καταλαμβάνω
katalambanō
to grasp
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
ExploredThe Greek word καταλαμβάνω (katalambanō) is a verb with a core meaning of "to grasp". Its usage in the Bible suggests that it encompasses not only a physical act of seizing or holding something but also a mental or emotional understanding or possession. This verb is used in various contexts, including descriptions of physical actions, as well as in more abstract situations where one grasps a concept or a principle. Its usage range extends from everyday activities to more complex situations, such as comprehending spiritual truths. Given its frequency in the Bible (15 occurrences), καταλαμβάνω holds significance as a word highlighting the importance of understanding and comprehension in both tangible and intangible situations.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
15 total occurrences across the text
and wherever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth, and wastes away. I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they weren’t able.”
John 1:5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it.
John 8:3The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman taken in adultery. Having set her in the middle,
John 8:4they told him, “Teacher, we found this woman in adultery, in the very act.
John 12:35Jesus therefore said to them, “Yet a little while the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, that darkness doesn’t overtake you. He who walks in the darkness doesn’t know where he is going.
Acts 4:13Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and had perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. They recognized that they had been with Jesus.
Acts 10:34Peter opened his mouth and said, “Truly I perceive that God doesn’t show favoritism;
Acts 25:25But when I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death, and as he himself appealed to the emperor I determined to send him,
Romans 9:30What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn’t follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith;
1 Corinthians 9:24Don’t you know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run like that, that you may win.
Ephesians 3:18may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth,
Philippians 3:12Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:12Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:13Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,
1 Thessalonians 5:4But you, brothers, aren’t in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief.