aperchomai describes leaving a person or place, often by going on to another destination or withdrawing from someone.

The verb most often marks a person, group, or even an affliction leaving a place or another person, sometimes with a stated destination or subsequent action. In a smaller set of clauses, it occurs with movement “after” someone or something, portraying directed pursuit rather than simple departure.

1. Leaving or moving on from a place or person · dominant

   The aorist active forms commonly mark completed departure: in John 4:3 the APB renders Jesus leaving Judea and moving toward Galilee, while in John 11:54 it renders his departure from public activity to a town near the wilderness. The same movement can be commanded or anticipated, as the aorist active infinitive in Acts 16:39 concerns leaving the city and the aorist active subjunctive in John 16:7 occurs in the condition, “if I do not go away.” In Luke 5:13, the singular aorist active form is used of the leprosy departing from the man.

   John 4:3John 11:54Acts 16:39John 16:7Luke 5:13John 20:10
2. Going after in directed pursuit · occasional

   In John 12:19, the singular aorist active form appears in the Pharisees’ statement that “the world has gone after him.” In Jude 1:7, the plural feminine aorist active participle occurs in the clause describing cities that “went after other flesh”; these clauses show movement directed after an object rather than a merely stated point of departure.

   John 12:19Jude 1:7

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB commonly uses “went away,” “departed,” or “go away,” and in destination clauses it may use “went” or “returned.” Its wording confirms the clauses’ movement and departure without fixing a separate English equivalent in every verse.