to bring something all the way to its appointed end: to finish, complete, or fully carry out.
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong
This word does not mean simply to stop. It means to carry a thing through to the finish line it was aiming at, so that it is fully done. It comes from the noun for an end or goal, and it always keeps that sense of reaching the mark, not just running out of steam.
The same idea shows up in several settings. It can finish an activity, as when Jesus finishes teaching or Paul finishes his life's race. It can mean discharging what is owed: to carry out a law to the letter, or even to pay a tax, since paying is completing a debt. And it can mean bringing God's stated purposes to their completion, so that a prophecy or a plan is fully accomplished.
The most famous use is the single word Jesus speaks from the cross, translated "It is finished." It announces a work brought all the way to its intended end, not merely halted. In the visions of Revelation the word also marks stretches of time and series of judgments running their full course until they are complete.
Nuances
1ato finish or complete an activity, task, or work, bringing it to its intended end.
Mat 7:28Mat 10:23Mat 11:1Mat 13:53Mat 19:1Mat 26:12Ti 4:7Rev 11:7
1bto fulfill or accomplish what was written or purposed, so that a prophecy, Scripture, or divine plan reaches its completion.
Means to finish or bring an activity to its end point, marking that a speech, journey, or stretch of time has run its course.Mat 7:28Mat 26:1Jhn 19:30Rev 20:3
Means to carry out or discharge an obligation, whether keeping the law or paying what is owed, so the focus is on satisfying a demand.Rom 13:6Mat 17:24Jas 2:8Rom 2:27
Both
Both can name the completion of God's saving plan and the fulfilling of Scripture, and John sets them side by side at the cross for exactly this.Jhn 19:28
Means to bring something all the way to its intended goal or full maturity, making it complete and whole rather than merely ending it.Heb 2:10Heb 7:19Heb 10:14Php 3:12
Is the word John uses for love reaching its full growth in a person, so that the relationship, not a task, is what is being completed.1Jn 4:121Jn 4:171Jn 4:181Jn 2:5
Can carry the sense of being consecrated or fully qualified, brought to the settled state that fits a person for a role.Heb 5:9Heb 7:28
πληρόωfills something up to the full, and is the usual word for Scripture being fulfilled by an event; teleo stresses reaching the appointed end.
Pictures reaching the end point of an action and so bringing it to a stop. The focus is on the finishing line, the moment a doing is over.Mat 7:28Mat 11:1Jhn 19:30
Used of running a set course or stretch of time all the way through to its close.2Ti 4:7Rev 20:3Rev 20:5
Can mean to discharge or pay off an obligation in full, settling what is owed.Rom 13:6Mat 17:24
Both
Both can describe carrying out the whole of what Scripture or God's plan requires, so that it is fully accomplished, and the two even sit side by side at the cross.Jhn 19:36Jhn 19:28
Both can mark a divinely appointed task as completed in full, one word stressing the measure now full and the other the work now ended.Act 12:25Act 13:29
Pictures filling something up to its full measure, whether a space, a quantity, or a person, so that nothing is lacking. The idea is fullness reached, not an action stopped.Jhn 12:3Eph 5:18Eph 1:23
Is the standard word for a promise or prophecy coming true: a word once spoken is now realized in full, like a vessel finally filled.Mat 1:22Mat 4:14Luk 4:21
Speaks of an inward quality being brought to fullness, such as joy or knowledge filling a person completely.Jhn 15:11Jhn 16:24Rom 15:14
συντελέωbrings all the parts together to a single conclusion, often the end of an age; teleo is the plainer word for finishing one thing.
