Greek word · G6000

ἀγγέλλω

angellō

to report

To bring word, announce, report news, especially as a messenger carrying a message from someone else. It is the root of angelos, "messenger", whether human or heavenly, and of euangelion ("good news") and apangellō ("report back").

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

ἀγγέλλω (ἄγγελος),

[in LXX for נגד hi. ;]

to announce, report: John 4:51 (WHR omit), 20:18 (MM, VGT, see word).†

(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 John 20:18

Range of meaning

To bring word, announce, report news, especially as a messenger carrying a message from someone else. It is the root of angelos, "messenger", whether human or heavenly, and of euangelion ("good news") and apangellō ("report back").

Against the English

"Told" (KJV, WEB) is accurate but flat. "Announced" (BSB, ESV) and "announcing" (NASB) keep the sense of delivering news better. No English rendering can show the link with "angel".

Used elsewhere in the period

Common in classical and Hellenistic Greek for a messenger's report. In the Greek Old Testament it is rare compared with apangellō and anangellō, but its sense is the same. In the New Testament it appears only here in the earliest text (ℵ, B and others). Later copyists replaced it with the commoner apangellousa.

Where it appears

John · 1

  1. John 20:18 ἀγγέλλουσα reporting

    Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them what He had said to her.

    Here: "Announcing, bringing news". It is the verb behind angelos, "messenger, angel", and this is the only place it appears in the New Testament. Earlier in the scene two angeloi spoke to her (v. 12). Now she is the one carrying the message.

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