To relate fully
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G1334, diēgéomai, is a Greek middle-form verb for recounting, narrating, or describing a matter, often by setting before hearers what happened. Luke and Acts use it for commissioned testimony, ministry reporting, and mediated accounts of God's acts.
Reader summary
Full entry for διηγέομαι (G1334) · Open the biblical lexicon
G1334, diēgéomai, is a Greek middle-form verb for recounting, narrating, or describing a matter, often by setting before hearers what happened. Luke and Acts use it for commissioned testimony, ministry reporting, and mediated accounts of God's acts.
The BSB source-word alignment has 8 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include described (2), [and] he described (1), [and] reported (1), can recount (1), describe (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Mark 5:16. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (3), Luke (2), Mark (2), Hebrews (1).
G1334, diēgéomai, is a Greek middle-form verb for recounting, narrating, or describing a matter, often by setting before hearers what happened. Luke and Acts use it for commissioned testimony, ministry reporting, and mediated accounts of God's acts. Mark also shows that a true event may be withheld until the proper time. The verb names the communicative act; it does not guarantee truthfulness, inspiration, exhaustive detail, or the speaker's authority.
Its middle morphology should not be turned into a reflexive theological claim. In Luke 8, Jesus commissions a restored man to describe what God has done, and the narrator reports that he proclaims what Jesus has done. The wording belongs to Luke's presentation of Jesus; it is not hidden inside the reporting verb. Barnabas later describes concrete events in Saul's encounter and ministry so a cautious community can receive him with evidence.
After the transfiguration, Jesus commands the disciples not to narrate what they saw until after His resurrection, showing that truthful testimony remains accountable to fitting timing. G1334 invites careful, event-grounded testimony that names sources, audience, purpose, and limits. It also permits wise delay when disclosure would violate Christ's instruction, another person's privacy, safeguarding duties, or the integrity of an unfinished process.
G1334 describes setting out an account or narrating a matter. Its New Testament occurrences include commissioned witness, reported ministry, mediated testimony, and an instruction to wait before telling. Narrative authority comes from the event and context, not from the verb alone.
“Return home and describe how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and proclaimed all over the town how much Jesus had done for him.
Jesus commissions an event-grounded account of divine mercy; Luke's God and Jesus wording belongs to the narrative context, not to G1334's lexical meaning.
Then Barnabas brought him to the apostles and described how Saul had seen the Lord, who had spoken to him on the road to Damascus, and how Saul had spoken boldly in that city in the name of Jesus.
Barnabas relates concrete events to a cautious apostolic community, and the account serves reception because it names what Saul saw, heard, and did.
As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus admonished them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
Accurate narration remains subject to Christ's timing; a genuine spiritual experience is not an automatic mandate for immediate public disclosure.
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. Narrate events in sequential detail, typically to recount what one has witnessed or experienced.
Narrate events in sequential detail, typically to recount what one has witnessed or experienced.
to set out in detail, recount, describe: absol., Heb.11:32; with accusative of thing(s), Act.8:33; with dative of person(s), before πῶς, Mrk.5:16, Act.9:27 12:17; ἅ εἶδον, Mrk.9:9; ὅσα ἐποίησε, -αν, Luk.8:39 9:10.
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 relate in full, describe
Read verseI relate in full, describe
Read verseI relate in full, describe
Read verseI relate in full, describe
Read verseI relate in full, describe
Read verseI relate in full, describe
Read verseI relate in full, describe
Read verseI relate in full, describe
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)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 8 lexical occurrence verses.
διηγέομαι is built from these roots:
Luke 8:39 places G1334 inside Jesus' commission to a man restored from destructive bondage. His testimony is specific: he is to describe how much God has done for him, and Luke says he proclaims what Jesus has done. The narrative supports a Christological observation, but the verb itself simply names the recounting. Acts 9:27 shows Barnabas mediating Saul's story to apostles who have understandable reasons for caution.
He describes Saul's encounter with the Lord and his bold speaking in Damascus, offering concrete evidence rather than demanding trust through intensity alone. Other Acts uses report what God has done among Gentiles and through ministry, placing testimony within accountable communal discernment. Mark 9:9 provides a vital counterweight. The disciples have truly seen the transfiguration, yet Jesus restricts narration until the Son of Man has risen.
Truth does not eliminate questions of timing, audience, privacy, or interpretive readiness. Faithful churches can welcome testimonies while checking facts, protecting vulnerable people, respecting consent, avoiding pressure for public disclosure, and distinguishing a person's experience from a universal command. A speaker need not tell every detail to be honest, and a moving account does not become Scripture.
G1334 calls for narration that serves truth, neighbor love, and the purposes actually named by the passage.
Luke.8.39
G1334 is a deponent or middle-form Greek verb whose forms function with an active sense of recounting or describing. The morphology does not create a reflexive meaning, and the surrounding complements identify the matter narrated.
Israel is repeatedly called to recount the Lord's acts to later generations, and Luke-Acts presents careful narration of God's work in and through Jesus. The canonical pattern supports truthful remembrance, but H5608 and G1334 retain distinct Hebrew and Greek identities and neither word makes a report inspired by itself.