ἀσπάζομαι
To pay respects to
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What does ἀσπάζομαι (aspázomai) mean in the Bible?
ἀσπάζομαι (aspázomai) is a Greek word meaning "to pay respects to". ἀσπάζομαι depon.
Full entry for ἀσπάζομαι (G782) · Browse the biblical lexicon
Meaning
Warm public greeting expressing respect and affection, often sealed with a kiss in early Christian practice
to welcome, greet, salute: with accusative of person(s), Mat.5:47, Mrk.9:15, Act.21:7, al.; id. before ἐν φιλήματι, Rom.16:16, 1Co.16:20, 2Co.13:12, 1Th.5:26, 1Pe.5:14; τ. ἐκκλησίαν (Deiss., BS, 257), Act.18:22; as term. tech. for conveying greetings at the end of a letter (MM, see word), used by an amanuensis (Milligan, NTD, 23), Rom.16:22 (on the aoristic Pres., here and elsewhere, see M, Pr., 119; Bl., § 56, 4); κατήντησαν . . . ἀσπασάμενοι (on this constr., see El., § 58, 4; M, Pr., 132, 238), Act.25:13 (cf. ἀπ-ἀπ-ασπάζομαι).
Grammatical Forms
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
Imperative command or strong request 27×
Indicative states a fact or reality 23×
Participle verbal adjective — the action as a modifying quality 6×
Subjunctive possibility, probability, or purpose 2×
Infinitive verbal noun — the action in abstract 1×
Discourse Aspect
How this verb appears across 58 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)
Biblical Occurrences
Each occurrence shows the passage reference, the original language term as it appears in that context, its transliteration, and the contextual sense.
Biblical Witnesses
Appears In
Compound and idiomatic lexemes in which this word is a constituent. Follow a link to study the phrase and its other participating words.
Word Pictures (Robertson)
A.T. Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament (1930–31) discusses this term in the following chapters. Open any chapter and go to the Word Pictures tab to read his verse-by-verse commentary.
A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament (1930–31) — public domain