StrongerBible

sumbibazō

συμβιβάζω

GreekG4822“knit together, instruct, ...”

Appears 7 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Act 9:22Act 16:10Act 19:331Co 2:16Eph 4:16Col 2:2Col 2:19
Word studyResearch-gradesoom-bee-BAH-zoverb

What sumbibazō means

1

to hold separate parts together, so that what was apart works as one whole

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

The word is built out of "together" and a verb meaning "cause to step," so its root picture is making things step together. This meaning stays closest to that picture: parts are brought into contact and held there.

Paul uses it twice of the church as a body. What holds a body together is not the parts themselves but the joints and ligaments that fasten them, and Greek medical writers used this very verb for setting a limb into place. In Colossians the fastening goes with the supply that comes down from the head; in Ephesians it stands beside a word for being fitted together (συναρμολογέω) and the whole process happens in love.

The same verb then steps from bodies to people. When hearts are knit together in love, nothing physical is being joined, but the picture has not changed: what was separate now holds.

Nuances

1aof a body: held together at its joints, so that it can grow as one thing
TranslatabilityDirect
Eph 4:16Col 2:19
Eph 4:16

Whether Ephesians 4:16 carries only the organic sense of a body held together at its joints, or also an echo of the instructional sense the verb has in the Greek Old Testament.

  • majorityPurely organic: the body is held together through its joints and ligaments, exactly as in the near-twin sentence at Colossians 2:19.; E. Best, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Ephesians (ICC; T&T Clark, 1998), on Eph 4:16; A. T. Lincoln, Ephesians (WBC 42; Word, 1990), 264; F. Thielman, Ephesians (BECNT; Baker, 2010), ad loc.
  • minorityThe instructional sense may also be heard behind the participle, since the immediately preceding verse is about truthful speech, so that the members grow together in truth.; H. W. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary (Baker, 2002), 564–65
1bof people: bound to one another in love
Col 2:2
2

to put facts side by side so that a conclusion follows from them

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

Bringing things together works for ideas as well as for objects. Greek thinkers used this verb for setting statements next to each other until a conclusion falls out of them, and that is how Luke uses it in Acts.

Two shades sit inside this. One is working a conclusion out for yourself. Paul and his companions put a night vision together with the doors that had just closed in front of them and concluded that God was calling them to Macedonia. Luke shows guidance arriving through hard thinking, not only through a voice.

The other is pressing a conclusion on someone else until they have to grant it. The newly converted Paul argues in the meeting places of Damascus, laying text against text until his hearers cannot avoid the point that Jesus is the Messiah. English "prove" or "demonstrate" fits that better than "conclude," because the work is being done on other people's minds.

Nuances

2ato work out a conclusion from what you already know
Act 16:10
2bto prove a conclusion to other people, so that they must grant it
Act 9:22
3

to teach someone: to bring a person's mind together with something they did not grasp

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

This meaning is the surprise in the word's history. Ordinary Greek writers did not use this verb for teaching, and they had a plain word for that (διδάσκω). But the translators who turned the Hebrew Bible into Greek reached for it again and again wherever the Hebrew said "make someone know" (יָדַע) or "make someone understand," from God promising Moses that he would teach him what to say, to the Psalm where God says, "I will instruct you in the way you should go."

The choice makes sense once the root image is in view. To teach is to bring a knower and a thing known together, and this verb already meant bringing two things together. Its very shape said what teaching does, in a way that the plain word for teaching did not.

Paul inherits the meaning whole when he quotes Isaiah in Greek: who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct him? The expected answer is nobody, which is what makes his next line so daring, that we do have the mind of Christ. One verse in Acts is harder, and scholars still argue over it: in the uproar at Ephesus, either somebody coached Alexander on what to say, or the crowd worked out that he was the man of the moment.

Nuances

3ato instruct someone, giving them what they did not yet grasp
1Co 2:16
3bto prompt or coach someone on what to say
CertaintyContested
Act 19:33
Act 19:33

Which sense of the verb governs Acts 19:33, where some of the crowd act on Alexander during the Ephesian riot.

