Greek word · G2608

κατάγνυμι

katagnymi

to break

Kataграφω: to write down, put on record, register or enrol (soldiers, citizens, property), or to draw up a document. In Athenian legal Greek the related noun was used for registering a charge. Followed by kata + genitive ('against'), the writing is a formal complaint.

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

κατ-άγνυμι

[in LXX for נָחַת pi., etc. ;]

to break: with accusative of thing(s), Matthew 12:20 (LXX), John 19:31-33.†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of 1 Esdras 2:16

Range of meaning

Kataграφω: to write down, put on record, register or enrol (soldiers, citizens, property), or to draw up a document. In Athenian legal Greek the related noun was used for registering a charge. Followed by kata + genitive ('against'), the writing is a formal complaint.

Against the English

Every supplied version says 'wrote … against', which is accurate. English 'wrote' loses a little of the official, record-making tone of kata-graphō.

Used elsewhere in the period

LSJ s.v. καταγράφω ('register, enrol; record'). In the papyri it is common for registering documents and contracts. The parallel in 2 Esdras 4:6 uses ἔγραψαν ἐπιστολὴν ἐπὶ… ('wrote a letter against').

From the study of John 19:31

Range of meaning

'To break in pieces, shatter', used of pottery, reeds and bones. With skelē ('legs') it describes the Roman practice called in Latin crurifragium: smashing the shins of the condemned with a heavy club or mallet.

Against the English

'Have the legs broken' is accurate, but English readers seldom picture the purpose. The point was not further torture but finishing the execution quickly. Victims could hang for a day or more. With shattered legs a man could no longer push himself up to ease the strain on his chest, and shock and loss of blood brought death within a short time.

Used elsewhere in the period

Roman writers mention leg-breaking as a punishment in its own right (for example Seneca, On Anger 3.32, and references in Plautus). The apocryphal Gospel of Peter (4:14) turns the scene round: there the legs are deliberately not broken so that the victim dies in torment, which shows the practice was understood as hastening death. The heel bone of a crucified man found at Giv'at ha-Mivtar in Jerusalem (1968) was first reported as showing broken legs. Later re-examination (Zias & Sekeles, 1985) found no clear evidence of this. That find confirms nailing through the feet, not leg-breaking.

From the study of John 19:32

Range of meaning

To break, shatter or smash, usually with force: breaking pottery, ships, weapons or bones. The prefix kata- ('down') adds a sense of breaking something through or to pieces.

Against the English

English 'broke' is accurate. If anything it sounds mild, since 'broke the legs' can sound like a clean break. The act was a smashing blow to the shins.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) it is used for breaking jars, bows and bones. Most important here is Exod 12:46 / Num 9:12, which says of the Passover lamb 'you shall not break a bone of it'. That uses a related verb (syntribō), and John quotes the idea in 19:36. The Latin term for the practice, crurifragium ('leg-breaking'), appears in Roman authors. Suetonius (Augustus 67) tells of Augustus having a secretary's legs broken as a punishment.

Where it appears

Matthew · 1

  1. Matthew 12:20 κατεάξει He will break

    A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish, till He leads justice to victory.

    Here: 'He will snap it off.' This is the clean final break that would end a reed already cracked. The same verb is used for breaking the legs of the crucified in John 19:31–33.

John · 3

  1. John 19:31 κατεαγῶσιν may be broken

    It was the day of Preparation, and the next day was a High Sabbath. In order that the bodies would not remain on the cross during the Sabbath, the Jews asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies removed.

    Here: 'Might be broken', passive: the soldiers are the ones meant to do it. The verb means smashing bones. The odd form keeps the past-tense prefix in a form that normally drops it, a quirk of the everyday Greek of the time.

  2. John 19:32 κατέαξαν broke

    So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and those of the other.

    Here: To break something by smashing it. Here it means shattering the shins, probably with a heavy club or iron bar. The same verb is used in the request (v. 31) and in the denial for Jesus (v. 33).

  3. John 19:33 κατέαξαν they did break

    But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.

    Here: 'They broke.' The verb is used for smashing things, such as breaking a reed or shattering bones. In verse 32 it describes the blow that finished off the crucified men. Here it is denied for Jesus.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.