To exhibit (physically or mentally)
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The Greek verb epideiknymi describes making something visible or demonstrating a claim. Religious leaders ask Jesus to show a sign, Jesus asks for the tax coin, disciples point out temple buildings, people with a skin disease are told to show themselves to priests, widows show garments Dorcas made, Apollos demonstrates from Scripture that Jesus is the Christ, and Hebrews says God makes His unchanging purpose clear.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἐπιδείκνυμι (G1925) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Greek verb epideiknymi describes making something visible or demonstrating a claim. Religious leaders ask Jesus to show a sign, Jesus asks for the tax coin, disciples point out temple buildings, people with a skin disease are told to show themselves to priests, widows show garments Dorcas made, Apollos demonstrates from Scripture that Jesus is the.
The BSB source-word alignment has 7 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Show (2), proving (1), showing [him] (1), to make (1), to point out (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 16:1. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (3), Acts (2), Hebrews (1), Luke (1).
The Greek verb epideiknymi describes making something visible or demonstrating a claim. Religious leaders ask Jesus to show a sign, Jesus asks for the tax coin, disciples point out temple buildings, people with a skin disease are told to show themselves to priests, widows show garments Dorcas made, Apollos demonstrates from Scripture that Jesus is the Christ, and Hebrews says God makes His unchanging purpose clear with an oath.
Showing may therefore involve an object, a person, a building, remembered work, public argument, or divine assurance. The verb does not guarantee that every display is honest, sufficient, or rightly demanded. Responsible teaching asks who requests the showing, what is displayed, what standard evaluates it, and whether power or vulnerability shapes the encounter.
It must not justify spectacle, coerced disclosure, medical stigma, anti-Jewish contempt, evidentiary shortcuts, or claims that faith never needs reasons and witnesses.
Epideiknymi moves across requests for a sign, presentation of an object or person, attention to buildings and handiwork, scriptural demonstration, and God's clarified purpose. The context evaluates both the evidence and the demand for it.
Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came and tested Jesus by asking Him to show them a sign from heaven.
Pharisees and Sadducees request a heavenly sign while testing Jesus rather than neutrally seeking evidence.
Show Me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought Him a denarius.
Jesus calls for the tax coin so its image and inscription can ground His public response.
As Jesus left the temple and was walking away, His disciples came up to Him to point out its buildings.
The disciples point out the temple buildings immediately before Jesus announces their coming destruction.
When Jesus saw them, He said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were on their way, they were cleansed.
Jesus directs ten people with a skin disease to present themselves to priests as Torah requires.
So Peter got up and went with them. On his arrival, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood around him, weeping and showing him the tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.
Grieving widows display garments Dorcas made, giving tangible witness to her practical care.
For he powerfully refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.
Apollos argues publicly from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ within a contested debate.
So when God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath.
God adds an oath to make the unchanging purpose of His promise especially clear to its heirs.
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. To display or demonstrate something physically visible, or to prove a point through evidence or argument
To display or demonstrate something physically visible, or to prove a point through evidence or argument
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
9 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I show, prove
Read verseI show, prove
Read verseI show, prove
Read verseI show, prove
Read verseI show, prove
Read verseI show, prove
Read verseI show, prove
Read verseI show, prove
Read verseI show, prove
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 7 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 1 selected witness from 7 lexical occurrence verses.
ἐπιδείκνυμι is built from these roots:
Epideiknymi directs attention to acts of showing while leaving their moral and evidentiary value to the narrative. Matthew 16 exposes a sign request made as a test; more demanded spectacle would not repair resistant interpretation. Matthew 22 uses a common coin as concrete evidence for a question about taxation, and Matthew 24 places admired buildings beside Jesus' warning that visible grandeur is not permanence.
Luke 17 involves embodied presentation under Torah after Jesus responds to people kept at a distance; it must not become a model for public exposure or delayed care. In Acts 9, garments displayed by widows preserve the social weight of Dorcas's labor and their grief. Acts 18 depicts Apollos reasoning from shared Scriptures, yet the verse's reference to Jewish opponents cannot authorize anti-Jewish caricature or coercive debate.
Hebrews 6 presents God's oath as gracious assurance to heirs of the promise. Faithful teaching therefore welcomes relevant evidence, tests motives and standards, respects privacy, and speaks persuasively without treating people as exhibits. Visibility can clarify truth, memorialize service, or expose misplaced confidence, but it does not eliminate the need for context, consent, careful interpretation, and accountable judgment.
Acts.9.39
Epideiknymi is a Greek verb built on showing with a prefix that can emphasize presentation toward an audience. It can take a concrete object, person, structure, or proposition, and may mean exhibit, point out, make clear, or demonstrate by reasoning.
Scripture repeatedly uses objects, memorials, witnesses, signs, and reasoned testimony while also condemning false scales, false witnesses, and demands that test God. The New Testament continues that balance by valuing evidence and assurance without reducing faith to spectacle or coercion.