Greek word · G1901

ἐπεκτείνομαι

epekteinomai

to reach out to

To stretch out toward, to strain after. It builds on τείνω ('stretch') with ἐκ ('out') and ἐπί ('toward, upon'). The picture is physical: the whole body leaning and reaching.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

ἐπ-εκ-τείνω

to extend: mid., to stretch forward: with dative, Philippians 3:13.†

(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 Philippians 3:13

Range of meaning

To stretch out toward, to strain after. It builds on τείνω ('stretch') with ἐκ ('out') and ἐπί ('toward, upon'). The picture is physical: the whole body leaning and reaching.

Against the English

'Straining toward' (BSB, NIV), 'straining forward' (ESV), 'reaching forth' (KJV), 'stretching forward' (WEB, YLT) all keep the physical picture. NLT's 'looking forward' turns a bodily effort into a mental attitude and loses the image.

Used elsewhere in the period

It occurs only here in the New Testament and is rare in earlier Greek. Much later, Gregory of Nyssa (4th century) built his idea of 'epektasis', the soul's endless progress into God, on this verse. That is a later theological development, not what Paul was saying here.

Where it appears

Philippians · 1

  1. Philippians 3:13 ἐπεκτεινόμενος, reaching forward,

    Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,

    Here: A vivid word with two prefixes: 'stretch' plus 'out' plus 'toward'. It pictures a runner whose whole body leans and reaches for the line. The present tense makes it continuous. It occurs only here in the New Testament.

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