Greek word · G380
ἀναπτύσσω
anaptyssō
to unroll
To unfold, unroll. Used of opening a scroll or spreading out a letter. It occurs only here in the New Testament.
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 unfold, unroll. Used of opening a scroll or spreading out a letter. It occurs only here in the New Testament.
- Against the English
BSB, NIV and ESV say 'unrolling/unrolled'. KJV, WEB and NASB (1995) say 'opened', which suits a codex better. YLT's 'unfolded' is literal.
- How it drifted
'Opened the book' turns the physical action into a codex picture, as with 'book' above.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Herodotus (Histories 1.125) uses the same participle phrase for Cyrus unrolling a document and reading it out. The Septuagint uses the verb at 4 Kingdoms (2 Kings) 19:14, where Hezekiah spreads out Sennacherib's letter before the LORD. The manuscripts that read anoixas ('opened') here may reflect a scribe swapping in the more common verb. Some scholars argue the opposite: that a scribe replaced the common verb with the precise scroll term. See textual notes.
Where it appears
Luke · 1
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Luke 4:17 ἀναπτύξας having unrolled
the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it was written:
Here: 'Having unrolled.' This is the specific word for opening a scroll, and Luke pairs it with ptyxas, 'having rolled up', in v.20. Isaiah 61 lies near the end of a long scroll, so this means a lot of unrolling.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.