πατάσσω

G3960, patássō, is a Greek verb for striking or delivering a blow. Severity is not fixed inside the word. An angel taps Peter's side to wake him, a disciple strikes with a sword and severs an ear, Moses strikes down an Egyptian, an angel strikes Herod in fatal judgment, and Revelation depicts the returning Christ striking nations. Instrument, object, outcome, agent, and literary setting establish whether the action is a tap, wound, killing, judicial act, prophetic image, or eschatological judgment.

During Jesus' arrest, a companion's sword blow is immediately answered by Jesus' command to return the sword and His appeal to the Father's power and the fulfillment of Scripture. The occurrence cannot support religious violence. Matthew also uses patássō in Jesus' quotation, “I will strike the Shepherd,” where the saying explains the disciples' scattering during the passion.

Matthew's shepherd quotation matters canonically, yet patássō itself neither assigns every actor's responsibility nor supplies an atonement doctrine. Acts 12 deliberately shows contextual breadth. An angel's blow wakes and frees Peter, while later an angel strikes Herod after he accepts divine acclaim without giving glory to God, and Herod dies. The narrative identifies the latter as judgment, but readers may not use it to label a present illness or death as an analogous sentence.

Revelation's uses belong to apocalyptic visions of final justice, not permission for church violence.

G3960 describes a blow whose force ranges from waking contact to wounding and death. The surrounding scene supplies its force: a waking tap in one passage, a wound or death in another, and divine or apocalyptic judgment elsewhere.