StrongerBible

rhēgnumi

ῥήγνυμι

GreekG4486“burst, tear, ...”

Appears 7 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 7:6Mat 9:17Mrk 2:22Mrk 9:18Luk 5:37Luk 9:42Gal 4:27
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What rhēgnumi means

1

to burst or rip apart: to make something come to pieces under sheer force

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This is the plain, everyday use of the word, and nothing about it is in doubt. The force can build inside the thing that gives way, as when young wine still working in an old skin swells against seams that have no stretch left, or it can come from outside, as when an animal turns on a person and rips them open. Either way the object does not simply crack or split: it comes apart and is ruined.

The wineskin picture rests on ordinary farm life. A skin that has already been stretched once and then dried out is brittle, so wine that is still fermenting destroys the container, and the wine is lost along with it. That is why the image works as a warning about forcing something new into a worn out container.

Greek had neighbors that divided this territory up. One verb splits a thing along a line, as with a curtain torn in two (σχίζω), while the compound built on this very verb (διαρρήγνυμι) is the standard choice for a person ripping their own clothes in grief or outrage. This word keeps the simple idea of a violent coming apart, whatever the cause.

Nuances

1ato burst open under pressure, as an old wineskin gives way when new wine ferments in it
TranslatabilityDirect
Mat 9:17Mrk 2:22Luk 5:37
1bto tear a living victim to pieces, as an animal savages a person
Mat 7:6
2

to break forth: to let a cry burst out of someone who has been silent

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

When Paul quotes Isaiah in Galatians, he uses the verb the way Greek writers had long used it, of sound suddenly breaking out of a person who had made none. The older Greek phrasing was to let the voice loose, said of small children and of people who had been unable or unwilling to speak.

The Greek Old Testament had already turned this into a habit of its own in Isaiah, where mountains and ruined cities are told to break forth into gladness. It stands where the Hebrew commands a person to break out in a ringing cry, and the wording is unusual enough that it looks like something the translator of Isaiah built for the job.

The striking thing about the line Paul quotes is what is missing. The command is simply "Break forth!" with nothing said about what bursts out, and the words that follow, "and cry aloud," point the way: a childless woman is suddenly making the noise of a mother. Every English version has to complete the sentence somehow, whether with song, with shouting, or with joy.

Gal 4:27

Disputed

What the elliptical imperative of LXX Isaiah 54:1, quoted at Galatians 4:27, leaves unstated: εὐφροσύνην or φωνήν.

  • majorityεὐφροσύνην is implied, on the model of the same Isaianic phrasing at LXX Isaiah 49:13 and 52:9, giving "break forth into gladness".; BDAG, 3rd ed., s.v. ῥήγνυμι, sense 2 (pp. 904-905); F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Galatians (NIGTC), ad 4:27
  • minorityφωνήν is implied, on the older Greek idiom ῥῆξαι φωνήν, giving "break into speech" or "let the voice loose".; LSJ, 9th ed. with revised Supplement, s.v. ῥήγνυμι A.4
3

to hurl a person violently to the ground

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyContested

In the account of the boy the disciples could not help, this verb describes what the unclean spirit does to him: it throws him down. Two Greek verbs that had come to look alike lie behind this. One meant to break or tear, the other, older one meant to strike or dash something to the ground, and by the time the Gospels were written the two had merged in the form used here. This is the second of the two showing through.

The surrounding words make the picture clear. In Mark the throwing down comes first, and the foaming, the grinding of teeth and the stiffening follow as what happens next; a few lines later the boy is on the ground rolling about. Luke sets this verb beside a second one for convulsing, which reads as the effect of being flung down. A close relative of this verb is used elsewhere in Luke of a flood dashing against a house (προσρήγνυμι), which shows the same idea of violent impact was ready to hand.

Older English Bibles rendered the word here "teareth him", which invites a picture of a body being ripped apart. Almost every modern version has moved to "throws him down" or "dashes him to the ground", and the ancient Latin and Syriac translations had already read it that way.

Mrk 9:18Luk 9:42

Disputed

Whether the verb in Mark 9:18 and Luke 9:42 names the initiating throw to the ground or the convulsion itself.

