StrongerBible

teleutaō

τελευτάω

GreekG5053die, be dead, ...

Appears 13 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 2:19Mat 9:18Mat 15:4Mat 22:25Mrk 7:10Mrk 9:44Mrk 9:46Mrk 9:48Luk 7:2Jhn 11:39Act 2:29Act 7:15Heb 11:22
Root family
Word studyteh-lef-TAH-ohverb

What teleutaō means

to die: to reach the end of one's life, come to one's end.

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This verb comes from the ordinary Greek word for an "end" or "finish," and it began life meaning simply to bring something to a close. Used of a person, it becomes a gentle way of saying that someone has come to the end of their life. It is the softer, more dignified of the New Testament words for dying, closer to English phrases like "passed away" or "reached the end" than to the blunt "died."

Across the New Testament it keeps that one quiet meaning. It reports the death of ordinary people and of famous figures alike, from a synagogue leader's daughter to the patriarch Jacob, from King Herod to Lazarus in the tomb. The writer of Hebrews even uses it of Joseph "coming to his end," catching the sense of a life drawing gracefully to a close.

The one place the word carries extra weight is in a fixed legal command quoted from the law of Moses: "whoever curses father or mother must be put to death." There the plain word for dying is used within a formula for execution, so it means not just that the offender will die but that he is to be handed over to death as a penalty. That courtroom force comes from the setting, not from a second meaning of the word itself.

Nuances

1ato die; of a person coming to the end of life, or of a living thing ceasing to live.
Mat 2:19Mat 9:18Mat 22:25Mrk 9:44Mrk 9:46Mrk 9:48Luk 7:2Jhn 11:39Act 2:29Act 7:15Heb 11:22
1bto be put to death; the plain word for dying used inside the legal command "let him surely die" as a sentence of execution.
TranslatabilityApproximate
Mat 15:4Mrk 7:10

What scholars say about teleutaō

The standard lexicons (BDAG, LSJ) derive this verb from τέλος ("end, completion") and classify it as an intransitive euphemism for dying, "to come to an end, reach one's end," beside the more common ἀποθνῄσκω and the simplex θνῄσκω. Louw and Nida place it in the semantic domain of death (23.99) as a somewhat more elevated or reserved term than the ordinary word. BDAG separately flags the construction θανάτῳ τελευτάτω in Matthew 15:4 and Mark 7:10 as a Septuagintal rendering of the Hebrew infinitive-absolute construction מוֹת יוּמָת (Exodus 21:17), where the pleonastic dative marks a legally mandated death rather than natural death. No semantic dispute attaches to the word; its sense is uniformly agreed.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. τελευτάωlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. τελευτάωlexicon
  • Louw & Nida, Greek-English Lexicon Based on Semantic Domains, 23.99lexicon

All attested forms of τελευτάω

aorist active indicative 3s

ἐτελεύτησεν

Mat 9:18, Mat 22:25, Act 2:29, Act 7:15

present active indicative 3s

τελευτᾷ

Mrk 9:44, Mrk 9:46, Mrk 9:48

present active imperative 3s

τελευτάτω

Mat 15:4, Mrk 7:10

aorist active participle genitive m s

Τελευτήσαντος

Mat 2:19

perfect active participle genitive m s

τετελευτηκότος

Jhn 11:39

present active infinitive

τελευτᾶν

Luk 7:2

present active participle nominative m s

τελευτῶν

Heb 11:22