What does ἀποκαταλλάσσω (apokatallássō) mean in the Bible?
G604 means to reconcile or restore a broken relationship. Its three New Testament uses occur in Ephesians 2:16 and Colossians 1:20,22, where God acts through Christ and His cross.
Greek · G604
ἀποκαταλλάσσω
To reconcile fully
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ἀποκαταλλάσσω G604
Pronunciation apokatallássō
What does ἀποκαταλλάσσω (apokatallássō) mean in the Bible?
G604 means to reconcile or restore a broken relationship. Its three New Testament uses occur in Ephesians 2:16 and Colossians 1:20,22, where God acts through Christ and His cross.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἀποκαταλλάσσω (G604) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G604?
The BSB source-word alignment has 3 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include He has reconciled [you] (1), reconciling (1), to reconcile (1).
Where does ἀποκαταλλάσσω (apokatallássō) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Ephesians 2:16. Its strongest book concentrations include Colossians (2), Ephesians (1).
Are there verse guides for ἀποκαταλλάσσω (apokatallássō)?
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
What This Word Actually Means
G604 means to reconcile or restore a broken relationship. Its three New Testament uses occur in Ephesians 2:16 and Colossians 1:20,22, where God acts through Christ and His cross. Ephesians speaks of Jews and Gentiles reconciled to God in one body after Christ has put their hostility to death. Colossians 1:20 places the reconciliation of all things beside peace made through the blood of Christ's cross, while verses 21-23 address people once alienated and hostile who are now reconciled through Christ's physical body in death.
The verb does not make reconciliation sentimental, automatic between every human party, or proof from one word that every person will finally be saved.
How the Bible Uses It
The selected artifact reflects three uses of G604. Each places reconciliation in God's action through Christ, while Ephesians and Colossians give the action different objects and argumentative settings.
- Eph.2.16
And reconciling both of them to God in one body through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility.
Ephesians describes both groups reconciled to God in one body through the cross, within Christ's work of creating one new humanity and ending hostility.
- Col.1.20
And through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross.
The hymn gives reconciliation an all-things scope and explicitly joins it to peace made through the blood of Christ's cross. The verse does not by itself define the final condition of every person.
- Col.1.22
But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence—
Paul addresses the Colossians' former alienation and present reconciliation, then names holy presentation and continuing in the faith within the same sentence and exhortation.
Passage context
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It He has reconciled [you] 1× Colossians 1:22
reconciling 1× Ephesians 2:16
to reconcile 1× Colossians 1:20
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Ephesians 2:16
Aligned rows 3
Books represented 2
Ephesians 1 Colossians 2
Source forms
ἀποκαταλλάξαι 1x apokatallaxai Colossians 1:20
ἀποκαταλλάξῃ 1x apokatallaxē Ephesians 2:16
ἀποκατήλλαξεν 1x apokatēllaxen Colossians 1:22
Parsing patterns
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular 1x Colossians 1:22
Verb - Aorist Infinitive Active 1x Colossians 1:20
Verb - Aorist Subjunctive Active - 3rd Person Singular 1x Ephesians 2:16
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Announce the peace God makes through Christ while naming the alienation, hostility, cross, new body, and holy aim supplied by the passages.
- Do not pressure harmed people into unsafe contact by equating every interpersonal reunion with God's reconciling work in these texts.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that reconciliation means hostility is merely ignored; both letters locate God's action in Christ and His cross.
- Do not claim that the all-things phrase by itself proves the final salvation of every person.
- Do not claim that divine reconciliation requires an abuse survivor to resume unsafe access or suspend truthful accountability.
- Do not reduce reconciliation to an individual experience when Ephesians 2 speaks of one body.
Key Verse and Form Guides
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Complete restoration of relationship, not merely ending hostility but full cosmic reconciliation through Christ.
Source Gloss
to reconcile fully
Extended definition Source: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
Complete restoration of relationship, not merely ending hostility but full cosmic reconciliation through Christ.
(cf. καταλλάσσω: ἀπό here signifies completely, see Lft., Col., l.with; Ellic., Eph., l.with; but also Mey., Eph., l.with), to reconcile completely: Eph.2:16, Col.1:20-21.
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
3 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Ephesians 2:16 Verb Third Person Singular Aorist Active Subjunctive
ἀποκαταλλάξῃ apokatallaxh
I reconcile
Read verse apokatallaxai
I reconcile
Read verse Colossians 1:21 Verb Third Person Singular Aorist Active Indicative
ἀποκατήλλαξεν apokathllaxen
I reconcile
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.
Grammatical Forms
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.
Form groups 3 Aligned forms 3 Tenses Aorist Voices Active, Passive
Tenses
Voices
Subjunctive possibility, probability, or purpose 1×
Aorist Active Eph 2:16 1×
Infinitive verbal noun — the action in abstract 1×
Indicative states a fact or reality 1×
Aorist Passive Col 1:22 1×
Discourse Aspect
How this verb appears across 3 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect
Tense
aorist 3
Voice
active 2 passive 1
Mood
infinitive 1 indicative 1 subjunctive 1
NT Occurrences
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 Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
Christ fully reconciles Jews and Gentiles into one body through his peace
Showing 1 selected witness from 3 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
ἀποκαταλλάσσω is built from these roots:
For the Preacher and Teacher
G604 gives a preacher three tightly related but nonidentical reconciliation settings. Ephesians 2 centers both groups reconciled to God in one body and locates the ending of hostility in Christ's cross. Colossians 1:20 makes the broad all-things claim, then verses 21-23 address the congregation's former alienation, Christ's physical body through death, holy presentation, and perseverance.
Good teaching should retain this whole movement. The word does not reduce reconciliation to an inner feeling or a generic technique for resolving conflict. It also does not allow one clause to settle universal salvation without the letter's wider argument. The pastoral emphasis belongs on God's action in Christ, the costly peace named by the passage, and the new relationships that follow.
Anchor passage
Col.1.20
Doctrinal connections
- G1515 εἰρήνη - peace is the result Christ makes through the blood of His cross.
- G129 αἷμα - the blood of the cross grounds reconciliation.
- G4983 σῶμα - Christ's body through death is named in Colossians 1:22.
- Eph.2.11-22 - reconciliation creates one body and one household.
- Col.1.21-23 - reconciliation includes perseverance and holy presentation.
The verb belongs to the Greek reconciliation word family and is sometimes glossed reconcile fully. Any intensifying force must remain secondary to the three actual uses; the compound's parts do not establish a separate degree or mechanism of reconciliation.
From Old to New Testament
Ephesians 2 draws on Israel's covenant privileges, exclusion, and promised peace before describing Gentiles brought near in Christ. Colossians supplies its own creation and new-creation horizon. Those textual links are firmer than assigning G604 a single Old Testament lexical equivalent.
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain