To lead down; specially, to moor a vessel
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The Greek verb katago describes bringing or leading someone or something down, and in nautical settings bringing a vessel to land. The New Testament uses it for boats drawn ashore, travelers landing at ports, believers escorting Paul to safety, a commander bringing Paul before the Sanhedrin, conspirators requesting that Paul be brought down into an ambush, and a rhetorical attempt to bring Christ down from heaven.
Reader summary
Full entry for κατάγω (G2609) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Greek verb katago describes bringing or leading someone or something down, and in nautical settings bringing a vessel to land. The New Testament uses it for boats drawn ashore, travelers landing at ports, believers escorting Paul to safety, a commander bringing Paul before the Sanhedrin, conspirators requesting that Paul be brought down into an ambush.
The BSB source-word alignment has 9 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include bring (1), bring him down (1), he brought (1), I brought [him] down (1), Putting in (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Luke 5:11. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (7), Luke (1), Romans (1).
The Greek verb katago describes bringing or leading someone or something down, and in nautical settings bringing a vessel to land. The New Testament uses it for boats drawn ashore, travelers landing at ports, believers escorting Paul to safety, a commander bringing Paul before the Sanhedrin, conspirators requesting that Paul be brought down into an ambush, and a rhetorical attempt to bring Christ down from heaven.
The physical direction is real, but downward movement does not carry one moral verdict. Friends can bring someone down a route for protection, officials can move a prisoner under authority, and violent plotters can seek the same movement for murder. In Romans, Paul explains that faith does not require a human ascent or descent to make Christ available. Readers should identify the agent, object, destination, and purpose before interpreting the verb.
Katago does not mean humiliate in every occurrence, does not approve every exercise of custody, and does not make landing a vessel a spiritual descent.
Katago names movement downward or to land across fishing, travel, protective escort, official custody, murderous conspiracy, and Paul's faith-righteousness argument, with purpose determining moral force.
And when they had brought their boats ashore, they left everything and followed Him.
After bringing their boats ashore, Simon and his partners leave everything and follow Jesus, with landing completing the fishing scene's physical movement.
When the brothers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
When believers learn of a threat, they take Saul down to Caesarea and send him to Tarsus as a protective response.
The next day the commander, wanting to learn the real reason Paul was accused by the Jews, released him and ordered the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought Paul down and had him stand before them.
The Roman commander brings Paul before the assembled Sanhedrin to investigate accusations, locating the verb within coercive legal custody.
Now then, you and the Sanhedrin petition the commander to bring him down to you on the pretext of examining his case more carefully. We are ready to kill him on the way.”
Conspirators ask that Paul be brought down under a false investigative pretext so they can kill him on the way.
The next day we landed at Sidon, and Julius treated Paul with consideration, allowing him to visit his friends and receive their care.
The voyage lands at Sidon, where Julius permits Paul to visit friends and receive care during his guarded journey.
But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down)
Paul says faith-righteousness does not ask who will ascend to bring Christ down, because God's saving word is already near in his argument.
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 lead down; specially, to moor a vessel
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
10 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I lead down, bring down
Read verseI lead down, bring down
Read verseI lead down, bring down
Read verseI lead down, bring down
Read verseI lead down, bring down
Read verseI lead down, bring down
Read verseI lead down, bring down
Read verseI lead down, bring down
Read verseI lead down, bring down
Read verseI lead down, bring down
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 9 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)
κατάγω is built from these roots:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Katago is a movement verb whose moral significance comes from agency and purpose. Fishermen bring boats to shore. A ship lands at Sidon, and a centurion allows Paul to receive care. Believers take Saul to Caesarea because his life is threatened. Elsewhere a commander brings Paul before a council under custody, while conspirators manipulate that same expected movement as an opportunity for murder.
The verb itself neither approves the authorities nor condemns every descent. Romans uses the language within Paul's reading of Deuteronomy to reject the idea that someone must ascend and bring Christ down. God's saving action and proclaimed word are not produced by human spiritual travel. Faithful teaching should therefore avoid turning down into a universal symbol of failure.
It should also attend carefully to consent, force, stated pretexts, and actual risk whenever one person controls another's movement. Protection can require relocation, but official procedure can also expose a person to harm. Context reveals whether movement serves care, ordinary travel, investigation, or violence.
Acts.9.30
Katago combines a downward prefix with the verb lead or bring. It can take a person as its object, describe movement to a lower destination, or function nautically for bringing a vessel to land. Active and passive forms in Acts preserve who controls the movement, which can matter ethically.
Romans explicitly draws on Deuteronomy's near-word passage while explaining faith-righteousness in relation to Christ. That connection belongs to Paul's argument. Other biblical journeys and descents may offer thematic comparison, but they are not automatically instances of this Greek verb or symbols of moral decline.