Amazement
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The Greek noun ekstasis can name overwhelming amazement or a trance-like visionary state. Gospel crowds experience astonishment when Jesus heals and raises the dead, while Mark also pairs amazement with trembling and fear.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἔκστασις (G1611) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Greek noun ekstasis can name overwhelming amazement or a trance-like visionary state. Gospel crowds experience astonishment when Jesus heals and raises the dead, while Mark also pairs amazement with trembling and fear.
The BSB source-word alignment has 7 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include a trance (3), amazement (2), . . . (1), bewildered (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Mark 5:42. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (4), Mark (2), Luke (1).
The Greek noun ekstasis can name overwhelming amazement or a trance-like visionary state. Gospel crowds experience astonishment when Jesus heals and raises the dead, while Mark also pairs amazement with trembling and fear. In Acts, Peter and Paul describe trance-like settings in which visions occur and are then interpreted within God’s redemptive work. The noun identifies an extraordinary state or reaction; it does not make every intense feeling, altered state, dream, or perception a revelation.
Nor does it permit teachers to dismiss canonical visions as ordinary confusion. Responsible interpretation distinguishes amazement at an event from a visionary trance, follows the narrative’s supplied message, and tests present claims by Scripture and accountable community. Pastoral care avoids both ridicule and credulity, recognizes that medical or mental-health conditions can involve altered experience, and seeks qualified help when distress, impaired judgment, sleeplessness, substance use, or danger is present.
Ekstasis describes astonishment in response to Jesus’ works and trance-like states in Acts. Narrative context, accompanying verbs, and the interpreted content distinguish emotional amazement from visionary experience.
Immediately the girl got up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). And at once they were utterly astounded.
Those present are overcome with astonishment when Jairus’s daughter rises, and Jesus immediately attends to privacy and her need for food.
Everyone was taken with amazement and glorified God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”
A healed man’s restoration leads the witnesses toward amazement, praise, fear, and confession that they have seen remarkable things.
He became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.
Peter falls into a trance before receiving a vision whose meaning unfolds through God’s instruction and the arrival of Gentile visitors.
Later, when I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance
Paul recounts a trance in the temple as part of his testimony, with the narrative focusing on Christ’s commission rather than technique.
So the women left the tomb and ran away, trembling and bewildered. And in their fear they did not say a word to anyone.
The women leave the tomb trembling and astonished, with fear shaping their immediate response to the angelic announcement.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. A mental state of being outside oneself, ranging from ecstatic trance to overwhelming amazement or shock.
A mental state of being outside oneself, ranging from ecstatic trance to overwhelming amazement or shock.
(ἐξίστημι) [in LXX: Gen.27:33, 1Ki.14:15, Eze.26:16, al. (חֲרָדָה); 2Ch.14:14 17:10 20:29 (פַּחַד), al. ;]
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
7 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
bewilderment, amazement
Read versebewilderment, amazement
Read versebewilderment, amazement
Read versebewilderment, amazement
Read versebewilderment, amazement
Read versebewilderment, amazement
Read versebewilderment, amazement
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.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 3 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 7 lexical occurrence verses.
ἔκστασις is built from this root:
Marks the revelatory nature of Paul’s temple vision.Acts 22:17-21
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Ekstasis names experiences that exceed ordinary expectations, but Luke and Mark do not ask readers to trust intensity by itself. When Jesus raises Jairus’s daughter, astonishment follows a concrete restoration, and Jesus directs care toward the child rather than spectacle. The healed paralytic scene moves witnesses toward praise and holy fear. In Acts 10, Peter’s trance is not a private status symbol or a repeatable method; its meaning unfolds through God’s words, providential visitors, the Spirit’s work, and the gospel’s crossing of a guarded boundary.
Paul’s temple trance belongs to testimony about Christ’s commission. These canonical accounts have narrated content and communal consequences. Contemporary experiences require testing rather than automatic validation or contempt. A church should not reward dramatic claims with instant authority, nor shame people for symptoms they cannot control. When altered perception accompanies distress, mania, substance use, sleep deprivation, trauma, or risk of harm, safety and qualified clinical evaluation matter.
Christian discernment centers Christ, Scripture, truthful fruit, accountable witnesses, humility, and care for persons.
Acts.10.10
Ekstasis is a Greek noun whose usages range from astonishment or overwhelming amazement to a trance-like state. The surrounding action, verbs of seeing, and narrated message clarify which sense operates in each occurrence.
Biblical prophets receive visions under God’s initiative, while wisdom and apostolic teaching repeatedly require testing. The New Testament centers discernment on the confessed Christ, the apostolic gospel, moral fruit, orderly community, and love rather than ecstatic intensity.