To throw/lay down
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The Greek verb rhiptō means to throw, cast, hurl, toss, or lay something or someone down. The Gospels use it when a demon throws a man down without injuring him, when crowds place sick and disabled people at Jesus' feet, when Jesus sees crowds harassed and helpless, when Judas throws silver into the temple, and when Jesus warns against causing a little one to stumble.
Reader summary
Full entry for ῥίπτω (G4496) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Greek verb rhiptō means to throw, cast, hurl, toss, or lay something or someone down. The Gospels use it when a demon throws a man down without injuring him, when crowds place sick and disabled people at Jesus' feet, when Jesus sees crowds harassed and helpless, when Judas throws silver into the temple, and when Jesus warns against causing a little one.
The BSB source-word alignment has 7 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include [Judas] threw (1), helpless (1), laid (1), they dropped (1), they threw (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 9:36. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (3), Acts (2), Luke (2).
The Greek verb rhiptō means to throw, cast, hurl, toss, or lay something or someone down. The Gospels use it when a demon throws a man down without injuring him, when crowds place sick and disabled people at Jesus' feet, when Jesus sees crowds harassed and helpless, when Judas throws silver into the temple, and when Jesus warns against causing a little one to stumble.
Acts uses it for sailors throwing tackle overboard and casting anchors during a life-threatening storm. The shared motion does not make these scenes equivalent. Being laid at Jesus' feet can express urgent trust and need, while violent throwing can endanger or degrade a person. Judas's action occurs within remorse and death and must not be used to shame suicidal people or imply that discarded money completes repentance.
Responsible teaching identifies agent, object, force, consent, danger, and result. It rejects violent reenactment, disability stigma, coerced surrender, self-harm romanticizing, and metaphors that treat vulnerable people as disposable cargo.
Rhiptō describes a demonic throw, people laid before Jesus, crowds cast down in distress, discarded silver, severe warning, and emergency disposal of ship equipment and anchors.
But Jesus rebuked the demon. “Be silent!” He said. “Come out of him!” At this, the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without harming him.
The demon throws the man down before the crowd, but Jesus rebukes it and the man is not injured.
Large crowds came to Him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and laid them at His feet, and He healed them.
Large crowds bring disabled and sick people and lay them at Jesus' feet, where He heals them.
When He saw the crowds, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Jesus sees the crowds as harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd, and responds with compassion.
So Judas threw the silver into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.
Judas throws the silver into the temple, leaves, and dies by suicide after betraying Jesus.
On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands.
Sailors throw the ship's tackle overboard during the prolonged storm in an effort to survive.
Fearing that we would run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daybreak.
Fearing rocks, the sailors cast four anchors from the stern and pray for daylight.
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. Violent, forceful throwing with emphasis on the physical act itself, not the result or purpose.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
7 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I throw, cast, toss
Read verseI throw, cast, toss
Read verseI throw, cast, toss
Read verseI throw, cast, toss
Read verseI throw, cast, toss
Read verseI throw, cast, toss
Read verseI throw, cast, toss
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 6 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.
ῥίπτω is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Rhiptō is morally interpreted through agency and outcome. In Luke 4, a demon throws a man down, while Jesus' rebuke protects him from injury. That scene cannot authorize ministers to push, restrain, or endanger people during deliverance claims. Matthew 15 portrays crowds laying people at Jesus' feet for healing, but disabled people remain persons with dignity, not props for spectacle.
Matthew 9 describes crowds as harassed and cast down, and Jesus responds with compassion and the call for laborers, not blame. Judas throws the silver away, but returning money does not resolve betrayal, despair, or his subsequent death. Teaching this scene requires suicide-safe language and must direct people in crisis toward immediate human help rather than isolation.
Acts 27 shows sailors throwing equipment and anchors during an emergency. Their actions are practical responses to danger, not symbols requiring believers to discard every possession. Faithful application protects bodies, respects consent, responds compassionately to helplessness, and makes proportionate decisions in crisis. It never turns force, collapse, surrender, or disposal into one spiritual formula.
Matt.9.36
Rhiptō is a Greek verb for throwing, casting, hurling, tossing, or laying down. Its object may be a person, money, equipment, or anchors, and passive participial forms can describe people as cast down or prostrate. Context determines force and purpose.
Scripture includes many casting, laying, surrender, and storm scenes through different Hebrew and Greek verbs. Canonical themes of trust and release should not erase lexical distinctions or turn rhiptō into the word behind every command to cast burdens on God.