Greek word · G609

ἀποκόπτω

apokoptō

to cut off

To cut off or chop off a limb or part. It was also used for castration (Deut 23:1 LXX; Gal 5:12).

Appears 6 times in 6 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

ἀπο-κόπτω

[in LXX for קָצַץ, כָּרַת, etc. ;]

to cut off: Mark 9:43, 45, John 18:10, 26 Acts 27:32. Mid., to mutilate oneself, have oneself mutilated: Galatians 5:12 (cf. Deuteronomy 23:1 LXX; and see Cremer, 751; MM, 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 Mark 9:43

Range of meaning

To cut off or chop off a limb or part. It was also used for castration (Deut 23:1 LXX; Gal 5:12).

Against the English

All English versions say 'cut it off'. The difference lies in how readers take it: literally or as a deliberately extreme image.

Used elsewhere in the period

LXX Deut 25:12 ('you shall cut off her hand') is the only judicial amputation in the Torah. Deut 14:1 and Lev 19:28 forbid people to cut their own bodies. Rabbinic sources use the same kind of extreme language: Mishnah Niddah 2:1 says that a man's hand that keeps touching his private parts 'should be cut off', and the Talmud (b. Niddah 13b) discusses this without anyone treating it as an actual instruction.

From the study of Galatians 5:12

Range of meaning

Literally "to cut off, chop off": of a limb, a hand or foot (Mark 9:43, 45), an ear (John 18:10, 26), a boat's ropes (Acts 27:32). In the middle voice with a person as subject, and in a context about genitals, it is the ordinary Greek word for castrating oneself or having oneself castrated. BDAG gives exactly this sense for Galatians 5:12: "make a eunuch of oneself, castrate oneself."

Against the English

KJV "were even cut off" and WEB/YLT "cut themselves off" are literal, but to a modern ear "cut off" means separated, excommunicated, or cutting ties. NIV, ESV and BSB say "emasculate"; NASB "mutilate." The literal renderings keep the word picture but lose what the picture was of.

How it drifted

The Latin Vulgate rendered it with a passive, abscidantur ("may they be cut off"), which invited readers to take it as a wish that the agitators be removed from the church or destroyed. English versions in that line (including KJV) kept the vague "cut off," and readers over time heard church discipline rather than a sharp bodily image.

Used elsewhere in the period

LXX Deuteronomy 23:2 (23:1 in English) bars from "the assembly of the Lord" a man who is crushed or apokekommenos, "cut off," i.e. castrated: the same verb, in a law Paul's opponents would revere. Greek writers use it of the self-castrating priests (Galli) of the mother-goddess Cybele (e.g. Epictetus, Discourses 2.20; Lucian, On the Syrian Goddess 51 uses the related idea of their self-castration). Early Greek-speaking interpreters such as John Chrysostom read Galatians 5:12 as castration.

Where it appears

Mark · 2

  1. Mark 9:43 ἀπόκοψον do cut off

    If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two hands and go into hell, into the unquenchable fire.

    Here: A command in a form that signals one decisive act: chop it off. It is a deliberately shocking image, since Jewish law did not allow people to mutilate themselves.

  2. Mark 9:45 ἀπόκοψον do cut off

    If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.

John · 2

  1. John 18:10 ἀπέκοψεν cut off

    Then Simon Peter drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus.

    Here: 'Cut away, severed.' The prefix apo- ('off, away') means the ear was taken off, not just nicked.

  2. John 18:26 ἀπέκοψεν cut off

    One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Didn’t I see you with Him in the garden?”

    Here: To cut clean off, sever. Not a scratch: Peter took the ear (or part of it) off. That is a violent act against a member of the high priest's household during an arrest.

Acts · 1

  1. Acts 27:32 ἀπέκοψαν cut away

    So the soldiers cut the ropes to the lifeboat and set it adrift.

Galatians · 1

  1. Galatians 5:12 ἀποκόψονται will emasculate themselves

    As for those who are agitating you, I wish they would proceed to emasculate themselves!

    Here: Future middle: "they will cut off [for/on] themselves." Used of body parts, and specifically the standard word for castration. Following talk of circumcision (5:2-3, 5:6, 5:11), the first readers would hear "have themselves castrated."

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