To bend forward
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Kypto means to bend forward or stoop down, describing an actual lowering of the body rather than a spiritual condition built into the verb itself. Mark uses it when John the Baptist says he is not worthy to stoop and untie the sandals of the stronger One who comes after him.
Reader summary
Full entry for κύπτω (G2955) · Open the biblical lexicon
Kypto means to bend forward or stoop down, describing an actual lowering of the body rather than a spiritual condition built into the verb itself. Mark uses it when John the Baptist says he is not worthy to stoop and untie the sandals of the stronger One who comes after him.
The BSB source-word alignment has 3 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include bent (1), He bent down (1), to stoop down (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Mark 1:7. Its strongest book concentrations include John (2), Mark (1).
Kypto means to bend forward or stoop down, describing an actual lowering of the body rather than a spiritual condition built into the verb itself. Mark uses it when John the Baptist says he is not worthy to stoop and untie the sandals of the stronger One who comes after him. The posture makes John's humility concrete while his words direct attention to Christ's surpassing dignity.
In John 8, the verb describes Jesus bending to write on the ground, then bending again after His answer. Those occurrences help readers notice the scene's measured movement, but they do not disclose what Jesus wrote. Because John 7:53-8:11 has textual-history questions, teachers should identify that issue and keep claims modest. Kypto invites close observation of bodily posture while leaving theology to the words, actions, and contexts that govern each occurrence.
Kypto describes bodily stooping in three New Testament scenes: John the Baptist lowers himself in confessed unworthiness before the coming Christ, and Jesus twice bends toward the ground during a contested accusation scene.
And he proclaimed: “After me will come One more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.
John's imagined stooping places him at the task of a lowly servant and makes his confession of Christ's greater worth visible.
They said this to test Him, in order to have a basis for accusing Him. But Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with His finger.
Within this textual-history-sensitive account, Jesus bends while His opponents press their test; the posture marks the scene's pace but does not explain what He wrote.
And again He bent down and wrote on the ground.
The repeated bending follows Jesus' searching answer and keeps the narrative movement under His measured action rather than the accusers' urgency.
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 bend forward
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
3 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I bend, stoop down
Read verseI bend, stoop down
Read verseI bend, stoop down
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 3 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)
κύπτω 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.
Kypto is a modest verb with a useful pastoral discipline. In Mark 1:7, John the Baptist does not merely say that Christ is greater; he imagines himself bending to the lowest household task and still declares himself unworthy. The posture serves his confession rather than becoming a technique for humility. In John 8, Jesus' bending and writing regulate the scene, but the narrative never tells readers what He wrote.
Faithful teaching therefore resists two opposite errors: overlooking concrete bodily action and making that action bear a hidden message the text does not provide. The word rewards careful attention, then sends the teacher back to the speaker's confession, Jesus' answer, and the surrounding passage for the theological claim.
Mark.1.7
Kypto denotes the physical action of bending forward or stooping. The verb does not itself mean worship, humility, shame, or mercy. Mark's servant task and John's accusation scene supply those different relational settings, so interpreters should let syntax and narrative purpose govern the significance of the same bodily motion.
Scripture often uses bodily lowering to make a relationship visible, whether servants bend to a task or worshipers bow before God. Kypto contributes only three New Testament actions to that wider pattern. Mark 1 places the motion inside John's witness to the stronger Christ, while John 8 uses it as narrative movement. The canonical theology of humility and worship must therefore come from the passages that name whom one serves and why, not from the posture verb alone.