Greek word · G2528
καθοπλίζω
kathoplizō
to arm fully
To arm fully, to equip with a complete set of armor and weapons. Built from kata (here intensifying, 'thoroughly') and hoplizō, 'to arm', from hopla, the heavy gear of a Greek infantryman (hoplite).
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
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
To arm fully, to equip with a complete set of armor and weapons. Built from kata (here intensifying, 'thoroughly') and hoplizō, 'to arm', from hopla, the heavy gear of a Greek infantryman (hoplite).
- Against the English
KJV 'armed' loses the sense of complete equipment. BSB, WEB and NIV 'fully armed' get it.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Used in classical and Hellenistic Greek (for example Xenophon) of equipping soldiers. It appears in the LXX (for example 4 Maccabees 3:12, of armed men). This is its only New Testament occurrence. Its partner noun panoplia, 'full armor', appears in Luke 11:22 and Ephesians 6:11, 13.
Where it appears
Luke · 1
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Luke 11:21 καθωπλισμένος having armed himself
When a strong man, fully armed, guards his house, his possessions are secure.
Here: A perfect participle: he has armed himself and now stands fully equipped. The word comes from hopla, a soldier's heavy armor, and looks ahead to the panoplia, his 'full armor', in verse 22.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.