Meet or encounter describes people coming together, and it can also describe events that happen to someone. Luke names a crowd meeting Jesus and a man with a water jug who will meet the disciples preparing the Passover.
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
Reader summary
Full entry for συναντάω (G4876) · Open the biblical lexicon
Meet or encounter describes people coming together, and it can also describe events that happen to someone. Luke names a crowd meeting Jesus and a man with a water jug who will meet the disciples preparing the Passover.
The BSB source-word alignment has 6 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include met (2), He met (1), was met (1), will happen (1), will meet (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Luke 9:37. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (2), Hebrews (2), Luke (2).
Meet or encounter describes people coming together, and it can also describe events that happen to someone. Luke names a crowd meeting Jesus and a man with a water jug who will meet the disciples preparing the Passover. Acts records Cornelius meeting Peter, immediately followed by Peter's refusal to receive worship as though he were more than human. Paul also uses the verb when saying he does not know what will happen in Jerusalem, while retaining the Spirit's warning about chains and afflictions.
Hebrews recalls Melchizedek meeting Abraham within its particular priesthood argument. These six witnesses do not turn every encounter into a divine instruction or provide complete knowledge of future events. Read who meets whom or what may occur, preserving explicit directions and uncertainty without making a leader worthy of worship or requiring a person to face preventable danger because Paul describes his own commission.
Crowd and Passover encounters, Cornelius' welcome, Paul's uncertain future and two recalled Abraham meetings account for six witnesses. Actual actors, directions and argument determine the encounter's significance.
As Peter was about to enter, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet to worship him.
Cornelius meets Peter and falls to worship, but Peter raises him and explicitly says he is also a man, bounding the encounter's authority relationship.
And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.
Paul says he does not know what will happen in Jerusalem while the following sentence retains warnings of chains and afflictions, distinguishing uncertainty from the knowledge actually stated.
He answered, “When you enter the city, a man carrying a jug of water will meet you. Follow him to the house he enters,
The water-jug encounter belongs to Jesus' explicit instructions for the named disciples' Passover preparation, not a general code for interpreting every chance meeting.
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 meet with; figuratively, to occur
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
6 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I meet, encounter
Read verseI meet, encounter
Read verseI meet, encounter
Read verseI meet, encounter
Read verseI meet, encounter
Read verseI meet, encounter
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 6 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)
συναντάω is built from these roots:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
A meeting verb does not determine the encounter's moral or spiritual outcome. Cornelius' meeting leads to an action that Peter immediately corrects, so welcome must remain distinct from worship of a human being. The disciples' water-jug meeting is significant because Jesus explicitly directs that particular preparation; the verb alone does not give every later encounter an instruction.
Paul's future-event use preserves his admission that he does not know what will happen, even while specific warnings are given. Hebrews recalls Abraham and Melchizedek within an argument that includes its own careful phrase about Levi, rather than making every meeting a new priestly mandate. Luke's crowd scene also narrates a particular boy's suffering and Jesus' healing, not a diagnosis of present medical symptoms.
Teach the actual correction, direction, uncertainty or recalled relationship without invented omens, leader worship, medical conclusions or a demand that others reproduce Paul's dangerous journey.
Acts.10.25
The licensed Greek range includes meeting people and events that happen or befall someone. The person or event in the sentence distinguishes those constructions. The selected corpus supplies six witnesses; additional source-listed references should not be promoted to an observed occurrence without separate correspondence proof.
Genesis 14:18-20 names Melchizedek, his blessing and Abram's tenth after the narrated return, while Hebrews explicitly recalls their meeting in its priesthood argument. The later account supplies the connection; the meeting verb does not independently settle Melchizedek's identity or impose a contemporary giving requirement. Preserve both accounts' stated actors and Hebrews' reasoning without transferring their entire relationship to a present leader.