TR: harag → apokteinō (To Kill / Slay)¶
The Chain¶
Hebrew OT LXX (Greek OT) Greek NT
───────── ────────────── ────────
הָרַג (hârag) → ἀποκτείνω (apokteinō) → ἀποκτείνω (apokteinō)
H2026, 158v in OT LXX co-occurrences: 106 G615, 71v in NT
"to smite with deadly PMI score: 30.92 "to kill outright"
intent / slay"
apokteinō is the dominant LXX rendering of harag by a very large margin — roughly two-thirds of all OT occurrences are translated this way, with the same Greek verb carried forward as the NT's primary word for killing.
OT Usage (Hebrew)¶
| Strong's | Word | POS | Occurrences | Primary Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H2026 | הָרַג (harag) | verb | 158 | to smite with deadly intent; slay, kill, murder |
| H2027 | הֶרֶג (hereg) | noun | 5 | slaughter (the event/act) |
| H2028 | הֲרֵגָה (haregah) | noun | 5 | slaughter (collective) |
| H2029 | הָרָה (harah) | verb | 43 | to conceive (adjacent Strong's number — unrelated sense, same prefix) |
Key OT passages: - Gen 4:8 — "Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him." (The first harag in Scripture — archetype of fratricide and blood-guilt.) - Exod 2:14 — "intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian?" (Moses's flight — fear of kin betrayal.) - 1 Kgs 19:10 — "the children of Israel... slain thy prophets with the sword." (Elijah's complaint — the prototype "killed the prophets" indictment that echoes into the NT.) - Esth 3:13 — "to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews." (Haman's edict — genocidal use.)
See canonical study: H2026-harag.md
LXX Bridge¶
Greek words used to translate harag (H2026) in LXX:¶
| Greek | Strong's | Co-occ | PMI | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ἀποκτείνω (apokteinō) | G615 | 106 | 30.92 | Primary — standard Greek verb for killing; covers ~67% of harag renderings |
| ἀναιρέω (anaireō) | G337 | 20 | 17.46 | Secondary — "do away with / execute"; judicial-removal nuance |
| ῥομφαία (rhomphaia) | G4501 | 18 | 11.35 | Instrument collocation ("slew with the sword") — not a verb equivalent |
| μάχαιρα (machaira) | G3162 | 15 | 10.50 | Instrument collocation — second sword-word |
| θανατόω (thanatoō) | G2289 | 13 | 10.13 | Tertiary verb — "put to death"; judicial emphasis |
| φονεύω (phoneuō) | G5407 | 7 | 9.80 | Rare for harag — LXX prefers this for H7523 (ratsach, "murder") |
| ἐκκεντέω (ekkenteō) | G1574 | 3 | 8.59 | Narrow "pierce" — when the mode is piercing |
Hebrew words translated by apokteinō (G615) in LXX:¶
| Hebrew | Strong's | Co-occ | PMI | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הָרַג (harag) | H2026 | 106 | 30.92 | Primary source — the single dominant Hebrew source for apokteinō |
| מוּת (muth) | H4191 | 48 | 12.94 | "die / cause to die" — Hiphil of muth = "put to death" overlaps |
| חֶרֶב (chereb) | H2719 | 30 | 12.25 | The sword noun — reflects "smote/slew with the sword" phrases |
| נָכָה (nakah) | H5221 | 20 | 8.16 | "smite" — lethal blows rendered by the same Greek verb |
| בָּחוּר (bachur) | H970 | 6 | 8.29 | "young man" — collocated object of slaying |
Semantic shift in translation: Greek apokteinō collapses three Hebrew verbs (harag, muth-Hiphil, nakah) into one — the LXX flattens the Hebrew distinction between active slaying (harag), causing to die (muth-Hiphil), and lethal striking (nakah). The narrower Hebrew distinctions — ratsach (judicial murder), shachat (ritual slaughter), tabach (butchery) — remain separable in Greek via phoneuō, sphazō, and thyō respectively. This is why NT writers can still invoke finer moral distinctions (e.g., Jas 2:11 uses phoneuō for the Decalogue's "do not murder" echoing ratsach) while using apokteinō for generic killing.
