What does διασκορπίζω (diaskorpízō) mean in the Bible?
G1287 means to scatter, disperse, or squander. Its object and setting determine the sense.
Greek · G1287
διασκορπίζω
To scatter
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διασκορπίζω G1287
Pronunciation diaskorpízō
What does διασκορπίζω (diaskorpízō) mean in the Bible?
G1287 means to scatter, disperse, or squander. Its object and setting determine the sense.
Reader summary
Full entry for διασκορπίζω (G1287) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G1287?
The BSB source-word alignment has 9 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include will be scattered (2), He has scattered (1), he squandered (1), I have not scattered seed (1), scattered (1).
Where does διασκορπίζω (diaskorpízō) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 25:24. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (3), Matthew (3), Acts (1), John (1).
What This Word Actually Means
G1287 means to scatter, disperse, or squander. Its object and setting determine the sense. Luke 15:13 uses it for the younger son squandering his property. Matthew 26:31 quotes the struck-shepherd text as Jesus predicts that the disciples will scatter. John 11:52 places the scattered children of God opposite the evangelist's statement that Jesus would die to gather them into one. Other occurrences describe sheep scattered by a wolf, people dispersed, and failure to gather.
The verb does not make every dispersal a judgment or every gathering an act of salvation. In John 11, the narrator interprets Caiaphas's words beyond the speaker's intent and connects Jesus' death with gathering the scattered children of God. The verse identifies Christ's death as the ground of that gathering but does not make loyalty to a particular human organization equivalent to being gathered by Christ.
Matthew's disciples scatter in fear and are later restored; Luke's son squanders property and returns to his father. Those narratives can support repentance and patient restoration without turning the verb into a general theory that all separation is sinful. Leaving abusive leadership, seeking safety, sending workers, or dispersing for faithful purposes must be assessed from their own passages and circumstances.
Lexical sourceCanonical parallelBook contextPastoral application
How the Bible Uses It
The verb portrays wasteful dispersal, the scattering of disciples, and Christ's death gathering God's scattered children into one.
- Luke.15.13
After a few days, the younger son got everything together and journeyed to a distant country, where he squandered his wealth in wild living.
The son's scattering of his property enacts the disorder of life separated from his father.
- Matt.26.31
Then Jesus said to them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of Me. For it is written: ‘I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
The disciples' coming flight fulfills the shepherd-and-sheep Scripture and exposes their weakness during Jesus' arrest.
- John.11.52
And not only for the nation, but also for the scattered children of God, to gather them together into one.
John interprets Jesus' death as the means by which God's scattered children are gathered into one people.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It will be scattered 2× Matthew 26:31, Mark 14:27
He has scattered 1× Luke 1:51
he squandered 1× Luke 15:13
I have not scattered seed 1× Matthew 25:26
scattered 1× John 11:52
wasting 1× Luke 16:1
were scattered 1× Acts 5:37
you have not scattered seed 1× Matthew 25:24
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 25:24 διεσκόρπισας to you have not scattered seed Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 2nd Person Singular Matthew 25:26 διεσκόρπισα to I have not scattered seed Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 1st Person Singular Matthew 26:31 διασκορπισθήσονται to will be scattered Verb - Future Indicative Passive - 3rd Person Plural Mark 14:27 διασκορπισθήσονται to will be scattered Verb - Future Indicative Passive - 3rd Person Plural Luke 1:51 διεσκόρπισεν to He has scattered Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular Luke 15:13 διεσκόρπισεν to he squandered Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular Luke 16:1 διασκορπίζων to wasting Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular John 11:52 διεσκορπισμένα to scattered Verb - Perfect Participle Middle or Passive - Accusative Neuter Plural Acts 5:37 διεσκορπίσθησαν to were scattered Verb - Aorist Indicative Passive - 3rd Person Plural
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Matthew 25:24
Aligned rows 9
Books represented 5
Matthew 3 Mark 1 Luke 3 John 1 Acts 1
Source forms
διασκορπισθήσονται 2x diaskorpisthēsontai Matthew 26:31, Mark 14:27
διεσκόρπισεν 2x dieskorpisen Luke 1:51, Luke 15:13
διασκορπίζων 1x diaskorpizōn Luke 16:1
διεσκόρπισα 1x dieskorpisa Matthew 25:26
διεσκόρπισας 1x dieskorpisas Matthew 25:24
διεσκορπίσθησαν 1x dieskorpisthēsan Acts 5:37
διεσκορπισμένα 1x dieskorpismena John 11:52
Parsing patterns
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular 2x Luke 1:51, Luke 15:13
Verb - Future Indicative Passive - 3rd Person Plural 2x Matthew 26:31, Mark 14:27
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 1st Person Singular 1x Matthew 25:26
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 2nd Person Singular 1x Matthew 25:24
Verb - Aorist Indicative Passive - 3rd Person Plural 1x Acts 5:37
Verb - Perfect Participle Middle or Passive - Accusative Neuter Plural 1x John 11:52
Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular 1x Luke 16:1
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Use gathering language to direct people to Christ and his truth, not to demand uncritical allegiance to a leader or organization.
- Do not treat departure from an unsafe or abusive setting as proof that a person rejects Christian unity.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that every dispersed community is under divine judgment. The verb names scattering, while each passage explains its cause and meaning.
- Do not claim that organizational unity fulfills John 11:52 by itself. John grounds the gathering of God's children in Jesus' sacrificial death.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Scatter with dispersal away from center; often implies waste or squandering when applied to property.
