To rest upon (literally or figuratively)
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Epikeimai means to lie upon, rest on, press upon, or be imposed. The New Testament uses it for a crowd pressing around Jesus to hear God's word, voices pressing their demand for crucifixion, a stone lying against Lazarus's tomb, fish resting on a charcoal fire, a storm bearing down on a ship, and a gospel obligation laid upon Paul.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἐπίκειμαι (G1945) · Open the biblical lexicon
Epikeimai means to lie upon, rest on, press upon, or be imposed. The New Testament uses it for a crowd pressing around Jesus to hear God's word, voices pressing their demand for crucifixion, a stone lying against Lazarus's tomb, fish resting on a charcoal fire, a storm bearing down on a ship, and a gospel obligation laid upon Paul.
The BSB source-word alignment has 7 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include . . . (1), continued to batter us (1), imposed (1), laid (1), on it (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Luke 5:1. Its strongest book concentrations include John (2), Luke (2), 1 Corinthians (1), Acts (1).
Epikeimai means to lie upon, rest on, press upon, or be imposed. The New Testament uses it for a crowd pressing around Jesus to hear God's word, voices pressing their demand for crucifixion, a stone lying against Lazarus's tomb, fish resting on a charcoal fire, a storm bearing down on a ship, and a gospel obligation laid upon Paul. The shared idea is something present with weight, contact, or pressure, but that pressure may be physical, social, circumstantial, or vocational.
The verb itself does not say whether what presses is faithful, hostile, providential, or burdensome. Teachers should keep each subject and object clear: eager hearers are not the same as a coercive mob, a tombstone is not an inward burden, and Paul's obligation does not authorize others to manufacture a call for him.
Epikeimai describes what lies on or presses upon. Its witnesses move from material placement to crowd pressure, coercive insistence, sustained danger, and a divinely given obligation to preach.
On one occasion, while Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret with the crowd pressing in on Him to hear the word of God,
The crowd presses around Jesus because they want to hear God's word, giving the pressure an eager rather than hostile purpose.
But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices for Jesus to be crucified. And their clamor prevailed.
The crowd's voices press their demand until the political decision bends toward crucifixion, exposing coercive public pressure.
Jesus, once again deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.
A stone lies against the cave entrance, anchoring the scene in the material reality of Lazarus's tomb before Jesus commands its removal.
When they landed, they saw a charcoal fire there with fish on it, and some bread.
Fish rests on the fire prepared by the risen Jesus, locating resurrection fellowship in an ordinary, embodied meal.
When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the great storm continued to batter us, we abandoned all hope of being saved.
The sustained storm bears down on the ship until human hope collapses, preparing for Paul's God-given assurance.
Yet when I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast, because I am obligated to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
Paul describes gospel proclamation as an obligation laid upon him, removing grounds for self-congratulation.
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 rest upon (literally or figuratively)
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
7 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I lie upon, am insistent
Read verseI lie upon, am insistent
Read verseI lie upon, am insistent
Read verseI lie upon, am insistent
Read verseI lie upon, am insistent
Read verseI lie upon, am insistent
Read verseI lie upon, am insistent
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 7 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)
ἐπίκειμαι is built from these roots:
Epikeimai helps readers distinguish forms of pressure rather than treating all weight as the same. In Luke 5, people press toward Jesus to hear God's word; in Luke 23, loud insistence presses toward His crucifixion. John uses the verb without abstraction: a stone lies at Lazarus's tomb and fish rests on the fire prepared by the risen Lord. Acts 27 places the crew under a storm so sustained that hope disappears, yet God's promise will govern the outcome.
Paul then speaks of gospel necessity laid upon him, not as a platform for boasting but as a stewardship he must fulfill. These passages invite honest attention to physical reality, social coercion, crushing circumstances, and genuine calling while refusing to label every felt pressure as God's command.
John.11.38
Epikeimai can describe an object lying on something, a crowd or storm pressing upon someone, an insistent demand, or an obligation imposed. The middle or passive forms often present the subject as already situated under that contact or pressure. The noun or clause doing the pressing identifies whether the usage is spatial, social, circumstantial, or vocational.
Scripture knows the weight of stones, storms, crowds, commands, and entrusted service. It neither dismisses material pressure nor lets pressure define truth. Jesus confronts death at a sealed tomb, receives hostile insistence without surrendering His mission, provides a meal after resurrection, and calls servants whose stewardship rests on His gospel rather than their self-importance.