Greek word · G4880

συναποθνήσκω

synapothnēskō

to die with

'To die together with someone.' The word is apothnēskō ('die') with syn- ('with') added. It is used of literal shared death and, in Paul, of the believer's participation in Christ's death.

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

What it means

συν-απο-θνήσκω

[in LXX: Sirach 19:10 * ;]

to die with or together: Mark 14:31, 2 Corinthians 7:3 (see Meyer, in l), 2 Timothy 2:11.†

(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 2 Timothy 2:11

Range of meaning

'To die together with someone.' The word is apothnēskō ('die') with syn- ('with') added. It is used of literal shared death and, in Paul, of the believer's participation in Christ's death.

Against the English

KJV 'if we be dead with him' describes a state, which hides the past tense of a one-time event ('we died'). Some modern paraphrases put it as a future possibility ('if we die with him'), which shifts it toward martyrdom only. The Greek is a completed past event: 'we died with him'.

Used elsewhere in the period

It occurs only three times in the NT. In Mark 14:31 Peter says, 'Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you', which is literal dying alongside Jesus, and Peter's vow uses 'deny', the very verb of v. 12. In 2 Cor 7:3 Paul tells the Corinthians they are in his heart 'to die together and to live together' (synapothanein kai syzēn), echoing a common Greek pledge of friendship: friends who share both death and life. Rom 6:8 has the closest theological parallel, with simple 'died with': 'if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.'

Where it appears

Mark · 1

  1. Mark 14:31 συναποθανεῖν to die with

    But Peter kept insisting, “Even if I have to die with You, I will never deny You.” And all the others said the same thing.

2 Corinthians · 1

  1. 2 Corinthians 7:3 συναποθανεῖν to die together

    I do not say this to condemn you. I have said before that you so occupy our hearts that we live and die together with you.

2 Timothy · 1

  1. 2 Timothy 2:11 συναπεθάνομεν, we have died with [Him],

    This is a trustworthy saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him;

    Here: 'We died together with [him]': a single, completed event in the past. 'Him' is not in the Greek; the 'with' prefix implies Christ. It probably points to the believer's union with Christ's death (as in baptism, Rom 6), and with Paul in chains it also carries the edge of actually dying for him.

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