φυλάσσω

Matthew 19:20 ἐφύλαξα I have kept

“All these I have kept,” said the young man. “What do I still lack?”

Here: "I have guarded/kept." This was the standard word for observing God's commandments. The past tense here sums up his whole life as one completed fact: he has lived by these commands.

Mark 10:20 ἐφυλαξάμην I have kept

“Teacher,” he replied, “all these I have kept from my youth.”

Luke 2:8 φυλάσσοντες keeping

And there were shepherds residing in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night.

Here: To guard or protect against danger. This is a sentry's verb, not a spectator's. The present tense describes ongoing duty.

Luke 8:29 φυλασσόμενος, being kept,

For Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was bound with chains and shackles, he had broken the chains and been driven by the demon into solitary places.

Luke 11:21 φυλάσσῃ may guard

When a strong man, fully armed, guards his house, his possessions are secure.

Here: Present tense: he keeps guard, an ongoing watch like a sentry or garrison. The verb is in the subjunctive mood (the form for possible or general situations) because of 'whenever'.

Luke 11:28 φυλάσσοντες keeping

But He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

Here: A present-tense participle: people who keep on guarding and holding onto the word. It means holding it as something precious and acting on it, not letting it be lost.

Luke 12:15 φυλάσσεσθε do keep yourselves

And He said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourselves against every form of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

Here: The middle form means 'guard yourselves.' It is a sentry's word. Greed is pictured as something that attacks you from outside your defences, and the guard has to stay up.

Luke 18:21 ἐφύλαξα I kept

“All these I have kept from my youth,” he said.

John 12:25 φυλάξει will keep

Whoever loves his life will lose it, but whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Here: Future: he will guard and protect it, as a sentry guards something precious. The irony is sharp: the one who refuses to protect his life is the one who ends up protecting it.

John 12:47 φυλάξῃ, shall keep [them],

As for anyone who hears My words and does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I have not come to judge the world, but to save the world.

Here: To guard and observe: treating the words as something entrusted to you, to be held onto and lived by. It is the standard Greek Old Testament verb for 'keeping' God's commandments.

John 17:12 ἐφύλαξα, I guarded [them],

While I was with them, I protected and preserved them by Your name, the name You gave Me. Not one of them has been lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.

Here: Aorist tense, which sums an action up as a whole: 'I stood guard'. The word belongs to sentries and shepherds, and it adds the idea of defending them against threat to the gentler 'keeping'.

Acts 7:53 ἐφυλάξατε.¶ kept [it].

you who received the law ordained by angels, yet have not kept it.”

Here: 'You did not guard/keep it.' The word pictures a sentry protecting something entrusted to him. It is the last word of the speech and turns the charge back on the court: the men who claim to defend the law are the ones who failed to keep it.

Acts 12:4 φυλάσσειν to guard

He arrested him and put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out to the people after the Passover.

Here: States the soldiers' purpose. The form suits ongoing duty: to keep on guarding him, around the clock, with no gap. It repeats the root of 'custody' above.

Acts 16:4 φυλάσσειν to keep

As they went from town to town, they delivered the decisions handed down by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey.

Acts 21:24 φυλάσσων keeping

Take these men, purify yourself along with them, and pay their expenses so they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know that there is no truth to these rumors about you, but that you also live in obedience to the law.

Here: 'Keeping' or 'guarding'. The participle says how Paul 'walks in line': by observing the Torah's commands. The same verb is used in verse 25 for what the Gentile believers are to 'keep themselves from'.

Acts 21:25 φυλάσσεσθαι to keep from

As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality.”

Acts 22:20 φυλάσσων watching over

And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and watching over the garments of those who killed him.’

Acts 23:35 φυλάσσεσθαι to be guarded

he said, “I will hear your case when your accusers arrive.” Then he ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Herod’s Praetorium.

Acts 28:16 φυλάσσοντι is guarding

When we arrived in Rome, Paul was permitted to stay by himself, with a soldier to guard him.

Here: 'Guarding,' a present participle: the guarding goes on all the time. From v. 20 ('this chain') and Roman practice, Paul was probably chained to the soldier, and the guards probably took turns.

Romans 2:26 φυλάσσῃ, shall keep,

If a man who is not circumcised keeps the requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

Galatians 6:13 φυλάσσουσιν, keep,

For the circumcised do not even keep the law themselves, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.

Here: Present tense, 'are keeping'. It is the standard Jewish idiom for observing the commandments: guarding them by living them out. Paul says they do not actually live as the Law requires.

2 Thessalonians 3:3 φυλάξει He will keep [you]

But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.

Here: Future tense: 'will guard.' It is the language of a sentry or garrison watching over something valuable against attack.

1 Timothy 5:21 φυλάξῃς you may keep

I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels to maintain these principles without bias, and to do nothing out of partiality.

Here: To keep the rules as a guard keeps a post: observe them faithfully and don't let them be bent. The aorist subjunctive presents the keeping as a whole act, with no stress on how long it lasts.

1 Timothy 6:20 φύλαξον do guard

O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid irreverent, empty chatter and the opposing arguments of so-called “knowledge,”

Here: A command for decisive action: 'guard it!' This is a sentry's word. The point is to protect the deposit from loss or tampering, not to store it passively.

2 Timothy 1:12 φυλάξαι to guard

For this reason, even though I suffer as I do, I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day.

Here: 'To guard', the word for a sentry or a custodian keeping something safe from loss or theft. In 1:14 Timothy is told to do the same verb to the deposit 'through the Holy Spirit'.

2 Timothy 1:14 φύλαξον do keep

Guard the treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

Here: A direct command to one person, Timothy. The word means to guard as a sentry or custodian would. It means keeping safe from loss, theft and tampering, not owning or hoarding.

2 Timothy 4:15 φυλάσσου· do yourself beware of;

You too should beware of him, for he has vigorously opposed our message.

2 Peter 2:5 ἐφύλαξεν preserved

if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight;

Here: The main verb of the clause: God 'guarded' Noah, protecting him while the judgment fell. It is the reverse of 'did not spare': the same act of God destroys one group and shields another.

2 Peter 3:17 φυλάσσεσθε do beware

Therefore, beloved, since you already know these things, be on your guard so that you will not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure standing.

Here: A command in the 'middle' form, where the action comes back on the doer: 'guard yourselves, be on your guard.' The present tense pictures a sentry's ongoing watch, not a single moment of caution.

1 John 5:21 φυλάξατε do keep

Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

Here: The command form of a verb with a military and watchman picture: post a guard, keep something safe from a threat. With 'yourselves … from' it means 'be on guard against'. The tense, here a single decisive command, gives it urgency rather than describing a slow process.

Jude 1:24 φυλάξαι to keep

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you unblemished in His glorious presence, with great joy—

Here: 'To guard' as a sentry or garrison guards: active protection against a threat. The threat here is the false teachers who have 'slipped in' (v.4). The aorist infinitive looks at the guarding as a whole, all the way to the end.