ζωγρέω

From the study of 2 Timothy 2:26

Range of meaning

From zōos, 'alive', and agreō, 'catch'. To take alive, capture as a prisoner (instead of killing), or keep alive. A military and hunting term (BDAG; LSJ).

Against the English

'Taken captive' (KJV, BSB), 'caught' (YLT), 'held captive' (several modern versions). Most English renderings lose the 'alive' element and the sense that the captive is now someone else's property.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the LXX it is regularly used for sparing or taking people alive in war: Num 31:15, 18; Deut 20:16; Josh 2:13; 6:25; 2 Chr 25:12. In the NT it occurs only here and in Luke 5:10, where Jesus tells Peter 'from now on you will be catching people alive (zōgrōn)', with the sense of catching them for life.

From the study of Luke 5:10

Range of meaning

The word is built from zōos (“alive”) and agreō (“to catch, take”). Its basic meaning is “to take alive.” In Greek from Homer onward it is a military word: taking a defeated enemy prisoner instead of killing him. From that comes the sense “to spare someone's life, keep alive.” By extension it can mean to capture in general, still with the idea that the captive stays alive. LSJ and BDAG both list “capture alive” as the primary sense.

Against the English

“Catch” (KJV, BSB, ESV, NASB) and “fish for” (NIV, NLT) say what happens but drop the defining element, alive. Readers then picture the catch as simply landing something, and a landed fish dies. WEB's “catching people alive” is the only common version that keeps the full sense.

How it drifted

The drift comes mainly from harmonising with the far better-known saying in Mark 1:17 and Matthew 4:19, “fishers of men” (halieis anthrōpōn, an ordinary fishing word). Translators and preachers have tended to read Luke's verb as if it were Mark's, so Luke's own choice of word has disappeared from popular memory.

Used elsewhere in the period

• Homer: in Iliad 6.46 and 10.378 defeated warriors beg “take me alive” (zōgrei) and promise ransom.
• Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament used by Jews of Jesus' day): Numbers 31:15, 18 and Deuteronomy 20:16 (keeping alive versus putting to death in war); Joshua 2:13 and 6:25 (Rahab's family kept alive when Jericho fell); 2 Chronicles 25:12 (10,000 taken alive). In the Joshua passages it clearly means rescue from a destruction that is otherwise total.
• New Testament: used only here and in 2 Timothy 2:26, where people have been “captured alive” by the devil to do his will. That passage shows the word can describe hostile capture as well.