To wipe off
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ekmasso means to wipe or dry off. Its New Testament witnesses are concrete and intimate: a repentant woman wipes Jesus' feet with her hair, Jesus points out that act as a rebuke to Simon's lack of hospitality, John identifies Mary by her act of wiping the Lord's feet, Mary again wipes Jesus' feet after anointing Him, and Jesus washes and dries His disciples' feet.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἐκμάσσω (G1591) · Open the biblical lexicon
ekmasso means to wipe or dry off. Its New Testament witnesses are concrete and intimate: a repentant woman wipes Jesus' feet with her hair, Jesus points out that act as a rebuke to Simon's lack of hospitality, John identifies Mary by her act of wiping the Lord's feet, Mary again wipes Jesus' feet after anointing Him, and Jesus washes and dries His.
The BSB source-word alignment has 5 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include dry [them] (1), wipe (1), wipe [them] (1), wiped (1), wiped [them] (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Luke 7:38. Its strongest book concentrations include John (3), Luke (2).
Ekmasso means to wipe or dry off. Its New Testament witnesses are concrete and intimate: a repentant woman wipes Jesus' feet with her hair, Jesus points out that act as a rebuke to Simon's lack of hospitality, John identifies Mary by her act of wiping the Lord's feet, Mary again wipes Jesus' feet after anointing Him, and Jesus washes and dries His disciples' feet.
The word is not a broad theological abstraction; it is embodied service, humility, gratitude, and care shown at the feet. Pastorally, ekmasso helps readers see how love becomes visible in lowly action. It warns against detached religiosity and invites humble service shaped by receiving and reflecting Christ's cleansing love.
Ekmasso appears in all direct New Testament witnesses as wiping or drying feet. Luke uses it in the forgiven woman's tears and hair, John recalls Mary wiping Jesus' feet, and Jesus Himself dries the disciples' feet after washing them.
As she stood behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair. Then she kissed His feet and anointed them with the perfume.
The woman wipes Jesus' feet in a scene of tears, love, and costly honor. ekmasso serves embodied repentance and gratitude.
And turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give Me water for My feet, but she wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
Jesus contrasts the woman's wiping with Simon's neglected hospitality. The act exposes humble love and religious coldness.
(Mary, whose brother Lazarus was sick, was to anoint the Lord with perfume and wipe His feet with her hair.)
John identifies Mary by the coming act of anointing and wiping Jesus' feet. The action becomes part of her remembered devotion.
Then Mary took about a pint of expensive perfume, made of pure nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
Mary wipes Jesus' feet after costly anointing. The physical act displays honor, humility, and love before His death.
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.
Jesus dries the disciples' feet after washing them. ekmasso here serves humble love modeled by the Lord Himself.
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. to wipe off
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
5 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I wipe, wipe off thoroughly
Read verseI wipe, wipe off thoroughly
Read verseI wipe, wipe off thoroughly
Read verseI wipe, wipe off thoroughly
Read verseI wipe, wipe off thoroughly
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 5 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)
ἐκμάσσω is built from these roots:
Ekmasso is small in lexical range but rich in pastoral force. Every direct New Testament witness puts the word near feet, tears, perfume, water, a towel, or humble attention. In Luke 7, the woman whom Simon misreads gives Jesus the hospitality Simon withheld, and Jesus interprets her actions through forgiveness and love. In John 12, Mary's wiping of Jesus' feet fills the house with costly devotion before the cross.
In John 13, Jesus Himself takes the servant's place and dries the disciples' feet. The preacher should not turn the word into sentiment. It shows that grace received becomes embodied humility, costly honor, and lowly service to others.
John.13.5
Ekmasso is a focused verb for wiping or drying. Its theological weight in these passages comes from the narrative setting, not from a hidden technical meaning.
Scripture often expresses honor, cleansing, and service through embodied acts. The New Testament witnesses to ekmasso gather those themes around Jesus' feet and His servant-hearted love.