StrongerBible

hupomimnēskō

ὑπομιμνήσκω

GreekG5279remind, bring to remembrance, ...

Appears 7 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Luk 22:61Jhn 14:262Ti 2:14Tit 3:12Pe 1:123Jn 1:10Jud 1:5
Compound of
Root family
Word studyhoo-po-mim-NAY-skoverb

What hupomimnēskō means

to bring something back into someone's mind: to remind a person of what they already know

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

Greek has a small family of memory words, and this one is specifically about causing memory in someone else. The plain verb for remembering (μιμνήσκω) describes what happens inside a person, and another common verb (μνημονεύω) describes keeping something in mind over time. This verb describes the work of whoever does the prompting, which is why nearly every use of it sits in a letter or a speech, with a writer or a leader doing the prompting.

What gets brought back is almost never new information. The writers reach for this word precisely when their readers already know the material, and they say so out loud:

  • Jude tells his readers he wants to remind them, though they know it all already
  • Peter promises to keep raising the same points with people already settled in the truth
  • Timothy is told to keep putting these things in front of the church

Reminding, in this sense, is not filling a gap in someone's knowledge. It is keeping known truth in active use.

Two uses stand out from the rest. In John 14:26 the one doing the reminding is the Holy Spirit, who will bring back to the disciples everything Jesus said, tying their later testimony to words they had actually heard rather than to fresh revelation. In 3 John 1:10 the word turns sharp: the writer promises to bring up what Diotrephes has been doing, out loud and in front of the church, which is nearer to raising a charge than to jogging a memory.

The matching noun (ὑπόμνησις) names the reminder itself, and 2 Peter uses both, describing the whole letter as an effort to stir people up by way of reminder.

Nuances

1ato bring back to mind truth a person has already been taught
TranslatabilityDirect
Jhn 14:262Ti 2:142Pe 1:12Jud 1:5
1bto remind someone to do something, pressing on them a duty they already know
Tit 3:1
1cto call attention to what someone has done, bringing their conduct out into the open
TranslatabilityPartial
3Jn 1:10
1dto have something come back into one's own mind, prompted by what is seen or heard
Luk 22:61

What scholars say about hupomimnēskō

The lexica treat this as a single verb, mapping its range by construction rather than splitting it into homonyms. BDAG gives a primary sense "remind, call to mind", subdivided by whether the object is a thing, a person plus an infinitive of what is to be done, or a prepositional phrase, and it separates a further use, to call attention to something in a formal way, under which it places 3 John 10; the aorist passive in Luke 22:61 is taken intransitively, "remembered" (BDAG, s.v. ὑπομιμνῄσκω). LSJ documents the same range from classical Attic onward, where the compound is regularly construed with an accusative of the person and a genitive or accusative of the thing (LSJ, s.v. ὑπομιμνῄσκω). Whether the ὑπο- prefix retains any of its older weakened force, "suggest, hint at", or is simply perfective in Hellenistic Greek, is a question of derivation rather than of sense; the Koine evidence, including the documentary papyri where the verb appears in official and legal reminders, supports the plain "remind, call attention to" value (Moulton and Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, s.v.). Michel's survey of the μιμνῄσκομαι word group treats the reminding compounds as instruments of the apostolic paradosis: what is transmitted is not new revelation but the retention and reactivation of what has been received, which is precisely the argument of 2 Peter 1:12-15 and Jude 5 (TDNT, s.v. μιμνῄσκομαι κτλ.). Commentators on 2 Peter and Jude read the verb as a marker of the testamentary genre, in which the departing figure recalls his hearers to what they already hold (Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter, WBC 50), and commentators on the Pastorals note the imperative in 2 Timothy 2:14 and Titus 3:1 as a standing charge to keep received teaching before the congregation (Marshall, The Pastoral Epistles, ICC).

Sources

  • BDAG (Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., s.v. ὑπομιμνῄσκωlexicon
  • LSJ (Liddell-Scott-Jones), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., s.v. ὑπομιμνῄσκωlexicon
  • O. Michel, "μιμνῄσκομαι κτλ.", in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT), ed. G. Kittel and G. Friedrich, vol. 4theological dictionary
  • J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament Illustrated from the Papyri and Other Non-Literary Sources, s.v. ὑπομιμνῄσκωlexicon
  • R. J. Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter, Word Biblical Commentary 50commentary
  • I. H. Marshall, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles, International Critical Commentarycommentary

All attested forms of ὑπομιμνήσκω

present active imperative 2s

ὑπομίμνῃσκε, Ὑπομίμνῃσκε

2Ti 2:14, Tit 3:1

aorist active infinitive

Ὑπομνῆσαι

Jud 1:5

aorist passive indicative 3s

ὑπεμνήσθη

Luk 22:61

future active indicative 1s

ὑπομνήσω

3Jn 1:10

future active indicative 3s

ὑπομνήσει

Jhn 14:26

present active infinitive

ὑπομιμνῄσκειν

2Pe 1:12