To seize (in various applications)
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Harpazo names forceful taking: to seize, snatch, carry away, or catch up. The word can describe destructive theft of the kingdom word, attempted political force toward Jesus, a wolf's attack on sheep, divine protection that prevents anyone from snatching Christ's sheep, the Spirit carrying Philip away, believers being caught up to meet the Lord, and rescue imagery in Jude.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἁρπάζω (G726) · Open the biblical lexicon
Harpazo names forceful taking: to seize, snatch, carry away, or catch up. The word can describe destructive theft of the kingdom word, attempted political force toward Jesus, a wolf's attack on sheep, divine protection that prevents anyone from snatching Christ's sheep, the Spirit carrying Philip away, believers being caught up to meet the Lord, and rescue.
The BSB source-word alignment has 14 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include was caught up (3), [and] remove him by force (1), by force (1), by snatching [them] (1), can snatch (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 11:12. Its strongest book concentrations include John (4), Matthew (3), 2 Corinthians (2), Acts (2).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
Harpazo names forceful taking: to seize, snatch, carry away, or catch up. The word can describe destructive theft of the kingdom word, attempted political force toward Jesus, a wolf's attack on sheep, divine protection that prevents anyone from snatching Christ's sheep, the Spirit carrying Philip away, believers being caught up to meet the Lord, and rescue imagery in Jude.
Its forceful character is important, but its moral meaning changes by subject and context. An evil one can snatch away the word, but no one can snatch Christ's sheep from His hand. God can also carry or catch up according to His saving purpose.
Harpazo marks forceful taking or snatching. It can be hostile, predatory, rescuing, transporting, or eschatological, depending on who acts and what is taken.
When anyone hears the message of the kingdom but does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.
The evil one snatches away the kingdom word from the path-like hearer. The verb depicts hostile removal of what was sown.
Then Jesus, realizing that they were about to come and make Him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by Himself.
The crowd wants to make Jesus king by force. Harpazo warns against coercive messianic expectation.
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.
Jesus promises that no one can snatch His sheep out of His hand. The violent verb strengthens the security claim.
When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, but went on his way rejoicing.
The Spirit of the Lord carries Philip away after the eunuch's baptism. The forceful verb serves divine direction, not violence.
After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.
Believers alive at the Lord's coming will be caught up together with the resurrected dead. The verb belongs to resurrection hope.
Save others by snatching them from the fire; and to still others show mercy tempered with fear, hating even the clothing stained by the flesh.
Jude uses snatching imagery for urgent rescue from fire. The forceful language serves mercy joined with fear.
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.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Seizing with force or sudden violence, often implying removal against resistance or will
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
13 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I seize, snatch, obtain by robbery
Read verseI seize, snatch, obtain by robbery
Read verseI seize, snatch, obtain by robbery
Read verseI seize, snatch, obtain by robbery
Read verseI seize, snatch, obtain by robbery
Read verseI seize, snatch, obtain by robbery
Read verseI seize, snatch, obtain by robbery
Read verseI seize, snatch, obtain by robbery
Read verseI seize, snatch, obtain by robbery
Read verseI seize, snatch, obtain by robbery
Read verseI seize, snatch, obtain by robbery
Read verseI seize, snatch, obtain by robbery
Read verseI seize, snatch, obtain by robbery
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.
How this verb appears across 14 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 14 lexical occurrence verses.
ἁρπάζω is built from this root:
Expresses the impossibility of believers being removed from Christ's grasp.
Harpazo is a strong verb, but Scripture does not use its strength in one direction only. The evil one snatches the word from an unfruitful hearer. A crowd wants to seize Jesus for its own agenda. A wolf attacks the flock. Yet Jesus says no one can snatch His sheep from His hand, and Paul says believers will be caught up to meet the Lord. Jude can even use snatching as rescue imagery.
The word therefore helps teachers contrast hostile force with divine keeping. It makes danger vivid, but it also makes Christ's security and final gathering vivid. The same forceful verb can therefore warn and comfort.
John.10.28
Harpazo carries forceful-taking force, but force does not decide moral value by itself. Subject, object, and purpose determine whether the taking is theft, coercion, rescue, divine transport, or eschatological gathering.
Scripture often contrasts hostile powers that seize, scatter, and destroy with the Lord who keeps, rescues, and gathers His people. Harpazo gives several New Testament scenes a forceful verb for that contrast while keeping eschatological hope anchored in Christ.