To change place
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
Metabaino means to move from one place to another, depart, pass over, or cross from one state to another. In ordinary narrative it can describe Jesus going on to teach, a mountain moving, or Paul leaving the synagogue and moving next door.
Reader summary
Full entry for μεταβαίνω (G3327) · Open the biblical lexicon
Metabaino means to move from one place to another, depart, pass over, or cross from one state to another. In ordinary narrative it can describe Jesus going on to teach, a mountain moving, or Paul leaving the synagogue and moving next door.
The BSB source-word alignment has 12 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Leave (2), Moving on (2), [Paul] left (1), he has crossed over (1), He went on (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 8:34. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (6), John (3), 1 John (1), Acts (1).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
Metabaino means to move from one place to another, depart, pass over, or cross from one state to another. In ordinary narrative it can describe Jesus going on to teach, a mountain moving, or Paul leaving the synagogue and moving next door. In John, however, the word carries major theological weight. Whoever hears Jesus word and believes the Father has crossed over from death to life.
Jesus also knows His hour has come to leave this world and return to the Father. In 1 John, believers know they have passed from death to life because they love the brothers. Metabaino therefore can name physical movement, mission relocation, decisive salvation transfer, and Jesus return to the Father. Context keeps those uses distinct while showing that movement language can mark real transition under God.
Metabaino ranges from physical movement to decisive spiritual transition. It can describe Jesus or Paul moving locations, a mountain moving, Christ leaving the world for the Father, and believers passing from death to life. The word becomes theologically weighty when the passage names the state crossed.
After Jesus had finished instructing His twelve disciples, He went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.
Jesus moves on after instructing the Twelve. The verb marks ordinary mission movement into teaching and preaching.
“Because you have so little faith,” He answered. “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Jesus uses mountain movement in teaching about faith. The word belongs to a vivid faith saying, not a technique for spectacle.
Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment. Indeed, he has crossed over from death to life.
The believer has crossed over from death to life. Metabaino names decisive salvation transfer through hearing and believing.
It was now just before the Passover Feast, and Jesus knew that His hour had come to leave this world and return to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the very end.
Jesus knows His hour has come to leave the world and return to the Father. The verb marks His movement through death, love, and return.
So Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titus Justus, a worshiper of God.
Paul leaves the synagogue and moves next door. The word marks mission relocation after opposition.
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.
Love for the brothers shows believers have passed from death to life. The transition is evidenced by transformed love.
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.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Transition or movement from one state to another, emphasizing departure or passage between distinct locations or conditions.
Transition or movement from one state to another, emphasizing departure or passage between distinct locations or conditions.
to pass over from one place to another : Mat.17:20, Luk.10:7; with reference to the point of departure only, to withdraw, depart: Mat.8:34 11:1 12:9 15:29, Jhn.7:3, Act.18:7; of removal from this life, ἐκ τ. κότμου πρὸς τ. Πατέρα, Jhn.13:1; metaphorically, ἐκ τ. θανάτου εἰς τ. ζωήν, Jhn.5:24, 1Jn.3:14.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
12 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I leave, depart, remove, pass over
Read verseI leave, depart, remove, pass over
Read verseI leave, depart, remove, pass over
Read verseI leave, depart, remove, pass over
Read verseI leave, depart, remove, pass over
Read verseI leave, depart, remove, pass over
Read verseI leave, depart, remove, pass over
Read verseI leave, depart, remove, pass over
Read verseI leave, depart, remove, pass over
Read verseI leave, depart, remove, pass over
Read verseI leave, depart, remove, pass over
Read verseI leave, depart, remove, pass over
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.
How this verb appears across 12 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 1 selected witness from 12 lexical occurrence verses.
μεταβαίνω is built from these roots:
Love evidences a decisive transition from spiritual death to life.1 John 3:11-18
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Metabaino is not always dramatic. Sometimes Jesus simply goes on to teach, and Paul simply moves next door. Yet the same verb can carry some of Johns most important transition language. In John 5, the believer has crossed from death to life through hearing Jesus word and believing the One who sent Him. In John 13, Jesus faces the hour when He will leave the world and return to the Father, loving His own to the end.
In 1 John, love for the brothers is evidence that this death-to-life transfer is real. The word therefore helps readers distinguish ordinary movement from saving transition while seeing both under the purposeful movement of God mission.
John.5.24
Metabaino can mean move, go on, depart, pass over, or cross from one condition to another. The object or implied boundary determines whether the movement is geographical, rhetorical, missional, or spiritual.
Scripture often uses crossing and departure language for deliverance, exile, return, and movement under Gods command. Metabaino brings that movement logic into the New Testament around Jesus mission, salvation, and love-created life.