StrongerBible

perikeimai

περίκειμαι

GreekG4029“surround, wear, ...”

Appears 5 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mrk 9:42Luk 17:2Act 28:20Heb 5:2Heb 12:1
Compound of
periπερίabout336G4012
keimaiκεῖμαιto lay/be appointed26G2749
Word studyResearch-gradepeh-REE-kay-myverb

What perikeimai means

to lie all around someone or something: to surround, encircle, or be worn like a thing wrapped about the body

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This verb pictures one thing settled all around another. It is the resting-state partner of a more active word for putting something around a person (περιτίθημι): once that word places a collar, a chain, or a crown around you, this word describes the finished result, the thing now lying around you.

Greek lets the same verb be said two ways, and the New Testament uses both:

  • The encircling thing is the subject: a millstone lies around a neck, a great crowd of onlookers lies around the runners.
  • The person is the subject and the surrounding thing is named directly, so the sense becomes "to wear" or "to be wrapped in": Paul wears a chain, a priest is wrapped in weakness.

Both are the same picture of encirclement, just told from opposite ends. That single, ordinary image is what ties together a stone hung on a neck, a prisoner's chain, a priest's frailty, and a ring of faithful witnesses. Whatever lies around a person, this word can say so with quiet precision.

Nuances

1ato lie or be placed around something, so that the surrounding thing is what the sentence is about
Mrk 9:42Luk 17:2Heb 12:1
1bto have something lying around oneself: to wear it, be clothed with it, or be beset by it
Act 28:20Heb 5:2

What scholars say about perikeimai

περίκειμαι (περί + κεῖμαι) functions as the stative/passive counterpart of περιτίθημι, so "to have been placed around" and hence "to lie around, surround" (LSJ s.v.; BDAG p. 801; Robertson, Grammar, p. 485). It is always middle/passive and shows two frames: intransitive with dative or περί + accusative (Mark 9:42; Luke 17:2 with περί + τὸν τράχηλον; Heb 12:1 with dative ἡμῖν), and the classical retained accusative of thing, where the person is subject and "wears / is beset with" the object (Acts 28:20 τὴν ἅλυσιν ταύτην; Heb 5:2 ἀσθένειαν). BDF §159.4, Wallace pp. 197, 437-38, and Moulton-Turner III.246-47 identify the latter as an accusative of retained object standard in classical and Koine Greek, not a Semitism, attested from Herodotus 1.171 onward and paralleled at 4 Macc 12:3 (δεσμὰ περικείμενος) and Epistle of Jeremiah 72. Commentators on Heb 5:2 (Attridge, Koester, Lane, Ellingworth) render "beset/clothed with weakness" and note that Hebrews applies the generic priest's ἀσθένεια to Christ only in its compassionate, not its morally defective, aspect. Spicq's observation that περίκειμαι + accusative is a distinctive shared Luke-Hebrews idiom is widely cited.

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, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 3rd ed. (2000), p. 801, s.v. περίκειμαιlexicon
  • LSJ, A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. (1940), s.v. περίκειμαιlexicon
  • A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research (1919), pp. 485-86grammar
  • F. Blass, A. Debrunner, R. Funk, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament, §159grammar
  • Harold Attridge, Hebrews, Hermeneia (1989), pp. 143-46commentary
  • Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, NIGTC (1993), pp. 275-77commentary
  • C. K. Barrett, The Acts of the Apostles, ICC vol. 2 (1998)commentary

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

All attested forms of περίκειμαι

present middle-or-passive indicative 3s

περίκειται

Mrk 9:42, Luk 17:2, Heb 5:2

present middle-or-passive indicative 1s

περίκειμαι

Act 28:20

present middle-or-passive participle accusative n s

περικείμενον

Heb 12:1