ἐπιστρέφω

Matthew 10:13 ἐπιστραφήτω. should return.

If the home is worthy, let your peace rest on it, but if it is not, let your peace return to you.

Here: 'Let it turn back.' The word is the same one used for people 'turning back' or returning. The blessing is pictured making a U-turn when it finds no welcome.

Matthew 12:44 ἐπιστρέψω I will return

Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ On its return, it finds the house vacant, swept clean, and put in order.

Here: A future tense stating what it has decided: 'I will go back.' It is the ordinary verb for returning to a place. Luke's parallel uses a near-synonym (hypostrepsō).

Matthew 13:15 ἐπιστρέψωσιν may return

For this people’s heart has grown callous; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.’

Here: 'They should turn (back).' This is the prophets' word for repentance: turning around and coming back to God, like a traveller who turns round on the road.

Matthew 24:18 ἐπιστρεψάτω he should return

And let no one in the field return for his cloak.

Here: A third-person command ("let him not turn") in a tense that treats the action as one complete act. It forbids even the single movement of turning around and heading back.

Mark 4:12 ἐπιστρέψωσιν they may turn

so that, ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven.’”

Here: To turn around and come back. In Greek Scripture it translates the Hebrew shuv, the prophets' word for Israel returning to God. It means repentance as a change of direction, not changing religion.

Mark 5:30 ἐπιστραφεὶς having turned

At once Jesus was aware that power had gone out from Him. Turning to the crowd, He asked, “Who touched My garments?”

Mark 8:33 ἐπιστραφεὶς having turned

But Jesus, turning and looking at His disciples, rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

Here: A physical turning around. Peter had taken Jesus aside (v. 32), and Jesus now turns away from that private huddle to face the group.

Mark 13:16 ἐπιστρεψάτω he should return

And let no one in the field return for his cloak.

Luke 1:16 ἐπιστρέψει he will turn

Many of the sons of Israel he will turn back to the Lord their God.

Here: Future tense, and here John is the one doing the turning: he will turn people around, bringing them back to God. It is the Greek Bible's usual word for the Hebrew shûb, the prophets' call for Israel to 'return' to the LORD.

Luke 1:17 ἐπιστρέψαι to turn

And he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Here: "To turn [them] around." It stands for the Hebrew shuv (turn back, repent), and it picks up the same verb in verse 16, where John turns many in Israel back to the Lord. The wording matches Sirach 48:10 on Elijah.

Luke 2:39 ἐπέστρεψαν they returned

When Jesus’ parents had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.

Here: 'They turned back / went back.' Here it is a literal journey home. The same verb can mean turning back to God (Luke 1:16), but that sense is not in play here.

Luke 8:55 ἐπέστρεψεν returned

Her spirit returned, and at once she got up. And He directed that she be given something to eat.

Here: "Turned back, came back." The spirit had gone out of her at death (v. 53, "knowing that she had died"), and now it turns around and comes home. The tense presents it as one single event.

Luke 17:4 ἐπιστρέψῃ shall return

Even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times returns to say, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

Here: 'He should turn back' to you. It is both a physical coming-back and the language of moral turning, the Greek word Jewish Scripture used for Hebrew shuv, 'return'.

Luke 17:31 ἐπιστρεψάτω he should return

On that day, let no one on the housetop come down to retrieve his possessions. Likewise, let no one in the field return for anything he has left behind.

Here: 'Let him not turn around.' It is the physical act of turning back toward home. Elsewhere the same verb can mean turning in repentance, but here it is literal turning, and it carries the weight of looking back.

Luke 22:32 ἐπιστρέψας you have turned back

But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith will not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

Here: A participle, "having turned back." It pictures someone who has walked away turning round and coming back. Here it means Peter returning after he denies Jesus (22:54–62), not coming to faith for the first time.

John 21:20 Ἐπιστραφεὶς Having turned

Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them. He was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper to ask, “Lord, who is going to betray You?”

Here: A physical turn: Peter has been walking with Jesus and looks back over his shoulder. The form is passive, but the meaning is simply 'turning around'. It opens the scene with motion.

Acts 3:19 ἐπιστρέψατε do turn again

Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away,

Here: An active command, 'turn back!', the Greek word the Greek Old Testament regularly uses for the prophets' call to Israel to 'return' to the LORD. It is something the hearers do, not something done to them.

Acts 9:35 ἐπέστρεψαν turned

and all who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

Here: 'They turned'. The past tense presents it as a decisive event. This is the Greek Old Testament's regular word for Israel 'returning' to its God, so for Jewish hearers it meant a change of direction and loyalty, not just agreeing with an idea.

