Greek word · G5261

ὑπογραμμός

hypogrammos

example

From hupo- ("under") + graphō ("write"): literally an "under-writing." In schools it was the model line of letters a teacher wrote for a child to copy beneath or trace over. By extension it meant a pattern, outline or model meant to be reproduced exactly.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

ὑπογραμμός, -οῦ, ὁ

(ὑπογράφω, (a) to write under; (b) to trace letters for copying), [in LXX: 2Ma.2:28 * ;]

1. a writing-copy, hence,

2. an example: 1 Peter 2:11 (Philo).†

(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 1 Peter 2:21

Range of meaning

From hupo- ("under") + graphō ("write"): literally an "under-writing." In schools it was the model line of letters a teacher wrote for a child to copy beneath or trace over. By extension it meant a pattern, outline or model meant to be reproduced exactly. It does not mean an example in the loose sense of a good instance of something.

Against the English

Every major English version says "example." That is not wrong, but modern English "example" can mean an illustration, a sample, or a role model you admire from a distance. The Greek word carries the copybook picture: a model you place yourself under and trace, line by line, until your hand moves the way the master's did.

How it drifted

Latin exemplum (Vulgate) and English "example" kept the moral sense of a model. They lost the concrete classroom image, which was clear to a Greek reader who had learned letters this way.

Used elsewhere in the period

Plato (Protagoras 326d) describes writing teachers drawing lines with the stylus for pupils to write along, and uses the image for how the city's laws shape citizens. Clement of Alexandria (Stromateis 5.8.49) explicitly calls the children's copy-model a hupogrammos. 2 Maccabees 2:28 uses the word for "outlines" to be followed. Very early Christian writers took it up: 1 Clement 5:7 (Paul as "the greatest hupogrammos of endurance"), 16:17 (Christ, described with Isaiah 53, as the hupogrammos of humility), 33:8. Polycarp, To the Philippians 8:2, clearly echoes 1 Peter. It appears only here in the New Testament.

Where it appears

1 Peter · 1

  1. 1 Peter 2:21 ὑπογραμμὸν an example

    For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His footsteps:

    Here: Literally an "under-writing": the model letters a teacher wrote for a pupil to trace or copy line by line. Not just someone to admire. A pattern to reproduce stroke by stroke.

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