What does διαζώννυμι (diazṓnnymi) mean in the Bible?
diazonnymi means to gird, wrap around, or tie something around oneself. Its three direct New Testament witnesses all appear in John's Gospel.
Greek · G1241
διαζώννυμι
To gird tightly
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διαζώννυμι G1241
Pronunciation diazṓnnymi
What does διαζώννυμι (diazṓnnymi) mean in the Bible?
diazonnymi means to gird, wrap around, or tie something around oneself. Its three direct New Testament witnesses all appear in John's Gospel.
Reader summary
Full entry for διαζώννυμι (G1241) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G1241?
The BSB source-word alignment has 3 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include around Him (1), he put on (1), wrapped (1).
Where does διαζώννυμι (diazṓnnymi) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at John 13:4. Its strongest book concentrations include John (3).
What This Word Actually Means
Diazonnymi means to gird, wrap around, or tie something around oneself. Its three direct New Testament witnesses all appear in John's Gospel. Twice the word describes Jesus wrapping a towel around Himself as He rises from supper to wash His disciples' feet, and once it describes Peter putting on his outer garment before plunging into the sea after recognizing the risen Lord.
The word is concrete clothing action, but the scenes give it pastoral force: Jesus prepares Himself for lowly service, and Peter prepares himself in eager response to the Lord. Pastorally, diazonnymi teaches that embodied readiness can reveal love, humility, and response, but the action's meaning comes from the person and context.
How the Bible Uses It
Diazonnymi appears in three direct witnesses, all in John. Jesus wraps a towel around Himself for foot washing, and Peter puts on his outer garment before leaping toward the risen Lord.
- John.13.4
So He got up from the supper, laid aside His outer garments, and wrapped a towel around His waist.
Jesus girds Himself with a towel before washing His disciples' feet. The action prepares for servant love.
- John.13.5
After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel that was around Him.
The towel remains around Jesus as He washes and dries feet. The girded towel becomes the instrument of humble service.
- John.21.7
Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment (for he had removed it) and jumped into the sea.
Peter girds himself with his outer garment and plunges toward Jesus. The action expresses eager response to the risen Lord.
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 around Him 1× John 13:5
he put on 1× John 21:7
wrapped 1× John 13:4
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row John 13:4
Aligned rows 3
Books represented 1
John 3
Source forms
διεζώσατο 1x diezōsato John 21:7
διέζωσεν 1x diezōsen John 13:4
διεζωσμένος 1x diezōsmenos John 13:5
Parsing patterns
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular 1x John 13:4
Verb - Aorist Indicative Middle - 3rd Person Singular 1x John 21:7
Verb - Perfect Participle Middle or Passive - Nominative Masculine Singular 1x John 13:5
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Let embodied readiness serve humble love rather than public display.
- Use Peter's eagerness as a picture of response, not as a measure for every believer's temperament.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim diazonnymi always means spiritual preparation in every context.
- Do not claim John 13's towel replaces Jesus' explicit teaching about humble service.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. to gird tightly
Strong's G1241
Lexical occurrences 3 verses Greek text appearances 3 times Word forms 2 forms 3 references Verse guides 0 guides
Source Gloss
to gird tightly
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.
John 13:4 Verb Third Person Singular Aorist Active Indicative
διέζωσεν diezwsen
I gird, tie around
Read verse John 13:5 Verb Perfect Passive Participle Nominative Singular Masculine
διεζωσμένος. diezwsmenov
I gird, tie around
Read verse John 21:7 Verb Third Person Singular Aorist Middle Indicative
διεζώσατο diezwsato
I gird, tie around
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 2 Aligned forms 3 Tenses Aorist, Perfect Voices Active, Middle
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Tenses
Voices
Indicative states a fact or reality 2×
Aorist Active John 13:4 1×
Aorist Middle John 21:7 1×
Participle verbal adjective — the action as a modifying quality 1×
Perfect Middle John 13:5 1×
Discourse Aspect
How this verb appears across 2 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect
Tense
aorist 2
Voice
active 1 middle 1
Mood
indicative 2
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)
Word Origins
διαζώννυμι is built from these roots:
For the Preacher and Teacher
Diazonnymi appears only three times in the New Testament word table, but all three occur in memorable Johannine scenes. Jesus wraps a towel around Himself before washing the disciples' feet, then uses that towel as He serves them. The Lord of glory prepares His own body and clothing for the work of lowly love. Later, Peter wraps his outer garment around himself and plunges toward Jesus when he hears, It is the Lord.
The preacher should not make girding itself the doctrine. The embodied action reveals readiness. In Jesus, readiness takes the form of humble service; in Peter, it becomes eager movement toward the risen Lord who restores and commissions.
Anchor passage
John.13.4
Doctrinal connections
- Servant love: John 13:4 shows Jesus preparing Himself to wash His disciples' feet.
- Incarnate humility: the Lord uses a towel and basin, not mere words, to teach love.
- Cleansing conversation: John 13:5 sits inside Jesus' larger exchange about washing and having a share with Him.
- Discipleship pattern: John 13 later calls disciples to follow the pattern of humble service.
- Resurrection recognition: John 21:7 begins with the beloved disciple's cry, It is the Lord.
- Eager response: Peter's girding and plunge show bodily urgency toward Jesus.
Diazonnymi is a verb of girding or wrapping around. It should be read as concrete preparation unless the passage itself supplies additional symbolism.
From Old to New Testament
Girding language across Scripture often signals readiness for work, travel, service, or action. John's uses focus that readiness on Jesus' humble service and Peter's response to the risen Lord.
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