Greek word · G658

ἀποτελέω

apoteleō

to complete

Bring to an end or completion; accomplish, carry out fully (Luke 13:32, "I perform cures"); in a passive sense, be fully formed or matured.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Greek New Testament. · Updated October 31, 2026

What it means

ἀπο-τελέω, -ῶ

[in LXX: I Est.5:73, 1Ma.15:39 * ;]

to bring to an end, complete, accomplish (cf. MM, see word): Luke 13:32, James 1:15.†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Range of meaning: Bring to an end or completion; accomplish, carry out fully (Luke 13:32, "I perform cures"); in a passive sense, be fully formed or matured.
Against the English: KJV "when it is finished"; BSB, NIV and ESV "full-grown / fully grown"; YLT "having been perfected"; WEB "full grown." A modern reader can take "finished" to mean "when the sinful act is over," which misses the picture of growth.
How it drifted: In 1611 "finished" could mean "brought to completion or perfection" (compare "finished" craftsmanship). Today it mostly means "ended, done with."
Used elsewhere in the period: In ordinary Greek it is used for completing works, tasks and processes. Its root, telos ("end, goal"), also gives teleios, which James uses in 1:4: "let endurance have its complete (teleion) work, that you may be complete (teleioi)."

Range of meaning: To bring to completion, carry out fully, accomplish. Also used for producing a result (James 1:15: sin 'when it is full-grown' gives birth to death). In Greek medical and technical writing it is used for carrying a procedure through to its result.
Against the English: KJV 'I do cures', BSB 'healing people', and WEB 'perform cures' are all accurate, but none of them shows that this verb and the final verb share the root tel- ('complete'). YLT's 'perfect cures… I am being perfected' is the only one of these versions that keeps the echo.
Used elsewhere in the period: In the New Testament it appears only here and in James 1:15. It is common in Hellenistic Greek for completing tasks and buildings. (The Byzantine text reads ἐπιτελέω here, which has the same sense.)

Luke · 1

Luke 13:32 ἀποτελῶ I complete

But Jesus replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘Look, I will keep driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach My goal.’

Here: 'I am carrying out, bringing to completion' cures. It is built on the root τελ- ('end, goal'), the same root as the last word of the verse. Jesus completes healings now, and then he himself will be 'completed'.

James · 1

James 1:15 ἀποτελεσθεῖσα having become fully grown

Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

Here: "Having been brought to full maturity." Sin is no longer an infant act. It has grown into its adult form and run its full course. It echoes the 'complete' (teleios) language of 1:4, but here maturity turns deadly.

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