Lexicon

G3004 - lego

Strong's: G3004 · BLB lookup Pronunciation: leg'-o Part of speech: verb Etymology: primary verb, the lexical-root that yields English legein / -logy / -logue / dialogue / logic. Cognate with G3056 - logos, logos (word, account, reason); the nominal counterpart of the verbal legō is the substantival logos. NT occurrences: ~2354 (the most-frequent verb in the NT; pervasive across every author and genre).

Semantic range (Thayer / BDAG)

To say, to speak, the most general NT speech-verb; the bare-default verb for any verbal-utterance, used as the prose-narrative speech-tag throughout the Gospels and Acts ("and he said to them...").
To call (someone or something) something, the naming / classifying sense; e.g., John 1:38, "Rabbi, which is to say (legetai) Teacher", identifying-by-name. Also Matt 1:16, "Jesus, who is called (legomenos) Christ".
To mean, to signify, the explanatory sense; introducing the meaning of a prior statement (Matt 9:13, "go and learn what this means (estin)"; cf. 1 Cor 1:12, "now I mean (legō) this").
To declare, to assert, to affirm, the propositional-declarative sense; especially in formulaic introductions of authoritative statements (amēn legō hymin, "truly I say to you"; egō de legō hymin, "but I say to you").
To command, to direct, by extension; speech-acts that constitute orders (Matt 8:9, "I say to this one, Go, and he goes").
To report, to tell, the informational-relay sense; what is being said in circulation (Mark 8:27, "who do men say (legousin) that I am?").

Theological force, the speech-act that constitutes authority

NT Greek has several speech-verbs whose register-distinctions matter for theological reading:

Legō vs. eipon vs. laleō vs. phēmi, the four-verb cluster

G3004 legō, the most general speech-verb; default narration-tag; carries no specialized register on its own but its formulaic deployments (amēn legō, egō de legō) are heavily loaded.
G2036 eipon, the aorist counterpart of legō (suppletive paradigm; legō lacks an aorist, eipon lacks a present), used for punctiliar / completed speech-events ("he said" as a one-time act).
G2980 laleō, the act of speaking itself, emphasizing the vocalization (the use of voice / tongue / mouth), often paired with legō (Matt 9:18, "while He was speaking (lalountos)... a ruler came in and said (legōn)..."); BDAG distinguishes laleō as "to use the organ of speech" vs. legō "to express oneself in words".
G5346 phēmi, to declare, to affirm; more formal / oracular in register, often used for significant declarations ("he said affirmatively"), the Pythian-oracle verb in classical Greek.

The distinctions are not mechanical, but the registers matter: a Gospel-writer's choice of legō over laleō over phēmi often signals the kind of speech-event in view.

Stream 1, amēn legō hymin and the authority of Jesus's speech

Jesus's signature formula is amēn legō hymin, "truly I say to you", prefacing pronouncements with non-derivative authority. The formula appears ~50× in the Synoptics; the Johannine intensified amēn amēn legō hymin, "truly, truly, I say to you", appears 25× in John alone.

Matthew 5.18, "for verily I say (amēn legō) unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law", the formula introducing Jesus's claim about the law's permanence
Mark 8:12; 9:1; 10:15; 14:9; 14:18; 14:25, amēn legō hymin across Markan teaching
John 1:51; 3:3, 5, 11; 5:19, 24, 25; 6:26, 32, 47, 53; 8:34, 51, 58; etc., the Johannine doubled amēn amēn legō

The OT-prophetic counterpart is "thus says the LORD" (koh amar YHWH); prophets speak on behalf of God with His delegated authority. Jesus's amēn legō hymin is structurally different: He speaks on His own authority (ex sua propria persona) without the prophetic-delegated formula. The patristic and Reformed exegetical tradition reads this as implicit deity: only God speaks with that grammar of self-grounded authority.

Stream 2, egō de legō hymin and the Sermon-on-the-Mount antitheses

The Sermon-on-the-Mount antitheses (Matt 5:21-48) all run on the "you have heard that it was said... but I say (egō de legō hymin)..." contrast. The I is emphatic in Greek (the verb already carries the subject; the explicit egō is added for emphasis): Jesus is positioning Himself as the authoritative interpreter and re-promulgator of Torah, claiming the right to definitively unfold what God's law really requires.

Matthew 5.22 (against anger / contempt, intensifying the sixth commandment)
Matthew 5.28 (against lustful looking, intensifying the seventh commandment)
Matthew 5:32 (on divorce)
Matthew 5:34 (on oaths)
Matthew 5.39 (against retaliation)
Matthew 5.44 (love of enemies)

The Christological implication: only the lawgiver Himself can definitively reinterpret His law with this grammar. Jesus's egō de legō hymin is implicit-deity-grammar; the audience either hears it as blasphemy (the later trial-charge of Mark 14:62-64) or as the lawgiver's self-disclosure.

Stream 3, legō in the divine self-naming, egō eimi

The Johannine egō eimi sayings deploy legō at the threshold of divine self-disclosure. The most-famous instance: Jn 8:58, "Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say (legō) unto you, Before Abraham was born, I am (egō eimi)." The introductory legō + the divine egō eimi together signal that Jesus is speaking as God and of God's own name (Ex 3:14, "I AM THAT I AM").

