to build
oikodomeo denotes constructing houses and other structures, and in some contexts strengthening people or a community.
The dominant usage concerns the construction of tangible structures such as houses, towers, barns, tombs, and a temple. Other verses use the term for strengthening persons or a gathered community, while two construction images concern rebuilding what was torn down or building on another’s foundation.
Senses in use
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Constructing physical structures · dominant
The active forms name the making of specified structures: Solomon makes a house in Acts 7:47, a man plans larger barns in Luke 12:18, and a prospective builder calculates the cost of a tower in Luke 14:28. In Luke 6:48 the APB renders a man making a house with a foundation on rock, while John 2:20 refers to a temple completed over years and Mark 12:1 to a tower in a vineyard.
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Strengthening people or a community · common
Present forms are used where the object is not a structure: in 1 Corinthians 14:4, the speaker in a tongue affects himself while the prophet affects the assembly; in 1 Thessalonians 5:11 the imperative stands alongside encouragement of one another. Acts 20:32 describes the word of grace as able to affect its hearers, and 1 Peter 2:5 presents the plural passive form with living stones becoming a spiritual house.
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Rebuilding or building on a foundation figuratively · rare
In Galatians 2:18, the first-person present form concerns rebuilding what the speaker says he destroyed. In Romans 15:20, the same first-person present form occurs with the stated aim of not building upon another’s foundation.
In the Anselm Project Bible: Across the verses, the APB commonly uses “built,” “build,” and “build up,” and also uses “rebuild” in Galatians 2:18. These renderings confirm the clauses’ construction or strengthening imagery rather than supplying separate definitions.