To lead up; by extension to bring out; specially, to sail away
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G321 is a Greek verb built around leading or bringing up, but its actual New Testament uses range across several established settings. Matthew 4:1 says Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit, where the upward element is subordinated to the journey and testing scene.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἀνάγω (G321) · Open the biblical lexicon
G321 is a Greek verb built around leading or bringing up, but its actual New Testament uses range across several established settings. Matthew 4:1 says Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit, where the upward element is subordinated to the journey and testing scene.
The BSB source-word alignment has 23 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include to sail (3), [After] putting out (1), [And] he set sail (1), [and] sailed (1), [and] set sail (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 4:1. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (17), Luke (3), Hebrews (1), Matthew (1).
G321 is a Greek verb built around leading or bringing up, but its actual New Testament uses range across several established settings. Matthew 4:1 says Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit, where the upward element is subordinated to the journey and testing scene. Luke 2:22 uses the verb when Jesus’ parents bring Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord.
Acts frequently employs its middle form as a nautical expression for putting out to sea or setting sail. Acts 7:41 uses it in sacrificial language when Israel offers a sacrifice to the calf, while Romans 10:7 and Hebrews 13:20 speak of bringing Christ up from the dead. This variety warns against deriving a single spiritual ascent theme from the compound’s parts.
Lexical convention can make the verb mean sail, present, bring out, or raise, depending on construction. Its pastoral usefulness lies in tracing directed movement and agency: who leads, what is brought forward, what voyage begins, what worship is offered, and who acts in resurrection. The surrounding passage, not the prefix alone, supplies the theology.
G321 leads Jesus into testing, brings Him to Jerusalem for presentation, launches missionary and dangerous sea journeys, names an idolatrous offering, and participates in resurrection language. Context turns one motion verb into distinct narrative actions.
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
The Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness for testing after His baptism, making divine agency and obedient sonship central while the verb itself does not explain the purpose of temptation.
And when the time of purification according to the Law of Moses was complete, His parents brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord
Mary and Joseph bring Jesus to Jerusalem for presentation according to the Law, so directed movement serves covenant obedience and the recognition scenes that follow.
After setting sail from Paphos, Paul and his companions came to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem.
Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos toward Pamphylia, using the verb as ordinary nautical language within a mission journey that also includes John’s departure.
Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,
The benediction names God as the One who brought the great Shepherd back from the dead through the eternal covenant’s blood, locating resurrection agency in God’s peace-giving action.
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. Physical movement upward or outward; nautically, to set sail; theologically, to raise from death.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 24 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I lead up, put to sea, set sail
Read verseI lead up, put to sea, set sail
Read verseI lead up, put to sea, set sail
Read verseI lead up, put to sea, set sail
Read verseI lead up, put to sea, set sail
Read verseI lead up, put to sea, set sail
Read verseI lead up, put to sea, set sail
Read verseI lead up, put to sea, set sail
Read verseI lead up, put to sea, set sail
Read verseI lead up, put to sea, set sail
Read verseI lead up, put to sea, set sail
Read verseI lead up, put to sea, set sail
Read verseI lead up, put to sea, set sail
Read verseI lead up, put to sea, set sail
Read verseI lead up, put to sea, set sail
Read verseI lead up, put to sea, set sail
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 23 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 23 lexical occurrence verses.
ἀνάγω 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.
G321 demonstrates why responsible word study must move beyond a compound’s visible pieces. The Spirit’s leading of Jesus into the wilderness belongs to Matthew’s account of the faithful Son under testing. The family’s journey to Jerusalem in Luke fulfills covenant obligations and prepares for Simeon and Anna’s testimony. Acts uses the same verb repeatedly for setting sail, sometimes in fruitful mission and sometimes amid disputed decisions, storms, or danger.
That nautical convention is not a secret metaphor; it is the ordinary language of departure by ship. The sacrificial use in Acts 7 concerns idolatrous worship, proving that bringing something up does not make the action holy. Resurrection contexts are different again: Romans asks who will bring Christ up, while Hebrews blesses the God who brought the great Shepherd back from the dead.
Across these settings, agency and object matter. The Spirit leads, parents bring, travelers launch, idolaters offer, rulers bring a prisoner out, and God raises the Shepherd. Teaching G321 well means resisting verbal shortcuts and asking what movement the sentence actually names. The result is a richer theology of obedience, travel, worship, danger, and resurrection because each arises from its own passage instead of one invented ascent motif.
Heb.13.20
G321 combines ana with agō, yet Koine usage includes conventional senses not recoverable by simply adding up and lead. Its middle forms commonly describe putting to sea, while objects and prepositional phrases mark presentation, bringing out, or resurrection.
The Greek Old Testament often uses related leading-up language for movement, sacrifice, and bringing persons or things forward. New Testament writers inherit that range, but resurrection confession gives some contexts a distinctive center in God’s action toward Christ.