to touch
hapto denotes making contact and, in lamp or fire clauses, lighting or kindling.
The prevailing use describes physical contact with a person, body part, garment, or object, including contact sought in scenes of healing and contact prohibited in instructions. In clauses concerning a lamp or fire, it instead marks the action of lighting or kindling.
Senses in use
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Physical contact with persons or objects · dominant
The aorist middle form ἥψατο marks contact in healing scenes: in Matthew 8:3 the APB renders the clause “he touched him,” followed by cleansing, and in Matthew 9:20 it renders the woman's contact with the edge of clothing. The same contact is directed toward a bier in Luke 7:14, a tongue in Mark 7:33, and is prohibited toward Jesus in John 20:17.
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Lighting a lamp or kindling a fire · occasional
Active forms occur with illumination or fire-making actions. In Acts 28:2, ἅψαντες accompanies the fire that the group kindled; in Luke 11:33 and Luke 8:16, ἅψας occurs after lighting a lamp, while Luke 15:8 uses ἅπτει in the woman's search after she lights a lamp.
In the Anselm Project Bible: Across contact clauses, the APB commonly uses “touch,” “touched,” or “touching”; in lamp and fire clauses it uses “lighting” and “kindled.” Because the APB is a whole-verse translation, these renderings confirm the clauses' presentation without assigning every English word directly to the lemma.