What does σπαργανόω (sparganóō) mean in the Bible?
σπαργανόω (sparganóō): To wrap an infant tightly in bands of cloth, a universal ancient Near Eastern practice signifying care and protection.
Greek · G4683
σπαργανόω
To swathe (an infant after the Oriental custom)
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σπαργανόω G4683
Pronunciation sparganóō
What does σπαργανόω (sparganóō) mean in the Bible?
σπαργανόω (sparganóō): To wrap an infant tightly in bands of cloth, a universal ancient Near Eastern practice signifying care and protection.
Full entry for σπαργανόω (G4683) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G4683?
The BSB source-word alignment has 2 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include She wrapped Him in swaddling cloths (1), wrapped in swaddling cloths (1).
Where does σπαργανόω (sparganóō) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Luke 2:7. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (2).
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It She wrapped Him in swaddling cloths 1× Luke 2:7
wrapped in swaddling cloths 1× Luke 2:12
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Luke 2:7
Aligned rows 2
Books represented 1
Luke 2
Source forms
ἐσπαργανωμένον 1x esparganōmenon Luke 2:12
ἐσπαργάνωσεν 1x esparganōsen Luke 2:7
Parsing patterns
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular 1x Luke 2:7
Verb - Perfect Participle Middle or Passive - Accusative Neuter Singular 1x Luke 2:12
Evidence Summary
Greek word. To wrap an infant tightly in bands of cloth, a universal ancient Near Eastern practice signifying care and protection.
Strong's G4683
Lexical occurrences 2 verses Greek text appearances 2 times Word forms 2 forms 2 references Verse guides 0 guides
Source Gloss
to swathe (an infant after the Oriental custom)
Extended definition Source: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
To wrap an infant tightly in bands of cloth, a universal ancient Near Eastern practice signifying care and protection.
(σπάργανον, a swathing-band) [in LXX: Job.38:9, Eze.16:4 (חָתַל pu.)* ;] to swathe, wrap in swaddling-clothes: Luk.2:7, 12 (Hipp., Arist., Plut.).
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
2 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Luke 2:7 Verb Third Person Singular Aorist Active Indicative
ἐσπαργάνωσεν esparganwsen
I wrap in swaddling clothes
Read verse Luke 2:12 Verb Perfect Passive Participle Accusative Singular Neuter
ἐσπαργανωμένον, esparganwmenon
I wrap in swaddling clothes
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.
Grammatical Forms
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.
Form groups 2 Aligned forms 2 Tenses Aorist, Perfect Voices Active, Passive
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Tenses
Voices
Indicative states a fact or reality 1×
Aorist Active Luke 2:7 1×
Participle verbal adjective — the action as a modifying quality 1×
Perfect Passive Luke 2:12 1×
Discourse Aspect
How this verb appears across 2 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect
Tense
aorist 1 perfect 1
Voice
active 1 passive 1
Mood
indicative 1 participle 1
NT Occurrences
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 Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Witnesses
Luke 2:1–7 ἐσπαργάνωσεν sparganóō
Wrapped in swaddling cloths
Showing 1 selected witness from 2 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
σπαργανόω is built from this root:
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain