What does ὑπομένω (hypoménō) mean in the Bible?
ὑπομένω is built from hypo (under) and meno (to remain, to stay). The compound image is remaining under a weight or pressure rather than fleeing it.
Greek · G5278
ὑπομένω
To remain/endure
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ὑπομένω G5278
Pronunciation hypoménō
What does ὑπομένω (hypoménō) mean in the Bible?
ὑπομένω is built from hypo (under) and meno (to remain, to stay). The compound image is remaining under a weight or pressure rather than fleeing it.
Reader summary
Full entry for ὑπομένω (G5278) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G5278?
The BSB source-word alignment has 17 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include perseveres (4), endured (2), [and] you endure [it] (1), Endure suffering (1), endures (1).
Where does ὑπομένω (hypoménō) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 10:22. Its strongest book concentrations include Hebrews (4), 1 Peter (2), 2 Timothy (2), James (2).
What This Word Actually Means
ὑπομένω is built from hypo (under) and meno (to remain, to stay). The compound image is remaining under a weight or pressure rather than fleeing it. It is active endurance: not passive tolerance but a choosing to stay when the natural impulse is to leave. The NT regularly uses it for the posture required when suffering continues and there is no immediate relief in sight.
Hebrews 12:2-3 presents Christ as the supreme example of hypomeno: 'who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won't grow weary, fainting in your souls.' The logic is: look at what Christ endured, look at what is now on the other side of that endurance, and let that sight sustain your own. Christ did not endure because the cross was comfortable — He endured because He could see past it to the joy. Hypomeno is suffering-with-a-horizon; it presupposes that the suffering is not the final word.
Matthew 10:22 and 24:13 give the eschatological framing: 'he who endures to the end will be saved.' This is not a works-salvation formula; it is a description of the shape of genuine faith. The one who has truly received Christ continues with Christ through difficulty. Endurance is the evidence of genuine faith's presence, not the source of salvation. The person who abandons Christ under pressure was not saved and then lost; they revealed that what they had was not saving faith.
For the preacher, ὑπομένω is the word that connects the daily discipline of staying under difficulty with the larger narrative of Christ's own endurance and the final salvation that endurance anticipates. It is not a word of resignation but of active, hope-shaped persistence.
Lexical sourcePassage contextPastoral application
How the Bible Uses It
Hypomeno has a local Greek artifact count of about 17 NT occurrences; selected public references are representative anchors rather than the whole count. The Gospels use it in the eschatological endurance sayings. Hebrews uses it most extensively for Christ's endurance of the cross and the believer's endurance of trials, with the long roll call of Hebrews 11 providing the OT backbone. James and 1 Peter use it in the context of trials and suffering as the posture that produces spiritual character.
- Heb.12.2
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The anchor text for NT hypomeno: Christ endured the cross. The way He endured it is instructive — 'for the joy set before him,' which means His endurance was sustained by seeing past the present suffering to its outcome. He did not minimize the cross (He 'despised its shame' — treated it as not having the final say) but He did not let the cross define the whole picture.
The seat at the right hand of the throne is the other side of the cross's endurance. The believer looking at this is invited to the same forward-seeing endurance.
- Matt.10.22
You will be hated by everyone because of My name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.
The eschatological endurance formula: saved by enduring to the end. The context is persecution — 'hated by all men for my name's sake.' The saving endurance Jesus is describing is endurance in allegiance to Christ under pressure from the world. This is not a conditional salvation that depends on the believer's sustained performance; it is a description of what genuine faith looks like across time.
The one who endures demonstrates the reality of their trust; the one who abandons Christ under pressure reveals that the allegiance was not genuine.
- Heb.12.7
Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?
The reframing of the endurance context: the trials the believers are enduring are not punishments but the discipline of a father. The instruction to 'endure for discipline' (hypomenete eis paideian) turns the experience of difficulty from pure suffering into purposive training. This does not eliminate the pain but changes its frame: the pain is the mark of a father's investment, not the sign of divine abandonment. The one who is disciplined is the one who is treated as a son.
- Jas.1.12
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.
