to land a single decisive blow: to strike someone down, whether with a weapon, with the hand, or by an act of judgment
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
This verb names one blow, not a beating. Where the word for hitting someone over and over (τύπτω) pictures blow after blow, this word lands once and the story moves straight to the result: an ear comes off, an Egyptian dies, a king is carried out. That is why it so often needs "strike down" in English rather than plain "strike".
All ten of its New Testament appearances fall into a short list, and the range is easy to see:
One of the men with Jesus swings a sword in the garden and takes off a servant's ear.
Moses strikes an Egyptian dead, and Jesus quotes God's word that he will strike the shepherd so the sheep scatter.
An angel strikes Herod down, and the two witnesses strike the earth with plague after plague.
An angel taps the sleeping Peter on the side to wake him.
One verb can cover a nudge and a plague because of the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Translators there used this word for the Hebrew verb for striking (נָכָה), which runs from an ordinary punch all the way to the death of Egypt's firstborn, and the New Testament writers took over that whole span along with the word. So when Revelation says the rider will strike the nations, it is speaking the language of the prophets and the plagues, not describing a brawl.
Nuances
1ato hit someone with a weapon or the hand, wounding without killing
Mat 26:51Luk 22:49*Luk 22:50
1bto strike someone down dead with a single blow
Mat 26:31Mrk 14:27Act 7:24Rev 19:15*
1cto send disaster or plague on someone as punishment
Names one decisive stroke that fells the person hit, so the blow and the death are told as a single act.Act 7:24Act 12:23
The one who strikes is often God or an angel acting for him, whether to rouse a sleeping man, to cut down a proud king, or to let the shepherd fall so the flock scatters.Mat 26:31Mrk 14:27Act 12:7Act 12:23
Used of a blow struck with a drawn sword, where the question on the spot is whether to use the sword at all.Mat 26:51Luk 22:49Luk 22:50
Takes whole peoples and the earth itself as its target, struck with plagues or with the weapon of final judgment.Rev 11:6Rev 19:15
Both
Both name a real physical blow landed on a person's body by human hands in a moment of violence.Mat 26:51Luk 22:50Act 18:17Act 21:32
Both are normally rendered "struck" in English, so nothing in the translation tells a reader whether one killing stroke or a steady beating is meant.Act 7:24Act 23:2
Describes a sustained pounding rather than one stroke: a master laying into his servants, soldiers hitting the same head again and again, a crowd working a man over until they are pulled off.Mat 24:49Mrk 15:19Luk 12:45Act 21:32
The blows land where they shame: the head, the face, the mouth, the cheek of someone who cannot hit back.Mat 27:30Luk 6:29Luk 22:64Act 23:2
Turned on oneself, it is the gesture of grief and repentance, a person beating his own chest before God or on the way home from a death.Luk 18:13Luk 23:48
Stretches to a blow that is not physical at all: bruising the tender conscience of a fellow believer counts as hitting him.1Co 8:12
παίωalso a single hit, and used for the very same sword stroke in the garden, but with no pull toward a killing blow or toward God's judgment
It carries the sense of a blow that finishes someone off, so it is the word used when the person struck goes down and does not get up: Moses kills the Egyptian, and Herod is struck and dies.Act 7:24Act 12:23
The one striking is often God, his angel, or the returning Christ, so the blow carries out a purpose rather than expressing anger or scorn: an angel taps Peter awake in prison, the two witnesses hit the earth with plagues, and the rider of the white horse strikes the nations.Act 12:7Rev 11:6Rev 19:15
It is the word the Gospels reach for when they quote the Old Testament language of striking, in the promise that the shepherd will be struck and the flock scattered.Mat 26:31Mrk 14:27
Both
For a plain physical blow struck at a person the two are interchangeable, and the Gospels prove it by telling one incident both ways: the same sword stroke that takes off the ear of the high priest's servant in Gethsemane.Mrk 14:47Mat 26:51
Both are used of a blow delivered with a weapon in hand, not only of an open-handed hit: Peter draws his sword and strikes, and the disciples ask whether they should strike with the sword.Jhn 18:10Luk 22:49
This is the word for the blows of mockery at Jesus' trial, where the point of the hit is contempt rather than damage: the men who blindfold him hit him and taunt him to name who did it.Mat 26:68Luk 22:64
