StrongerBible

piazō

πιάζω

GreekG4084arrest, catch, ...

Appears 12 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Jhn 7:30Jhn 7:32Jhn 7:44Jhn 8:20Jhn 10:39Jhn 11:57Jhn 21:3Jhn 21:10Act 3:7Act 12:42Co 11:32Rev 19:20
Root family
Word studypee-AH-dzoverb

What piazō means

to get hold of someone or something so it cannot get away: to grip, seize, or catch

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This verb names the plain physical act of closing a hand around something and keeping it there. What that looks like depends entirely on what is being taken hold of, and the New Testament stretches it across three very different scenes: a hand reached down to a crippled beggar, a squad of temple guards sent after a teacher, and a night of empty fishing nets.

Nine of its twelve appearances describe taking a person captive, and six of those belong to a single running thread in John's Gospel. Again and again people try to seize Jesus and fail, because, as John twice explains, his hour had not yet come. The word quietly becomes a way of tracking who is actually in control of events. In Revelation the same verb returns in the passive for the capture of the beast, and there the seizing finally succeeds.

The other three uses pull in gentler and more ordinary directions. Peter grips the lame man by the right hand and lifts him to his feet, and the disciples spend a whole night on the lake and take nothing. Greek has more specialized verbs for taking and holding. One of them, κρατέω, meaning "to hold fast", stresses keeping a firm grip and having power over what is held; another, ἐπιλαμβάνω, meaning "to take hold of", is often used of reaching out to steady or rescue someone. The verb in view here stays fixed on the moment of the catch itself.

Nuances

1ato take hold of someone by the hand, gripping them in order to lift or steady them
TranslatabilityDirect
Act 3:7
1bto seize a person and hold them: to arrest, take into custody, or capture an enemy
Jhn 7:30Jhn 7:32Jhn 7:44Jhn 8:20Jhn 10:39Jhn 11:57Act 12:42Co 11:32Rev 19:20
1cto catch fish, taking them in a net
TranslatabilityDirect
Jhn 21:3Jhn 21:10

What scholars say about piazō

The lexicons treat πιάζω as one verb with a narrow, concrete range. BDAG divides it into exactly three subsenses: to take hold of or grasp (Acts 3:7), to take into custody, seize, or arrest (John 7:30, 32, 44; 8:20; 10:39; 11:57; Acts 12:4; 2 Corinthians 11:32; Revelation 19:20), and to catch, of fish (John 21:3, 10). LSJ identifies the form as Doric πιάζω beside Attic πιέζω "to press, squeeze"; in Hellenistic Greek the two forms specialized, and the New Testament preserves that division cleanly, since πιέζω keeps the sense "press down" at Luke 6:38 while πιάζω is used only of taking hold. Moulton and Milligan cite the seizure sense from the papyri, which indicates ordinary administrative usage rather than a technical legal term.

Commentators on John (Barrett, Brown) observe how the verb concentrates in the sequence of failed attempts on Jesus and how the Evangelist ties those failures to the motif of the "hour" that has not yet come. Beale reads the passive ἐπιάσθη at Revelation 19:20 against that background: the beast is seized where Jesus could not be. EDNT treats the fishing use at John 21:3, 10 as continuous with the Synoptic call narratives and does not posit a further sense. No live disagreement about the lexical range is recorded.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. πιάζωlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. πιάζω, πιέζωlexicon
  • J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, s.v. πιάζωlexicon
  • Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (EDNT), s.v. πιάζωlexicon
  • C. K. Barrett, The Gospel according to St John, 2nd ed. (London: SPCK, 1978)commentary
  • Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel according to John, Anchor Bible 29-29A (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1966-1970)commentary
  • G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999)commentary

All attested forms of πιάζω

aorist active infinitive

πιάσαι

Jhn 7:30, Jhn 7:44, Jhn 10:39, 2Co 11:32

aorist active participle nominative m s

πιάσας

Act 3:7, Act 12:4

aorist active subjunctive 3p

πιάσωσιν

Jhn 7:32, Jhn 11:57

aorist active indicative 2p

ἐπιάσατε

Jhn 21:10

aorist active indicative 3p

ἐπίασαν

Jhn 21:3

aorist active indicative 3s

ἐπίασεν

Jhn 8:20

aorist passive indicative 3s

ἐπιάσθη

Rev 19:20