Greek word · G3922

παρεισέρχομαι

pareiserchomai

to come in

A double compound: para ('alongside, beside') + eis ('into') + erchomai ('come'). It means 'to come in alongside, come in in addition', and in some contexts 'to slip in, sneak in'. BDAG gives 'slip in' for Gal 2:4 and 'come in as a side issue' or 'come in besides' for Rom 5:20.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

παρ-εισ-έρχομαι

1. to come in beside or by the way: Romans 5:20.

2. to come in secretly, steal in: Galatians 2:4.†

(AS)

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 Romans 5:20

Range of meaning

A double compound: para ('alongside, beside') + eis ('into') + erchomai ('come'). It means 'to come in alongside, come in in addition', and in some contexts 'to slip in, sneak in'. BDAG gives 'slip in' for Gal 2:4 and 'come in as a side issue' or 'come in besides' for Rom 5:20.

Against the English

KJV 'entered' and BSB/WEB/YLT 'came in' are accurate but lose the 'alongside' part of the word. NIV 'was brought in' turns the law into something that was acted on, while Paul's verb has the law itself coming in. The Latin Vulgate's 'subintravit' ('entered in under / came in quietly') pushes toward the 'sneaking' sense.

How it drifted

No drift in the English word itself. The issue is that the plain 'came in' hides Paul's point: the law came in as a secondary addition between Adam and Christ, not as the main act of the story.

Used elsewhere in the period

The NT uses the verb only twice. In Gal 2:4 Paul uses it of false brothers who 'slipped in' to spy, where the sense is clearly negative. Classical and Hellenistic writers use it both neutrally ('come in besides') and negatively ('creep in'). The idea matches Gal 3:19, where the law 'was added because of transgressions until the offspring should come'.

Where it appears

Romans · 1

  1. Romans 5:20 παρεισῆλθεν, entered,

    The law came in so that the trespass would increase; but where sin increased, grace increased all the more,

    Here: Literally 'came in beside'. The law came onto a stage where the main drama, Adam against Christ, was already under way. It arrived as an addition between the two, not as the main event. The verb looks at the entry as a single past act.

Galatians · 1

  1. Galatians 2:4 παρεισῆλθον came in by stealth

    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: 'They slipped in.' A single past act of entry. It repeats the 'in on the side' idea of the previous adjective, so the sneaking is described twice: smuggled-in people who slipped in.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.