To take the principle meal
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Aristao names the act of taking a meal, and in the New Testament its few direct uses show how ordinary eating can become a setting where deeper matters are exposed. Luke uses the verb when a Pharisee invites Jesus to dine, and the meal becomes the location for searching confrontation over clean and unclean religion.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἀριστάω (G709) · Open the biblical lexicon
Aristao names the act of taking a meal, and in the New Testament its few direct uses show how ordinary eating can become a setting where deeper matters are exposed. Luke uses the verb when a Pharisee invites Jesus to dine, and the meal becomes the location for searching confrontation over clean and unclean religion.
The BSB source-word alignment has 3 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include dine (1), have breakfast (1), they had finished eating (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Luke 11:37. Its strongest book concentrations include John (2), Luke (1).
Aristao names the act of taking a meal, and in the New Testament its few direct uses show how ordinary eating can become a setting where deeper matters are exposed. Luke uses the verb when a Pharisee invites Jesus to dine, and the meal becomes the location for searching confrontation over clean and unclean religion. John uses it around the risen Jesus' breakfast invitation by the sea, where weary disciples recognize the Lord and Peter is restored to shepherding service.
The word does not make the meal itself a sacrament, nor does it turn every table scene into the same theological claim. It helps readers notice that Scripture often places revelation, rebuke, fellowship, and calling in embodied settings where people eat, listen, and answer.
Aristao is a low-frequency meal verb that marks dining or taking breakfast. Its New Testament uses keep ordinary table life near searching encounter: a Pharisee's meal with Jesus and the risen Lord's breakfast with His disciples both become settings where hidden loyalties are brought into the open.
As Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee invited Him to dine with him; so He went in and reclined at the table.
A Pharisee invites Jesus to dine, and the meal setting becomes the doorway into a confrontation over inward and outward cleanliness.
“Come, have breakfast,” Jesus said to them. None of the disciples dared to ask Him, “Who are You?” They knew it was the Lord.
The risen Jesus invites the disciples to breakfast, joining provision, recognition, and fellowship after their night of fruitless labor.
When they had finished eating, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love Me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he answered, “You know I love You.” Jesus replied, “Feed My lambs.”
After the meal, Jesus questions Peter's love and commands him to feed His lambs, so the breakfast scene leads into restoration and shepherding commission.
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. Originally "to breakfast," but shifts in late Greek to mean "take a meal" generally, including dinner
Originally "to breakfast," but shifts in late Greek to mean "take a meal" generally, including dinner
(ἄριστον), [in LXX: Gen.43:25 (לֶחֶם אָכַל), 1Ki.14:24 (לֶחֶם), 3Ki.13:7 (סָעַד), Tob.2:1 * ;]
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
3 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I breakfast, dine
Read verseI breakfast, dine
Read verseI breakfast, dine
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 3 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 3 lexical occurrence verses.
ἀριστάω is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Aristao is small in frequency but pastorally useful because it refuses to let biblical meals become decorative background. In Luke 11, Jesus' dining with a Pharisee does not soften His warning about inward corruption. The meal makes the confrontation more concrete because the issue arises around washing, purity, and religious display. In John 21, the risen Christ's breakfast invitation gathers disciples who have worked through the night and received His provision.
Yet the meal does not stop at comfort. Once they have eaten, Jesus addresses Peter's love and service. The word therefore helps teachers handle table scenes with proportion: meals can be places of welcome, exposure, recognition, restoration, and commission, but the passage context determines which of those is in view.
John.21.12
Aristao is a meal verb rather than a general fellowship term. In John 21, the imperative invites the disciples to breakfast, and the aorist form in John 21:15 marks the meal as completed before Jesus turns to Peter's love and service. The grammar helps the reader follow the scene's movement from invitation to meal to commission.
Scripture often treats meals as covenantal and revelatory settings, from wilderness provision to fellowship offerings to prophetic warnings against empty feasts. The New Testament continues that texture without making every meal identical. In Luke 11, table fellowship exposes religious hypocrisy. In John 21, breakfast with the risen Christ becomes a setting for recognition and restored service.
The canonical movement is not from food to ritual automatically, but from embodied life before God to the Lord who meets, feeds, corrects, and sends His people.
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