Strong's G1287
Lexical occurrences 9 verses Greek text appearances 9 times Word forms 2 forms 9 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link Luke 1:39–56 Source Gloss
to scatter
Extended definition Source: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
Scatter with dispersal away from center; often implies waste or squandering when applied to property.
to scatter abroad, disperse: of sheep, Mat.26:31 = Mrk.14:27" (LXX) ; of persons, Luk.1:51, Act.5:37, opposite to συνάγω, Jhn.11:52; of winnowing grain, Mat.25:24, 26; metaphorically, of property, to squander, waste: Luk.15:13 16:1.
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
9 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Matthew 25:24 Verb Second Person Singular Aorist Active Indicative
διεσκόρπισας· dieskorpisav
I scatter, winnow, disperse, waste
Read verse Matthew 25:26 Verb First Person Singular Aorist Active Indicative
διεσκόρπισα· dieskorpisa
I scatter, winnow, disperse, waste
Read verse Matthew 26:31 Verb Third Person Singular Future Passive Indicative
διασκορπισθήσεται diaskorpisqhsetai
I scatter, winnow, disperse, waste
Read verse Mark 14:27 Verb Third Person Singular Future Passive Indicative
διασκορπισθήσεται diaskorpisqhsetai
I scatter, winnow, disperse, waste
Read verse Luke 1:51 Verb Third Person Singular Aorist Active Indicative
διεσκόρπισεν dieskorpisen
I scatter, winnow, disperse, waste
Read verse Luke 15:13 Verb Third Person Singular Aorist Active Indicative
διεσκόρπισε dieskorpisen
I scatter, winnow, disperse, waste
Read verse Luke 16:1 Verb Present Active Participle Nominative Singular Masculine
διασκορπίζων diaskorpizwn
I scatter, winnow, disperse, waste
Read verse John 11:52 Verb Perfect Passive Participle Accusative Plural Neuter
διεσκορπισμένα dieskorpismena
I scatter, winnow, disperse, waste
Read verse Acts 5:37 Verb Third Person Plural Aorist Passive Indicative
διεσκορπίσθησαν. dieskorpisqhsan
I scatter, winnow, disperse, waste
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
Grammatical Forms
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Form groups 2 Aligned forms 9 Tenses Future, Aorist, Present, Perfect Voices Passive, Active
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Tenses
Voices
Indicative states a fact or reality 7×
Aorist Active Luke 1:51 · Luke 15:13 · Matt 25:24 · Matt 25:26 4×
Future Passive Matt 26:31 · Mark 14:27 2×
Aorist Passive Acts 5:37 1×
Participle verbal adjective — the action as a modifying quality 2×
Present Active Luke 16:1 1×
Perfect Passive John 11:52 1×
Discourse Aspect
How this verb appears across 9 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect
Tense
aorist 5 future 2 perfect 1 present 1
Voice
active 5 passive 4
Mood
indicative 7 participle 2
NT Occurrences
Matthew 25:24 διεσκόρπισας aorist active indicative completed Matthew 25:26 διεσκόρπισα aorist active indicative completed Matthew 26:31 διασκορπισθήσονται future passive indicative prospective Mark 14:27 διασκορπισθήσονται future passive indicative prospective Luke 1:51 διεσκόρπισεν aorist active indicative completed Luke 15:13 διεσκόρπισεν aorist active indicative completed Luke 16:1 διασκορπίζων present active participle participle John 11:52 διεσκορπισμένα perfect passive participle participle Acts 5:37 διεσκορπίσθησαν aorist passive indicative completed
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
New Testament Witnesses
scattered
Additional Occurrences
Luke 1:46–55 διασκορπίζει diaskorpízō
Scatters, disperses
Luke 16:1–13 διεσκόρπισεν diaskorpízō
Wasted, scattered
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 9 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
διασκορπίζω is built from these roots:
Why This Word Matters
Describes God’s decisive action against pride. Luke 1:39–56
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
Scattering can describe property being squandered, sheep or disciples dispersed, and people whom Christ's death gathers into one. The agent and object matter every time. John 11 grounds its gathering claim in Jesus' death, not in organizational efficiency or a leader's ability to consolidate people. Matthew 26 exposes the disciples' coming weakness without making their flight the final word about them.
Luke 15 uses the verb for wasted property within the younger son's estrangement and return. These settings encourage repentance, restoration, and unity centered on Christ, but they do not make physical proximity or institutional membership a measure of faithfulness. Pastoral teaching must leave room for wise separation from harm and must not brand every departure as rebellion or divine scattering.
Anchor passage
John.11.52
Doctrinal connections
- John 10:14-16 - one flock and one Shepherd
- John 11:45-53 - Caiaphas and the saving purpose of Jesus' death
- Matthew 26:31-35 - the Shepherd struck and disciples scattered
- Ephesians 2:11-22 - one new humanity in Christ
G1287 is a verb for scattering, dispersing, or squandering. The local discourse artifact records about nine occurrences. Depending on its object and construction, it can concern property, sheep, disciples, groups of people, or a gathering contrast; no single moral force belongs to every occurrence.
From Old to New Testament
Prophets speak of God's scattered people and promised regathering. John 11 presents Jesus' death as the decisive gathering act, while the exact lexical links vary across the Hebrew and Greek witnesses.
Canonical parallelPastoral applicationLexical sourcelocal_artifact
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain