Greek word · G2626
κατακλύζω
kataklyzō
to flood
To flood, inundate, overwhelm with water; figuratively, to overwhelm with anything.
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 flood, inundate, overwhelm with water; figuratively, to overwhelm with anything.
- Against the English
KJV/WEB 'overflowed' is old English for 'flooded over, submerged', not 'spilled over the brim'. BSB folds the participle into 'in the flood', which makes the Noah reference clear but drops the separate 'by water'.
- How it drifted
The English 'overflow' narrowed after 1611 to mean liquid spilling past its container's edge. The older sense was 'to flood across, cover completely'.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Hapax: the verb occurs only here in the NT. The noun κατακλυσμός is the Septuagint's regular word for the Hebrew mabbul, 'the Flood' (Gen 6:17; 7:6–7, etc.), and appears in Matt 24:38–39, Luke 17:27 and 2 Pet 2:5. The verb is used of the Flood in Wis 10:4, and in Josephus and Philo.
Similar words
Where it appears
2 Peter · 1
-
2 Peter 3:6 κατακλυσθεὶς having been deluged
through which the world of that time perished in the flood.
Here: 'Having been deluged', meaning swamped and submerged. It is the verb behind the noun κατακλυσμός, the standard Greek word for Noah's Flood (Gen 6–9 LXX; 2 Pet 2:5). The passive leaves God as the unstated actor, which fits the verse's stress on God's word.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.