  • majoritySome in the crowd prompted or coached Alexander, telling him what to say, the instructional sense inherited from the Greek Old Testament; the genitive absolute already explains that the Jews had put him forward.; C. K. Barrett, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, vol. 2 (ICC; T&T Clark, 1998), on Acts 19:33; R. I. Pervo, Acts: A Commentary (Hermeneia; Fortress, 2009), on Acts 19:33; F. F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts, rev. ed. (NICNT; Eerdmans, 1988), on Acts 19:33; J. A. Fitzmyer, The Acts of the Apostles (AB 31; Doubleday, 1998), on Acts 19:33; C. S. Keener, Acts: An Exegetical Commentary, vol. 3 (Baker, 2014), on Acts 19:33; G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (T&T Clark, 1922), s.v. συμβιβάζω
  • minorityThe verse cannot be settled: the inferential sense of Acts 16:10, so that the crowd concluded it was Alexander who was concerned, and a plainly physical pushing forward both remain live options.; J. H. Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (T&T Clark, 1889), s.v. συμβιβάζω

Disputed

Whether the instructional sense is a natural Greek development that any Greek reader would follow, or an artifact of translating Hebrew causative verbs of cognition.

  • contestedIt extends the Aristotelian use of the verb for causing someone to converge on a conclusion into causing someone to grasp a truth, aided by the associative force of the σύν- prefix; a Greek reader with no Hebrew would take the sense from context.; G. Delling, "συμβιβάζω," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 7 (Eerdmans, 1971), 763–66; M. Silva, ed., New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis (Zondervan, 2014), s.v. συμβιβάζω; T. Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (Peeters, 2009), s.v. συμβιβάζω
  • contestedThe pedagogical use is translation Greek, produced by the Hebrew verbs it renders: Attic writers used προσβιβάζω in that sense, the documentary papyri show no clear example, and Josephus never uses the verb this way.; G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (T&T Clark, 1922), s.v. συμβιβάζω; J. Lust, E. Eynikel, K. Hauspie, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed. (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2003), s.v. συμβιβάζω; J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (Hodder & Stoughton, 1930), s.v. συμβιβάζω

What scholars say about sumbibazō

LSJ identifies συμβιβάζω as the causal of συμβαίνω, from σύν plus βιβάζω (the causative of βαίνω, "go, step"), and every later sense radiates from that concrete image: reconcile (Herodotus 1.74; Thucydides 2.29, with the double dative), compare (Plato, Hippias Minor 369d; Republic 504a), and the technical dialectical sense infer or conclude that Aristotle establishes in Topics (155a25, 151a36, 154a36, 158b27, 161b37) and Sophistical Refutations. The pedagogical sense is Septuagintal: in roughly nine to eleven occurrences the verb renders Hebrew causative verbs of cognition (יָרָה, יָדַע, בִּין, שָׂכַל) at Exodus 4:12, 15; 18:16; Leviticus 10:11; Deuteronomy 4:9; Judges 13:8 (A-text); Psalm 31(32):8; Isaiah 40:13, 14; and Daniel 9:22 (Theodotion). Wevers treats it as the Pentateuchal translators' standard equivalent for those verbs, a convention inherited by LXX-Isaiah, LXX-Psalms, and Theodotion-Daniel. Delling (TDNT 7:763–66) and Silva (NIDNTTE) explain the extension as an exploitation of the Aristotelian nuance of causing someone to converge on a conclusion, reinforced by the associative force of σύν; Abbott-Smith labels the usage translation Greek, and Muraoka glosses the Septuagint sense as causing someone to understand and see the point, that is, to teach. Moulton and Milligan found no clear papyrus attestation of the sense, Josephus never uses the verb that way, and LSJ notes that Attic writers used προσβιβάζω instead. BDAG accordingly arranges the New Testament data under four heads: join, conclude, prove, instruct. Commentators are effectively unanimous that Colossians 2:19 and Ephesians 4:16 are anatomical, the body cohering through joints and ligaments in a recognizable Hellenistic medical usage noted by EDNT (Dunn, Lohse, Moo, Sumney, Harris, Best, Lincoln, Thielman), with Hoehner alone allowing an instructional overtone at Ephesians 4:16; that Colossians 2:2 is affective union in love against the Vulgate's instructi, "instructed"; that Acts 16:10 is inferential corporate discernment and Acts 9:22 demonstrative proof in a setting of Jewish scriptural argument; and that 1 Corinthians 2:16 carries the Septuagint sense through Paul's citation of Isaiah 40:13, whose translator had already rendered רוּחַ as νοῦν (Thiselton, Fee, Conzelmann, Ciampa and Rosner). Acts 19:33 remains the crux: Metzger rates συνεβίβασαν {B} and observes that its difficulty led scribes to substitute κατεβίβασαν or προεβίβασαν, which is itself the strongest argument for the harder reading.

