to send a traveler off well: to go part of the way with them, or to supply what their journey will need
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled
This is the everyday verb for sending (πέμπω) with "forward" attached to the front, and the small addition changes who the sentence is about. It never describes the traveler's own going. It describes what the people staying behind do for the one who is leaving: they get the traveler started on the road.
That help took two shapes in practice. Sometimes it was literal company. The elders at Ephesus walked Paul down to his ship, and the believers at Tyre came out of the city with their wives and children to see him off. Sometimes it was material. Titus 3:13 spells out what the word assumes by adding a purpose: send Zenas and Apollos off "so that they lack nothing." Food, money, and travel arrangements are in view, not a wave from the doorway.
The second use hardened into something close to a standard request among the first churches, a way of asking a congregation to underwrite a traveling worker's next leg. When Paul hopes the Corinthians will send him on wherever he goes, or asks the Romans to send him on toward Spain, he is asking them to pay for and outfit the trip. 3 John states the measure plainly: send such people on "in a manner worthy of God."
Nuances
1ato go along with someone who is leaving, walking part of the way with them before turning back
TranslatabilityDirect
Act 20:38Act 21:5
1bto send a traveler off equipped for the trip, with provisions, money, companions, or the backing of the church
Assumes the senders take on the traveler's needs, which Titus 3:13 makes explicit by asking that the two men be sent off so that nothing is lacking.Tit 3:131Co 16:6
Carries a standard of generosity that a congregation could be measured against, so 3 John can call for a sending worthy of God.3Jn 1:6
Both
Both name what the people staying behind do as a traveler sets out.Rom 15:24
Only send on one's way
In English, sending someone on their way can mean nothing more than letting them leave, and it can even suggest getting rid of them.
Describes what the people staying behind do for someone who is leaving: they walk part of the road with the departing traveler and see the ship off.Act 20:38Act 21:5
Covers outfitting the traveler for the road, with provisions, money, and whatever the next stage of the trip requires, so that the helper carries part of the cost.Rom 15:24Tit 3:133Jn 1:6
Assumes the journey is already settled and the traveler picks the destination, so the helper is a supporter of the trip rather than the one who ordered it.1Co 16:62Co 1:16
Both
Both put a person on the road at someone else's initiative, and English Bibles render both with "sent," so the difference between ordering a trip and supporting one disappears in translation. Timothy is on the receiving end of each.1Co 4:171Co 16:11
Both are used of a congregation putting its own workers on the road to another Christian community, describing the two ends of a single trip: the church that commissions the delegates and the church that speeds them on their way.Act 15:22Act 15:3
In both, the traveler is moving on behalf of other people rather than on private business, carrying a message, a gift, or the work of the gospel with him.Php 2:253Jn 1:6
Names the person with the authority to dispatch someone: the sender's will, not the traveler's, is what sets the journey going, and the errand is the sender's errand.Mat 2:8Mat 14:10Luk 15:15Luk 20:13
Carries the weight of the Father sending the Son, and of the Son sending the Spirit, so that the one sent speaks with the authority of the one who sent him and nothing of his own.Jhn 5:23Jhn 6:38Jhn 14:26Jhn 20:21
Sends things as readily as people: money collected for famine relief, a written message to the churches, gifts passed between celebrating enemies of the prophets.Act 11:29Php 4:16Rev 1:11Rev 11:10
Works perfectly well at a distance and implies nothing about the sender's own trouble or expense: an official can order a prisoner or a report forwarded without moving a step himself.Act 23:30Act 25:25Act 25:27
ἀποστέλλωSending someone out on an errand with the sender's authority behind them, where the focus is the assignment rather than the help a traveler needs.
