Ill-treatment or harm names the injury that an actor inflicts, and the passage determines whose action is in view. Stephen recalls the mistreatment of Abraham's descendants and the Egyptian king's deadly treatment of their infants.
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Full entry for κακόω (G2559) · Open the biblical lexicon
Ill-treatment or harm names the injury that an actor inflicts, and the passage determines whose action is in view. Stephen recalls the mistreatment of Abraham's descendants and the Egyptian king's deadly treatment of their infants.
The BSB source-word alignment has 6 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include . . . (1), [and] oppressed (1), can harm (1), mistreated (1), poisoned (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Acts 7:6. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (5), 1 Peter (1).
Ill-treatment or harm names the injury that an actor inflicts, and the passage determines whose action is in view. Stephen recalls the mistreatment of Abraham's descendants and the Egyptian king's deadly treatment of their infants. Acts also reports Herod harming church members, including James' death, and opposition at Iconium poisoning minds against the brothers.
The same book gives Paul a particular promise of protection at Corinth. First Peter asks who will harm those zealous for good but immediately allows that they may suffer for doing right. These witnesses cannot be reduced to either universal safety or blame for every sufferer. Keep the actual victim, harmful actor and supplied promise distinct. Teaching should acknowledge injury, support appropriate protection and preserve the stated encouragement without making every believer's danger a failure of faith or assigning collective guilt to an entire people.
Enslaved descendants, endangered infants, Herod's violence, hostile persuasion, Paul's particular protection and possible righteous suffering supply all six selected contexts. Actual actors and explicit qualifications prevent universal immunity or victim blame.
About that time, King Herod reached out to harm some who belonged to the church.
Herod reaches out to harm church members and the next verse reports James' death, so Peter's later rescue cannot erase another believer's narrated suffering.
For I am with you and no one will lay a hand on you, because I have many people in this city.”
The Lord's nighttime word gives Paul protection in this city and encouragement to speak, making the addressee and Corinthian setting part of the particular promise.
Who can harm you if you are zealous for what is good?
The question about harm to those zealous for good is followed immediately by the possibility of suffering for what is right, refusing an absolute immunity reading.
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 afflict or ill-treat physically; also to embitter or exasperate someone's disposition.
To afflict or ill-treat physically; also to embitter or exasperate someone's disposition.
(κακός), [in LXX chiefly for רָעַע hi., עָנָה pi. ;]
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
6 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I treat badly
Read verseI treat badly
Read verseI treat badly
Read verseI treat badly
Read verseI treat badly
Read verseI treat badly
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 4 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 4 selected witnesses from 6 lexical occurrence verses.
κακόω 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.
The supplied narratives and letter hold encouragement alongside real injury. Herod's action harms members of the church and James dies; the later rescue of Peter does not cancel that death. Paul receives a particular word of protection at Corinth, while First Peter explicitly allows suffering for doing right after asking who will harm those eager for good. Stephen's recall of enslaved descendants and endangered infants also names oppression without assigning fault to those harmed.
At Iconium, particular unbelieving opponents influence others against the brothers, but the preceding verse also reports Jewish and Greek believers. Teach the passage's courage without flattening its actors or promises. Neither ethnic generalization nor a universal promise of bodily immunity is warranted, and real suffering should never be treated as automatic evidence that someone's faith was defective.
1Pet.3.13
The licensed Greek range includes ill-treatment, affliction and embittering. The six selected sentences describe physical oppression, harmful action, hostile influence and a question about possible injury. Subjects, objects and the next sentence determine the application; the shared verb does not make every harmful act or protection promise identical.
Genesis 15:13-14 explicitly supplies the mistreatment and promised deliverance that Stephen recalls in Acts 7:6-7. Preserve that named correspondence without changing either lexical identity or transferring the period and outcome to a current sufferer. The account does not authorize present enslavement, violence or exposure to harm, nor does it give a teacher the timetable of another person's rescue.