To take up
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Airo means to lift, take up, carry, remove, or take away, with the specific sense determined by the object and scene. The word can be ordinary, as when a healed man is told to pick up his mat or when a stone must be removed from Lazarus's tomb.
Reader summary
Full entry for αἴρω (G142) · Open the biblical lexicon
Airo means to lift, take up, carry, remove, or take away, with the specific sense determined by the object and scene. The word can be ordinary, as when a healed man is told to pick up his mat or when a stone must be removed from Lazarus's tomb.
The BSB source-word alignment has 101 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Take (7), pick up (6), will be taken away (6), [the disciples] picked up (4), picked up (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 4:6. Its strongest book concentrations include John (26), Luke (20), Mark (20), Matthew (19).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
Airo means to lift, take up, carry, remove, or take away, with the specific sense determined by the object and scene. The word can be ordinary, as when a healed man is told to pick up his mat or when a stone must be removed from Lazarus's tomb. It can be discipleship language, as when Jesus calls followers to take up the cross daily. It can also carry saving weight, as when John calls Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Airo should not be flattened into one meaning every time it appears. The reader must ask what is being lifted, removed, borne, or taken up, who performs the action, and what the passage says the action accomplishes.
Airo covers lifting, taking up, removing, bearing, and taking away. Its selected witnesses move from ordinary physical action to discipleship and atonement, showing why the object of the verb governs the teaching claim.
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
John identifies Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, giving airo its most concentrated saving use in this witness set.
Then Jesus told him, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.”
Jesus tells the healed man to pick up his mat and walk, so the verb marks the embodied evidence of healing.
No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father.”
Jesus says He has authority to lay down His life and take it up again, joining airo to His sovereign death and resurrection authority.
“Take away the stone,” Jesus said. “Lord, by now he stinks,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man. “It has already been four days.”
Jesus commands the stone to be taken away before calling Lazarus from the tomb, using the verb for concrete removal in a resurrection sign.
Then Jesus said to all of them, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
Jesus calls would-be followers to deny themselves, take up the cross daily, and follow Him.
In His humiliation He was deprived of justice. Who can recount His descendants? For His life was removed from the earth.”
The servant's life is described as removed from the earth, giving airo a suffering-servant context in Philip's gospel witness.
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. Encompasses lifting, bearing, and removing; distinctively includes taking away sin through Christ's sacrifice.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 102 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I raise, lift up
Read verseI raise, lift up
Read verseI raise, lift up
Read verseI raise, lift up
Read verseI raise, lift up
Read verseI raise, lift up
Read verseI raise, lift up
Read verseI raise, lift up
Read verseI raise, lift up
Read verseI raise, lift up
Read verseI raise, lift up
Read verseI raise, lift up
Read verseI raise, lift up
Read verseI raise, lift up
Read verseI raise, lift up
Read verseI raise, lift up
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 101 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 101 lexical occurrence verses.
Indicates substitutionary removal of sin.
Indicates removal of sin through redemptive action.John 1:19–34
Hebrew roots and equivalents that share conceptual or etymological ground with this Greek word.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Airo is a strong example of why lexical range must be governed by context. In John 5, airo is as concrete as a mat being picked up by a healed man. In John 11, it is the removal of a stone before Jesus calls Lazarus out. In Luke 9, it becomes the daily taking up of the cross in discipleship. In John 1:29, it names the Lamb's taking away of sin, a claim no ordinary object could bear.
In John 10:18, Jesus speaks of authority to take up His life again. The same verb can serve physical action, discipleship cost, resurrection authority, and atonement because the object and passage define the sense. Faithful teaching refuses both extremes: it will not make every lifting redemptive, and it will not reduce the Lamb's taking away of sin to a generic removal.
John.1.29
Airo can be transitive with a wide range of objects: a mat, a stone, a life, a cross, or sin. The verb's flexibility means the direct object and narrative setting carry the interpretive load. Teachers should not treat English renderings such as take away, lift, or pick up as separate words when they are context-shaped uses of one Greek verb.
The Old Testament gives Scripture a rich vocabulary of bearing guilt, removing sin, carrying burdens, and lifting what is low. The New Testament gathers several of those lines around Jesus. He is the Lamb who takes away sin, the Lord who commands embodied obedience, the Son who lays down and takes up His life, and the suffering servant preached from Isaiah. Airo participates in that movement when the passage gives it that burden, especially in John 1:29.