συμβαίνω
to happen
‘to happen’ is one of 3 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
From Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Where this word appears
See every Perfect-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).
- Imperfect
- Continuous or repeated action in past time (“was writing”).
- 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
- Genitive
- The case of source, possession, or “of” — answers “whose / from what.”
- Dative
- The case of the indirect object, means, or location — “to / for / with / in.”
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.
Grammatical forms
- Verb, Aorist, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Singular 1 time (13%)
- Verb, Aorist, Active, Participle, Genitive, Plural, Masculine 1 time (13%)
- Verb, Imperfect, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Singular 1 time (13%)
- Verb, Present, Active, Infinitive 1 time (13%)
- Verb, Present, Active, Participle, Genitive, Singular, Neuter 1 time (13%)
- Verb, Perfect, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Singular 1 time (13%)
- Verb, Perfect, Active, Participle, Dative, Singular, Neuter 1 time (13%)
- Verb, Perfect, Active, Participle, Genitive, Plural, Neuter 1 time (13%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (Robinson–Tischendorf, public domain), counted across 8 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where G4819 appears — 8 distinct verses across 6 books. 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.
Mark 1 verse
Luke 1 verse
Acts 3 verses
- Acts 3:10 συμβεβηκότι perf act ptcp dat sg neut They recognized him, that it was he who used to sit begging for gifts for the needy at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. They were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
- Acts 20:19 συμβάντων aor act ptcp gen pl masc serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears, and with trials which happened to me by the plots of the Jews;
- Acts 21:35 συνέβη aor act ind 3sg When he came to the stairs, it happened that he was carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd;
1 Corinthians 1 verse
1 Peter 1 verse
2 Peter 1 verse
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.
συμβαινω — transliterated symbaínō — is a Greek verb carrying the sense “to happen.” Debuting at Mark 10:32, it then recurs through the corpus. With 8 verses in 6 books, it is an uncommon word in the Greek New Testament. Its uses concentrate in Acts (38% of all occurrences). Thayer's distinguishes 3 senses for it. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's G4819 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 →
- 8
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 8 distinct verses.
- 6 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 6 of 27 New Testament books.
- #1,240
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Greek words (rank 1,240 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 8 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 8 distinct verses.
- Lukan (Luke–Acts) 4 verses · 50%
- Gospels 2 verses · 25%
- General (Catholic) Epistles 2 verses · 25%
- Pauline corpus 1 verse · 13%
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: Had happened 2×, Happened 2×
- American Standard Version: Had happened 2×, Happened 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Had happened 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Had happened 2×, Happening 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G4819 across 8 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 G4819 across 8 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.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders G4819 across 7 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 5 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders G4819 across 8 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.
Senses in Thayer's
The 3 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 walk with the feet near together
- to come together, meet with one
- of things which fall out at the same time, to happen, turn out, come to pass
Word origin
Derived from συν (sýn) (G4862) — with.
Forms in the corpus
The 8 distinct written forms G4819 takes in the Greek New Testament, most frequent first — each parse links to that tense’s occurrences in the concordance.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| συμβάντων symbántōn | Verb, Aorist, Active, Participle, Genitive, Plural, Masculine | Acts 20:19 | 1 |
| συμβέβηκεν symbébēken | Verb, Perfect, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Singular | 2 Peter 2:22 | 1 |
| συμβαίνειν symbaínein | Verb, Present, Active, Infinitive | Mark 10:32 | 1 |
| συμβαίνοντος symbaínontos | Verb, Present, Active, Participle, Genitive, Singular, Neuter | 1 Peter 4:12 | 1 |
| συμβεβηκότι symbebēkóti | Verb, Perfect, Active, Participle, Dative, Singular, Neuter | Acts 3:10 | 1 |
| συμβεβηκότων symbebēkótōn | Verb, Perfect, Active, Participle, Genitive, Plural, Neuter | Luke 24:14 | 1 |
| συνέβαινεν synébainen | Verb, Imperfect, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Singular | 1 Corinthians 10:11 | 1 |
| συνέβη synébē | Verb, Aorist, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Singular | Acts 21:35 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other Thayer's entries built from the same root as G4819, 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
- κοινος koinós G2839 common
- συγγενης syngenḗs G4773 related by blood
- συγγνωμη syngnṓmē G4774 pardon
- συγκαθημαι synkáthēmai G4775 to sit together
- συγκαθιζω synkathízō G4776 to sit together
- συγκακοπαθεω synkakopathéō G4777 to suffer together
- συγκακουχεω synkakouchéō G4778 to be ill-treated together
- συγκαλεω synkaléō G4779 to call together
- συγκαλυπτω synkalýptō G4780 to cover completely
- συγκαμπτω synkámptō G4781 to bend together
- συγκαταβαινω synkatabaínō G4782 to go down with
- συγκατατιθεμαι synkatatíthemai G4784 to deposit together
- συγκαταψηφιζω synkatapsēphízō G4785 to vote against
- συγκεραννυμι synkeránnymi G4786 to mix together
- συγκλειω synkleíō G4788 to shut up
- συγκληρονομος synklēronómos G4789 joint heir
- συγκοινωνεω synkoinōnéō G4790 to share together
- συγκοινωνος synkoinōnós G4791 joint partner
- συγκομιζω synkomízō G4792 to collect together
- συγκρινω synkrínō G4793 to join together
- συγκυπτω synkýptō G4794 to bend together
- συγκυρια synkyría G4795 by chance
- συγχαιρω synchaírō G4796 to rejoice with
- συγχεω synchéō G4797 to disturb
+125 more words share this root (not shown).
