Greek word · G1301

διατηρέω

diatēreō

to keep

"To keep thoroughly, keep safe, preserve, guard." It is a stronger form of tēreō (keep, watch over). In Acts 15:29 it means "keep yourselves from" something. The idea is to hold something intact over time.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

δια-τηρέω, -ῶ

[in LXX for שָׁמַר, נָצַר, etc.; before ἀπό (for מִן), as in Psalms 12:7 (8) ;]

to keep carefully: Luke 2:51; before ἐκ, Acts 15:29.†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Luke 2:51

Range of meaning

"To keep thoroughly, keep safe, preserve, guard." It is a stronger form of tēreō (keep, watch over). In Acts 15:29 it means "keep yourselves from" something. The idea is to hold something intact over time.

Against the English

KJV/WEB "kept" is accurate but flat. BSB/ESV "treasured (up)" brings out how much it was valued, but modern English can hear it as cherishing a sweet memory. NLT "stored" catches the preserving but loses the guarding.

How it drifted

"Treasure" in modern devotional English often suggests sentimental keepsakes. The Greek stresses careful retention of something not yet fully grasped.

Used elsewhere in the period

Genesis 37:11 LXX is the closest parallel. After Joseph's puzzling dreams, "his father kept (dietērēsen) the matter (to rhēma)." Jacob held onto a word whose meaning would only come out later. Daniel 7:28 (Greek versions) has a similar pattern: Daniel, troubled by a vision he does not understand, "kept the matter in my heart." Luke's Greek closely echoes these Old Testament scenes.

Where it appears

Luke · 1

  1. Luke 2:51 διετήρει was treasuring up

    Then He went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But His mother treasured up all these things in her heart.

    Here: "Kept thoroughly, guarded." The tense describes something she kept doing: she went on holding these things. The word is about preserving something intact, not only about feeling fond of it.

Acts · 1

  1. Acts 15:29 διατηροῦντες keeping

    You must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.

    Here: A stronger form of 'keep,' meaning to guard carefully and continually. The participle can be read as condition ('if you keep yourselves') or as means ('by keeping yourselves'). The KJV, ESV and WEB take it as a condition.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.