To stand up (literal or figurative, transitive or intransitive)
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ἀνίστημι (anistēmi) means to cause someone to stand, to stand up, to rise, to get ready and act, or, in resurrection settings, to raise or rise from the dead. The verb can mark a simple narrative transition: a person gets up to speak, travel, obey, or return home.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἀνίστημι (G450) · Open the biblical lexicon
ἀνίστημι (anistēmi) means to cause someone to stand, to stand up, to rise, to get ready and act, or, in resurrection settings, to raise or rise from the dead. The verb can mark a simple narrative transition: a person gets up to speak, travel, obey, or return home.
The BSB source-word alignment has 108 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include get up (14), stood up (8), got up (7), he got up (4), Rise (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 9:9. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (45), Luke (27), Mark (17), John (8).
ἀνίστημι (anistēmi) means to cause someone to stand, to stand up, to rise, to get ready and act, or, in resurrection settings, to raise or rise from the dead. The verb can mark a simple narrative transition: a person gets up to speak, travel, obey, or return home. In Jesus’ parable, the lost son says he will get up and go to his father, so the physical action carries out a repentant resolve but does not by itself mean repentance.
The same verb bears much greater weight when God raises Jesus from the dead, when Peter commands Tabitha to get up after praying, when Jesus promises to raise believers on the last day, and when the dead in Christ rise at His return. Context must distinguish ordinary standing, restored earthly life, Christ’s once-for-all resurrection, and the future resurrection of His people.
Acts 2 makes God the acting subject and Jesus the crucified One whom death could not hold. Acts 17 presents that resurrection as God’s public assurance that the appointed Judge will judge the world in righteousness. John 6 joins future raising to looking to the Son and believing in Him. First Thessalonians places the rising of the dead in Christ within the Lord’s descent and the church’s consolation.
The verb does not turn every call to “rise” into a resurrection promise or guarantee immediate recovery from illness, grief, poverty, or oppression. Nor does it reduce resurrection to renewed motivation. ἀνίστημι helps readers hear the difference between standing up within mortal life and God’s decisive act of raising the dead, with Christ’s bodily resurrection as the gospel center and His people’s future rising as covenant hope.
ἀνίστημι describes standing up, beginning action, being restored to life, Christ’s resurrection, and the future rising of His people. The selected texts move from a repentant son’s resolve through apostolic signs to the gospel announcement that God raised Jesus and will raise those who belong to Him.
I will get up and go back to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
The son’s rising is the bodily action that follows his confession and resolve to return. The verb contributes movement, while repentance is disclosed by the whole speech, return, and appeal to the father.
But God raised Him from the dead, releasing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep Him in its grip.
Peter announces God’s reversal of the crucifixion: the rejected Jesus has been raised, death could not hold Him, and the resurrection vindicates Him as Lord and Christ. This is historical gospel proclamation, not a metaphor for resilience.
Then Peter sent them all out of the room. He knelt down and prayed, and turning toward her body, he said, “Tabitha, get up!” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up.
Peter first prays, then commands Tabitha to rise, and the restored disciple is presented alive to the saints and widows. The sign displays Jesus’ compassionate power through an apostolic witness; it does not make Peter an independent source of life.
For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”
Paul connects the resurrection of Jesus to God’s appointed day of righteous judgment. The raising is assurance concerning the identity and authority of the Judge, calling every hearer to repent.
For it is My Father’s will that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Jesus promises last-day resurrection to everyone who looks to the Son and believes. Eternal life is already given and will be bodily completed by Christ’s own raising action.
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise.
Paul comforts grieving believers with the personal return of the Lord and the priority of the dead in Christ. Their rising is not a vague survival of influence but part of the church’s future resurrection hope.
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 raise up or rise; distinctively denotes emergence or appearance of a person or movement into prominence.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 112 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I raise up, set up, rise from
Read verseI raise up, set up, rise from
Read verseI raise up, set up, rise from
Read verseI raise up, set up, rise from
Read verseI raise up, set up, rise from
Read verseI raise up, set up, rise from
Read verseI raise up, set up, rise from
Read verseI raise up, set up, rise from
Read verseI raise up, set up, rise from
Read verseI raise up, set up, rise from
Read verseI raise up, set up, rise from
Read verseI raise up, set up, rise from
Read verseI raise up, set up, rise from
Read verseI raise up, set up, rise from
Read verseI raise up, set up, rise from
Read verseI raise up, set up, rise from
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 108 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 8 selected witnesses from 108 lexical occurrence verses.
ἀνίστημι is built from these roots:
Affirms resurrection certainty.Acts 2:14-41
Affirms bodily resurrection.Mark 10:32–34
The resurrection is central to apostolic preaching, validating Jesus’ identity and victory over death.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Christian hope is not built on the human ability to get back up. Luke can use ἀνίστημι for the lost son acting on his resolve to return, but Acts proclaims something human resolve cannot accomplish: God raised the crucified Jesus from the dead. His resurrection vindicates His identity, defeats death’s claim, and assures the world of coming judgment through the appointed Man.
Peter’s command to Tabitha occurs only after prayer and serves as an apostolic sign of the living Lord’s compassion. It is neither a technique nor the final resurrection, because Tabitha returns to mortal life. Jesus’ promise in John 6 and Paul’s consolation in 1 Thessalonians carry the verb to the church’s future. Those who look to the Son and believe will be raised at the last day, and those who die in Christ will not be forgotten when He comes.
Preaching should therefore call people to repent and act, proclaim Christ’s historical resurrection, comfort mourners with bodily hope, and avoid blaming sufferers whose circumstances do not immediately change. The decisive subject of resurrection is God, and the decisive object of faith is His Son.
Acts.2.24
ἀνίστημι combines ἀνά with ἵστημι and appears in both transitive and intransitive patterns. It may mean raise someone, stand up, get ready, appear, or rise from death. Imperatives such as “get up” can describe ordinary obedience or accompany a life-restoring sign; grammar and narrative setting decide which.
God raises leaders and prophets for His purposes, Elijah and Elisha witness restorations to mortal life, and Daniel promises that those who sleep in the dust will awake. The New Testament announces Jesus’ bodily resurrection as the decisive act that confirms His lordship and guarantees both judgment and the future resurrection of His people. Earlier restorations point beyond themselves to the final victory Christ brings.