ἐξέρχομαι

From the study of John 13:3

Range of meaning

'To go out' or 'come out' from a place, person or state. It is used of leaving a house, a city or the body (of demons), and figuratively of a word or report 'going out'.

Against the English

'Came from' (BSB, NIV, ESV) is accurate. 'Came forth' (YLT, NASB) keeps the sense of going out from a source a little better.

Used elsewhere in the period

In John it becomes a set way of describing the Son's origin: 8:42 ('I came out from God and am here'), 16:27–28 ('I came out from the Father and have come into the world; again I am leaving the world and going to the Father'), 17:8 (the disciples 'knew truly that I came out from you'). Prophets in the Hebrew Bible are 'sent', but they are never said to have 'come out from God'.

From the study of 2 Corinthians 6:17

Range of meaning

To go or come out, depart, leave a place, set out.

Against the English

'Come out from among them' is accurate. What English readers miss is the echo: this is the exodus and return-from-exile verb.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 52:11 (Greek): 'Depart, depart, go out from there… go out from her midst.' Isaiah 48:20: 'Go out from Babylon.' Compare Revelation 18:4, 'Come out of her, my people', which reuses the same prophetic cry against a symbolic 'Babylon'.

From the study of John 16:28

Range of meaning

Exerchomai means to go or come out of a place, a house, a city, a group or a person's presence. It can also mean to set out on a mission or be sent out. Para with the genitive case marks movement from someone's side: 'from beside', 'from the presence of'. It is used of messengers, gifts or authority coming from a person.

Against the English

'I came from the Father' (BSB, WEB) is accurate but flat. In English 'came from' can sound like a hometown. KJV and YLT's 'came forth' keeps more of the sense of going out from someone's presence.

Used elsewhere in the period

John uses this phrase or close variants of it repeatedly: 8:42 ('I came out from God', with ek), 13:3 ('he had come from God and was going to God'), 16:27, 16:30 and 17:8. In 15:26 the Spirit 'goes out from beside the Father' (para tou patros ekporeuetai). Jewish texts describe heavenly messengers who come from God and go back to him. In Tobit 12:20 the angel Raphael says, 'I am going up to the one who sent me.' Wisdom literature has the same shape: Wisdom 9:10 asks God to 'send her forth' from his throne, and Sirach 24 and 1 Enoch 42:1–2 picture Wisdom coming down to live among people and then going back.