Endurance as the path to the crown. The blessing is not for the person who avoids trials but for the one who endures through them and comes out having been 'approved' (dokimos — tested and found genuine). The crown of life is the eschatological reward — the final vindication of the endurance. James echoes the beatitude pattern: suffering endured is the context for a blessing that the non-suffering person does not receive.
- 2Tim.2.12
If we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He will also deny us;
The symmetry of endurance and sharing Christ's reign. The antithesis is denial — the abandonment of Christ under pressure. Endurance through suffering is what it looks like to maintain allegiance when allegiance is costly; denying Christ is what it looks like when the cost becomes too high and allegiance is abandoned. What is at stake in endurance is not a level of spiritual performance but the question of where allegiance actually lies.
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 perseveres 4× Matthew 10:22, Matthew 24:13, Mark 13:13, James 1:12
endured 2× Hebrews 12:2, Hebrews 12:3
[and] you endure [it] 1× 1 Peter 2:20
Endure suffering 1× Hebrews 12:7
endures 1× 1 Corinthians 13:7
have persevered 1× James 5:11
I endure 1× 2 Timothy 2:10
patient 1× Romans 12:12
remained 1× Acts 17:14
remained behind 1× Luke 2:43
we endure 1× 2 Timothy 2:12
you endure [it] 1× 1 Peter 2:20
you endured 1× Hebrews 10:32
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 10:22 ὑπομείνας to perseveres Verb - Aorist Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular Matthew 24:13 ὑπομείνας to perseveres Verb - Aorist Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular Mark 13:13 ὑπομείνας to perseveres Verb - Aorist Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular Luke 2:43 ὑπέμεινεν to remained behind Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular Acts 17:14 ὑπέμεινάν to remained Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Plural Romans 12:12 ὑπομένοντες to patient Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Plural 1 Corinthians 13:7 ὑπομένει to endures Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular 2 Timothy 2:10 ὑπομένω to I endure Verb - Present Indicative Active - 1st Person Singular 2 Timothy 2:12 ὑπομένομεν to we endure Verb - Present Indicative Active - 1st Person Plural Hebrews 10:32 ὑπεμείνατε to you endured Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 2nd Person Plural
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Matthew 10:22
Aligned rows 17
Books represented 10
Matthew 2 Mark 1 Luke 1 Acts 1 Romans 1 1 Corinthians 1 2 Timothy 2 Hebrews 4 James 2 1 Peter 2
Source forms
ὑπομείνας 3x hypomeinas Matthew 10:22, Matthew 24:13, Mark 13:13
ὑπέμεινεν 2x hypemeinen Luke 2:43, Hebrews 12:2
ὑπομένει 2x hypomenei 1 Corinthians 13:7, James 1:12
ὑπομενεῖτε 2x hypomeneite 1 Peter 2:20
ὑπέμεινάν 1x hypemeinan Acts 17:14
ὑπεμείνατε 1x hypemeinate Hebrews 10:32
ὑπομείναντας 1x hypomeinantas James 5:11
ὑπομεμενηκότα 1x hypomemenēkota Hebrews 12:3
Parsing patterns
Verb - Aorist Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular 3x Matthew 10:22, Matthew 24:13, Mark 13:13
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular 2x Luke 2:43, Hebrews 12:2
Verb - Future Indicative Active - 2nd Person Plural 2x 1 Peter 2:20
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular 2x 1 Corinthians 13:7, James 1:12
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 2nd Person Plural 1x Hebrews 10:32
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Plural 1x Acts 17:14
Verb - Aorist Participle Active - Accusative Masculine Plural 1x James 5:11
Verb - Perfect Participle Active - Accusative Masculine Singular 1x Hebrews 12:3
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Do not treat endurance as a special gift given only to some. The NT calls all believers to hypomeno — it is the shape of ordinary discipleship under ordinary difficulty, not a heroic achievement reserved for the spiritually mature.
- Do not confuse endurance with the absence of struggle. Hebrews 12:3 says 'consider him ... so that you won't grow weary, fainting in your souls' — growing weary is the natural response to difficulty. Endurance is the choice to not give up despite the weariness.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that enduring suffering means showing no emotion or distress. The NT figures of endurance — Christ (who prayed in anguish in Gethsemane), Paul (who knew 'affliction and anguish'), Job (who cried out to God) — were not stoics. Endurance is faithfulness through feeling, not the absence of feeling.
