Surpassing
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G5236 is a noun for extraordinary degree, excess, or a surpassing measure. Its eight governed forms range from the positive more excellent way of love to crushing affliction, divine power in fragile vessels, an incomparable weight of glory, extraordinary revelations, Paul's former persecution, and sin exposed as utterly sinful.
Reader summary
Full entry for ὑπερβολή (G5236) · Open the biblical lexicon
G5236 is a noun for extraordinary degree, excess, or a surpassing measure. Its eight governed forms range from the positive more excellent way of love to crushing affliction, divine power in fragile vessels, an incomparable weight of glory, extraordinary revelations, Paul's former persecution, and sin exposed as utterly sinful.
The BSB source-word alignment has 8 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include . . . (2), surpassingly great (2), beyond comparison (1), far beyond (1), the most excellent (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Romans 7:13. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Corinthians (5), 1 Corinthians (1), Galatians (1), Romans (1).
G5236 is a noun for extraordinary degree, excess, or a surpassing measure. Its eight governed forms range from the positive more excellent way of love to crushing affliction, divine power in fragile vessels, an incomparable weight of glory, extraordinary revelations, Paul's former persecution, and sin exposed as utterly sinful. The noun identifies intensity; context determines its moral and theological force.
Two forms occur together in 2 Corinthians 4:17 to intensify the contrast between present affliction and eternal glory. That comparison offers resurrection hope but does not call affliction good, deny present pain, or authorize leaders to manufacture hardship. Elsewhere the same noun can expose dangerous excess rather than promise abundance.
Pastorally, G5236 requires truthful measures. Divine power belongs to God, weakness need not be disguised, and future glory must not be used to silence lament, block treatment, excuse abuse, or demand unending labor. Extraordinary claims require contextual evidence and accountable speech.
Eight noun forms across four Pauline letters measure excellence, affliction, power, glory, revelation, former conduct, and sin. Positive and destructive excesses must not be flattened into one theme.
For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison.
Resurrection hope reframes but does not erase bodily fragility, lament, treatment, safety, or accountability in present suffering.
But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.
The extraordinary way is love across chapter 13, not a technique for gaining more visible gifts or authority.
For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how severely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.
Paul's extreme persecution belongs to the past he confesses; grace does not make the violence exemplary or excuse similar zeal.
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. Excess or surpassing degree; intensifies meaning to "beyond measure" when used adverbially with κατά.
Excess or surpassing degree; intensifies meaning to "beyond measure" when used adverbially with κατά.
(ὑπερβάλλω), [in LXX: καθ᾽ ὑ., 4Ma.3:18 * ;] a throwing beyond. Metaphorical, excess, superiority, excellence: 2Co.4:7 12:7; καθ᾽ ὑπερβολήν, beyond measure, exceedingly, Rom.7:13, 1Co.12:31, 2Co.1:8, Gal.1:13; κ. ὑ. εἰς ὑ., beyond all measure, 2Co.4:17.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
8 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
surpassing excellence, exceedingly
Read versesurpassing excellence, exceedingly
Read versesurpassing excellence, exceedingly
Read versesurpassing excellence, exceedingly
Read versesurpassing excellence, exceedingly
Read versesurpassing excellence, exceedingly
Read versesurpassing excellence, exceedingly
Read versesurpassing excellence, exceedingly
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 word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 3 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
ὑπερβολή 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.
G5236 names an extraordinary degree, excess, or surpassing measure, but the noun does not tell readers whether the excess is good, painful, or distorted. Paul uses it for a more excellent way, overwhelming affliction, surpassing power that belongs to God, an eternal weight of glory beyond comparison, extraordinary revelations, extreme former conduct, and sin exposed as utterly sinful.
That range prevents a slogan about abundance. The earthen vessel does not become impressive because divine power surpasses it, and present affliction should never be manufactured, romanticized, or used to silence pain. The language of glory in 2 Corinthians 4 depends on resurrection hope and does not excuse unsafe conditions, blocked care, or leader demands for endless sacrifice.
Teaching should name what exceeds in each context, preserve the contrast Paul makes, and resist prosperity, spiritual-rank, suffering-merit, and exaggerated-testimony readings.
2Cor.4.17
The eight governed noun forms comprise six accusative feminine singulars, one nominative feminine singular, and one dative feminine singular. Two forms appear in 2 Corinthians 4:17, where repeated excess language intensifies the comparison without converting affliction itself into a spiritual good.
Biblical poetry can intensify both praise and lament, naming abundant mercy alongside overwhelming waters, enemies, or grief. That wider pattern helps readers recognize that extraordinary degree is a rhetorical measure whose object and moral force still come from context.
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