Describes what the people staying behind do for someone leaving: they walk him out and say goodbye. The whole church accompanies Paul out of the city, and the believers at Tyre come with their wives and children as far as the beach to kneel and pray with him.Act 20:38Act 21:5Act 15:3
Carries the practical costs of the next stage of the trip: supplies, money, and travelling companions, so that the traveler lacks nothing on the road. Paul hopes to be helped on his way to Spain, asks to be set forward wherever he goes, and tells Titus to see that Zenas and Apollos want for nothing.Rom 15:241Co 16:6Tit 3:133Jn 1:6
Assumes the journey is already decided by the traveler or by someone else, and asks only that the local believers cooperate with it: Timothy is to be helped on his way back, and Paul expects the Corinthians to speed him toward Judea on a route he has already chosen.1Co 16:112Co 1:16
Both
Both describe a congregation putting a worker on the road for the sake of the gospel, which is why English Bibles reach for "send" in each case: Antioch sends Judas and Silas back to Jerusalem with its decision, and the same church sees Paul and Barnabas off on the journey there.Act 15:27Act 15:3
In both, the departure is not the traveler's private business: another party stands behind it and is answerable for it, whether the apostles in Jerusalem who put Peter and John on the road to Samaria or the Corinthians who are told to see Timothy on his way in peace.Act 8:141Co 16:11
Reaches all the way up to God sending his Son: the one sent comes carrying the sender's own authority, so receiving him is receiving the one who sent him. προπέμπω is never used this way.Jhn 3:171Jn 4:14Jhn 17:18
Names the giving of an assignment: the sender defines the errand, and the person goes because he was told to. Jesus appoints the Twelve so that he may send them out to preach, and a landowner sends his servants to collect what is owed him.Mrk 3:14Mat 21:34Luk 10:1
Works as an exercise of raw power, including hostile orders and beings no one escorts anywhere: Herod dispatches troops to kill the children, a king sends an executioner, temple officers are sent to arrest, angels are sent to gather the chosen, and even demons ask to be sent somewhere.Mat 2:16Mrk 6:27Jhn 7:32Mat 24:31Mrk 5:10
What is sent need not be a traveler at all: God sends a word, and salvation itself is said to have been sent to the Gentiles. προπέμπω always has a departing person in view.Act 10:36Act 28:28
συνέπομαιTravelling with someone as a companion for the whole trip, rather than seeing them off at the start of it.
It is a leave-taking, so the people doing it stay behind while the traveller goes on. In Acts 20:38 the Ephesian elders walk Paul only as far as his ship; in Acts 21:5 the whole church at Tyre, wives and children included, goes with Paul's party only "as far as outside the city", where they kneel on the beach to pray and then turn back home.Act 20:38Act 21:5
It often means equipping a traveller for the road rather than walking anywhere with him. Titus 3:13 asks that Zenas and Apollos be sent on their way with care "so that they lack nothing", and 3 John 1:6 makes sending the visiting brothers on "in a manner worthy of God" the practical proof of a host's love, which is a matter of supplies and money for the trip, not of going along on it.Tit 3:133Jn 1:6
Paul asks for it in advance, as a service a congregation owes the messengers it sends out. He hopes the Romans will send him on from their city toward Spain (Romans 15:24), tells the Corinthians he may winter with them so that they can send him on wherever he goes next (1 Corinthians 16:6), and tells that same church to send Timothy on "in peace" (1 Corinthians 16:11). Nobody asks in advance to be travelled with; this is a favour requested of a church before a departure.Rom 15:241Co 16:61Co 16:112Co 1:16
Both
Both are commonly rendered "accompanied", and in both a real group of people is on the road beside a traveller. In Acts 20:4 seven named men go with Paul as far as Asia; in Acts 20:38 the Ephesian elders walk him down to his ship. Within one chapter of Acts the two words describe two stretches of the same journey.Act 20:4Act 20:38
Neither word states by itself how far the companions go, so the verse has to say. Acts 21:5 fixes the limit at the edge of the city, and Acts 20:4 fixes it at the province of Asia. Read either word without that added phrase and the distance is simply left open.Act 21:5Act 20:4
It is the journey itself rather than the send-off: the companions keep going where the traveller goes. Acts 20:4 names seven men who travelled with Paul "as far as Asia", and they are still his travelling party in the verses that follow, sailing ahead to Troas and waiting for him there.Act 20:4
Nothing about provisioning or paying a traveller's way attaches to it. All Acts 20:4 tells us about these men is where they came from and how far they went with Paul, not what they gave him for the road; the word describes their company, and company is the whole of what it gives.Act 20:4
propempō in the other biblical languages
שָׁלַחHebrew“to send: depart”The broad Hebrew verb for sending, which also covers walking out with departing guests to set them on their road.
