What does κατάγνυμι (katágnymi) mean in the Bible?
κατάγνυμι means to break or fracture. In John 19, it appears in the request and action concerning the legs of those crucified with Jesus.
Greek · G2608
κατάγνυμι
To break
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κατάγνυμι G2608
Pronunciation katágnymi
What does κατάγνυμι (katágnymi) mean in the Bible?
κατάγνυμι means to break or fracture. In John 19, it appears in the request and action concerning the legs of those crucified with Jesus.
Reader summary
Full entry for κατάγνυμι (G2608) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G2608?
The BSB source-word alignment has 4 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include broke (1), broken (1), He will not break (1), they did not break (1).
Where does κατάγνυμι (katágnymi) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 12:20. Its strongest book concentrations include John (3), Matthew (1).
What This Word Actually Means
κατάγνυμι means to break or fracture. In John 19, it appears in the request and action concerning the legs of those crucified with Jesus. The soldiers break the legs of the others, but when they come to Jesus, they do not break His legs because He is already dead. John then frames this as Scripture fulfillment.
The pastoral value is sober historical detail under God's providence. The word belongs to the physical reality of crucifixion, not to decorative symbolism. Yet John also shows that even this brutal detail does not escape Scripture's pattern. The word helps teachers speak of Christ's real death, fulfilled Scripture, and divine sovereignty without turning suffering into abstraction.
How the Bible Uses It
John 19:31 uses κατάγνυμι when the authorities ask Pilate that the legs of the crucified men might be broken and the bodies removed.
- John 19:31 introduces the request to break legs and remove bodies before the Sabbath.
- John 19:32 reports the soldiers breaking the legs of the two men crucified with Jesus.
- John 19:33 says they did not break Jesus' legs because He was already dead.
- John 19:36 connects the unbroken bones to Scripture fulfillment.
κατάγνυμι appears in one of John's most concrete Passion details. The authorities want bodies removed. The soldiers break the legs of the others. Jesus' legs are not broken because He is already dead.
John does not use this detail for shock alone. He pauses to connect the unbroken bones to Scripture and to insist on eyewitness testimony. The physical detail becomes part of the witness that Jesus truly died and that Scripture was fulfilled.
The word helps teachers keep the Passion historical, bodily, and Scripture-governed.
In John 19, κατάγνυμι marks the violence of crucifixion while also highlighting that Jesus' death and body remain under Scripture's authority.
Passage contextbackgroundtheological_synthesis
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It broke 1× John 19:32
broken 1× John 19:31
He will not break 1× Matthew 12:20
they did not break 1× John 19:33
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 12:20 κατεάξει to He will not break Verb - Future Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular John 19:31 κατεαγῶσιν to broken Verb - Aorist Subjunctive Passive - 3rd Person Plural John 19:32 κατέαξαν to broke Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Plural John 19:33 κατέαξαν to they did not break Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Plural
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Matthew 12:20
Aligned rows 4
Books represented 2
Matthew 1 John 3
Source forms
κατέαξαν 2x kateaxan John 19:32, John 19:33
κατεαγῶσιν 1x kateagōsin John 19:31
κατεάξει 1x kateaxei Matthew 12:20
Parsing patterns
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Plural 2x John 19:32, John 19:33
Verb - Aorist Subjunctive Passive - 3rd Person Plural 1x John 19:31
Verb - Future Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular 1x Matthew 12:20
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Use the word to support John's witness to the reality of Jesus' death and fulfilled Scripture.
- Keep the focus on Christ, not on sensational detail.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that κατάγνυμι itself proves the entire Passover-Lamb theology apart from John 19:36 and the wider passage.
- Do not claim that Jesus avoided bodily suffering because His legs were not broken.
Passage contextPastoral applicationlexical
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Breaking with force, often deliberately—emphasizes the violent or forceful nature of the breaking action.
Strong's G2608
Lexical occurrences 4 verses Greek text appearances 4 times Word forms 2 forms 4 references Verse guides 0 guides
Source Gloss
to break
Extended definition Source: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
Breaking with force, often deliberately—emphasizes the violent or forceful nature of the breaking action.
to break: with accusative of thing(s), Mat.12:20 (LXX), Jhn.19:31-33.
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
4 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Matthew 12:20 Verb Third Person Singular Future Active Indicative
κατεάξει, kateaxei
I break in pieces
Read verse John 19:31 Verb Third Person Plural Second Aorist Passive Subjunctive
κατεαγῶσιν kateagwsin
I break in pieces
Read verse John 19:32 Verb Third Person Plural Aorist Active Indicative
κατέαξαν kateaxan
I break in pieces
Read verse John 19:33 Verb Third Person Plural Aorist Active Indicative
κατέαξαν kateaxan
I break in pieces
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.
Grammatical Forms
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.
Form groups 2 Aligned forms 4 Tenses Aorist, Future Voices Active, Passive
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Tenses
Voices
Indicative states a fact or reality 3×
Aorist Active John 19:32 · John 19:33 2×
Future Active Matt 12:20 1×
Subjunctive possibility, probability, or purpose 1×
Aorist Passive John 19:31 1×
Discourse Aspect
How this verb appears across 4 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect
Tense
aorist 3 future 1
Voice
active 3 passive 1
Mood
indicative 3 subjunctive 1
NT Occurrences
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)
Word Origins
κατάγνυμι is built from these roots:
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
What this word opens up
This word opens the bodily and Scripture-governed character of John 19. It helps readers see that even the details after Jesus' death are not outside God's witness and fulfillment.
What it corrects
It corrects readings that spiritualize the cross away from real bodily death, and readings that treat the unbroken bones as random detail.
Framing suggestions
Frame κατάγνυμι with John 19:31-36. The point is not the violence by itself, but the verified death and Scripture-shaped witness.
Illustrations
- A detail in a death record can become evidence because it shows what truly happened.
- Providence is not absent from the brutal facts; John shows Scripture still governing the scene.
Watch points
- Do not use the word to dwell on violence for its own sake.
- Do not detach the unbroken bones from John's stated Scripture-fulfillment frame.
Passage contexttheological_synthesisPastoral application
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain