hustereō

ὑστερέω

GreekG5302“fall short, lack, ...”

Appears 16 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 19:20Mrk 10:21Luk 15:14Luk 22:35Jhn 2:3Rom 3:231Co 1:71Co 8:81Co 12:242Co 11:52Co 11:92Co 12:11Php 4:12Heb 4:1Heb 11:37Heb 12:15

Root family

hupoὑπόby/under: by227G5259

Word studyResearch-gradehoo-steh-REH-ohverb

What hustereō means

to be behind: to fall short of, lack, or come up short of what one should have or reach

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

The word starts from a simple picture: being behind. Its parent word means "later" or "coming after," and every use grows from that image of lagging behind, whether behind in time, behind a rival, behind a required amount, or behind a mark one was meant to reach. By New Testament times the everyday sense had settled on "to lack" or "to be short of," the way a shop runs short of stock or a household runs out of money.

From there the senses fan out:

falling short of a goal or standard one was meant to reach (Romans 3:23; Hebrews 4:1)
lacking the one thing still needed to be complete (the rich man told he lacks one thing)
being in plain material need, going without food or means (the prodigal son; Paul learning to live with little)
a supply running out (the wine at the wedding in Cana)
ranking below someone, being their inferior (Paul insisting he is in no way behind the "super-apostles")

One thread ties these together: coming behind. A person in want has fallen behind on life's necessities; an inferior has fallen behind a rival; a sinner has fallen behind the glory God intended. Greek keeps them one word where English reaches for several. A near cousin in Greek is λείπω, which also means "to lack," and the standard Hebrew counterpart is חסר, the word behind "The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want."

Nuances

1ato fall short of, to not reach something one was meant to attain (a goal, a standard, or a promised good)

Rom 3:23Heb 4:1Heb 12:15

Rom 3:23

What "the glory of God" is that all humanity is said to fall short of or lack in Romans 3:23. The present-tense middle form marks an ongoing state of deprivation; the verb is agreed to mean coming short of or being deprived of something, so the dispute turns entirely on the referent of he doxa tou theou. The Hellenistic-Jewish background (Sirach 11:11; Theodotion-Daniel 5:27, "weighed and found wanting") lends it the register of a judicial verdict rather than a mere failure to meet a standard.

contestedThe glory Adam was clothed with and forfeited at the fall, so that all humanity now lacks a glory it once possessed, drawing on Second Temple Adam traditions.; J. D. G. Dunn, Romans 1-8, WBC 38A (Dallas: Word, 1988), 167-68; E. Kasemann, Commentary on Romans (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), 94-95
contestedThe future, eschatological glory believers do not yet possess and will receive at the end (linked to Romans 5:2; 8:18-30).; C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans, ICC (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1975), 1:204-5; D. J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 226-27
minorityThe vocation of image-bearing: humanity's calling to reflect God's rule over creation, now forfeited.; N. T. Wright, 'The Letter to the Romans,' NIB 10 (Nashville: Abingdon, 2002), 470, 526
minorityThe honor or standing before God that sinners have lost, read within a Greco-Roman honor-and-shame framework.; R. Jewett, Romans: A Commentary, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007), 279-80
minorityGod's approval or approbation, taking "glory of God" as the praise that comes from God (compare John 12:43).; J. Calvin, Commentary on Romans (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans), 140

Heb 4:1

Whether the verb in Hebrews 4:1 means to fall short of the promised rest (the race or pilgrimage image) or to have come too late for it (the temporal sense of the parent word "later"). The perfect form marks a completed, definitive shortfall as seen from the vantage of judgment.

majorityTo seem to have fallen short of reaching the promised rest, in the athletic image of failing to finish the course; the eschatological "today" framing lets a faint temporal echo remain.; H. W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Hermeneia (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1989), 125-27; W. L. Lane, Hebrews 1-8, WBC 47A (Dallas: Word, 1991)
minorityTo seem to have come too late, as though the time for entering God's rest had already passed.; H. Grotius, Annotationes in Novum Testamentum, ad loc.; J. C. K. von Hofmann, Die heilige Schrift Neuen Testaments, ad loc.

1bto lack the one thing still needed to be complete

TranslatabilityDirect

Mat 19:20Mrk 10:211Co 1:7

1cto be in need, to suffer want of the necessities of life

TranslatabilityDirect

Luk 15:14Luk 22:351Co 8:82Co 11:9Php 4:12Heb 11:37

1dto run out, to give out (of a supply)

TranslatabilityDirect

Jhn 2:3

1eto be inferior to, to rank below a person or standing

TranslatabilityApproximate

1Co 12:242Co 11:52Co 12:11

What hustereō does not mean

English Bibles reach for a different word almost every time this verb appears: "fall short," "lack," "be in need," "run short," "be inferior to." The one Greek word behind them all pictures being behind, coming up short of where one should be, so no single English rendering captures its full reach. Do not assume the translators are being inconsistent; they are chasing a range English has no single word for.

The most famous line, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), is easily softened into "failed to meet a standard," as if on a graded test. In the Greek-speaking Jewish world Paul drew on, the word carried a heavier note: to be weighed and found wanting before God, as on the scales in the writing on Belshazzar's wall. What exactly humanity is said to fall short of is debated, but the verdict-like weight of the word is not.

What scholars say about hustereō

The lexicons place uhstereo on a single semantic cline running from the temporal ("to arrive too late," Hdt. 1.70) through the comparative ("to fall behind, be inferior to," Plato Rep. 539e) to the possessive ("to lack, be in want"), all developing from the comparative adjective husteros ("later, latter"). Wilckens (TDNT 8:592-601) traces this progression and notes that the possessive sense, especially in the middle-passive, dominates in Hellenistic prose and the papyri; Moulton-Milligan and Spicq document the commercial "come up short" and "outstanding balance" register in documentary papyri, and Josephus (Ant. 15.218, wine running out at a banquet) parallels John 2:3. In the Septuagint the verb is the standard rendering of Hebrew chaser (Ps 22[23]:1, "I shall not want"), and two Jewish-Greek texts, Sirach 11:11 and Theodotion-Daniel 5:27 ("weighed and found wanting"), give it the judicial-existential weight Spicq identifies as the precedent for Paul. BDAG (1043-44) groups the sixteen NT occurrences into five overlapping senses (fail to reach; be in short supply; be in need; be inferior to; experience deficiency in something desirable), distributed by Louw-Nida across the domains of Need/Lack, Be Poor, and Low Status; both note that the categories bleed into one another and that the sense is best fixed by the complement and construction (genitive of thing = "lack"; genitive of person = "be inferior to"; paired with perisseuo = "be worse off"; impersonal with accusative = "there is a lack to"; with apo in Heb 12:15 a possible nuance of separation). Romans 3:23 is the most-discussed occurrence: commentators agree the present-tense middle means "fall short of / are deprived of" and dispute only the referent of tes doxes tou theou, with Adamic-loss (Dunn, Kasemann), eschatological (Cranfield, Moo, Schreiner), vocational (Wright), honor-shame (Jewett, with Moxnes), approbation (Calvin, and criticized by Ortlund), and immortal-glory (Blackwell) readings all defended. On the comparative use in 2 Cor 11:5 and 12:11, Thrall, Harris, and Furnish note the perfect/aorist contrast and identify the "super-apostles" with the rival missionaries rather than the Jerusalem leadership. Attridge, Lane, and Koester read Hebrews 4:1 as the athletic "fall short" with a faint temporal echo, against the older temporal reading (Grotius, Hofmann).

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. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1996), s.vv. hustereo, husterema, husteroslexicon
W. Bauer, F. W. Danker et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (BDAG), 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 1043-44lexicon
J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 2nd ed. (New York: UBS, 1989), domains 57 and 87lexicon
U. Wilckens, 'hustereo, husterema, husteresis,' in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972), 592-601theological-dictionary
H. Balz and G. Schneider, eds., Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990-93), 3:407-8theological-dictionary
C. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, vol. 3 (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), s.v. hustereo / husteremalexicon
J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament Illustrated from the Papyri (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1914-29), s.v.lexicon
C. E. B. Cranfield, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, ICC (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1975), 1:204-5commentary
D. J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 226-27commentary
J. D. G. Dunn, Romans 1-8, WBC 38A (Dallas: Word, 1988), 167-68commentary
R. Jewett, Romans: A Commentary, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007), 279-80commentary
D. C. Ortlund, 'What Does It Mean to Fall Short of the Glory of God? Romans 3:23 in Biblical-Theological Perspective,' WTJ 80 (2018): 121-40article
B. C. Blackwell, 'Immortal Glory and the Problem of Death in Romans 3.23,' JSNT 32.3 (2010): 285-308article
M. E. Thrall, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, ICC (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1994-2000), 2:671-74, 831-33commentary
H. W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Hermeneia (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1989), 125-27commentary
G. D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), 40-43, 613-16commentary

hustereō

What hustereō means

to be behind: to fall short of, lack, or come up short of what one should have or reach

Nuances

What scholars say about hustereō

Sources

All attested forms of ὑστερέω

present passive infinitive

perfect active infinitive

aorist active indicative 1s

aorist active indicative 2p

aorist active participle genitive m s

aorist passive participle nominative m s

present active indicative 1s

present active indicative 3s

present active participle nominative m s

present passive indicative 1p

present passive indicative 3p

present passive participle dative n s

present passive participle nominative m p

What hustereō means

to be behind: to fall short of, lack, or come up short of what one should have or reach

Nuances

Related words

The English words used to translate hustereō

How hustereō differs from similar Greek words

hustereō in the other biblical languages

What scholars say about hustereō

Sources

All attested forms of ὑστερέω

present passive infinitive

perfect active infinitive

aorist active indicative 1s

aorist active indicative 2p

aorist active participle genitive m s

aorist passive participle nominative m s

present active indicative 1s

present active indicative 3s

present active participle nominative m s

present passive indicative 1p

present passive indicative 3p

present passive participle dative n s

present passive participle nominative m p