It stretches beyond a human fist or blade to the sting of a small creature, so the hit can be a jab of pain rather than a swung blow: the locusts of the vision torment people the way a scorpion strikes.Rev 9:5
δέρωflogging or thrashing someone, the sustained punishment given to a slave, a prisoner, or a prophet
Names one discrete blow rather than a beating, the single stroke a sword delivers.Mat 26:51Luk 22:49Luk 22:50
Regularly names a blow that kills, so it can be rendered "struck down" and end the story of the person hit.Act 7:24Act 12:23
God, or an angel acting for him, is often the one who strikes, so the blow carries judgment or purpose rather than human temper.Mat 26:31Mrk 14:27Act 12:23Rev 19:15
Widens past hitting a body to a blow dealt against the earth and the nations, through plagues or a conquering sword.Rev 11:6Rev 19:15
Is not always hostile at all: an angel taps Peter on the side to wake him, a blow with no violence in it.Act 12:7
Both
Both describe hitting a person with real force, and both land in the same night of the passion: the guards beat Jesus while he is held, and a sword strikes the high priest's servant in the garden.Luk 22:63Luk 22:50
Both name the violence that meets the one God sends: the tenants beat the servant who comes for the fruit, and the shepherd is struck so the flock scatters.Mrk 12:3Mat 26:31
Names a beating handed out as punishment by someone holding power over the victim: synagogue courts, magistrates, and rulers who order the blows.Mrk 13:9Act 5:40Act 16:37Act 22:19
Covers a beating that can be measured out in more blows or fewer, so it fits a flogging rather than a single hit.Luk 12:47Luk 12:48
Stands apart from killing: in the vineyard story the tenants beat some of the servants and murder others, so this is violence the victim is expected to survive.Mat 21:35Mrk 12:5Luk 20:10Luk 20:11
Reaches the humiliating slap that insults a person as much as it injures them, the sort a prisoner takes to the face.Jhn 18:232Co 11:20
Stretches into a picture of wasted effort, a boxer whose punches land on nothing but air.1Co 9:26
ἀποκτείνωnaming the killing itself, with no picture of the blow that does it
It names the blow itself rather than its result, so the one struck may be left very much alive.Act 12:7Luk 22:50Mat 26:51
The one who strikes is often God or his angel, and what is struck can be a place or a whole people rather than a single victim.Rev 11:6Rev 19:15
It carries the wording of the Hebrew prophets into the Gospel story, since it is the word used when Zechariah's line about striking the shepherd is quoted.Mat 26:31Mrk 14:27
Both
Both can describe an act that ends a human life, which is why English Bibles render one "killed" and the other "struck down" in much the same kind of scene.Act 7:24Act 7:52
Both are used of a death handed down as judgment, whether the agent is a human hand or heaven itself.Act 12:23Rev 9:18
It reports the outcome, that someone ends up dead, and says nothing about how it was done, so it covers a court sentence, a mob attack, or a plot carried out by any means.Jhn 18:31Mat 26:4Mat 21:39
It is the settled word for the killing of God's messengers and of his people, the language the New Testament uses for persecution and martyrdom.Mat 23:37Mat 24:9Rev 2:13
It works where no physical blow is in view at all, naming whatever brings death, including things that kill in a figure of speech.Rom 7:112Co 3:6Eph 2:16
patassō in the other biblical languages
נָכָהHebrew“to smite”the Hebrew verb this Greek word regularly renders, covering the same span from a blow of the hand to God's judgment on a nation
can mean a sharp tap that rouses rather than wounds, as when the angel strikes Peter's side to wake himAct 12:7
Both
both name a blow with a weapon that may or may not kill: the New Testament word is the standard Greek counterpart for the Hebrew, used when a sword falls on a person1Sa 17:49Mat 26:51
both name a deadly blow, the single stroke that kills a personExo 2:12Act 7:24
both name a blow struck by God or his angel as judgment, the stroke that afflicts or strikes downExo 12:13Act 12:23
both name striking the earth or the nations with plagues in language of judgment, the Greek echoing the Hebrew word's reachIsa 11:4Rev 19:15
ranges far wider in the Old Testament: it is the everyday word for routing an army in battle and for defeating whole peoples, a military sense the Greek word never has to carry on its ownJos 10:101Sa 17:50
covers striking an object or an animal, where the act of hitting, not a victim's death, is the whole pointExo 17:6Num 22:23
