Greek word · G179

ἀκατάλυτος

akatalytos

indestructible

Made of a- ('not') + katalyō ('loosen down, dissolve, tear down, destroy, abolish'). So 'not able to be dissolved', hence indestructible or indissoluble. From there it can mean 'endless', but the root idea is resistance to being undone.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

ἀ-κατά-λυτος, -ον

(καταλύω), [in LXX: 4Ma.10:11 * ;]

indissoluble: Hebrews 7:16.†

(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 Hebrews 7:16

Range of meaning

Made of a- ('not') + katalyō ('loosen down, dissolve, tear down, destroy, abolish'). So 'not able to be dissolved', hence indestructible or indissoluble. From there it can mean 'endless', but the root idea is resistance to being undone.

Against the English

KJV/WEB/YLT 'endless' gives the result (it does not end) but drops the picture of something that cannot be broken apart. BSB, NIV, ESV and NASB 'indestructible' and NLT 'a life that cannot be destroyed' keep the root sense. The Vulgate's 'vitae insolubilis' ('indissoluble life') does too.

How it drifted

'Endless' is a fair older rendering, but it makes the phrase about length of time. Readers then wonder how a man who died had an 'endless' life. The Greek is about a life that death could not dissolve.

Used elsewhere in the period

This is its only NT use. BDAG cites 4 Maccabees 10:11 for torments that will not end, along with secular Greek uses for things that cannot be dissolved. The root verb katalyō is used for destroying the temple (Mark 14:58; 'destroy this temple') and for death as the taking-down of a tent (2 Cor 5:1: 'if our earthly tent-house is dissolved').

Where it appears

Hebrews · 1

  1. Hebrews 7:16 ἀκαταλύτου· indestructible;

    one who has become a priest not by a law of succession, but by the power of an indestructible life.

    Here: Literally 'un-dissolvable': a life that cannot be taken apart or brought down, death included. It is set against the 'fleshly' commandment that governed priests who die.

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