It marks the point where a stretch of speaking or acting stops. Each block of Jesus' teaching closes with a note that he had come to the end of saying these things, Paul looks back on a life as a race he has run to the finish, and the last word from the cross announces that the work is over.Mat 7:282Ti 4:7Jhn 19:30
It is the ordinary word for paying what you owe. Collectors ask whether the teacher pays the temple charge, and Paul tells readers to hand over what the government levies.Mat 17:24Rom 13:6
It measures out spans of time and named quantities and says when they run out: the thousand years, the seven disasters, the testimony of the two witnesses.Rev 20:3Rev 15:8Rev 11:7
Both
Both can say that what God announced beforehand has now come true in full. Matthew says Isaiah's prophecy reaches its fulfilment in a crowd that will not listen, and Luke and Acts say the same of everything the prophets wrote about Jesus.Mat 13:14Luk 18:31Act 13:29
Both can describe meeting the whole demand of a command rather than part of it. Carrying each other's burdens satisfies the law of Christ, and loving your neighbour satisfies the royal law.Gal 6:2Jas 2:8Rom 2:27
It pictures a hole being plugged. When a whole congregation could not be present, the few who came are said to have made up for what was missing from the rest, and one man's risky service covered the help his church could not deliver in person.1Co 16:17Php 2:30
It can mean stepping into an empty seat. Paul asks how the person occupying the spot of the outsider, who cannot follow what is being said, is supposed to answer "Amen".1Co 14:16
Applied to wrongdoing, it pictures a container topping up toward the brim, one offence added to the last until the measure of a people's sins is full.1Th 2:16
Fulfilling what stands written, so that Scripture and prophecy reach their appointed outcome.Luk 18:31Luk 22:37Jhn 19:28Act 13:29
Marks reaching the end of a stretch of speech or activity, as in the recurring line that Jesus had finished saying these things.Mat 7:28Mat 11:1Mat 26:1
Extends to settling what is owed: paying taxes or tribute, a sense the other word never carries.Rom 13:6
Both
Both name bringing an action to its finish, so each can describe completing the course set before a person.Php 1:62Ti 4:7
Carries a work already begun through to its full completion, so it often pairs the finishing with the starting: what someone set in motion is now brought all the way to the end.Gal 3:3Php 1:62Co 8:62Co 8:11
Used for carrying out sacred duty: performing the rites of worship or building the sanctuary exactly as prescribed.Heb 9:6Heb 8:5
teleō in the other biblical languages
כָּלָהHebrew“to end: finish”the main Hebrew word for finishing and completing, which also ranges into being used up or consumed, an edge teleo lacks.
שָׁלֵםHebrew“to complete”the Hebrew word for making whole and repaying, overlapping teleo in the sense of paying or settling what is due.
Centers on bringing an action or stretch of time to its end: finishing a course of teaching, completing a journey, or carrying out a command to the full.Mat 7:28Mat 11:12Ti 4:7
Names a prophecy, a word, or the purpose of God reaching its appointed fulfillment, the moment a foretold thing is fully accomplished.Luk 18:31Jhn 19:28Rev 17:17
Used for keeping or carrying out a law or commandment in full, doing what it requires completely.Rom 2:27Jas 2:8
Both
Both can describe paying what is required of one, discharging a debt or due in full, with the Greek word used for paying taxes or tribute and the Hebrew for paying off an obligation or vow.Rom 13:6Psa 22:25
Both name a work or task being brought to full completion, the point at which what was begun is wholly finished.Rev 11:71Ki 7:51
Carries a settling of accounts the Greek word does not: making restitution under the law, repaying a loss or a theft to the one wronged.Exo 22:1Lev 24:18
Names making peace between parties, ending hostility so that they are whole with one another.Jos 10:1Jos 11:19
Used for repaying a person according to their conduct, returning reward or judgment for what they have done.Deu 7:10Psa 137:8
What scholars say about teleō
τελέω is built on τέλος (end, goal) and denotes bringing a matter to its τέλος rather than merely ceasing. The standard lexica (BDAG, LSJ) organize its New Testament range under completing an activity, carrying out an obligation or command, discharging what is due (paying a tax), and bringing prophecy or divine purpose to fulfillment. The perfect τετέλεσται in John 19:30 draws special comment, and the documentary papyri attest a commercial "paid in full" usage that informs discussion of the cross saying, though most exegetes treat that overtone as at most secondary. Delling surveys the whole word family and its theological weight.