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 151 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint usage
The same Greek word συμβαινω appears 20 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 20 verses in 10 books.
- 20
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 20
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 10 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 10 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Genesis 41:13 συνβαίνω
- Exodus 1:10 συνβαίνω
- Leviticus 10:19 συνβαίνω
- Deuteronomy 18:22 συνβαίνω
- Joshua 2:23 συνβαίνω
- Esther 2:11 συνβαίνω
- Job 1:22 συνβαίνω
- Isaiah 3:11 συνβαίνω
- Jeremiah 39:23 συνβαίνω
- Daniel 2:1 συνβαίνω
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G4819) 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 41:13 συνβαίνω It happened, as he interpreted to us, so it was: he restored me to my office, and he hanged him."
- Genesis 42:4 συνβαίνω But Jacob didn't send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with his brothers; for he said, "Lest perhaps harm happen to him."
- Genesis 42:29 συνβαίνω They came to Jacob their father to the land of Canaan, and told him all that had happened to them, saying,
- Genesis 42:38 συνβαίνω He said, "My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he only is left. If harm happens to him by the way in which you go, then you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol."
- Genesis 44:29 συνβαίνω If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.'
- Exodus 1:10 συνβαίνω Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it happen that when any war breaks out, they also join themselves to our enemies, and fight against us, and escape out of the land."
- Exodus 3:16 συνβαίνω Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and tell them, 'Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, "I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt;
- Exodus 24:14 συνβαίνω He said to the elders, "Wait here for us, until we come again to you. Behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever is involved in a dispute can go to them."
- Leviticus 10:19 συνβαίνω Aaron spoke to Moses, "Behold, this day they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before Yahweh; and such things as these have happend to me: and if I had eaten the sin offering today, would it have been pleasing in the sight of Yahweh?"
- Deuteronomy 18:22 συνβαίνω when a prophet speaks in the name of Yahweh, if the thing doesn't follow, nor happen, that is the thing which Yahweh has not spoken: the prophet has spoken it presumptuously, you shall not be afraid of him.
- Joshua 2:23 συνβαίνω Then the two men returned, and descended from the mountain, and passed over, and came to Joshua the son of Nun; and they told him all that had happened to them.
- Esther 2:11 συνβαίνω Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women's house, to know how Esther did, and what would become of her.
- Esther 6:13 συνβαίνω Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, be of the seed of the Jews, you shall not prevail against him, but shall surely fall before him.
- Job 1:22 συνβαίνω In all this, Job did not sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing.
- Job 2:10 συνβαίνω But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" In all this Job didn't sin with his lips.
- Job 42:11 συνβαίνω Then came there to him all his brothers, and all his sisters, and all those who had been of his acquaintance before, and ate bread with him in his house. They comforted him, and consoled him concerning all the evil that Yahweh had brought on him. Everyone also gave him a piece of money, and everyone a ring of gold.
- Isaiah 3:11 συνβαίνω Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them; For the deeds of his hands will be paid back to him.
- Isaiah 41:22 συνβαίνω Let them bring forth, and declare to us what shall happen: declare you the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come.
- Jeremiah 39:23 συνβαίνω
- Daniel 2:1 συνβαίνω In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams; and his spirit was troubled, and his sleep went from him.
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G4819) 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.
