Lexicon
ταράσσω
tarassō
G5015
G:V Greek

to trouble

17
Occurrences
7
Books
Greek
Language

tarasso describes being inwardly unsettled or alarmed, and also persons unsettling others or water being stirred.

The dominant usage depicts persons as inwardly unsettled, alarmed, or distressed in response to fear, grief, betrayal, or troubling thoughts. It also describes people who disrupt crowds or communities, and once refers to water being stirred.

Senses in use

  1. Being inwardly unsettled or alarmed · dominant

    Passive forms describe people affected by disturbing circumstances: in Luke 1:12 the APB renders Zechariah as troubled when fear falls on him, and in Matthew 14:26 the disciples react with fear on seeing someone on the sea. In John 12:27 the perfect passive form occurs in the statement about a troubled soul, while John 14:1 and John 14:27 give commands that the heart not be troubled.

  2. Disturbing or unsettling other people · common

    Active forms identify persons as the source of disruption. In Acts 15:24 the APB renders certain people as troubling their hearers with words that upset their souls; in Acts 17:13 they trouble crowds, and Galatians 1:7 and Galatians 5:10 speak of persons troubling the recipients in connection with a distorted message and coming judgment.

  3. Water being stirred · rare

    In John 5:7, an aorist passive subjunctive is used in the sick man's statement about entering the pool when the water is stirred up.

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB commonly uses "troubled" for inward disturbance, while it renders the active crowd and community scenes with "stirred up" or "troubling" and the pool scene with "stirred up." These renderings confirm the verse-level contexts rather than fixing a separate English equivalent in every instance.

Passages featuring this word

Across Scripture