Names one narrow courtesy: walking out with someone who is leaving and going part of the way with him. The whole action is the escort itself, and the friends turn back once the traveler is on his road.Act 20:38Act 21:5Act 15:3
Reaches past the parting itself to what the traveler is given for the road: money, food, companions, whatever the journey will cost. This is why it is often rendered "help on the way" rather than simply "send".1Co 16:6Tit 3:13Rom 15:24
The traveler is already going, by his own decision or someone else's commission, and the word describes only the support given to that journey. It never assigns the errand or supplies the authority behind it.1Co 16:112Co 1:16
Both
Both name the host's courtesy of going out with departing guests and setting them on their road. Where the Old Testament pictures Abraham walking with his visitors to start them on the way, that is exactly the act the Greek word names when a whole congregation walks Paul down to the shore.Gen 18:16Gen 24:54Act 21:5
Both can describe a send-off made "in peace", where the parting is friendly and the one leaving is helped toward his destination rather than simply let go of.Gen 26:311Co 16:11
Both can be measured by how generously the departing person is treated, so the quality of the send-off becomes the point. Laban complains that he would have sent Jacob off with singing and music, and John asks that traveling teachers be sent on in a way worthy of God.Gen 31:273Jn 1:6
Is the ordinary word for dispatching a person on an errand, with the sender's own authority carried by the one who goes. The sender decides that there is a journey at all.Isa 6:8Jer 1:71Sa 9:16Gen 37:13
Stretches all the way down to a physical reach: putting out a hand toward something, with no journey and no messenger involved at all.Gen 3:22Gen 22:10Pro 31:19
Covers letting a person go free, releasing someone who was held: slaves out of Egypt, a bound servant at the end of his term. Here the word is about ending a hold, not helping a friend travel.Exo 5:1Exo 4:23Deu 15:12Deu 15:13
Covers turning someone out or getting rid of them, including a husband dismissing his wife, so the same verb can be cold or hostile where the Greek word is always a kindness.Deu 24:1Mal 2:16Gen 25:6Gen 21:14
Sends things as readily as people: Noah lets the raven and the dove out of the ark with this verb, which the Greek word never does since it needs a traveler to accompany.Gen 8:7Gen 8:8
What scholars say about propempō
The lexica treat the verb under two heads: "accompany, escort" and "help on one's journey," the latter covering the furnishing of food, money, companions, and travel arrangements (BDAG, s.v.; LSJ, s.v.). Moulton and Milligan document the same range in the papyri and inscriptions, where the verb belongs to the ordinary vocabulary of speeding a traveler on. The second use is widely recognized as near-technical in Paul and in 3 John for congregational support of itinerant workers: Cranfield and other commentators on Romans 15:24 read the request as one for material and logistical backing of the Spanish mission rather than a courtesy, and Thiselton takes 1 Corinthians 16:6 the same way. Titus 3:13 is the internal control, since the purpose clause specifies that nothing be lacking. Acts 15:3 is the one contested instance: Barrett notes that the sending by the Antioch church may denote either provisioning of the delegation or the congregation's escort out of the city.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. προπέμπωlexicon
LSJ, s.v. προπέμπωlexicon
J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, s.v. προπέμπωlexicon
Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (EDNT), s.v. προπέμπωlexicon
C. E. B. Cranfield, The Epistle to the Romans, ICC, vol. 2, on Romans 15:24commentary
Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, NIGTC, on 1 Corinthians 16:6commentary
C. K. Barrett, The Acts of the Apostles, ICC, vol. 2, on Acts 15:3commentary