Actively, to tear out; middle voice, to select; figuratively, to release
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The Greek verb exaireo can describe taking something out, selecting someone, or rescuing a person from danger or oppressive power. Jesus uses the active bodily image of taking out an eye within warnings about sin, while Acts and Galatians use middle forms for deliverance.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἐξαιρέω (G1807) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Greek verb exaireo can describe taking something out, selecting someone, or rescuing a person from danger or oppressive power. Jesus uses the active bodily image of taking out an eye within warnings about sin, while Acts and Galatians use middle forms for deliverance.
The BSB source-word alignment has 8 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include gouge it out (2), rescued (2), I will rescue (1), rescue (1), to deliver (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 5:29. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (5), Matthew (2), Galatians (1).
The Greek verb exaireo can describe taking something out, selecting someone, or rescuing a person from danger or oppressive power. Jesus uses the active bodily image of taking out an eye within warnings about sin, while Acts and Galatians use middle forms for deliverance. The Gospel command is forceful moral hyperbole in a larger summons to deal seriously with sin; it must not be used to encourage self-injury, punish a body, or shame disability.
Stephen recalls God rescuing Joseph from afflictions and hearing Israel's oppression in Egypt. Acts also describes Peter rescued from Herod and a Roman commander claiming to have rescued Paul, though the letter's self-presentation must be read beside Luke's preceding narrative. Galatians locates deliverance in Christ, who gave Himself for sins according to the Father's will.
The lexical range is broader than one English word, and the acting subject, voice, object, and danger determine whether a text describes removal, selection, or rescue. Responsible teaching distinguishes divine deliverance, human protective action, official rhetoric, and bodily imagery. It directs people facing self-harm or violence toward immediate safety and qualified care while confessing Christ's saving work without turning every temporal escape into a guaranteed outcome.
Exaireo combines taking out or removing with middle-voice senses of choosing or delivering. Voice, object, and discourse setting distinguish bodily removal, selection for a commission, rescue from danger, and redemptive deliverance.
If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Jesus uses the command to take out a right eye as severe bodily imagery within His warning about lust and sin.
And rescued him from all his troubles. He granted Joseph favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and all his household.
Stephen says God rescued Joseph from all his troubles and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh.
I have indeed seen the oppression of My people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’
In Stephen's retelling, the Lord says He has seen Israel's oppression, heard their groaning, and come down to deliver them.
Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent His angel and rescued me from Herod’s grasp and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.”
Peter recognizes that the Lord sent an angel and rescued him from Herod's grasp and the expected public outcome.
This man was seized by the Jews, and they were about to kill him when I came with my troops to rescue him. For I had learned that he is a Roman citizen,
The Roman commander's letter says he rescued Paul after learning of his citizenship, a claim readers can compare with the preceding narrative sequence.
Who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
Paul announces that Jesus Christ gave Himself for sins to rescue His people from the present evil age according to the Father's will.
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. Active voice tears out; middle voice claims for oneself; figuratively means divine rescue or deliverance
Active voice tears out; middle voice claims for oneself; figuratively means divine rescue or deliverance
to take out: with accusative, ὀφθαλμόν, Mat.5:29 18:9; mid.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
8 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I remove, choose, rescue
Read verseI remove, choose, rescue
Read verseI remove, choose, rescue
Read verseI remove, choose, rescue
Read verseI remove, choose, rescue
Read verseI remove, choose, rescue
Read verseI remove, choose, rescue
Read verseI remove, choose, rescue
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 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.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 8 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
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 passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 8 lexical occurrence verses.
ἐξαιρέω is built from these roots:
Affirms that deliverance originates in the Lord’s action.Acts 12:6-19
God’s commission to Moses prefigures the greater deliverance accomplished in Christ.Acts 7:17-34
Exaireo joins removal and rescue without making them identical. In Matthew 5, Jesus' command about the eye is deliberately severe language within teaching that exposes lust and calls disciples to deal decisively with sin. It is not an instruction to injure oneself or another person, and it must never be directed at someone in a self-harm crisis. Acts 7 says God rescued Joseph through afflictions and later came down to deliver oppressed Israel.
Stephen's retelling centers divine attention to suffering and God's covenant action, not the moral strength of those under oppression. Acts 12 portrays Peter's escape from Herod as the Lord's intervention, while later in the chapter James has already been killed. The contrast prevents teachers from treating one rescue as proof that faithful people will always avoid violence.
Acts 23 quotes a commander's letter that presents his action favorably and links it to Paul's citizenship. Luke's preceding account shows that the citizenship disclosure occurred after Paul had been seized and nearly flogged, so the embedded official claim should not replace the narrator's sequence. Galatians 1 locates the deepest deliverance in Christ's voluntary self-giving for sins according to God's will.
Faithful application takes danger seriously, compares claims with evidence, gives God thanks for rescue, refuses to blame those not released, and directs bodily or psychological crisis toward immediate, qualified help.
Gal.1.4
Exaireo transliterates Greek ἐξαιρέω. The active imperative in Matthew describes taking out an eye, while middle forms in Acts and Galatians carry choosing or delivering senses; morphology and discourse context prevent a single gloss from governing every occurrence.
Old Testament writers use distinct Hebrew nouns and verbs for captive status, forced removal, rescue, and release, including H7628 and H7617 in this batch. The exodus background informs Stephen's speech, but exaireo should not be treated as a direct equivalent for every captivity term.