To aid or relieve
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G997 is a verb of helping, aiding, or relieving someone in need. Its New Testament uses preserve the urgency of a real cry: a woman asks Jesus for help, a father asks for help with his unbelief, a Macedonian voice calls for help, and worshipers ask for assistance in moments of danger or conflict.
Reader summary
Full entry for βοηθέω (G997) · Open the biblical lexicon
G997 is a verb of helping, aiding, or relieving someone in need. Its New Testament uses preserve the urgency of a real cry: a woman asks Jesus for help, a father asks for help with his unbelief, a Macedonian voice calls for help, and worshipers ask for assistance in moments of danger or conflict.
The BSB source-word alignment has 8 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include [and] help (2), help (2), help us (1), helped (1), I helped (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 15:25. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (2), Mark (2), 2 Corinthians (1), Hebrews (1).
G997 is a verb of helping, aiding, or relieving someone in need. Its New Testament uses preserve the urgency of a real cry: a woman asks Jesus for help, a father asks for help with his unbelief, a Macedonian voice calls for help, and worshipers ask for assistance in moments of danger or conflict. Hebrews gives the word a christological depth by saying that the suffering and tempted Jesus is able to help those being tempted.
Help in this word is therefore not a vague mood of sympathy. It is responsive action directed toward a person or situation that requires support. At the same time, the verb does not promise that every requested outcome will be granted exactly as imagined. The biblical scenes include honest pleas, public misunderstandings, spiritual struggle, mission, judgment, and divine deliverance.
Teachers should let each passage identify the danger and the kind of aid being sought before turning G997 into a general slogan. The word opens a theology of dependent prayer and embodied support while preserving the difference between faithful help and controlling rescue. It points readers toward Christ’s compassion, the church’s practical presence, and humility about what only God can accomplish.
G997 appears in urgent pleas, public calls for assistance, spiritual struggle, Christ’s compassionate ability, missionary appeal, and divine deliverance. The verb joins dependence to action while requiring readers to ask who is helping, what danger is present, and whether the requested aid serves faithful restoration.
The woman came and knelt before Him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
The woman’s short plea places need before Jesus without ornament, and her kneeling posture makes the request an act of dependent faith rather than self-sufficiency.
“It often throws him into the fire or into the water, trying to kill him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
The father describes danger plainly and asks for compassion, showing that biblical help attends to suffering while bringing imperfect confidence honestly to Jesus.
Immediately the boy’s father cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”
The father asks Jesus to help not only the visible crisis but also the divided condition of his own faith, making room for honest dependence.
During the night, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and pleading with him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”
The Macedonian appeal frames help within mission and welcome, showing that aid may involve crossing distance to bear witness and serve a new community.
Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.
Hebrews grounds Christ’s ability to help in His real suffering and testing, connecting compassionate aid to the incarnate Son’s solidarity with the tempted.
For He says: “In the time of favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is the time of favor; now is the day of salvation!
Paul presents divine help within the announced day of salvation, pressing hearers to respond to grace in the present rather than postponing reconciliation.
Crying out, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and against our law and against this place. Furthermore, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place.”
This public cry shows that a request for help can arise from a false or distorted accusation, so urgency must still be tested by truth and context.
But the earth helped the woman and opened its mouth to swallow up the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth.
Revelation uses the verb for unexpected deliverance in symbolic conflict, reminding readers that God may provide protection through created means beyond ordinary human planning.
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. Active response to urgent need: to run toward and actively assist someone in distress or danger
Active response to urgent need: to run toward and actively assist someone in distress or danger
(βοή + θέω, to run), [in LXX chiefly for עזר ;] to come to aid, to help, succour: absol., Act.21:28; with dative, Mat.15:25, Mrk.9:22, 24 Act.16:9, 2Co.6:2" (LXX), Heb.2:18, Rev.12:16.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
8 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I come to the rescue of
Read verseI come to the rescue of
Read verseI come to the rescue of
Read verseI come to the rescue of
Read verseI come to the rescue of
Read verseI come to the rescue of
Read verseI come to the rescue of
Read verseI come to the rescue of
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.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 8 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)
βοηθέω is built from this root:
G997 gives the language of help a human voice. The woman in Matthew 15 kneels and asks Jesus for help, while the father in Mark 9 describes a life-threatening crisis and then asks for help with his unbelief. These pleas show that dependence may be direct, urgent, and unfinished. The Macedonian appeal in Acts 16 places help within mission, where crossing into another people’s world becomes a form of obedient service.
Hebrews then gives the verb its clearest christological center: Jesus is able to help the tempted because He Himself suffered when tempted. His help is not distant expertise; it is compassionate strength from the incarnate Son who knows the pressure of testing. Yet Acts 21 and Revelation 12 caution readers to keep the word contextual. A crowd can ask for help while repeating a false accusation, and apocalyptic imagery can describe deliverance in symbolic terms.
Faithful teaching therefore welcomes honest cries while testing claims, respecting agency, and refusing to promise a particular outcome in God’s name. G997 calls the church toward prayer, presence, truth, and practical aid, while reminding us that rescue belongs finally to God.
Heb.2.18
G997 is a present-action verb whose forms appear in commands, pleas, narrative description, and theological explanation. The surrounding object and danger show whether help means immediate assistance, compassionate relief, mission support, or divine deliverance.
The New Testament verb develops the Old Testament pattern of God hearing the needy, defending the vulnerable, and sending deliverance. In Christ, divine help becomes embodied and compassionate, while the church learns to offer truthful, practical support without claiming God’s place or guaranteeing outcomes.