ἐπιπίπτω
to fall upon
‘to fall upon’ is one of 2 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
From Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Where this word appears
See every Aorist-tense verb in the Greek New Testament →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Tense
- Aorist
- Action viewed as a simple whole, without regard to duration — often past (perfective aspect).
- Present
- Ongoing or general action in present time (imperfective aspect).
- Perfect
- A completed past action with continuing present results.
Voice
- Active
- The subject performs the action.
Mood
- Indicative
- States a fact or asks a factual question (the mood of reality).
- Participle
- A verbal adjective (“writing,” “having written”).
- Infinitive
- A verbal noun (“to write”), unmarked for person or number.
Case
- Nominative
- The case of the subject (and the predicate nominative).
Person
- 3rd person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Neuter
- Grammatically neuter.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one.
5 verses where G1968 appears in the Aorist tense in the Book of Acts. Filtered view — show all forms. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Greek form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Greek New Testament; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences of this word are not indexed here.
Acts
- Acts 10:44 ἐπέπεσεν aor act ind 3sg While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard the word.
- Acts 11:15 ἐπέπεσεν aor act ind 3sg As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, even as on us at the beginning.
- Acts 19:17 ἐπέπεσεν aor act ind 3sg This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived at Ephesus. Fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
- Acts 20:10 ἐπέπεσεν aor act ind 3sg Paul went down, and fell upon him, and embracing him said, "Don't be troubled, for his life is in him."
- Acts 20:37 ἐπιπεσόντες aor act ptcp nom pl masc They all wept a lot, and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him,
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
“to fall upon” is the headline sense of the Greek verb επιπιπτω (epipíptō). It clusters heavily in Acts, which alone accounts for 50% of its uses. It turns up in 12 verses across 6 books, an uncommon footprint. Its earliest occurrence is Mark 3:10. Lexicons map it across 2 senses. See the sense tree, 12-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's G1968 catalogs a Greek word from the Greek New Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Greek New Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 12
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 12 distinct verses.
- 6 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 6 of 27 New Testament books.
- #904
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Greek words (rank 904 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 12 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the New Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Some books belong to more than one corpus (Luke is in both the Gospels and the Lukan corpus, and so on), so these shares overlap and need not total 100%. Each figure is a share of the word’s 12 distinct verses.
- Lukan (Luke–Acts) 8 verses · 67%
- Gospels 4 verses · 33%
- Johannine 2 verses · 17%
- Pauline corpus 1 verse · 8%
- Revelation 1 verse · 8%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Fell 9×
- American Standard Version: Fell 9×
- Berean Standard Bible: Fell 3×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Fell 7×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G1968 across 13 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 4 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders G1968 across 12 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders G1968 across 11 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 8 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders G1968 across 14 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 7 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in Thayer's
The 2 senses Thayer's distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- to fall upon, to rush or press upon
- metaph.
Word origin
Derived from επι (epí) (G1909) — upon.
Forms in the corpus
The 6 distinct written forms G1968 takes in the Greek New Testament, most frequent first — each parse links to that tense’s occurrences in the concordance.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| ἐπέπεσεν epépesen | Verb, Aorist, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Singular | Luke 1:12 | 7 |
| ἐπέπεσαν epépesan | Verb, Aorist, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Plural | Romans 15:3 | 1 |
| ἐπιπίπτειν epipíptein | Verb, Present, Active, Infinitive | Mark 3:10 | 1 |
| ἐπιπεπτωκός epipeptōkós | Verb, Perfect, Active, Participle, Nominative, Singular, Neuter | Acts 8:16 | 1 |
| ἐπιπεσόντες epipesóntes | Verb, Aorist, Active, Participle, Nominative, Plural, Masculine | Acts 20:37 | 1 |
| ἐπιπεσὼν epipesṑn | Verb, Aorist, Active, Participle, Nominative, Singular, Masculine | John 13:25 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other Thayer's entries built from the same root as G1968, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
- επαγγελλω epangéllō G1861 to announce
- επαγω epágō G1863 to bring upon
- επαγωνιζομαι epagōnízomai G1864 to contend
- επαθροιζω epathroízō G1865 to gather together
- επαινεω epainéō G1867 to approve
- επαινος épainos G1868 approval
- επαιρω epaírō G1869 to lift up
- επαισχυνομαι epaischýnomai G1870 to be ashamed
- επαιτεω epaitéō G1871 to ask repeatedly
- επακουω epakoúō G1873 to give ear to
- επακροαομαι epakroáomai G1874 to listen to
- επαν epán G1875 after
- επαναγκες epánankes G1876 necessarily
- επαναγω epanágō G1877 to lead back
- επαναμιμνησκω epanamimnḗskō G1878 to remind
- επαναπαυομαι epanapaúomai G1879 to rest upon
- επανερχομαι epanérchomai G1880 to return
- επανισταμαι epanístamai G1881 to raise up against
- επανορθωσις epanórthōsis G1882 correction
- επανω epánō G1883 above
- επαρκεω eparkéō G1884 to avail
- επαρχια eparchía G1885 office of governor
- επαυλις épaulis G1886 farm
- επαυριον epaúrion G1887 the next day
+110 more words share this root (not shown).
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 137 — not the complete family. 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint usage
The same Greek word επιπιπτω appears 37 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 36 verses in 15 books.
