Greek word · G424

ἀνέρχομαι

anerchomai

to go up

To go up or ascend, usually on foot to a higher place, or 'up' to an important city (Gal 1:17–18, 'up to Jerusalem').

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

ἀν-έρχομαι

[in LXX: 1 Kings 13:12 (הָלַךְ)* ;]

to go up: John 6:3, Galatians 1:17-18 (cf. ἐπανέρχ-; and on its use of "going up " to the capital, MM, VGT, see word).†

(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 John 6:3

Range of meaning

To go up or ascend, usually on foot to a higher place, or 'up' to an important city (Gal 1:17–18, 'up to Jerusalem').

Against the English

All the main English versions say 'went up' or 'climbed'. There is no real disagreement.

Used elsewhere in the period

Rare in the New Testament (John 6:3; Gal 1:17, 18). Common in ordinary Greek and the Septuagint. Exodus 19:3 and 24:12–18 in the Septuagint use the more usual anabainō for Moses going up Sinai, so John's wording is not copied directly from those verses.

Where it appears

John · 1

  1. John 6:3 ἀνῆλθεν Went up

    Then Jesus went up on the mountain and sat down with His disciples.

    Here: A simple past: 'he went up.' The climb is told as one completed move, and it comes first in the sentence. The verb is rare in the New Testament (only here and Galatians 1:17–18). The usual verb for 'going up a mountain' is anabainō.

Galatians · 2

  1. Galatians 1:17 ἀνῆλθον did I go up

    nor did I go up to Jerusalem to the apostles who came before me, but I went into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.

  2. Galatians 1:18 ἀνῆλθον I went up

    Only after three years did I go up to Jerusalem to confer with Cephas, and I stayed with him fifteen days.

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