Be bold
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Τολμάω means to dare, venture, presume, or show boldness to act. After Jesus answers His opponents, no one dares question Him further, not because inquiry is inherently wrong but because their attempts to trap Him have failed before His authority and wisdom.
Reader summary
Full entry for τολμάω (G5111) · Open the biblical lexicon
Τολμάω means to dare, venture, presume, or show boldness to act. After Jesus answers His opponents, no one dares question Him further, not because inquiry is inherently wrong but because their attempts to trap Him have failed before His authority and wisdom.
The BSB source-word alignment has 16 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include dared (4), . . . (1), [and] did not dare (1), [match] (1), [now] dare (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 22:46. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Corinthians (4), Acts (2), Mark (2), Romans (2).
Τολμάω means to dare, venture, presume, or show boldness to act. After Jesus answers His opponents, no one dares question Him further, not because inquiry is inherently wrong but because their attempts to trap Him have failed before His authority and wisdom. At the resurrection breakfast, disciples do not dare ask Jesus who He is because recognition and awe already govern the moment.
In Acts, outsiders do not dare join the church lightly amid signs, judgment, and public esteem. Daring can therefore describe courageous action, presumptuous challenge, reverent restraint, or willingness to associate publicly. The verb does not make risk virtuous by itself; motive, object, authority, and consequence determine faithful boldness.
Τολμάω concerns venturing beyond hesitation. Failed challengers, awed disciples, and cautious outsiders show that daring or restraint can arise from presumption, recognition, fear, or reverence.
No one was able to answer a word, and from that day on no one dared to question Him any further.
Jesus' opponents no longer dare question Him after their testing questions collapse under His scriptural answer about David's son and Lord.
When Jesus saw that the man had answered wisely, He said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to question Him any further.
The scribe's wise response and Jesus' kingdom assessment conclude the disputes, leaving hostile questioners without courage to continue their traps.
And they did not dare to question Him any further.
Luke closes the controversy by noting that further questioning ceases after Jesus exposes the resurrection logic already present in Moses and the Psalms.
“Come, have breakfast,” Jesus said to them. None of the disciples dared to ask Him, “Who are You?” They knew it was the Lord.
At breakfast the disciples refrain from asking Jesus' identity because they know it is the Lord, so their restraint belongs to awed recognition rather than uncertainty alone.
Although the people regarded them highly, no one else dared to join them.
Public esteem does not produce casual affiliation; recent judgment within the church makes outsiders hesitate even as more believers are genuinely added to the Lord.
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. Bold action despite fear or risk; courage to dare do something difficult or dangerous
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I dare, endure, am bold
Read verseI dare, endure, am bold
Read verseI dare, endure, am bold
Read verseI dare, endure, am bold
Read verseI dare, endure, am bold
Read verseI dare, endure, am bold
Read verseI dare, endure, am bold
Read verseI dare, endure, am bold
Read verseI dare, endure, am bold
Read verseI dare, endure, am bold
Read verseI dare, endure, am bold
Read verseI dare, endure, am bold
Read verseI dare, endure, am bold
Read verseI dare, endure, am bold
Read verseI dare, endure, am bold
Read verseI dare, endure, am bold
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 16 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 2 selected witnesses from 16 lexical occurrence verses.
τολμάω is built from this root:
Courage is not measured by willingness to speak or act at every opportunity. Jesus' opponents repeatedly ask questions designed to trap Him, then no longer dare when His wisdom exposes their failure. The disciples at the shore also refrain from asking, but their restraint grows from recognition of the risen Lord rather than hostile defeat. Acts adds communal seriousness: outsiders admire the believers yet hesitate to attach themselves casually after God's holiness has been publicly displayed.
Faithful boldness therefore requires more than nerve. It speaks truth when obedience costs, asks honest questions when understanding is needed, remains silent when reverence is fitting, and refuses both presumptuous testing of Christ and superficial identification with His people.
Matt.22.46
Τολμάω is a verb of venturing or daring and commonly governs an infinitive naming the attempted action. Context supplies whether the boldness is courageous, presumptuous, reluctant, or restrained.
Prophets dare to speak under God's commission while presumptuous people test Him without warrant. Jesus forms witnesses whose boldness comes from the Spirit and truth.
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