- Do not claim that endurance automatically produces spiritual growth. James 1:4 says 'let endurance have its perfect work' — there is a cooperation between the person enduring and what endurance produces. Passive suffering without the engagement of faith does not produce the growth James describes.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Steadfast endurance under suffering or trial, not passive resignation but active patient perseverance.
Strong's G5278
Lexical occurrences 17 verses Greek text appearances 17 times 16 shown below Word forms 2 forms 17 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link 2 Timothy 2:8-13 Source Gloss
to remain/endure
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 17 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Matthew 10:22 Verb Aorist Active Participle Nominative Singular Masculine
ὑπομείνας upomeinav
I remain behind, endure
Read verse Matthew 24:13 Verb Aorist Active Participle Nominative Singular Masculine
ὑπομείνας upomeinav
I remain behind, endure
Read verse Mark 13:13 Verb Aorist Active Participle Nominative Singular Masculine
ὑπομείνας upomeinav
I remain behind, endure
Read verse Luke 2:43 Verb Third Person Singular Aorist Active Indicative
ὑπέμεινεν upemeinen
I remain behind, endure
Read verse Acts 17:14 Verb Third Person Plural Imperfect Active Indicative
ὑπέμενον upemenon
I remain behind, endure
Read verse Romans 12:12 Verb Present Active Participle Nominative Plural Masculine
ὑπομένοντες· upomenontev
I remain behind, endure
Read verse 1 Corinthians 13:7 Verb Third Person Singular Present Active Indicative
ὑπομένει. upomenei
I remain behind, endure
Read verse 2 Timothy 2:10 Verb First Person Singular Present Active Indicative
ὑπομένω upomenw
I remain behind, endure
Read verse 2 Timothy 2:12 Verb First Person Plural Present Active Indicative
ὑπομένομεν, upomenomen
I remain behind, endure
Read verse Hebrews 10:32 Verb Second Person Plural Aorist Active Indicative
ὑπεμείνατε upemeinate
I remain behind, endure
Read verse Hebrews 12:2 Verb Third Person Singular Aorist Active Indicative
ὑπέμεινε upemeinen
I remain behind, endure
Read verse Hebrews 12:3 Verb Perfect Active Participle Accusative Singular Masculine
ὑπομεμενηκότα upomemenhkota
I remain behind, endure
Read verse Hebrews 12:7 Verb Second Person Plural Present Active Indicative
ὑπομένετε, upomenete
I remain behind, endure
Read verse James 1:12 Verb Third Person Singular Present Active Indicative
ὑπομένει upomenei
I remain behind, endure
Read verse James 5:11 Verb Present Active Participle Accusative Plural Masculine
ὑπομένοντας· upomenontav
I remain behind, endure
Read verse 1 Peter 2:20 Verb Second Person Plural Future Active Indicative
ὑπομενεῖτε; upomeneite
I remain behind, endure
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 17 Tenses Aorist, Present, Future, Perfect Voices Active
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Tenses
Voices
Participle verbal adjective — the action as a modifying quality 6×
Aorist Active Matt 10:22 · Matt 24:13 · Mark 13:13 · Jas 5:11 4×
Present Active Rom 12:12 1×
Perfect Active Heb 12:3 1×
Indicative states a fact or reality 11×
Present Active 1 Cor 13:7 · Jas 1:12 · 2 Tim 2:10 · 2 Tim 2:12 · Heb 12:7 5×
Aorist Active Luke 2:43 · Heb 12:2 · Acts 17:14 · Heb 10:32 4×
Future Active 1 Pet 2:20 2×
Discourse Aspect
How this verb appears across 17 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect
Tense
aorist 8 present 6 future 2 perfect 1
Voice
active 17
Mood
indicative 11 participle 6
NT Occurrences
Matthew 10:22 ὑπομείνας aorist active participle participle Matthew 24:13 ὑπομείνας aorist active participle participle Mark 13:13 ὑπομείνας aorist active participle participle Luke 2:43 ὑπέμεινεν aorist active indicative completed Acts 17:14 ὑπέμεινάν aorist active indicative completed Romans 12:12 ὑπομένοντες present active participle participle 1 Corinthians 13:7 ὑπομένει present active indicative ongoing 2 Timothy 2:10 ὑπομένω present active indicative ongoing 2 Timothy 2:12 ὑπομένομεν present active indicative ongoing Hebrews 10:32 ὑπεμείνατε aorist active indicative completed Hebrews 12:2 ὑπέμεινεν aorist active indicative completed Hebrews 12:3 ὑπομεμενηκότα perfect active participle participle Hebrews 12:7 ὑπομένετε present active indicative ongoing James 1:12 ὑπομένει present active indicative ongoing James 5:11 ὑπομείναντας aorist active participle participle 1 Peter 2:20 ὑπομενεῖτε future active indicative prospective 1 Peter 2:20 ὑπομενεῖτε future active indicative prospective