Acts 9:40 ἐπιστρέψας having turned

Then Peter sent them all out of the room. He knelt down and prayed, and turning toward her body, he said, “Tabitha, get up!” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up.

Here: A physical turn. Peter had been kneeling turned away from the body, or at least not addressing it, and now he faces it.

Acts 11:21 ἐπέστρεψεν turned

The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

Here: The verb is singular because its subject is 'number'. It means a real change of direction, and for non-Jews in Antioch that meant turning from the gods they had served.

Acts 14:15 ἐπιστρέφειν to turn

“Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.

Here: 'To turn around.' This is the content of the good news: a complete change of direction, away from one object of worship and toward another.

Acts 15:19 ἐπιστρέφουσιν are turning

It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not cause trouble for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

Acts 15:36 ἐπιστρέψαντες Having turned back

Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the brothers in every town where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, to see how they are doing.”

Here: 'Having turned back', meaning going back over ground already travelled. It is plain travel language here, not the 'turning' of repentance this verb carries elsewhere in Acts.

Acts 16:18 ἐπιστρέψας having turned

She continued this for many days. Eventually Paul grew so aggravated that he turned and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” And the spirit left her at that very moment.

Here: Physically turning around. She was 'following behind' (v.17), so Paul wheels round to face her. It is a vivid, face-to-face moment.

Acts 26:18 ἐπιστρέψαι to turn

to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Me.’

Here: To turn around, to turn back, Luke's word for conversion (in the Greek Old Testament it renders the Hebrew shuv, "return"). The Greek allows two readings: Paul turns them (KJV, YLT, NIV) or they turn (BSB, WEB). See debates.

Acts 26:20 ἐπιστρέφειν to turn

First to those in Damascus and Jerusalem, then to everyone in the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I declared that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds worthy of their repentance.

Here: The physical image of turning around on a road. It is the Greek Bible's standard word for Israel's "returning" to the LORD, and for Gentiles it means turning from their gods to the one God (cf. v. 18).

Acts 28:27 ἐπιστρέψωσιν may turn

For this people’s heart has grown callous; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.’

Here: 'Turn back' to God. This is the Hebrew prophets' word for repentance: an Israel that has wandered coming home to its own God. It is not about switching religions.

2 Corinthians 3:16 ἐπιστρέψῃ [one] shall have turned

But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

Here: 'Turns', a single act viewed as a whole. Paul's own wording replaces the Exodus verb 'went in'. In the Greek Old Testament it is the standard word for Israel turning back to its God. The subject is not stated: 'he', 'she' or 'it' (see debates).

Galatians 4:9 ἐπιστρέφετε do you turn

But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?

Here: A present tense, meaning something still happening: 'you are turning'. It is the same verb Paul's churches used for conversion, 'turning to God from idols' (1 Thessalonians 1:9). Here it describes conversion running backwards.

1 Thessalonians 1:9 ἐπεστρέψατε you turned

For they themselves report what kind of welcome you gave us, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God

Here: A physical word for turning around, used for a decisive change of direction and loyalty. The past tense presents it as one completed turning point.

James 5:19 ἐπιστρέψῃ shall bring back

My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back,

Here: Here the verb takes an object: someone "turns him back" or brings him round. In the Greek Old Testament it is the standard word for "return" (Hebrew shuv), the language of repentance. One member actively restores another.

James 5:20 ἐπιστρέψας having brought back

consider this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

Here: "Having turned back": the picture is of steering a traveller round who has left the road. It echoes the Hebrew idea of turning (shuv), Israel's main word for repentance. The same verb ends verse 19.

1 Peter 2:25 ἐπεστράφητε you have returned

For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Here: "You turned" or "you were turned back." It is the standard Greek Old Testament word for turning back to God, and in early Christian use it is the word for conversion. The passive form may hint that the turning was done to them, but it is often used with the plain sense "you turned."

2 Peter 2:22 ἐπιστρέψας having returned

Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”

Here: 'Having turned back.' This is the usual New Testament verb for conversion, turning to God (Acts 3:19; 1 Thess 1:9). Here it is grimly reversed: the dog 'converts' back to its vomit.

Revelation 1:12 ἐπέστρεψα ἐπιστρέψας I turned, having turned

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands,

Here: "I turned around." This is a physical movement: the voice came from behind him (v. 10), so he turns his body toward it. Here it has nothing to do with the word's other sense, turning back to God in repentance.