What does ἐξυπνίζω (exypnízō) mean in the Bible?
G1852 means to awaken or rouse someone from sleep. Its one governed New Testament occurrence is John 11:11, where Jesus says that Lazarus has fallen asleep and that he is going to awaken him.
Greek · G1852
ἐξυπνίζω
To waken
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ἐξυπνίζω G1852
Pronunciation exypnízō
What does ἐξυπνίζω (exypnízō) mean in the Bible?
G1852 means to awaken or rouse someone from sleep. Its one governed New Testament occurrence is John 11:11, where Jesus says that Lazarus has fallen asleep and that he is going to awaken him.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἐξυπνίζω (G1852) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G1852?
The BSB source-word alignment has 1 aligned row for this entry. Common renderings include wake him up (1).
Where does ἐξυπνίζω (exypnízō) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at John 11:11. Its strongest book concentrations include John (1).
What This Word Actually Means
G1852 means to awaken or rouse someone from sleep. Its one governed New Testament occurrence is John 11:11, where Jesus says that Lazarus has fallen asleep and that he is going to awaken him. The disciples take the sleep language ordinarily, so Jesus tells them plainly in verse 14 that Lazarus is dead. The verb therefore participates in John's misunderstanding and clarification sequence, but it does not make death unreal or supply a complete doctrine of the intermediate state.
Jesus' later command at the tomb and Lazarus's emergence display the authority that the narrative anticipates. Teachers should distinguish the direct lexical claim in verse 11 from the surrounding narrative explanation and from broader canonical resurrection hope.
How the Bible Uses It
John 11:11 contains the sole local G1852 occurrence. Jesus uses ordinary awakening language while speaking about Lazarus, and the disciples misunderstand him as referring to natural sleep. Verse 14 identifies Lazarus's condition plainly as death, while verses 43-44 narrate Jesus calling him from the tomb. Daniel 12:2 and 1 Corinthians 15 provide canonical parallels for sleep language associated with death and future awakening, but those passages are background rather than additional evidence for G1852.
- John.11.11
After He had said this, He told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.”
John 11:11 records Jesus' announcement, 'Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up,' the New Testament's only use of ἐξυπνίζω.
- John.11.14
So Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,
The disciples' misunderstanding of 'sleep' as literal rest forces Jesus to clarify directly, 'Lazarus is dead' (John 11:14), a pattern of misunderstanding-then-clarification that recurs throughout John's Gospel.
- Dan.12.2
And many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, but others to shame and everlasting contempt.
Daniel 12:2 speaks of 'those who sleep in the dust of the earth' waking to everlasting life or shame, giving Old Testament background for describing death as sleep in anticipation of resurrection.
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 wake him up 1× John 11:11
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row John 11:11
Aligned rows 1
Books represented 1
John 1
Source forms
ἐξυπνίσω 1x exypnisō John 11:11
Parsing patterns
Verb - Aorist Subjunctive Active - 1st Person Singular 1x John 11:11
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Use the sleep image to teach confident hope in Christ's power over death, not to soften or deny death's reality.
- Keep the 'waking' image anchored to Jesus' specific action toward Lazarus rather than generalizing it into a full doctrine of the intermediate state.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not use 'sleep' language in John 11:11 to claim death is not real or final apart from Christ's own resurrecting action; John 11:14 states plainly that Lazarus is dead.
- Do not treat this verse as proof of a specific intermediate-state doctrine for all believers; it describes Jesus' confidence about Lazarus specifically, not a full teaching on the state of the dead.
Passage contexttheological_synthesis
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Awakening from sleep with deliberate emphasis on the completeness of rousing someone from slumber.
Strong's G1852
Lexical occurrences 1 verse Greek text appearances 1 time Word forms 1 form 1 reference Verse guides 0 guides
Source Gloss
to waken
Extended definition Source: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
Awakening from sleep with deliberate emphasis on the completeness of rousing someone from slumber.
to awaken out of sleep (= ἀφυπνίζω): with accusative of person(s), Jhn.11:11.
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
1 Greek text appearance shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
John 11:11 Verb First Person Singular Aorist Active Subjunctive
ἐξυπνίσω exupnisw
I wake out of sleep
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 1 Aligned forms 1 Tenses Aorist Voices Active
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Tenses
Voices
Subjunctive possibility, probability, or purpose 1×
Aorist Active John 11:11 1×
Discourse Aspect
How this verb appears across 1 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect
Tense
aorist 1
Voice
active 1
Mood
subjunctive 1
NT Occurrences
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)
Word Origins
ἐξυπνίζω is built from this root:
ἔξυπνος G1853
For the Preacher and Teacher
G1852 lets a teacher attend to the way John prepares the Lazarus sign. Jesus calls Lazarus's death sleep and speaks of awakening him, while the disciples hear only ordinary rest. John then records Jesus' plain correction: Lazarus is dead. That clarification prevents a sermon from softening death into an appearance or treating Lazarus as merely unconscious. At the same time, Jesus' stated intention directs the reader toward the authority he will display when he calls Lazarus from the tomb.
The word supports Christian hope because the speaker is Jesus and the story shows his action, not because the sleep metaphor automatically explains every question about death. A careful sermon can hold grief, death's reality, and confidence in Christ together. It can also connect the scene to wider resurrection language in Daniel and Paul, provided those passages are labeled as canonical parallels rather than additional G1852 occurrences or proof of a detailed intermediate-state system.
Anchor passage
John.11.11
Doctrinal connections
- John.11.11 - the sole G1852 form names Jesus' intention to awaken Lazarus.
- John.11.14 - Jesus resolves the disciples' misunderstanding by stating plainly that Lazarus is dead.
- Dan.12.2 - a canonical parallel uses sleep and awakening language for death and resurrection without adding another G1852 occurrence.
- John.11.43-44 - the tomb scene displays Jesus calling Lazarus out after the earlier awakening language.
G1852 is an aorist active subjunctive in John 11:11 after a purpose marker: Jesus is going so that he may awaken Lazarus. The lexical sense is to wake or rouse. The narrative applies that ordinary action word metaphorically to the dead Lazarus, then clarifies the referent in verse 14. The form itself does not define the intermediate state or make a general claim about every death.
From Old to New Testament
Scripture's language of death as sleep, awaiting a future waking, runs from Daniel 12:2 through Paul's descriptions of believers who 'have fallen asleep' in Christ (1 Cor 15:6, 20), and John 11:11 places Jesus' own authority to wake Lazarus inside that same trajectory, just before he calls Lazarus bodily out of the tomb.
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