Greek word · G1814
ἐξάλλομαι
exallomai
to leap up
To leap, spring or jump. People, animals and water can all 'spring'. The compound ex-allomai adds 'out' or 'up': to spring up or leap forth. In Luke's usage both verbs carry a sense of sudden, energetic movement.
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
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
To leap, spring or jump. People, animals and water can all 'spring'. The compound ex-allomai adds 'out' or 'up': to spring up or leap forth. In Luke's usage both verbs carry a sense of sudden, energetic movement.
- Against the English
English versions use 'leap', 'jump' and 'spring' more or less interchangeably, and all are accurate. The KJV and WEB 'leaping' keeps the old word that echoes Isaiah. 'Jumping' (NIV) is correct but loses that echo for English readers who know Isaiah 35 in its traditional wording.
- Used elsewhere in the period
In the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint), Isaiah 35:6 reads 'then the lame man shall leap (haleitai) like a deer'. This is part of Isaiah's picture of God returning to Zion, when the blind see, the deaf hear and the lame walk. The compound exallomai appears in the Septuagint for vigorous leaping, for example of the hills and of locusts. The simple verb appears again in Acts 14:10, where the lame man at Lystra 'sprang up (hēlato) and walked'. In John 4:14 water 'springs up' to eternal life.
Where it appears
Acts · 1
-
Acts 3:8 ἐξαλλόμενος leaping up
He sprang to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and leaping and praising God.
Here: 'Leaping up'. The prefix ex- ('out, up') turns a jump into a jump up from the ground. A man who had always been carried springs to his feet. This verb occurs nowhere else in the New Testament.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.