To collect
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G4816, syllégō, is a Greek verb for collecting, gathering up, or sorting items from a larger setting. Its New Testament occurrences appear in Matthew and Luke, where collection concerns fruit, weeds, fish, and, in Jesus' explanation, causes of sin and people who practice lawlessness.
Reader summary
Full entry for συλλέγω (G4816) · Open the biblical lexicon
G4816, syllégō, is a Greek verb for collecting, gathering up, or sorting items from a larger setting. Its New Testament occurrences appear in Matthew and Luke, where collection concerns fruit, weeds, fish, and, in Jesus' explanation, causes of sin and people who practice lawlessness.
The BSB source-word alignment has 8 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include [and] sorted (1), are collected (1), Are grapes gathered (1), are not gathered (1), collect (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 7:16. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (7), Luke (1).
G4816, syllégō, is a Greek verb for collecting, gathering up, or sorting items from a larger setting. Its New Testament occurrences appear in Matthew and Luke, where collection concerns fruit, weeds, fish, and, in Jesus' explanation, causes of sin and people who practice lawlessness. English renderings vary among gathered, pull up, collect, weed out, and sorted because the object and surrounding action control how collection is expressed.
The verb is not the ordinary label for a church assembly and does not itself mean salvation or judgment. In Matthew 7 and Luke 6, collecting fruit illustrates that kind of produce corresponds to kind of plant. In Matthew 13, collecting weeds and sorting fish belong to Jesus' kingdom parables. Final separation and judgment come from the parables and their explanations, including harvest, angels, burning, and exclusion, not from syllégō in isolation.
The landowner's refusal to let servants pull weeds immediately warns against turning a collection verb into permission for premature human sorting. G4816 may describe deliberate collection and, in context, separation, but it does not declare that every act of sorting is righteous or that church leaders can identify final destinies. Faithful teaching keeps the action, object, agent, timing, and destination distinct and leaves final judgment to the agents and time appointed by Jesus.
G4816 occurs in Synoptic teaching and gathers concrete objects such as fruit, weeds, and fish. Kingdom judgment belongs to Matthew 13's parables and explanations; it is not embedded in every use of the collection verb.
By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
Ordinary fruit gathering supports Jesus' analogy between plant and produce; recognition and moral discernment come from the surrounding teaching.
‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. So the servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
Servants propose collecting weeds before the harvest, but the master refuses because wheat might also be uprooted; the proposed action is deliberately delayed.
Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat into my barn.’”
Collection occurs at the owner's appointed harvest and by designated harvesters; timing, burning, and contrast with wheat supply the judgment imagery.
The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will weed out of His kingdom every cause of sin and all who practice lawlessness.
The Son of Man, His angels, His kingdom, and the named objects establish the eschatological scope of the BSB rendering weed out.
When it was full, the men pulled it ashore. Then they sat down and sorted the good fish into containers, but threw the bad away.
The men sort good fish into containers while discarding bad fish, and Jesus' following explanation supplies the final-judgment correspondence.
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 collect
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
8 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I collect, gather
Read verseI collect, gather
Read verseI collect, gather
Read verseI collect, gather
Read verseI collect, gather
Read verseI collect, gather
Read verseI collect, gather
Read verseI collect, gather
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 8 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)
συλλέγω is built from these roots:
Matthew 7:16 uses ordinary collection of grapes and figs to support Jesus' teaching that fruit reveals the kind of plant. Syllégō names gathering produce; the moral discernment comes from the analogy and surrounding warning about false prophets. Matthew 13 uses the verb repeatedly in kingdom parables. When servants ask to pull up weeds, the owner refuses because premature action could uproot wheat.
At the harvest, designated reapers collect weeds, and Jesus' explanation names the Son of Man, angels, kingdom, causes of sin, lawlessness, and final judgment. The dragnet parable similarly describes sorting good fish, with the explanation supplying eschatological meaning. These passages authorize confidence in Christ's final justice while sharply limiting attempts to enact it ahead of time.
Church safeguarding and discipline may still be necessary under other biblical teaching, but leaders cannot call people weeds, claim infallible knowledge of final destiny, or use G4816 to bypass evidence and due process. The verb's range also includes ordinary fruit collection in a non-judgment scene. Faithful readers therefore distinguish collection from assembly, discernment from condemnation, and temporary protective boundaries from final divine separation.
Patience does not mean tolerating active harm, and protection does not require pretending to possess the angels' eschatological commission.
Matt.13.30
G4816 is a Greek verb. Its forms are verbal, and the object controls translations such as gather, pull up, collect, weed out, or sort.
Old Testament harvest and separation images contribute to prophetic judgment language, while Jesus develops harvest and net parables around the Son of Man's kingdom and appointed end. G4816 serves those Greek narratives without becoming the lexical definition of Israel, church, salvation, or judgment in every occurrence.