputed

Whether the verb is a narrow, technical term for a final and irreversible apostasy, or a broader term for covenant unfaithfulness that need not by itself denote an unforgivable, decisive fall.

  • majorityIt carries the full weight of covenant apostasy: a deliberate, decisive renunciation, drawing on Ezekiel's use of the verb for the treachery that led to exile, and functioning as a near equivalent of the letter's other words for defection.; William L. Lane, Hebrews 1-8 (WBC 47A); Harold W. Attridge, Hebrews (Hermeneia); C. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. παραπίπτω
  • minorityIt denotes covenant unfaithfulness more broadly, since in Ezekiel and in Wisdom the verb stands alongside ordinary words for sinning, so it need not by itself carry the sense of a single, unforgivable, final fall.; Randall C. Gleason, The Old Testament Background of the Warning in Hebrews 6:4-8, Bibliotheca Sacra 155 (1998); Hal Harless, Fallen Away or Fallen Down? Hebrews 6:1-9, Chafer Theological Seminary Journal

What scholars say about parapiptō

The verb is a compound of παρά ("beside, aside") and πίπτω ("to fall"), literally "to fall alongside" or "slip aside." Its earliest Greek range is largely non-moral: Herodotus, Thucydides, and Plato use it of what happens by chance or comes to hand, while Xenophon already applies it to serious blunders. Polybius supplies the classical parent of the moral usage, pairing it with a genitive of separation (falling aside from the road, from the truth, from what is fitting), and LSJ closes its entry by registering the absolute use in Hebrews 6:6. BDAG glosses "to fail to follow through on a commitment, fall away, commit apostasy," while cautioning that the verb is not on its own a technical term for apostasy; Louw-Nida place it in the domain of association (34.26) as relational rupture, "to fall away, to forsake." The religious weight is a Septuagint development: five of the roughly eight or nine occurrences are in Ezekiel (14:13; 15:8; 18:24; 20:27; 22:4), where the verb renders מָעַל, the priestly and Chronicler term for covenant treachery, at times reproducing its cognate construction (παραπεσεῖν παράπτωμα). Ezekiel 18:24, in which a righteous person turns from his righteousness, forfeits all prior credit, and dies in the trespass by which he fell, is the closest structural parallel to Hebrews 6:4 through 6, and is why Attridge, Lane, Bruce, Koester, and deSilva read παραπεσόντας as covenant apostasy. In Hebrews 6:6 the word is the fifth of five participles under a single article and is used absolutely; the near-consensus of modern grammarians (Westcott, Sproule, Wallace) rejects the old conditional "if they shall fall away" in favor of "and have fallen away." A dissenting lexical caution (Gleason, Harless) notes that Ezekiel and Wisdom pair the verb with ordinary words for sinning, so it may denote covenant unfaithfulness broadly rather than a narrowly technical, final apostasy. The extensive theological debate the verse has generated turns on the identity of those who fall and the finality of the fall, questions the verb itself leaves open.

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, s.v. παραπίπτωlexicon
  • LSJ, A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. παραπίπτωlexicon
  • J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, domain 34.26lexicon
  • C. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. παραπίπτωlexicon
  • Wilhelm Michaelis, πίπτω κτλ., in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 6:161-173theological-dictionary
  • Balz and Schneider, Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (EDNT), s.v. παραπίπτωtheological-dictionary
  • Harold W. Attridge, Hebrews (Hermeneia)commentary
  • William L. Lane, Hebrews 1-8 (WBC 47A)commentary
  • Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews (NIGTC)commentary
  • F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews (NICNT)commentary
  • Craig R. Koester, Hebrews (Anchor Yale Bible 36)commentary
  • David A. deSilva, Perseverance in Gratitudecommentary
  • John A. Sproule, Παραπεσόντας in Hebrews 6:6, Grace Theological Journal 2 (1981)article
  • B. F. Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrewscommentary

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

All attested forms of παραπίπτω

second-aorist active participle accusative m p

παραπεσόντας

Heb 6:6