To go away
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ἀπέρχομαι (aperchomai) means to go away, depart, withdraw, or pass away. The prefixed verb often marks movement away from a person, place, or prior state, but the moral and theological significance comes from the departure’s cause and result.
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Full entry for ἀπέρχομαι (G565) · Open the biblical lexicon
ἀπέρχομαι (aperchomai) means to go away, depart, withdraw, or pass away. The prefixed verb often marks movement away from a person, place, or prior state, but the moral and theological significance comes from the departure’s cause and result.
The BSB source-word alignment has 117 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include [and] went away (8), go (7), went (7), he went away (6), and went (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 2:22. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (35), Mark (23), John (21), Luke (20).
ἀπέρχομαι (aperchomai) means to go away, depart, withdraw, or pass away. The prefixed verb often marks movement away from a person, place, or prior state, but the moral and theological significance comes from the departure’s cause and result. The rich young man goes away sorrowful because wealth has captured his allegiance. Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, to whom would we go?
” After many disciples have withdrawn, confessing that Jesus has the words of eternal life. In the farewell discourse, Jesus says His going away benefits the disciples because He will send the Advocate. James uses departure from a mirror to portray a hearer who immediately forgets, while Revelation says the first heaven and earth have passed away before the new creation.
Departure can therefore express rejection, necessary transition, forgetfulness, or the removal of the old order. The verb itself does not mean apostasy, death, abandonment, or final judgment.
ἀπέρχομαι marks movement away or passing away. The selected passages distinguish sorrowful refusal, steadfast allegiance to Jesus, His purposeful departure, forgetful hearing, and the old creation giving way to the new.
When the young man heard this, he went away in sorrow, because he had great wealth.
The departure exposes the hold of possessions after Jesus’ command. Sorrow alone is not repentance in the scene; the man leaves rather than following the One who has named his divided allegiance.
Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.
After many disciples withdraw, Peter frames departure as a question of destination and allegiance. He remains because eternal life is bound to Jesus’ words and identity, not because the teaching has become easy.
But I tell you the truth, it is for your benefit that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
Jesus interprets His departure within the saving sequence of cross, exaltation, and the Spirit’s mission. Going away is not simple absence; He promises the Advocate’s coming and work among the disciples.
And after observing himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
The hearer’s departure from the mirror becomes an image of receiving the word without continuing obedience. The failure is not physical movement but forgetting instead of doing.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
Passing away describes the removal of the first creation order as John sees the new heaven and earth. The verse belongs to Revelation’s climactic vision of God dwelling with His people and making all things new.
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. Departure with directional completion; often followed by another verb to express sequential action in narrative.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 120 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I come or go away from, depart, return
Read verseI come or go away from, depart, return
Read verseI come or go away from, depart, return
Read verseI come or go away from, depart, return
Read verseI come or go away from, depart, return
Read verseI come or go away from, depart, return
Read verseI come or go away from, depart, return
Read verseI come or go away from, depart, return
Read verseI come or go away from, depart, return
Read verseI come or go away from, depart, return
Read verseI come or go away from, depart, return
Read verseI come or go away from, depart, return
Read verseI come or go away from, depart, return
Read verseI come or go away from, depart, return
Read verseI come or go away from, depart, return
Read verseI come or go away from, depart, return
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 117 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 1 selected witness from 117 lexical occurrence verses.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Where a person goes after hearing truth can reveal what has been loved most. The rich young man hears Jesus and leaves sorrowful because his possessions govern him. In John 6, many disciples also withdraw, but Peter asks the decisive question: “To whom would we go? ” Remaining with Jesus rests on His words of eternal life, not on the ease of His teaching. Yet departure is not always unbelief.
Jesus tells grieving disciples that His going away serves their good because the Advocate will come and continue His mission among them. James uses a simpler departure to expose shallow hearing: a person looks into a mirror, walks away, and forgets. Revelation expands the horizon until the first heaven and earth pass away before God’s new creation. These texts teach readers to ask what a departure leaves, what it seeks, and what purpose God reveals.
Faith sometimes refuses to leave Christ, sometimes obeys a sending, and always resists the forgetfulness that walks away from the word unchanged.
John.6.68
The compound joins movement with an away-from perspective, but English renderings vary among go away, depart, withdraw, and pass away. Subject, source point, destination, aspect, and surrounding argument decide whether the movement is physical, relational, rhetorical, or cosmic.
Scripture tells of exile, return, covenant abandonment, prophetic departure, and the passing of former things. The New Testament centers allegiance on Jesus, interprets His departure through cross and Spirit, and directs hope toward a renewed creation where God dwells with His people.
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