NT Usage (Greek)¶
| Strong's | Word | POS | Occurrences | Primary Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| G615 | ἀποκτείνω (apokteinō) | verb | 71 | to kill outright; slay |
| G5407 | φονεύω (phoneuō) | verb | 12 | to murder (narrower moral sense) |
| G337 | ἀναιρέω (anaireō) | verb | 24 | to take away / execute |
| G2289 | θανατόω (thanatoō) | verb | 11 | to put to death |
Key NT passages: - Matt 10:28 — "fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." (Jesus distinguishing bodily from spiritual death — apokteinō twice, mirroring harag's scope.) - Matt 23:37 / Luke 13:34 — "Jerusalem... thou that killest the prophets" (echoes 1 Kgs 19:10, Neh 9:26 — a direct lexical bridge from OT harag-of-prophets to NT apokteinō-of-prophets.) - Acts 3:15 — "killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead" (the cross as the climactic slaying — applying the harag/apokteinō motif to the Messiah himself.) - Rom 7:11 — "sin... by it slew me" (figurative — sin as personified killer, analogous to Job 5:2 / Prov 1:32's personified abstractions slaying.) - Eph 2:16 — "having slain the enmity thereby" (Christ's cross as apokteinō of enmity — redemptive use of the kill-verb.)
See canonical study: G615-apokteino.md
Direct OT→NT Quotations¶
| NT Verse | Quotes / Echoes OT | Shared Chain Word | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matt 23:37 / Luke 13:34 | 1 Kgs 19:10, 14; Neh 9:26; Jer 26:20-23 | harag → apokteinō (of prophets) | Jesus applies the Elijah/Nehemiah indictment — "killing the prophets" — directly to Jerusalem. |
| Rom 8:36 | Ps 44:22 | harag (Pual) → thanatoō in Rom 8:36 quoting LXX | "For thy sake we are killed all the day long" — Paul quotes LXX Ps 43:23 where horagnu (harag Pual) is rendered thanatoumetha, but the concept-chain is identical. |
| Acts 7:52 | Echoes OT prophet-slaying theme (1 Kgs 19; 2 Chr 24:21) | harag → apokteinō | Stephen: "Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain [apekteinan] them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One." |
| 1 John 3:12 | Gen 4:8 | harag → sphazō (LXX Gen 4:8 uses apokteinō; 1 John uses esphaxen) | "Cain... slew his brother" — John recasts the first harag with a more brutal verb but the same theological frame. |
Continuity and Shifts¶
What stays the same across testaments: - Fratricide frame — Cain's harag of Abel (Gen 4:8) survives as a theological touchstone (Matt 23:35; Heb 11:4; 1 John 3:12; Jude 11). The kill-of-a-righteous-brother motif is unbroken. - Killing the prophets — the OT trope (1 Kgs 19:10; Neh 9:26; Jer 26:20-23) becomes a NT indictment (Matt 23:37; Luke 11:47-51; Acts 7:52; Rom 11:3). Same lexical chain, same accusation. - Divine-judgment slaying — God as subject of harag (Exod 13:15; Ps 78:31; Hos 6:5) carries forward to apokteinō passages in Revelation where death instruments are sent by divine decree (e.g., Rev 6:8 — apokteinai). - Figurative killing by abstractions — Job 5:2, Prov 1:32, 7:26 (wrath/envy/folly/harlot slays) previews Rom 7:11 (sin slew me), 2 Cor 3:6 (letter kills), Eph 2:16 (Christ slew the enmity).
What shifts: - Moral vocabulary narrows in NT — where OT harag was the broad narrative verb, the NT uses apokteinō for generic killing and reserves phoneuō for the Decalogue's "do not murder" (Matt 5:21; Jas 2:11). The Hebrew harag/ratsach distinction is preserved Greek-side via apokteinō/phoneuō. - Cross re-centers the verb — in the NT, the most theologically loaded uses of apokteinō cluster around the death of Jesus (Matt 16:21; Mark 8:31; Luke 9:22; John 5:18; Acts 3:15) and believers who follow him (Matt 10:28; Rev 6:11; 11:7; 13:15). The OT's narrative-violence word becomes a passion-narrative word. - Redemptive inversion — Eph 2:16 uses apokteinō of Christ "slaying the enmity" on the cross — a unique reversal where the kill-verb does saving work. No OT harag carries this redemptive sense. - "Killing the soul" — Matt 10:28 introduces a dimension absent in OT harag usage: that physical killing is limited in reach, and a worse killing (of the soul, by God) is possible. OT harag never thematizes this distinction; the body/soul duality is a NT addition to the kill-verb's semantic range.
Generated from: gather_trace_data.py, search_strongs.py Last updated: 2026-04-18