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Old & New Testament Greek Lexical Dictionary Greek Lexicon
Strong's #1949 - ἐπιλαμβάνομαι
- Thayer
- Strong
- Mounce
- to take in addition, to lay hold of, take possession of, overtake, attain, attain to
- to lay hold of or to seize upon anything with the hands, to take hold of, lay hold of
- metaph. to rescue one from peril, to help, succour
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- Parsing
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this Strong's Number
ἐπιλαμβαìνομαι
Middle voice from G1909 and G2983
ἐπιλαμβάνω; 2 aorist middle ἐπελαβόμην; to take in addition (cf. ἐπί, D. 4), to take, lay hold of, take possession of, overtake, attain to. In the Bible only in the middle; the Sept. for אָחַז and הֶחֱזִיק;
a. properly, to lay hold of or to seize upon anything with the hands (German sich an etwas anhalten): τῶν ἀφλαστων νηός, Herodotus 6, 114; hence, universally, to take hold of, lag hold of: with the genitive of person, Matthew 14:31; Luke 9:47. (Tr WH accusative); (Luke 23:26 R G); Acts 17:19; Acts 21:30, 33; with the accusative of person, Luke 23:26 L T Tr WH, but in opposition see Meyer; for where the participle ἐπιλαβόμενος is in this sense joined with an accusative, the accusative, by the σχῆμα ἀπό κοίνου, depends also upon the accompanying finite verb (cf. Buttmann, § 132, 9; (so Winer's Grammar, (edited by Lünem.) 202 (190))): Acts 9:27; Acts 16:19; Acts 18:17, cf. Luke 14:4. with the genitive of a thing: τῆς χειρός τίνος, Mark 8:23; Acts 23:19; of a leader, and thus metaphorically, of God, Hebrews 8:9 (cf. Winers Grammar, 571 (531); Buttmann, 316 (271)); with the genitive of a person and of a thing: ἐπιλαμβάνειν τίνος λόγου, ῤήματος, to take anyone in his speech, i. e. to lay hold of something said by him which can be turned against him, Luke 20:20 (Tr λόγον), 26 (WH Tr marginal reading τοῦ for αὐτοῦ); ἐπιλαμβάνειν τῆς αἰωνίου (others, ὄντως) ζωῆς, to seize upon, lay hold of, i. e. to struggle to obtain eternal life, 1 Timothy 6:12, 19 (cf. Winers Grammar, 312 (293)).
b. by a metaphor drawn from laying hold of another to rescue him from peril, to help, to succor (cf. German sich eines annehmen): τίνος, Hebrews 2:16; in this sense used besides only in Sir. 4:11 and Schol. ad Aeschylus Pers. 739. In Appian. bel. civ. 4, 96 the active is thus used with the dative: ἡμῖν τό δαιμόνιον ἐπιλαμβανει.
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ἐπι -λαμβάνω ,
[in LXX for H2388 hi., H270, etc.;]
always mid. in LXX and NT (v. Cremer, 758), to lap hold of: c. gen. pers., Matthew 14:31, Acts 17:19; Acts 21:30; Acts 21:33; c. acc pers. (not cl.), Luke 9:47; Luke 14:4; Luke 23:26 (WH, but v. Bl., 1015), Acts 9:27; Acts 16:9; Acts 18:17; c. gen. rei, Mark 8:23, Acts 23:10, Hebrews 8:9 (LXX); c. gen. pers. et rei, Luke 20:20; Luke 20:26; τ . αἰωνίου (ὄντως ) ζωῆς , 1 Timothy 6:12; 1 Timothy 6:19. Metaph. (as in Sirach 4:11), Hebrews 2:16 (v. Westc., in l).†
Copyright © 1922 by G. Abbott-Smith, D.D., D.C.L.. T & T Clarke, London.
For the active of this verb see P Par 26.48 (B.C. 163–2) (= Selections, p. 17) ἐπιλαβόντα παρ᾽ ἡμῶν τὴν γραφὴν τῶν ὀφειλομένων ἡμῖν δεόντων, ";having received from us the written list of the necessaries due to us,"; BGU IV. 1138.20 (B.C. 19) ἐ ̣π ̣ι ̣λ ̣α ̣β ̣όντ (α) παρ᾽ αὐ ̣τ ̣(οῦ) τ ̣ο ̣, ν ̣ κ ̣ε ̣χωρηκ (ότα) : in a Magdola papyrus re-edited by Reinach in Mél. Nicole, p. 451 ff., we have .5 ἐπιλαβ [ὼν ] μάρτυρας. In OGIS 257.9 (B.C. 109) the verb is used without an accus. ";de rebus subito ingruentibus";—ἐν τοῖς ἐπει [ληφόσιν ἀναγκαι ]οτάτοις καιροῖς. The mid., which alone is found in the NT (cf. Proverbs 4:13), may be illustrated from P Hal I. 1 ii. 1 (iii/B.C.) ὁ μαρτυρίας ἐπιλαμβανόμενος, PSI IV. 366.4 (B.C. 250–49) ἐὰν ἐπιλαμβάνηται τῶν ἀνθρώπων καὶ τῆς βοός, and P Tebt II. 417.10 (iii/A.D.) ἐπὶ γὰρ ἐ [ὰν ] φθάσωμεν ἐπιλαβέσθαι τοῦ ἔργου δυνόμεθα αὐτ [ὸ ἀ ]φῖνε (l. ἀφεῖναι), ";for as soon as we make haste to set ourselves to the work we can finish it"; (note the late constr. of φθάνω c. inf.). The subst. occurs in P Tebt II. 335.9 (mid. iii/A.D.) φοβ ̣ου ̣μενος μὴ ἄρα εὑρεθείη ἐν αὐτοῖς ἐπίλημψι [ς, ";from fear that they might disclose a claim by seizure"; (Edd.), and see Preuschen Mönchtum, p. 65 for ἐπίλημπτος.
Copyright © 1914, 1929, 1930 by James Hope Moulton and George Milligan. Hodder and Stoughton, London.
Derivative Copyright © 2015 by Allan Loder.