To release: release
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ἀπολύω (apolyō) means to release, let go, dismiss, send away, or, in particular relational settings, divorce. The verb joins ἀπό, away from, to λύω, to loose, but its meaning is established by the people, authority, and relationship in each scene.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἀπολύω (G630) · Open the biblical lexicon
ἀπολύω (apolyō) means to release, let go, dismiss, send away, or, in particular relational settings, divorce. The verb joins ἀπό, away from, to λύω, to loose, but its meaning is established by the people, authority, and relationship in each scene.
The BSB source-word alignment has 66 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include divorces (5), to release (5), me to release (4), to divorce (4), Dismiss (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 1:19. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (19), Acts (15), Luke (14), Mark (12).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
ἀπολύω (apolyō) means to release, let go, dismiss, send away, or, in particular relational settings, divorce. The verb joins ἀπό, away from, to λύω, to loose, but its meaning is established by the people, authority, and relationship in each scene. Simeon asks the Sovereign Lord to dismiss His servant in peace after seeing the promised Christ. Jesus commands His hearers to release or forgive rather than condemn.
He tells a woman bent over by disability that she has been set free. The church at Antioch sends Barnabas and Saul off after prayer and fasting. Elsewhere the word names the dismissal of a spouse, and the Passion narratives use it for the legal release Pilate could grant a prisoner. Those settings cannot be treated as interchangeable. A peaceful dismissal at death is not a divorce, a missionary sending is not an acquittal, and a civil governor’s release does not establish innocence or justice.
The verb is especially pastorally sensitive where forgiveness, disability, divorce, detention, or coercive control is involved. Luke 6 does not teach that forgiving cancels truth, restitution, protection, or lawful accountability. Luke 13 describes Christ’s compassionate liberation of a particular woman and should not be turned into blame against people who remain disabled.
Jesus’ teaching on divorce addresses covenant faithfulness and sexual betrayal; the lexical range must not be used to force endangered people back under violence. ἀπολύω helps readers ask who has authority to release whom, from what bond or obligation, and with what moral result.
ἀπολύω describes dismissal, release, sending away, forgiveness as letting go, freedom from an affliction, marital dismissal, and legal release. The moral character of the action depends on the authority exercised, the relationship altered, and whether release serves peace, mercy, mission, abandonment, or injustice.
“Sovereign Lord, as You have promised, You now dismiss Your servant in peace.
Simeon addresses God as master and understands death as a peaceful dismissal after the promise has been fulfilled in the sight of Christ. The release rests on God’s word and salvation, not on weariness with life.
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Within Jesus’ call to merciful, non-hypocritical judgment, ἀπολύω is rendered forgive or release. Letting go of condemnation does not erase the later command to discern fruit or the need to protect neighbors from harm.
When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your disability.”
Jesus sees, summons, and releases a woman whose long affliction had bent her over. His action displays compassionate kingdom authority and restores her publicly, while the passage places no guilt on people whose disabilities continue.
And after they had fasted and prayed, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
The Antioch church releases Barnabas and Saul into the work to which the Spirit has called them. Their sending follows worship, fasting, prayer, and communal recognition, so dismissal becomes mission rather than rejection.
So He told them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.
Here ἀπολύω names marital dismissal, and Jesus exposes the covenantal harm hidden by a merely procedural view of divorce. The verse must be read with the full biblical teaching on covenant, sexual faithfulness, abandonment, protection, and justice.
But it is your custom that I release to you one prisoner at the Passover. So then, do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”
Pilate possesses political power to release a prisoner, yet the surrounding trial reveals his failure to act justly toward the innocent King. Release power and righteous judgment are not the same thing.
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.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Release from restraint or obligation, including forgiveness of debts and dissolution of marriage bonds.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 69 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I release, let go, send away, divorce
Read verseI release, let go, send away, divorce
Read verseI release, let go, send away, divorce
Read verseI release, let go, send away, divorce
Read verseI release, let go, send away, divorce
Read verseI release, let go, send away, divorce
Read verseI release, let go, send away, divorce
Read verseI release, let go, send away, divorce
Read verseI release, let go, send away, divorce
Read verseI release, let go, send away, divorce
Read verseI release, let go, send away, divorce
Read verseI release, let go, send away, divorce
Read verseI release, let go, send away, divorce
Read verseI release, let go, send away, divorce
Read verseI release, let go, send away, divorce
Read verseI release, let go, send away, divorce
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.
How this verb appears across 65 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 4 selected witnesses from 67 lexical occurrence verses.
Declares authoritative liberation from bondage.Acts 19:28-41
Reflects reciprocal mercy grounded in divine forgiveness.Luke 13:10–17
Marks the peaceful conclusion of the riot.Luke 6:37–42
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Release is only as righteous as the authority, purpose, and relationship governing it. Simeon’s dismissal is peaceful because God has kept His promise in Christ. The woman in Luke 13 is set free by Jesus’ compassionate authority, and the Antioch church releases workers through prayerful obedience to the Spirit. Those scenes show liberation and mission. Mark 10 and John 18 reveal the darker possibilities.
A spouse may be dismissed in a way that violates covenant faithfulness, and a governor with power to release may still surrender the innocent Jesus to political pressure. Luke 6 places forgiveness within mercy, humility, and measured judgment, not within denial of evil. Churches therefore need a theology of release that can let go of vengeance while retaining truth, restitution, safeguarding, and lawful accountability.
They should send workers without possessiveness, honor the dignity of disabled people without blaming them for unhealed conditions, care for those harmed by marital abandonment, and refuse to call institutional dismissal justice merely because proper procedure was followed. In every case, release must be evaluated under the character of God and the lordship of Christ.
Luke.13.12
ἀπολύω combines ἀπό with λύω and can describe loosening away from a bond, dismissing a crowd, releasing a prisoner, sending a worker, forgiving, or divorcing. Active and passive forms identify who exercises or receives the release. English translations must follow the object and social setting rather than impose a single spiritual meaning.
The Old Testament joins release to Sabbath and Jubilee mercy, the freeing of servants, remission of debts, protection of covenant marriage, and God’s rescue of the oppressed. The New Testament gathers those concerns around Jesus, who brings compassionate freedom, commands mercy, sends witnesses, confronts hardhearted dismissal, and is Himself denied a just release. The canonical thread is accountable freedom under God, not release detached from righteousness.