StrongerBible

chalaō

χαλάω

GreekG5465“let down, lower, ...”

Appears 7 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mrk 2:4Luk 5:4Luk 5:5Act 9:25Act 27:17Act 27:302Co 11:33
Word studykhah-LAH-ohverb

What chalaō means

to let down: to lower something on a slackening rope or by hand, so it descends at the pace of whoever is holding it

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

Behind this verb is the picture of a rope going slack. It does not simply say that something moved downward. It says that someone above is paying out a line, or easing a grip, so that whatever is attached comes down at the speed they choose. The load stays under the control of the people holding it, which is why the word turns up wherever people lower something carefully rather than drop it.

The New Testament uses it for rescue, for fishing, and for seamanship:

  • friends lowering a paralyzed man on his mat through a hole they had dug in a roof
  • disciples lowering Paul over the wall of Damascus in a basket at night
  • fishermen letting their nets out into deep water at a word from Jesus
  • sailors lowering the ship's gear, and later its small boat, in a storm off Malta

Two nearby verbs are worth keeping apart from it. καθίημι also means to let something down, and Acts 9:25 uses both words in a single clause about Paul's escape, but it watches the object travel downward rather than the rope being paid out. καθαιρέω means to take something down and remove it, as when Jesus' body was taken down from the cross, so the thing comes away rather than being eased down on a line.

Nothing about the word is figurative in the New Testament: every use is a physical lowering. What varies is who is doing it and why. In each scene the descent is deliberate, whether it is a rescue that gets a man to Jesus, an order a tired fisherman obeys against his own judgment, or a crew trying to survive a storm.

Nuances

1ato let a person down from a height or past a barrier, by rope or by hand
TranslatabilityDirect
Mrk 2:4Act 9:252Co 11:33
1bto let fishing nets out into the water for a catch
Luk 5:4Luk 5:5
1cto lower a ship's equipment or its small boat while at sea
Act 27:17Act 27:30

What scholars say about chalaō

χαλάω is the ordinary Greek verb for slackening or loosening: LSJ gives "slacken, loosen" as the base sense, documented from Homer onward for easing a bowstring, a rein, or a chain, and extended figuratively to relaxing anger or discipline, with "let down, lower" as one branch of the same idea. The New Testament preserves only that concrete branch. BDAG glosses the word simply "let down" and lists all seven occurrences (Mark 2:4; Luke 5:4, 5; Acts 9:25; 27:17, 30; 2 Cor 11:33) under one heading with no separate figurative entry, and EDNT treats it the same way; the semantic-domain lexicon of Louw and Nida likewise files it with the verbs of lowering rather than with those of loosening. Two sets of uses have their own background. The fishing language of Luke 5:4-5 (χαλάσατε τὰ δίκτυα) reflects standard Greek phrasing for paying nets out from a boat, and the sailing language of Acts 27:17, 30 belongs to the technical vocabulary of ancient seamanship that Casson's survey describes, where lines are slackened and tackle or a ship's boat is lowered over the side. Acts 27:17 is the crux of the passage: because the object τὸ σκεῦος is left unspecified, interpreters have identified what was lowered as the mainyard with its sail (the classic reconstruction of James Smith, followed in part by Bruce), a floating drag or sea anchor streamed astern to slow the drift (Casson, Hemer), or the rigging and gear in general (Fitzmyer and Barrett, who leave the referent open). The sense of the verb is unaffected either way. Septuagint usage runs along the same lines: this verb and its compound with κατά do the work Hebrew does with the causative of יָרַד ("bring down"), as when Rahab lowers the spies through her window (Josh 2:15). The overlap with καθίημι (Luke 5:19; Acts 10:11; 11:5) is close enough that Acts 9:25 pairs the two in a single clause, καθῆκαν αὐτὸν χαλάσαντες, where commentators take the participle as specifying the means of the main verb rather than adding a second action. The passive ἐχαλάσθην of 2 Cor 11:33 is Paul's own first-person account of the escape Acts 9:25 narrates, and is the only passive form of the verb in the New Testament.

Sources

  • BDAG (Danker, ed.), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (Chicago, 2000), s.v. χαλάωlexicon
  • Liddell-Scott-Jones (LSJ), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., s.v. χαλάωlexicon
  • J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains (UBS, 1988), s.v.lexicon
  • H. Balz and G. Schneider, eds., Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (EDNT), vol. 3, s.v. χαλάωtheological-dictionary
  • L. Casson, Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World (Princeton, 1971)monograph
  • J. Smith, The Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul, 2nd ed. (London, 1856)monograph
  • C. J. Hemer, The Book of Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History (Mohr, 1989)monograph
  • F. F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts, rev. ed. (NICNT; Eerdmans, 1988), on Acts 27:17commentary
  • J. A. Fitzmyer, The Acts of the Apostles (AB 31; Doubleday, 1998), on Acts 27:17commentary
  • C. K. Barrett, The Acts of the Apostles (ICC; T&T Clark, 1998), vol. 2, on Acts 27:17commentary
  • R. P. Martin, 2 Corinthians (WBC 40; Word, 1986), on 2 Cor 11:32-33commentary

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

All attested forms of χαλάω

aorist active participle nominative m p

χαλάσαντες

Act 9:25, Act 27:17

aorist active imperative 2p

χαλάσατε

Luk 5:4

aorist active participle genitive m p

χαλασάντων

Act 27:30

aorist passive indicative 1s

ἐχαλάσθην

2Co 11:33

future active indicative 1s

χαλάσω

Luk 5:5

present active indicative 3p

χαλῶσιν

Mrk 2:4