παραλαμβάνω

παραλαμβάνω (paralambanō) means to take to oneself, take along, receive, accept, welcome, or receive something handed on. The object and relationship determine whether the action concerns a person, teaching, tradition, responsibility, or future welcome. Joseph is commanded to receive Mary as his wife and later to take the child and His mother to safety from Herod.

Jesus takes selected disciples with Him at decisive moments. John's prologue says the Word came to His own and His own did not receive Him, exposing rejection of the incarnate Son. Paul uses the verb for authoritative gospel and worship tradition he received and handed on: Christ died for sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, was raised, and gave the Supper on the night He was betrayed.

Colossians joins receiving Christ Jesus as Lord to continuing to walk in Him. Jesus promises to return and welcome His disciples into His presence. These uses resist both passivity and possession. Receiving Christ means trusting and continuing under His lordship, not merely acquiring religious information. Receiving apostolic tradition requires faithful preservation and embodied obedience, not treating every inherited custom as equally authoritative.

Taking a spouse, child, disciple, or messenger along never turns a person into property or removes consent, protection, and accountability. The disputed “one taken” sayings in the Olivet discourse must be interpreted from their Noah context and wider eschatology rather than from the verb alone. παραλαμβάνω helps readers ask what is received, from whom, into what relationship, and toward what faithful action.

παραλαμβάνω describes taking a person along, receiving someone into relationship, accepting apostolic teaching, and being welcomed into Christ's presence. The selected passages move from Joseph's protective obedience through rejection and reception of the Son to gospel transmission, Christian walking, and promised reunion.