To extend
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Ἐκτείνω means to stretch out or extend something, especially a hand. In the Synoptic healing accounts, Jesus stretches out His hand and touches a man with leprosy, joining willing compassion to cleansing authority.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἐκτείνω (G1614) · Open the biblical lexicon
Ἐκτείνω means to stretch out or extend something, especially a hand. In the Synoptic healing accounts, Jesus stretches out His hand and touches a man with leprosy, joining willing compassion to cleansing authority.
The BSB source-word alignment has 16 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Stretch out (4), [Jesus] reached out (2), [and] you did not lay (1), he stretched [it] out (1), Jesus reached out (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 8:3. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (6), Acts (3), Luke (3), Mark (3).
Ἐκτείνω means to stretch out or extend something, especially a hand. In the Synoptic healing accounts, Jesus stretches out His hand and touches a man with leprosy, joining willing compassion to cleansing authority. Acts prays for God to stretch out His hand to heal while the church speaks His word boldly. The verb can also describe hands stretched out in arrest or death, as Jesus' words to Peter indicate.
Physical extension may therefore convey mercy, divine action, hostile seizure, or surrendered suffering. The gesture gains meaning from the person acting and the purpose served. Teachers should attend to the whole scene rather than turning every extended hand into the same symbol.
Ἐκτείνω portrays purposeful extension. Jesus' cleansing touch, God's healing hand, and Peter's foretold suffering show how the same bodily image can serve mercy, power, or costly discipleship.
Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” He said. “Be clean!” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Jesus crosses a feared boundary by extending His hand to touch the man, and His authoritative word immediately cleanses him.
Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” He said. “Be clean!”
Mark explicitly places compassion beside the extended hand, joining Jesus' disposition, touch, and command in one act of mercy.
Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” He said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.
Luke preserves the personal encounter while emphasizing the immediate departure of the disease under Jesus' willing authority.
Truly, truly, I tell you, when you were young, you dressed yourself and walked where you wanted; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”
Jesus' prophecy to Peter uses stretched-out hands within a saying about being led where he does not wish to go, pointing toward death that glorifies God.
As You stretch out Your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.”
The church asks God to extend His hand while servants proclaim boldly, locating healing signs under His action and Jesus' name.
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. Stretch out or extend a limb or object, often in gesture of healing, blessing, or reaching toward someone.
Stretch out or extend a limb or object, often in gesture of healing, blessing, or reaching toward someone.
to stretch out or forth: τ. χεῖρα (as often in LXX), Mat.8:3 12:13 14:31 26:51, Mrk.1:41 3:5, Luk.5:13 6:10 Jhn.21:18, Act.26:1; before ἐπί, with accusative of person(s), towards, Mat.12:49; against, Luk.22:53; εἰς ἴασιν, Act.4:30; of anchors, to cast, Act.27:30.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I stretch out, cast forth
Read verseI stretch out, cast forth
Read verseI stretch out, cast forth
Read verseI stretch out, cast forth
Read verseI stretch out, cast forth
Read verseI stretch out, cast forth
Read verseI stretch out, cast forth
Read verseI stretch out, cast forth
Read verseI stretch out, cast forth
Read verseI stretch out, cast forth
Read verseI stretch out, cast forth
Read verseI stretch out, cast forth
Read verseI stretch out, cast forth
Read verseI stretch out, cast forth
Read verseI stretch out, cast forth
Read verseI stretch out, cast forth
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 16 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 1 selected witness from 16 lexical occurrence verses.
ἐκτείνω is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Jesus does not heal the man with leprosy through technique or distant spectacle. He wills cleansing, extends His hand, touches the excluded man, and speaks an effective command. The gesture makes compassion tangible without implying that touch itself carries autonomous power. Acts 4 keeps the agency clear when the church asks God to stretch out His hand through the name of Jesus while they continue bold proclamation.
John 21 gives the image a costly turn as Peter's future outstretched hands belong to a death that will glorify God. The extended hand can thus serve restoring mercy and surrendered witness. Christian ministry should imitate Christ's willing nearness while depending on God's action and refusing promises the passage does not authorize.
Matt.8.3
Ἐκτείνω combines an outward prefix with the verb to stretch. A stated object, commonly hand or hands, identifies what is extended; surrounding verbs explain whether the action touches, seizes, heals, or yields.
The Lord's outstretched hand saves Israel and judges oppressors. Jesus embodies divine mercy in cleansing touch, and the risen Lord calls witnesses to faithful service even through suffering.