To complete
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G2005 means to complete, finish, carry out, accomplish, or bring an activity toward its intended end. Paul uses it for finishing the collection and completing a promised act of generosity, for carrying holiness forward, for God's continuing work in believers, and in a warning about beginning by the Spirit but seeking completion by the flesh.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἐπιτελέω (G2005) · Open the biblical lexicon
G2005 means to complete, finish, carry out, accomplish, or bring an activity toward its intended end. Paul uses it for finishing the collection and completing a promised act of generosity, for carrying holiness forward, for God's continuing work in believers, and in a warning about beginning by the Spirit but seeking completion by the flesh.
The BSB source-word alignment has 10 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include after I have completed (1), are undergoing (1), are you now finishing (1), finish (1), perfecting (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Romans 15:28. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Corinthians (4), Hebrews (2), 1 Peter (1), Galatians (1).
G2005 means to complete, finish, carry out, accomplish, or bring an activity toward its intended end. Paul uses it for finishing the collection and completing a promised act of generosity, for carrying holiness forward, for God's continuing work in believers, and in a warning about beginning by the Spirit but seeking completion by the flesh. Hebrews uses it for carrying out tabernacle construction and priestly service.
First Peter describes comparable sufferings being experienced or accomplished among believers in the world. The verb names completion; it does not promise effortless success, human perfection, or identical agency in every passage. Each object supplies the goal.
The ten governed forms distribute completion across human tasks, divine work, moral formation, ritual service, theological warning, and shared suffering. Romans and 2 Corinthians stress carrying a concrete collection or commitment through. Philippians identifies God as the one who will complete the good work begun in believers. Galatians rebukes reliance on flesh for a work begun by the Spirit.
Hebrews describes carrying out prescribed construction and worship duties, while 1 Peter locates suffering within the experience of the worldwide brotherhood.
When I have completed this task and have safely delivered this contribution to them
Paul speaks of finishing a concrete ministry responsibility before traveling onward.
Perfecting holiness in the fear of God
The participle belongs to an appeal for cleansing and mature holiness. It does not claim sinless completion in one moment.
Now finish the work, so that you may complete it with the same eager desire
Two G2005 forms urge the Corinthians to bring an expressed willingness into proportionate action.
After starting in the Spirit, are you now finishing in the flesh
The rhetorical question exposes a change of reliance. It does not make disciplined effort itself fleshly.
He who began a good work in you will continue to perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus
God is the stated agent and Christ's day the horizon. The promise does not specify an uninterrupted subjective experience or immediate completion.
The priests entered regularly into the first room to perform their sacred duties
The verb can describe carrying out repeated priestly service, not only reaching a once-for-all endpoint.
The same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world
The passive form concerns suffering experienced or accomplished among fellow believers. It is not a command to complete suffering or remain in preventable harm.
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. Complete through to fulfillment; accomplish what was begun, emphasizing execution to endpoint.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
11 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I complete, accomplish, perfect
Read verseI complete, accomplish, perfect
Read verseI complete, accomplish, perfect
Read verseI complete, accomplish, perfect
Read verseI complete, accomplish, perfect
Read verseI complete, accomplish, perfect
Read verseI complete, accomplish, perfect
Read verseI complete, accomplish, perfect
Read verseI complete, accomplish, perfect
Read verseI complete, accomplish, perfect
Read verseI complete, accomplish, perfect
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 10 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 10 lexical occurrence verses.
ἐπιτελέω is built from these roots:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Completion language can encourage perseverance only when the passage's agency and object remain clear. The Corinthians are responsible to finish a promised act of generosity, and Paul completes delivery of the collection. Philippians grounds confidence in God, who began the good work and will carry it toward Christ's day. Galatians does not condemn every human effort; it rebukes a shift from the Spirit to flesh as the basis of completion.
Hebrews uses the verb for prescribed work performed repeatedly, showing that completion need not always mean a final once-for-all endpoint. First Peter's suffering use calls for solidarity and resistance in faith, not passive acceptance of abuse. A faithful sermon can call people to finish truthful commitments, depend on God's continuing work, and reject self-saving reliance without promising that every project will succeed or that mature holiness eliminates weakness immediately.
Phil.1.6
G2005 occurs in active, middle or passive, participial, imperative, infinitive, and finite forms. It can name finishing an object, carrying out a duty, bringing a process forward, or experiencing something being accomplished. Tense and voice contribute to the sentence but do not make every use final, flawless, or divinely caused.
Scripture repeatedly joins God's faithful completion of his purposes with human responsibility to carry entrusted work through. Priestly and construction settings also show completion as performance according to a given pattern. Canonical synthesis should preserve the difference between divine promise, human stewardship, repeated duty, and suffering.