Greek word · G3920
παρείσακτος
pareisaktos
infiltrated
A verbal adjective from pareisagō, 'bring in alongside', and so 'bring in secretly or illegitimately'. It means smuggled in, introduced by a side door, someone who does not properly belong. Grammatically it is passive ('brought in'), but such adjectives often simply mean 'intruding'.
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
From the study of Galatians 2:4
- Range of meaning
A verbal adjective from pareisagō, 'bring in alongside', and so 'bring in secretly or illegitimately'. It means smuggled in, introduced by a side door, someone who does not properly belong. Grammatically it is passive ('brought in'), but such adjectives often simply mean 'intruding'.
- Against the English
KJV 'unawares brought in' (with old 'unawares' meaning 'without people knowing'), ESV and WEB 'secretly brought in', NIV 'infiltrated our ranks', BSB 'had come in under false pretenses'. All keep the stealth. BSB and NIV fold this word and the next verb into one expression, so the doubled 'in on the side' wording is lost.
- How it drifted
Only in the KJV, where 'unawares' now sounds as if the false brothers did not know what they were doing. In 1611 it meant that the community was not aware of them.
- Used elsewhere in the period
In the NT only here. Its verb pareisagō appears in 2 Pet 2:1, of false teachers who 'secretly bring in' destructive opinions. Strabo (Geography 17.1.8) uses Pareisaktos as a contemptuous nickname for a Ptolemaic king regarded as an illegitimate intruder on the throne. This shows the word carried a sense of usurping a place one has no right to.
Similar words
Where it appears
Galatians · 1
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Galatians 2:4 παρεισάκτους brought in secretly
This issue arose because some false brothers had come in under false pretenses to spy on our freedom in Christ Jesus, in order to enslave us.
Here: A verbal adjective meaning 'brought in on the side', that is, illegitimately. It is the word for something smuggled. It does not say who brought them in. The point is that they did not belong where they were.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.