The Samaritan-woman episode is structurally similar: Jn 4:25-26, "the woman saith (legei) unto him, I know that Messiah cometh (he that is called (legomenos) Christ): when he is come, he will declare unto us all things. Jesus saith (legei) unto her, I that speak (lalōn) unto thee am he." The Johannine layering: the woman says (legei), Messiah is called (legomenos) Christ, Jesus says (legei) the I AM, and the verbal-disclosure-act (lalōn) is itself the disclosure.

Stream 4, legō in the forgiveness pronouncement

The healing-of-the-paralytic episode runs on Jesus's legō-pronouncement of forgiveness, which the scribes hear as blasphemous because only God forgives sin:

Mark 2.5, "Jesus seeing their faith saith (legei) unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins are forgiven."

The narrative-logic of the scene depends on the scribes' (correct) recognition that who can forgive sins but God only? (Mk 2:7). Jesus's legō-act is divine-prerogative speech; His subsequent healing of the paralytic is evidentially-verifying the authority of the speech-act (Mk 2:10-11). The verb legō is doing significant theological work: the saying is itself the forgiving, because divine speech is performative-creative (Gen 1:3; Ps 33:9; Heb 1:3).

Stream 5, legō and naming / classifying

A specialized use that recurs at Christologically significant moments: legō as to call (someone) something, often passive (legetai, legomenos) for "is called":

John 1.38, "Rabbi, which is to say (legetai), being interpreted, Teacher", the verb introducing a translation-explanation; the Johannine prologue and chapter-1 use this construction repeatedly to translate Aramaic / Hebrew terms for Gentile-Greek readers (Messiah / Christ in 1:41; Cephas / Peter in 1:42).
Matt 1:16, "Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called (legomenos) Christ"
John 4:25, "Messiah... which is called (legomenos) Christ"
John 20:24, "Thomas... called (legomenos) Didymus"

The naming-construction recurs at Christologically loaded points: the verb itself is doing the Christological-disclosure work of identifying who Jesus is across language-traditions.

Notable verses

The amēn legō formula

Matthew 5.18, "verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass..."
Matt 6:2, 5, 16; 8:10; 10:15, 23, 42; 11:11; 13:17; 16:28; 17:20; 18:3; 19:23; 21:21; 23:36; 24:34; 25:40; 26:13, 21, the Matthean amēn legō
Mark 3:28; 8:12; 9:1, 41; 10:15, 29; 11:23; 12:43; 13:30; 14:9, 18, 25, 30, the Markan amēn legō
John 1:51; 3:3, 5, 11; 5:19, 24, 25; 6:26, 32, 47, 53; 8:34, 51, 58; 10:1, 7; 12:24; 13:16, 20, 21, 38; 14:12; 16:20, 23; 21:18, the Johannine doubled amēn amēn legō

The Sermon-on-the-Mount egō de legō hymin antitheses

Matthew 5.22, against anger / contempt
Matthew 5.28, against lustful looking
Matt 5:32, on divorce
Matt 5:34, on oaths
Matthew 5.39, against retaliation
Matthew 5.44, love of enemies

Christological speech-acts

John 1.38, Rabbi, which is to say, Teacher
John 4.25-26, the Samaritan-woman legō exchange, "I that speak unto thee am He"
John 8.58, "Before Abraham was born, I am" (the legō + egō eimi combination)
Mark 2.5, "Son, thy sins are forgiven" (the divine-prerogative speech-act)

Naming / classifying

John 1:41, "Messiah, which is, being interpreted (methermēneuomenon), Christ"
John 1:42, "Cephas (which is by interpretation (hermēneuetai), Peter)"
John 20:16, "Rabboni (which is to say, Master)"
John 20:24, "Thomas, called Didymus"

Patristic / scholarly note

The patristic exegetical tradition reads Jesus's amēn legō hymin / egō de legō hymin as load-bearing Christological data. Athanasius (Orationes contra Arianos 3.18-20), against the Arian reading of Christ's speech as mere-prophetic-delegation: Jesus's self-grounded authority-grammar is unintelligible apart from His true deity. John Chrysostom (Homilies on Matthew 16.5-7, on the Sermon-on-the-Mount): "He said not, 'These things saith the LORD,' as the prophets did, but, 'I say unto you'; thereby teaching us that He is the Lord of the Law." Augustine (De Sermone Domini in Monte 1.1-2): the antitheses display Christ's authority not as a new prophet, but as the One who originally gave the Law on Sinai.

In modern NT scholarship, Joachim Jeremias (New Testament Theology I, The Proclamation of Jesus, 1971), treats the amēn legō hymin as a ipsissima verba Jesu marker: the formula is so distinctive to Jesus and so absent from later early-church liturgical speech that the historical-critical case for these sayings as authentically dominical is unusually strong. Otto Betz, Geza Vermes, and N. T. Wright all converge: the amēn legō grammar is one of the strongest historical-Jesus signatures.

Donald Hagner (Matthew 1-13, WBC, 1993): the egō de legō hymin antitheses establish Jesus's messianic-Torah authority; He stands not under Sinai but over Sinai. R. T. France (Matthew, NICNT, 2007): the formula is "the messianic claim in linguistic form", a claim no human prophet ever made.

Verses in this codex

See Obsidian's backlinks pane for every verse page linking here. Anchors: Matthew 5.18 (the amēn legō law-permanence claim), Matthew 5.22 / Matthew 5.28 / Matthew 5.39 / Matthew 5.44 (the Sermon antitheses), John 1.38 (the naming-construction), John 4.25-26 (the Samaritan-woman legō exchange), John 8.58 (the legō + egō eimi divine self-naming), Mark 2.5 (the divine-prerogative forgiveness-speech-act).