Greek word · G2079
ἐσχάτως
eschatōs
extremely
Echō plus an adverb means “to be in a certain condition” (kalōs echei, “is well”; kakōs echei, “is ill,” Mark 1:32). Eschatōs, “lastly/extremely,” gives “is in the last condition,” that is, at the point of death.
Appears once in the Greek New Testament.
What it means
ἐσχάτως
adv.,
extremely, utterly; ἐ. ἔχειν (= Lat. in extremis esse), only in late writers (cf. ἐν ἐσχάτοις εἶναι, FlJ, Ant., ix, 8, 6), to be at the point of death: Mark 5:28.†
(AS)
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
Echō plus an adverb means “to be in a certain condition” (kalōs echei, “is well”; kakōs echei, “is ill,” Mark 1:32). Eschatōs, “lastly/extremely,” gives “is in the last condition,” that is, at the point of death.
- Against the English
KJV/WEB “at the point of death” and ESV/NASB “at the point of death” are accurate. YLT “at the last extremity” is literal. BSB “near death” and NIV “is dying” are clear, though they lose the idiom.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Not otherwise used in the New Testament. Later grammarians criticised the expression as colloquial, but it is found in Hellenistic Greek. Bible commentators commonly point to Greek papyri where the same idiom describes people gravely ill. In Mark's Greek it sits naturally beside “to be badly” (kakōs echein) for sickness.
Similar words
Where it appears
Mark · 1
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Mark 5:23 ἐσχάτως at the end
and pleaded with Him urgently, “My little daughter is near death. Please come and place Your hands on her, so that she will be healed and live.”
Here: Together with the next word, an idiom: “is at the last point,” meaning near death. It occurs only here in the New Testament.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.