eRhema Explore
Word

κολλάω

kolláō · G2853 · Greek · 12 occurrences

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Meanings

  1. to join, to join oneself to, to become a part of

    To begin an association with someone, whether temporary or permanent

    Examples

    Matthew 19:5 and said, ‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND HIS MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’?

    Luke 15:15 “So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

    Acts 5:13 But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem.

  2. to cling to, to stick to

    To stick or cling to something

    Examples

    Luke 10:11 ‘Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’

    Romans 12:9 Love must be free of hypocrisy. Detest what is evil; cling to what is good.

  3. to increase greatly, to reach to high heaven

    (An idiom, literally: to cling to heaven) To increase enormously the number of something, with the implication of reaching the attention of God

    Examples

    Revelation 18:5 for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her offenses.

How it’s used In 6 roles

Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.

the word studied the word it goes with

Who or what does itSubject

12 occurrences in 5 groups

To or for whomIndirect object

9 occurrences in 9 groups

With prepositionsPrepositional phrases

2 occurrences in 3 groups

Named alongside itApposition

1 occurrences in 1 groups

What is done to itIt is the object

3 occurrences in 3 groups

What it is said to bePredicate

3 occurrences in 3 groups

When two words share a role, as in “Paul and Barnabas said”, the verse appears under each, so a section’s counts can add up to more than the number of occurrences.

MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.

In the other Testament 1 word
דָּבַק dâbaq · H1692 · to stick together, to cling together, to cling
דָּבַק (dâbaq, H1692) דָּבַק is the standard Hebrew equivalent for κολλάω (kolláō, G2853) κολλάω, both denoting the act of clinging, sticking, or joining closely together, used both literally (physical adhesion) and figuratively (relational attachment, loyalty, or pursuit).
Semantic domains 3 entries
To cling to, to stick to18.21
κολλάω describes joining or uniting one thing closely to another. Matthew 19:5 quotes the creation account, “FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND HIS MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH,” the κολληθήσεται naming this joining together of husband and wife.
To join, to join oneself to, to become a part of34.22
The same verb can describe associating or having close dealings with another person. Acts 10:28 has Peter telling Cornelius’s household, “it is forbidden for a Jewish man to associate with or visit a foreigner; and yet God has shown me that I am not to call any person unholy or unclean,” the κολλᾶσθαι naming this forbidden social association Peter had been taught to avoid.
To increase greatly, to reach to high heaven59.66
κολλάω can further describe something increasing or piling up until it reaches an extreme extent. Revelation 18:5 says of Babylon, “her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her offenses,” the ἐκολλήθησαν naming this massing of sin reaching up to heaven itself.
Word family 2 words

Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.

κολλάωkolláō · G2853προσκολλάω proskolláō · G4347 · to join, to join oneself to, to become a part of · 2×
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon κόλλω: passive, present κολλωμαι; 1 aorist ἐκολλήθην; 1 future κολλεθήσομαι (Mt 19:5 L T…
κόλλω: passive, present κολλωμαι; 1 aorist ἐκολλήθην; 1 future κολλεθήσομαι (Mt 19:5 L T Tr WH); (κόλλα gluten, glue); properly, to glue, glue to, glue together, cement, fasten together; hence universally, to join or fasten firmly together; in the N. T. only the passive is found, with reflexive force, to join oneself to, cleave to; the Sept. for דָּבַק: ὁ κονιορτός ὁ κολληθεις ἡμῖν, Lk 10:11; ἐκολλήθησαν αὐτῆς αἱ ἁμαρτίαι ἄχρι τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, her sins were such a heap as to reach even unto heaven (that is, came to the knowledge of heaven), Rev 18:5, G L T Tr WH (ἐκολλ. ἡ ψυχή μου ὀπίσω σου, Ps 62:9; αἱ ἄγνοιαί ἡμῶν ὑπερήνεγκαν ἕως τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, 1 Esdr. 8:72 (74); ὕβρις τέ βιη τέ οὐρανόν ἱκει, Homer Odyssey 15, 329; 17, 565). of persons, with the dative of the thing, κολλήθητι τῷ ἅρματι join thyself to etc. Acts 8:29; with the dative of person, to form an intimate connection with, enter into the closest relations with, unite oneself to (so the Epistle of Barnabas 10, 3f, 5, 8 [ET] also with μετά and the genitive of person, ibid. 10, 11 [ET]; 19, 2 [ET]. 6; Clement of Rome, 1 Cor. 15, 1 [ET]; 30, 3 [ET]; 46, 2 [ET] (cf. Lightfoot's note), 4): τῇ γυναικί, Mt 19:5 L T Tr WH; τῇ πόρνη, 1 Cor 6:16 (Sir. 19:2); τῷ κυρίῳ, 1 Cor 6:17 (2 Kgs 18:6; Sir. 2:3); to join oneself to one as an associate, keep company witlb Acts 5:13; Acts 9:26; Acts 10:28; to follow one, be on his side, Acts 17:34 (2 Sam 20:2; 2 Sam 20:1 Macc. 3:2 1 Macc. 6:21); to join or attach oneself to a master or patron, Lk 15:15; with the dative of the thing, to give oneself steadfastly to, labor for (A. V. cleave to): τῷ ἀγαθῷ, Rom 12:9, ἀγαθῷ, κρίσει δίκαια, the Epistle of Barnabas 20, 2 [ET]; τῇ εὐλογία, so cleave to as to share, Clement of Rome, 1 Cor. 31, 1 [ET]. (Aeschylus Ag. 1566; Plato, Diodorus, Plutarch, others) (Compare: προσκολλάω.)

Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (1889), public domain

Topical studies with this word 3 entries
Fasten, Stick To2 occurrencesJoin, Begin To Associate9 occurrencesIncrease, Decrease1 occurrence

Meanings adapted from the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament, © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0 and the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (from the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew), © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0; MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.

Sources

eRhema lexical overview, based on the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (© United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Macula Hebrew and Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0); released under CC BY-SA 4.0

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