Ranges from a gentle rousing tap to a killing blow: the angel simply strikes Peter on the side to wake him without harming him, the very verb that elsewhere kills. It names the act of striking without fixing how hard.Act 12:7
Covers ordinary human blows in narrative: one of Jesus' followers strikes the high priest's servant with a sword and cuts off his ear.Mat 26:51Luk 22:50
Can mean to strike with affliction rather than land a physical blow: the two witnesses are given power to strike the earth with every kind of plague.Rev 11:6
Both
Both name striking a person a violent, often deadly blow, and each serves its language as a natural word for smiting down a foe: the Greek strikes down the shepherd, the Hebrew wounds the enemy past recovery.Mat 26:31Psa 68:21
Both describe God or his agent striking down enemies and rulers in judgment: the rider strikes the nations with the sword from his mouth, as God strikes through kings in the day of his wrath.Rev 19:15Psa 110:5
Always a heavy, shattering blow that wounds deeply or crushes, never a light touch: God wounds his enemies so severely that they cannot rise again.2Sa 22:39Psa 18:38
Repeatedly pictures crushing the head or skull of the foe: Jael shatters Sisera's temple, and God wounds the head of his enemies.Jdg 5:26Psa 68:21Hab 3:13
Concentrated in poetry, especially the Psalms, as an image of God crushing kings and rulers in the day of his wrath.Psa 110:5Psa 110:6
Sets the shattering blow beside its opposite, healing, in the same breath: the God who wounds is the same God who binds up and heals.Deu 32:39Job 5:18
names a single decisive blow aimed at one person or target: a sword cutting off an ear, an angel striking Herod dead or tapping Peter awake, Moses killing the Egyptian.Luk 22:50Act 12:23Act 12:7Act 7:24
in Revelation it widens to a sweeping judicial blow struck on the whole earth or the nations, the way a ruler strikes down what he will judge.Rev 11:6Rev 19:15
Both
both name a striking blow that brings death or judgment, often delivered by God or his agent, so the Greek word stands in for the Hebrew when the New Testament pictures God striking down what he judges.Rev 19:15Exo 12:27
its core picture is an army being routed in battle: a people struck down and put to flight before their enemies, defeat rather than a single hit.Lev 26:17Deu 28:251Sa 4:102Sa 18:7
it also covers a sudden striking that injures without warfare: God striking Egypt with plague, or a foot striking against a stone.Exo 12:23Psa 91:12Pro 3:23
What scholars say about patassō
The lexicons are agreed on the semantic range and differ only in how they subdivide it. BDAG distinguishes a blow struck (with a non-fatal subgroup covering Matthew 26:51,Luke 22:49-50, and the rousing tap of Acts 12:7, and a fatal subgroup covering Acts 7:24 and the Zechariah 13:7 citation at Matthew 26:31 / Mark 14:27) from the inflicting of disaster as divine punishment (Acts 12:23;Revelation 11:6).Revelation 19:15 sits on the boundary between the two, and lexica place it either way. LSJ documents the classical verb as a sharp single stroke, with the perfect and passive supplied from πλήσσω, and Louw and Nida group it under violent physical impact. The word's theological weight is Septuagintal: it is the standard equivalent for נָכָה, whose range from a punch to the smiting of Egypt's firstborn the Greek verb inherits, and both Revelation citations are drawn from that stock of language (Revelation 19:15 from Isaiah 11:4,Revelation 11:6 from the Exodus plague cycle). Davies and Allison note that Matthew's first-person πατάξω, against the imperative of the Masoretic Text of Zechariah 13:7, makes God the explicit agent of the shepherd's death; France reads Mark's citation the same way. Barrett treats the angelic striking of Herod at Acts 12:23 within the familiar biblical and Hellenistic-Jewish pattern of the sudden divine destruction of a ruler who accepts divine honors, comparing Josephus, Antiquities 19.343-350.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. πατάσσωlexicon
LSJ, s.v. πατάσσωlexicon
Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 2nd ed. (New York: United Bible Societies, 1989), s.v. πατάσσωlexicon
W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, ICC, vol. 3 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1997), on Matthew 26:31commentary
R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), on Mark 14:27commentary
C. K. Barrett, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, ICC, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1994), on Acts 12:23commentary
G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), on Revelation 19:15commentary