ὑπερνικάω

From the study of Romans 8:37

Range of meaning

Made of hyper (over, beyond, exceedingly) and nikaō (to conquer, win, prevail, overcome, whether in war, in court, in athletic games or in a moral struggle). The compound means "to win decisively, prevail completely, be more than victorious." The hyper intensifies: this is not a narrow win but an overwhelming one.

Against the English

KJV, BSB, WEB, NIV and ESV: "we are more than conquerors". NASB: "we overwhelmingly conquer". YLT: "we more than conquer". Tyndale (1526) had "we overcome strongly". The Geneva Bible (1560) set the noun phrase "more than conquerors", and KJV kept it. That turns Paul's present-tense verb ("we are prevailing") into a noun of status ("conquerors"). The phrase is memorable, but it can make the verse sound like a description of who we are, when Paul is describing what is happening to us in the middle of the hardships.

How it drifted

The noun phrase came in with the Geneva Bible and KJV. In modern English "conqueror" brings to mind dominating others, and "more than conquerors" is often used as a slogan of personal success. That pulls the phrase away from its setting of persecution and death.

Used elsewhere in the period

The word is rare. It does not appear in the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) and appears only here in the New Testament. Lexicons (BDAG) list only a few scattered non-biblical examples, and later Christian writers use it mostly when echoing this verse. Paul is fond of hyper- compounds: hyperperisseuō, "overflow beyond" (Rom 5:20); hyperypsoō, "exalt above all" (Phil 2:9); hyperekperissou, "far beyond all measure" (Eph 3:20). The simple verb nikaō is used of Jewish martyrs in 4 Maccabees, who "conquered" the tyrant by enduring torture to death (e.g. 4 Macc 1:11; 6:10; 9:30). Revelation uses it in the same way: the martyrs "conquered him by the blood of the Lamb… they did not love their lives unto death" (Rev 12:11). So winning by dying faithfully was already a known idea.