- 37
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 36
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 15 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 15 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Genesis 14:15 ἐπιπίπτω
- Exodus 15:16 ἐπιπίπτω
- Leviticus 11:32 ἐπιπίπτω
- Numbers 35:23 ἐπιπίπτω
- Joshua 2:9 ἐπιπίπτω
- 1 Samuel 26:12 ἐπιπίπτω
- 2 Samuel 17:9 ἐπιπίπτω
- 1 Chronicles 10:4 ἐπιπίπτω
- Ezra 16:16 ἐπιπίπτω
- Esther 7:8 ἐπιπίπτω
- Job 4:13 ἐπιπίπτω
- Psalms 15:6 ἐπιπίπτω
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G1968) appears in the Greek Septuagint. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context; the Greek form is the matched word — the English is not keyword-highlighted.
- Genesis 14:15 ἐπιπίπτω He divided himself against them by night, he and his servants, and struck them, and pursued them to Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.
- Genesis 15:12 ἐπιπίπτω When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Now terror and great darkness fell on him.
- Genesis 45:14 ἐπιπίπτω He fell on his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck.
- Genesis 46:29 ἐπιπίπτω Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel, his father, in Goshen. He presented himself to him, and fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.
- Genesis 50:1 ἐπιπίπτω Joseph fell on his father's face, wept on him, and kissed him.
- Exodus 15:16 ἐπιπίπτω Terror and dread falls on them. By the greatness of your arm they are as still as a stone; Until your people pass over, Yahweh, Until the people pass over who you have purchased.
- Leviticus 11:32 ἐπιπίπτω On whatever any of them falls when they are dead, it shall be unclean; whether it is any vessel of wood, or clothing, or skin, or sack, whatever vessel it is, with which any work is done, it must be put into water, and it shall be unclean until the evening; then it will be clean.
- Leviticus 11:37 ἐπιπίπτω If part of their carcass falls on any sowing seed which is to be sown, it is clean.
- Leviticus 11:38 ἐπιπίπτω But if water is put on the seed, and part of their carcass falls on it, it is unclean to you.
- Numbers 35:23 ἐπιπίπτω or with any stone, by which a man may die, not seeing him, and cast it on him, so that he died, and he was not his enemy, neither sought his harm;
- Joshua 2:9 ἐπιπίπτω and she said to the men, I know that Yahweh has given you the land, and that the fear of you is fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.
- Joshua 11:7 ἐπιπίπτω So Joshua came, and all the people of war with him, against them by the waters of Merom suddenly, and fell on them.
- 1 Samuel 26:12 ἐπιπίπτω So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul's head; and they got them away: and no man saw it, nor knew it, neither did any awake; for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from Yahweh was fallen on them.
- 1 Samuel 31:4 ἐπιπίπτω Then said Saul to his armor bearer, Draw your sword, and thrust me through therewith, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his armor bearer would not; for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took his sword, and fell on it.
- 1 Samuel 31:5 ἐπιπίπτω When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he likewise fell on his sword, and died with him.
- 2 Samuel 17:9 ἐπιπίπτω Behold, he is hid now in some pit, or in some [other] place: and it will happen, when some of them are fallen at the first, that whoever hears it will say, There is a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom.
- 1 Chronicles 10:4 ἐπιπίπτω Then said Saul to his armor-bearer, Draw your sword, and thrust me through therewith, lest these uncircumcised come and abuse me. But his armor-bearer would not; for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took his sword, and fell on it.
- Ezra 16:16 ἐπιπίπτω
- Esther 7:8 ἐπιπίπτω Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman was fallen on the couch whereon Esther was. Then said the king, Will he even force the queen before me in the house? As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face.
- Job 4:13 ἐπιπίπτω In thoughts from the visions of the night, When deep sleep falls on men,
- Job 6:16 ἐπιπίπτω Which are black by reason of the ice, in which the snow hides itself:
- Job 6:27 ἐπιπίπτω Yes, you would even cast lots for the fatherless, And make merchandise of your friend.
- Job 13:11 ἐπιπίπτω Shall not his majesty make you afraid, And his dread fall on you?
- Job 18:16 ἐπιπίπτω His roots shall be dried up beneath, Above shall his branch be cut off.
- Job 33:15 ἐπιπίπτω In a dream, in a vision of the night, When deep sleep falls on men, In slumbering on the bed;
- Psalms 15:6 ἐπιπίπτω
- Psalms 54:5 ἐπιπίπτω He will repay the evil to my enemies. Destroy them in your truth.
- Psalms 57:9 ἐπιπίπτω I will give thanks to you, Lord, among the peoples. I will sing praises to you among the nations.
- Psalms 68:10 ἐπιπίπτω Your congregation lived therein. You, God, prepared your goodness for the poor.
- Psalms 77:28 ἐπιπίπτω
- Psalms 104:38 ἐπιπίπτω
- Ecclesiastes 9:12 ἐπιπίπτω For man also doesn't know his time. As the fish that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them.
- Jeremiah 31:32 ἐπιπίπτω not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, says Yahweh.
- Daniel 4:2 ἐπιπίπτω It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked toward me.
- Daniel 4:26 ἐπιπίπτω Whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree; your kingdom shall be sure to you, after that you shall have known that the heavens do rule.
- Daniel 10:7 ἐπιπίπτω I, Daniel, alone saw the vision; for the men who were with me didn't see the vision; but a great quaking fell on them, and they fled to hide themselves.
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G1968) in the Septuagint — not a translation of any one Hebrew word. The store carries no word-level Hebrew↔Greek alignment, so no Hebrew original is asserted here. Counts come from the recovered LXX Strong's tagging — high-frequency vocabulary is well covered, while rare or late forms may be untagged — so they reflect tagged occurrences and may slightly undercount.
