Greek word · G1955

ἐπίλυσις

epilysis

explanation

A 'loosing' or 'release'. Used figuratively, it means solving something knotted: a riddle, a dream, a parable, a difficult question, or a dispute. It is the act of making plain something that is obscure.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

ἐπί-λυσις -εως, ἡ

(ἐπιλύω), [in Aq.: Genesis 40:8; Sm.: Hosea 3:4 * ;]

1. release.

2. solution, interpretation: 2 Peter 1:20.†

(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 2 Peter 1:20

Range of meaning

A 'loosing' or 'release'. Used figuratively, it means solving something knotted: a riddle, a dream, a parable, a difficult question, or a dispute. It is the act of making plain something that is obscure.

Against the English

'Interpretation' (KJV, BSB, WEB) is fair, but today it usually suggests a reader's opinion about a text. The Greek word fits better with unravelling a vision or puzzle. YLT's 'exposition' is close.

How it drifted

In Reformation and Counter-Reformation debates, 'interpretation' came to mean 'how a reader construes the Bible'. That pulled the verse toward questions of reading authority.

Used elsewhere in the period

The noun appears only here in the New Testament. The related verb is used in Mark 4:34, where Jesus privately 'explained' the parables to his disciples, and in Acts 19:39, where a matter is 'settled' in assembly. The Shepherd of Hermas, an early second-century Christian work, repeatedly uses epilysis for the explanation of a parable or vision (Similitudes 5). Philo uses the verb for solving questions raised about Scripture (On the Contemplative Life 75). Scholars such as Bauckham also cite Jewish Greek usage tied to interpreting dreams and visions (compare Genesis 40:8 in the later Greek versions).

Where it appears

2 Peter · 1

  1. 2 Peter 1:20 ἐπιλύσεως interpretation

    Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture comes from one’s own interpretation.

    Here: Literally a 'loosing' or 'untying'. In use it meant solving a riddle or explaining a vision or parable. Combined with the verb that follows, the genitive gives the source: prophecy does not 'come from' someone's own unravelling.

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