Greek word · G4942
συνυποκρίνομαι
synypokrinomai
to join hypocrisy
'To play a part along with someone', 'to join in a pretense'. It is the verb behind hypokrisis with the prefix syn- ('together with') added. It is rare and appears 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
From the study of Galatians 2:13
- Range of meaning
'To play a part along with someone', 'to join in a pretense'. It is the verb behind hypokrisis with the prefix syn- ('together with') added. It is rare and appears only here in the New Testament.
- Against the English
'Joined him in his hypocrisy' (BSB, WEB) is accurate but makes it sound like a state of character. 'Dissembled with him' (KJV, YLT) keeps the sense of an act of concealment. 'Acted hypocritically along with him' brings out that the verb names something they did.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Polybius (2nd c. BC) uses it of people who go along with someone else's feigned stance. Plutarch also uses it. It is absent from the Septuagint, though the simple verb hypokrinomai appears in 2 Maccabees 6 and 4 Maccabees 6.
Where it appears
Galatians · 1
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Galatians 2:13 συνυπεκρίθησαν acted hypocritically
The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
Here: Literally 'they acted a part together with'. The other Jewish believers copied Peter and put on the same show: they acted as though eating with Gentiles was unacceptable, even though they had been doing it and did not actually believe it was wrong. The past tense (aorist) states it as a single event.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.