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 Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
New Testament Witnesses
to remain under pressure, endure steadfastly
endure
to endure or remain under
Additional Occurrences
Mark 13:3–13 ὑπομένω hypoménō
to endure, remain under trial
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 17 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
ὑπομένω is built from these roots:
Why This Word Matters
Identifies perseverance as evidence of faithful discipleship. 2 Timothy 2:8-13
Describes persevering faith. Mark 13:9–13
Endurance defines faithful Christian ministry in the face of suffering. Matthew 10:16–23
Canonical Themes
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
ὑπομένω is the active choosing to remain under a weight that you could, if you chose, flee. The NT does not call Christians to endure passively — as if endurance were simply the absence of action — but to make a repeated, daily choice to stay with Christ through difficulty when every human impulse says to find relief elsewhere. The model is Christ Himself: He endured the cross not because He had no choice but because He could see past it to the joy.
The preacher who wants to help the congregation endure must give them the same sight — the view past the present weight to what lies on the other side. That view is not a wishful optimism but the concrete promise of Hebrews 12: the one who endured is now seated at the right hand of the throne. The suffering is real; the outcome is certain; and the call is to keep looking at the outcome while remaining under the weight.
Anchor passage
Heb.12.2
Doctrinal connections
- Heb 12:1-4 — the fullest hypomeno passage; Christ as example, the great cloud of witnesses, the call to not grow weary
- Mat 10:22; 24:13 — eschatological endurance and salvation for those who endure to the end
- Jas 1:2-12 — trials, endurance, testing, and the crown of life
- G5281 Hypomone — the noun form; the quality of endurance as a settled character
- G3958 Pascho — to suffer; the experience that hypomeno is the response to
- G1680 Elpis — hope; the horizon that makes endurance possible
- G4102 Pistis — faith; the ground from which endurance grows
ὑπομένω compounds hypo (under) and meno (to remain). The image in the compound is of someone choosing to stay beneath a load or pressure rather than moving out from under it. This is different from the other Greek endurance verb kartero (to be strong, to bear up by force of strength). Hypomeno carries more of the sense of sustained, patient remaining than of muscular resistance.
Its noun hypomone (G5281) is one of the key virtue words of the NT, often translated 'patient endurance' or 'steadfastness.' The Hebrews 12 use is theologically significant: the same verb describes both Christ's endurance of the cross and the believer's endurance of trials (vv. 2, 3, 7), making Christ's hypomeno the model and ground for the believer's.
From Old to New Testament
The OT backbone for endurance runs through the Psalter's lament tradition and the Hebrews 11 'hall of faith' figures. Abraham endured not receiving the promise in his lifetime (Heb 11:13-16). Moses endured by 'seeing him who is invisible' (Heb 11:27) — the same forward-sight that Heb 12:2 describes for Christ. Job is the OT's signature figure of endurance: James 5:11 explicitly names Job as a model ('you have heard of the endurance of Job').
The psalmists endure in lament while maintaining trust — 'How long, O Lord?' is not the abandonment of faith but its most honest form. Isaiah 40:31 — 'those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength' — provides the OT framework: endurance in the Lord's people has the form of waiting, and waiting is not passive but the active posture of trust. The NT's hypomeno is the NT form of that same waiting-under-pressure, now explicitly grounded in Christ's own example.
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