  • majorityIt names the demonic throwing down, with the foaming, grinding of teeth and rigidity described separately as consequences; Mark 9:20 (the boy falling to the ground) is decisive.; C. E. B. Cranfield, The Gospel According to St Mark (CGTC), ad 9:18; Vincent Taylor, The Gospel According to St. Mark (1952), ad 9:18; Adela Yarbro Collins, Mark (Hermeneia), p. 435; Joel Marcus, Mark 8-16 (Anchor Yale Bible 27A), ad 9:18; Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke (Anchor Bible 28A), ad 9:42
  • minorityPaired with συσπαράσσω, it describes the seizure as a whole, so "throws him into convulsions" is the better rendering.; Robert H. Stein, Mark (BECNT), ad 9:18; Darrell L. Bock, Luke (BECNT), ad 9:42; I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke (NIGTC), ad 9:42

What scholars say about rhēgnumi

BDAG (3rd ed., 904-905) splits the New Testament material across two lemmata. Under ῥήγνυμι it gives (1) "tear, break, burst" (the wineskins of Matthew 9:17, Mark 2:22, Luke 5:37, and, with a personal object, "tear in pieces, mangle" at Matthew 7:6) and (2) "let break forth, break out" of joyful vocalization at Galatians 4:27, supplying εὐφροσύνην on the analogy of LXX Isaiah 49:13 and 52:9. Under a separate lemma ῥήσσω it distinguishes the byform of ῥήγνυμι from epic ῥήσσω (Attic ῥάττω) "to cause to fall down, throw down", and locates Mark 9:18 and Luke 9:42 there, citing Wisdom 4:19 and Euripides, Bacchae 633. LSJ keeps a single lemma but isolates the ῥήσσω form under II and adds a fighters' sense "to fell, knock down" at Demosthenes 21.63, remarking that ῥάσσω was more usual for that meaning, while placing ῥῆξον καὶ βόησον under A.4 alongside the classical idiom ῥῆξαι φωνήν (Herodotus 1.85, 2.2, 5.93; Aristophanes, Nubes 357, 960; Euripides, Supplices 710). Louw and Nida independently distribute the occurrences across three domains: 19.44 (physical impact) for the wineskins, 33.85 (communication) for Galatians 4:27, and a separate "throw violently to the ground" entry for the exorcism passages. Chantraine (DELG), Frisk (GEW) and Beekes (EDG 1282-1283) derive ῥήγνυμι from PIE *u̯reh₁ǵ- "break, tear" (Aeolic εὐράγη with preserved digamma; Lithuanian rėžti; Old Church Slavonic rězati; the ablaut series ῥηγ-/ῥωγ-/ῥαγ-), and treat ῥάσσω/ἀράσσω "strike, dash" as etymologically separate and probably onomatopoeic, Beekes calling the association of the two families paretymological. The two present stems ῥήγνυμι and ῥήσσω/ῥήττω are principal-part variants, the later present formed on the pattern πήγνυμι : πήσσω from the aorist ἔρρηξα. For Mark 9:18 and Luke 9:42 the dominant reading (Vincent Taylor; Swete; Cranfield, CGTC; France, NIGTC 366; Marcus, AYB 27A; Yarbro Collins, Hermeneia 435; Evans, WBC 34B; Pesch, HThKNT; Fitzmyer, AB Luke) is "dashes/hurls him down", supported by Wisdom 4:19 (ῥήξει αὐτοὺς ἀφώνους πρηνεῖς), Artemidorus, Oneirocritica 1.60, the compound προσρήσσω in Josephus (Ant. 6.9.3; 9.4.6), the gloss ῥῆξαι· καταβαλεῖν in Hesychius, the Vulgate elidit/allisit and the Peshitta, and above all Mark 9:20, where the boy falls to the ground after the spirit's action while the foaming, teeth-grinding and rigidity are described by separate verbs. Stein (BECNT Mark), with Bock (BECNT Luke) and Marshall (NIGTC Luke) combining both nuances, prefer "throws into convulsions", reading ἔρρηξεν καὶ συνεσπάραξεν as a fixed medico-demonological pair; the older "teareth him" of the KJV, defended for Mark by A. B. Bruce (Expositor's Greek Testament), is now judged inadequate by essentially all modern critical commentators. At Galatians 4:27 Paul quotes LXX Isaiah 54:1 verbatim in its Vaticanus form; the Isaiah translator had rendered פצח plus רנה with the Greek idiom ῥήγνυμι plus εὐφροσύνην, a translational innovation with no classical or wider Septuagintal parallel (Troxel, LXX-Isaiah as Translation and Interpretation), and Paul transposes the referent from exilic Zion to ἡ ἄνω Ἰερουσαλήμ (Betz, Hermeneia 246-247; Martyn, AYB 33A, 441-443; de Boer, NTL, 297-306; Jobes, WTJ 55 [1993] 299-320). In the Septuagint the simplex renders chiefly בקע and, in Isaiah alone, פצח, while קרע is carried almost invariably by the compound διαρρήγνυμι (Muraoka, GELS 2009).

