καθαίρεσις

From the study of 2 Corinthians 10:4

Range of meaning

The act of taking down or demolishing a building, wall or fortification. Figuratively, destruction or overthrow. The related verb kathaireō means to take down, pull down, depose.

Against the English

KJV has 'pulling down', WEB 'throwing down', YLT 'bringing down', BSB and NIV 'demolish', ESV 'destroy', NASB 'destruction'. 'Demolish' best keeps the picture of a structure being taken apart.

Used elsewhere in the period

Used for razing fortifications in Greek historians and in the LXX. Prov 21:22 LXX has the verb with ochyrōma. In the NT the noun occurs only in 2 Corinthians: here, in 10:8 and in 13:10.

From the study of 2 Corinthians 13:10

Range of meaning

Taking down or demolition, of buildings, walls and fortifications. It can also mean removing someone from office or destroying something in general (BDAG s.v. καθαίρεσις). It comes from kathaireō, 'take down, pull down.'

Against the English

'Tearing down' (BSB, WEB), 'casting down' (YLT), 'destruction' (KJV). 'Destruction' can now suggest ruin or even eternal destruction. The Greek is the concrete image of knocking down a structure.

How it drifted

'Destruction' has become a general word for ruin and, in religious use, for final judgment. That blurs the paired building-and-demolition picture.

Used elsewhere in the period

2 Cor 10:4 speaks of weapons 'for the demolition (pros kathairesin) of strongholds.' This is siege language: knocking down fortifications. In Jer 24:6 and 42:10 LXX, God says he will build and 'not pull down' (ou mē kathelō, from the same verb root).

From the study of 2 Corinthians 10:8

Range of meaning

Pulling down, demolition (of walls, buildings, fortifications); by extension, destruction or overthrow, and in some contexts removal from office. It is the noun of καθαιρέω, 'to take down, pull down'.

Against the English

The KJV's 'destruction' is too general and loses the building contrast. 'Tearing down' (BSB) and 'casting down' (WEB, YLT) keep the matched pair with building.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the New Testament it appears only in 2 Corinthians: here, in 10:4 ('the demolition of strongholds') and in 13:10. The pairing of building and tearing down echoes Jeremiah's call: in Jer 1:10 the prophet is appointed 'to uproot and tear down... to build and to plant'. In Jer 24:6 God promises, 'I will build them up and not tear them down' (Septuagint: ἀνοικοδομήσω αὐτοὺς καὶ οὐ μὴ καθελῶ, using the verb behind this noun).