Greek word · G3726
ὁρκίζω
horkizō
to adjure
"To make someone swear, put under oath, bind by an oath; to adjure." It is built with an accusative of the person and an accusative of the deity invoked ("I adjure you [by] God"). In magic and exorcism it is the technical verb for binding a spirit by calling on a higher power.
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
ὁρκίζω
(ὅρκος), [in LXX: Genesis 24:37, al. (שָׁבַע hi.) ;]
1. to make one swear (Xen., Polyb., a1.).
2. to adjure: with dupl. accusative, Mark 5:7, Acts 19:13 (cf. ἐν-, ἐξ-ορκίζω).†
(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 make someone swear, put under oath, bind by an oath; to adjure." It is built with an accusative of the person and an accusative of the deity invoked ("I adjure you [by] God"). In magic and exorcism it is the technical verb for binding a spirit by calling on a higher power.
- Against the English
KJV/WEB/ESV keep "adjure", which is accurate but now an obscure word. BSB ("I beg You before God"), NIV ("In God's name") and NLT ("I beg you") turn it into a plea. NASB's "I implore You by God" sits in between. Turning it into begging loses the move: the spirit is not only pleading but trying to bind Jesus with an oath formula.
- How it drifted
"Adjure" has nearly dropped out of English, so modern versions replace it with "beg". Luke's parallel (8:28) already uses deomai, "I beg", and English versions of Mark sometimes drift toward Luke's softer wording.
- Used elsewhere in the period
In the Greek Old Testament: Gen 24:3 (Abraham binding his servant by oath); 1 Kgs 22:16 (Ahab: "How many times must I adjure you…?"); Song 2:7. In the NT: the Jewish exorcists at Ephesus, "I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches" (Acts 19:13); the high priest's "I adjure you by the living God" to Jesus uses the related exorkizō (Matt 26:63). The Greek magical papyri are full of "I adjure you by…" formulas. One later spell even reads "I adjure you by the god of the Hebrews, Jesus" (PGM IV.3019–20). Josephus describes Jewish exorcism with oaths and Solomon's name (Antiquities 8.45–49).
- Range of meaning
"To make someone swear," "to adjure": to put a person or spirit under oath by calling on a higher power as guarantor. The construction is "I adjure you (acc.) by X (acc.)."
- Against the English
KJV, WEB and YLT keep "adjure," which is accurate but archaic. The BSB and NIV have "I command you," and the NLT is similar. That is clearer, but it loses the oath and the binding by a stronger name, and the oath is what marks this as a spell formula rather than a simple order.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Septuagint: Gen 50:5; 1 Kgs 22:16 ("How many times must I adjure you?"). New Testament: in Mark 5:7 a demon uses this very formula on Jesus ("I adjure you by God, do not torment me"); 1 Thess 5:27 (variant). In the Greek magical papyri, horkizō se kata… ("I adjure you by…") is the commonest spell opening. One papyrus exorcism (PGM IV.3019–20, 4th century, so later than Acts) reads "I adjure you by the god of the Hebrews, Jesus," which shows the practice Luke describes continuing.
Where it appears
Mark · 1
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Mark 5:7 ὁρκίζω I adjure
And he shouted in a loud voice, “What do You want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You before God not to torture me!”
Here: "I put you under oath": a formal binding formula, the same language exorcists used to command spirits. The demon turns the exorcist's own weapon on the exorcist.
Acts · 1
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Acts 19:13 ὁρκίζω I adjure
Now there were some itinerant Jewish exorcists who tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those with evil spirits. They would say, “I command you by Jesus, whom Paul proclaims.”
Here: "I adjure": I bind you by oath. This is the standard opening of ancient exorcism and binding spells. A higher power is called on as the guarantee that compels the spirit to obey.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.