Greek word · G2686
κατασοφίζομαι
katasophizomai
be treacherous
To outwit, to get the better of someone by cleverness, to trick or deal craftily with. It is built from sophizō ('to be clever, to devise') with the prefix kata- ('against, down'), so the sense is cleverness turned against someone. The word assumes deliberate planning, not sudden violence.
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
κατα-σοφίζομαι
[in LXX: Exodus 1:10 (חָכָם hith.), Judith 5:11 * ;]
to deal craftily with, outwit: Acts 7:19 (LXX) †
(AS)
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 outwit, to get the better of someone by cleverness, to trick or deal craftily with. It is built from sophizō ('to be clever, to devise') with the prefix kata- ('against, down'), so the sense is cleverness turned against someone. The word assumes deliberate planning, not sudden violence.
- Against the English
KJV/YLT 'dealt subtilly' and ESV 'dealt shrewdly' keep the cunning. NIV 'dealt treacherously' stresses betrayal. BSB/NLT 'exploited' and WEB 'took advantage of' keep the harm but lose the scheming. In Exodus the policy is a plan, and the plan is what the verb names.
- How it drifted
No drift in the Greek word itself. The problem is the KJV's 'subtilly': in 1611 'subtle' meant crafty or cunning (compare the 'subtil' serpent of Genesis 3:1), but today it means delicate or understated.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Greek Exodus 1:10: Pharaoh says 'come, let us deal shrewdly (katasophisōmetha) with them'. Stephen is quoting the vocabulary of that verse. Judith 5:11 tells the same story with the same verb: the king of Egypt 'dealt craftily with them through toil and brick-making'. Judith 10:19 uses it for outwitting a whole land. Philo uses it in the general sense 'outsmart, deceive'.
Where it appears
Acts · 1
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Acts 7:19 κατασοφισάμενος having dealt treacherously with
He exploited our people and oppressed our fathers, forcing them to abandon their infants so they would die.
Here: Taken from Exodus 1:10 in the Greek Old Testament ('come, let us deal shrewdly with them'). It means getting the better of someone through calculated cunning, not open force. The past tense marks the scheming as the first step that led to the abuse.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.