Where scholars disagree about rhēgnumi

Whether Mark 9:18 and Luke 9:42 use a distinct verb (ῥήσσω, cognate with ῥάσσω/ἀράσσω) meaning "dash down", or the ordinary ῥήγνυμι "break, tear".

  • majorityTwo historically distinct verbs converged on the same Koine present stem, so these two passages carry the older sense of dashing a victim to the ground.; BDAG, 3rd ed., s.v. ῥήσσω, sense 2 (pp. 904-905); P. Chantraine, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque, s.v. ῥάσσω; R. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek (2010), pp. 1282-1283; R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark (NIGTC), p. 366; Joel Marcus, Mark 8-16 (Anchor Yale Bible 27A), ad 9:18
  • minorityAll seven occurrences belong to one verb of breaking and tearing, so these two passages describe the boy being torn or thrown into spasms.; A. B. Bruce, The Expositor's Greek Testament, on Mark 9:18
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 and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., s.v. ῥήγνυμι and ῥήσσω, pp. 904-905lexicon
  • LSJ, A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. with revised Supplement, s.v. ῥήγνυμι, ῥήσσω, ῥάσσωlexicon
  • J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, sections 19.44 and 33.85lexicon
  • T. Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (2009), s.v. ῥήγνυμι, διαρρήγνυμιlexicon
  • R. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek (2010), pp. 1282-1283etymological dictionary
  • P. Chantraine, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque, s.v. ῥήγνυμι, ῥάσσωetymological dictionary
  • Moises Silva (ed.), New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis (2014), s.v. ῥήγνυμιtheological dictionary
  • Joel Marcus, Mark 8-16 (Anchor Yale Bible 27A), ad 9:18commentary
  • Adela Yarbro Collins, Mark (Hermeneia), p. 435commentary
  • R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark (NIGTC), p. 366commentary
  • C. E. B. Cranfield, The Gospel According to St Mark (CGTC), ad 9:18commentary
  • Vincent Taylor, The Gospel According to St. Mark (1952), ad 9:18commentary
  • Robert H. Stein, Mark (BECNT), ad 9:18commentary
  • Craig A. Evans, Mark 8:27-16:20 (WBC 34B), ad 9:18commentary
  • Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke (Anchor Bible 28A), ad 9:42commentary
  • I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke (NIGTC), ad 9:42commentary
  • Darrell L. Bock, Luke (BECNT), ad 9:42commentary
  • W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, The Gospel According to Saint Matthew (ICC), vol. 1 ad 7:6 and vol. 2 ad 9:17commentary
  • Ulrich Luz, Matthew 1-7 (Hermeneia), ad 7:6commentary
  • Hans Dieter Betz, Galatians (Hermeneia), pp. 246-247commentary
  • J. Louis Martyn, Galatians (Anchor Yale Bible 33A), pp. 441-443commentary
  • Martinus C. de Boer, Galatians (New Testament Library, 2011), pp. 297-306commentary
  • F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Galatians (NIGTC), ad 4:27commentary
  • Ronald L. Troxel, LXX-Isaiah as Translation and Interpretation (JSJSup 124)monograph
  • Karen H. Jobes, "Jerusalem, Our Mother," Westminster Theological Journal 55 (1993): 299-320article
  • Mark Gignilliat, "Isaiah's Offspring," Bulletin for Biblical Research 25 (2015): 205-223article
  • J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, p. 591lexicon

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

All attested forms of ῥήγνυμι

future active indicative 3s

ῥήξει

Mrk 2:22, Luk 5:37

aorist active imperative 2s

ῥῆξον

Gal 4:27

aorist active indicative 3s

ἔρρηξεν

Luk 9:42

aorist active subjunctive 3p

ῥήξωσιν

Mat 7:6

present active indicative 3s

ῥήσσει

Mrk 9:18

present passive indicative 3p

ῥήγνυνται

Mat 9:17