Greek word · G1268
διανέμω
dianemō
to spread
Literally to share out, distribute or apportion, as with land, food or goods divided among people. In the passive it means to be distributed, and so to be spread abroad or circulate.
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
δια-νέμω
[in LXX for חלק, Deuteronomy 29:25 * ;]
to distribute, divide: pass., to be spread about, Acts 4:17.†
(AS)
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
Literally to share out, distribute or apportion, as with land, food or goods divided among people. In the passive it means to be distributed, and so to be spread abroad or circulate.
- Against the English
"Spread" (KJV, BSB, WEB, YLT) is accurate. It loses only the picture of something being handed around from person to person.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Used only here in the New Testament. In wider Greek it is ordinary vocabulary for distribution. Some older writers (W. K. Hobart, 1882) argued for a medical sense here, "spreading" like a disease, as part of a case that Luke's vocabulary was a doctor's. H. J. Cadbury's study of Luke's style largely took that case apart, so a contagion image is possible but cannot be proved.
Where it appears
Acts · 1
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Acts 4:17 διανεμηθῇ it may spread
But to keep this message from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in this name.”
Here: "It may be spread around". The verb is passive with no stated subject. The "it" is the whole affair: the report of the healing and the preaching about Jesus attached to it. The word pictures something being handed out piece by piece through a crowd.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.