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

  • H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, H. S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. with Supplement (Oxford: Clarendon, 1940/1996), s.v. συμβιβάζωlexicon
  • BDAG, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (Chicago, 2000), s.v. συμβιβάζωlexicon
  • G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (T&T Clark, 1922), s.v. συμβιβάζωlexicon
  • T. Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (Peeters, 2009), s.v. συμβιβάζωlexicon
  • J. Lust, E. Eynikel, K. Hauspie, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed. (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2003), s.v. συμβιβάζωlexicon
  • J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (Hodder & Stoughton, 1930), s.v. συμβιβάζωlexicon
  • G. Delling, "συμβιβάζω," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 7 (Eerdmans, 1971), 763–66theological-dictionary
  • M. Silva, ed., New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis (Zondervan, 2014), s.v. συμβιβάζωtheological-dictionary
  • H. Balz and G. Schneider, eds., Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (Eerdmans, 1990–93), s.v. συμβιβάζωtheological-dictionary
  • J. W. Wevers, Notes on the Greek Text of Exodus (SBLSCS 30; Scholars, 1990), on Exod 4:12, 15; 18:16monograph
  • J. D. G. Dunn, The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon (NIGTC; Eerdmans, 1996), on Col 2:2 and 2:19commentary
  • E. Lohse, Colossians and Philemon (Hermeneia; Fortress, 1971), on Col 2:2 and 2:19commentary
  • D. J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (PNTC; Eerdmans, 2008), on Col 2:2 and 2:19commentary
  • E. Best, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Ephesians (ICC; T&T Clark, 1998), on Eph 4:16commentary
  • A. T. Lincoln, Ephesians (WBC 42; Word, 1990), 264commentary
  • H. W. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary (Baker, 2002), 564–65commentary
  • C. K. Barrett, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, 2 vols. (ICC; T&T Clark, 1994–98), on Acts 9:22; 16:10; 19:33commentary
  • J. A. Fitzmyer, The Acts of the Apostles (AB 31; Doubleday, 1998), on Acts 9:22; 16:10; 19:33commentary
  • R. I. Pervo, Acts: A Commentary (Hermeneia; Fortress, 2009), on Acts 19:33commentary
  • C. S. Keener, Acts: An Exegetical Commentary, vols. 2–3 (Baker, 2013–14), on Acts 9:22; 16:10; 19:33commentary
  • A. C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC; Eerdmans, 2000), 275–77commentary
  • G. D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, rev. ed. (NICNT; Eerdmans, 2014), 122–24commentary
  • B. M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed. (UBS, 1994), on Acts 19:33monograph

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

All attested forms of συμβιβάζω

present passive participle nominative n s

συμβιβαζόμενον

Eph 4:16, Col 2:19

aorist active indicative 3p

συνεβίβασαν

Act 19:33

aorist passive participle nominative m p

συμβιβασθέντες

Col 2:2

future active indicative 3s

συμβιβάσει

1Co 2:16

present active participle nominative m p

συμβιβάζοντες

Act 16:10

present active participle nominative m s

συμβιβάζων

Act 9:22