To participate; genitive case, to accept (and use)
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The Greek verb metalambánō means to receive or obtain a share, to partake of something, or in one setting to get an opportunity. Acts uses it for sharing meals, taking food needed for survival, and Felix finding a convenient time to summon Paul.
Reader summary
Full entry for μεταλαμβάνω (G3335) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Greek verb metalambánō means to receive or obtain a share, to partake of something, or in one setting to get an opportunity. Acts uses it for sharing meals, taking food needed for survival, and Felix finding a convenient time to summon Paul.
The BSB source-word alignment has 7 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include I find (1), receives (1), sharing (1), to eat (1), to eat something (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Acts 2:46. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (4), Hebrews (2), 2 Timothy (1).
The Greek verb metalambánō means to receive or obtain a share, to partake of something, or in one setting to get an opportunity. Acts uses it for sharing meals, taking food needed for survival, and Felix finding a convenient time to summon Paul. Paul uses it for the hardworking farmer receiving a share of the crops. Hebrews describes land receiving rain and believers sharing in God's holiness through His fatherly discipline.
The object and context determine what is received; the verb does not make every participation spiritual, communal, or morally good. It also does not by itself name the Lord's Supper, guarantee equal outcomes, or prove that suffering is divine discipline. The word helps readers notice that participation may involve gift, labor, timing, nourishment, formation, and responsibility.
Responsible teaching identifies the giver, receiver, shared benefit, and surrounding purpose. It values common meals and necessary food, honors labor without endorsing exploitation, and treats participation in holiness as God's gracious purpose rather than a leader's permission to control or harm.
Metalambánō describes receiving a share across ordinary meals, timely opportunity, agricultural labor, rain-fed fruitfulness, and formation in holiness. Its range is relational but not automatically religious; each object and narrative supplies the kind of participation in view.
With one accord they continued to meet daily in the temple courts and to break bread from house to house, sharing their meals with gladness and sincerity of heart,
The Jerusalem believers receive food together in homes with glad and sincere hearts, placing shared meals within their continuing worship and fellowship.
As Paul expounded on righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment, Felix became frightened and said, “You may go for now. When I find the time, I will call for you.”
Felix uses the verb for obtaining an opportunity, dismissing Paul after becoming frightened by teaching on righteousness, self-control, and judgment.
So for your own preservation, I urge you to eat something, because not a single hair of your head will be lost.”
During the storm crisis, Paul urges exhausted people to take food for their preservation before the shipwreck, joining practical nourishment with courageous leadership.
The hardworking farmer should be the first to partake of the crops.
The farmer's first share follows sustained labor, forming one of Paul's three images for endurance in ministry alongside soldier and athlete.
For land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is tended receives the blessing of God.
The land receives rain and produces a useful crop within a warning illustration about fruitful response rather than mere exposure to blessing.
Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness.
Hebrews names participation in God's holiness as the good purpose of His fatherly discipline, while the surrounding passage calls weary believers to endurance.
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 participate; genitive case, to accept (and use)
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
6 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I share in, partake of
Read verseI share in, partake of
Read verseI share in, partake of
Read verseI share in, partake of
Read verseI share in, partake of
Read verseI share in, partake of
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 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)
μεταλαμβάνω is built from these roots:
Metalambánō gathers several kinds of receiving without flattening them. The church in Acts shares food with gladness, storm-weary travelers take nourishment for survival, and Felix postpones Paul's summons until a more convenient opportunity. The farmer in 2 Timothy receives a crop after hard work, while Hebrews pictures land receiving rain and believers sharing in God's holiness.
These texts show that participation is never defined by the verb alone. Food can express fellowship or meet an emergency need. An opportunity can be delayed in moral avoidance. Rain can produce a useful crop, and discipline can serve holy formation. Pastoral teaching should therefore ask what kind of share is actually offered and what faithful response belongs to it.
Communities may celebrate common meals and fair participation in the fruits of labor without promising identical roles or outcomes. Hebrews' discipline language must be handled with special care: God's fatherly purpose cannot be transferred to abusive leaders as permission to injure, shame, or control. Christian participation is received under God's truth and goodness, and its fruit should be nourishment, endurance, holiness, and useful service rather than entitlement.
Heb.12.10
Metalambánō combines meta with lambanō, but its contextual force is established by the object and construction: receiving food, crops, rain's blessing, holiness, or an opportunity. The seven governed verses use verbal forms across narrative and exhortation. Etymological decomposition cannot decide whether a given sharing is communal, sacramental, or morally approved.
The Old Testament repeatedly connects shared portions with offerings, priestly provision, harvest, hospitality, and care for vulnerable neighbors. Metalambánō carries related questions of receiving into New Testament meals, labor, fruitfulness, and holiness, but it is not a fixed Greek equivalent for every Hebrew portion term. In Christ, believers receive grace, fellowship, and a call to holiness, yet each passage must establish its own vocabulary.
The canonical movement highlights God as giver, labor as accountable service, food as provision, and participation as a gift meant to bear faithful fruit rather than create spiritual status.