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Greek verb · G2718

κατέρχομαι

katerchomaikat-er'-khom-ahee

to descend

16 uses in the Greek text, one for each word STEP Bible has tagged with this key

Concordance spelling: katérchomai

Word page · Part of the concordance, one page for every word of the Hebrew and Greek text. Strong's G2718is this word's number in James Strong's 1890 index of the King James Bible.

  • 3 of 27
    New Testament books
  • 9
    spellings

The definition in full

Strong's key (1890) · G2718

to come (or go) down (literally or figuratively)

The King James renders it: come (down), depart, descend, go down, land.

James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890), public domain. Strong indexed the King James text, and this site quotes his entry as that index.

Summary

katerchomai is rendered "to descend". It stands 16 times in the Greek text, across three books.

  • Thirteen of the uses stand in Acts, more than in any other book.
  • Its first use in canonical order opens the ledger below.Luke 4:31Then He went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath He began to teach the people.
  • The Greek text spells it nine different ways.

The first use

Then He went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath He began to teach the people.

Luke 4:31κατῆλθεν

The first use, in the order of the New Testament's books.

Where the word stands

Thirteen of the word's sixteen uses are in Acts.

The other 24 New Testament books never use the word.

What the word means

Each meaning, and the words it is translated by

How the Greek text is glossed, word by word

  • came down3
  • having gone down2
  • coming down1
  • descending1
  • having come down1
  • having landed1
  • He went down1
  • to come down1
  • we came1
  • we disembarked1
  • went1
  • went down1

and 1 more, 16 uses in all

The words built on the same word-part

Each word below begins with the same letters this one begins with. A shared word-part shows a family. It does not settle what any one of them means, so each word carries its own uses on its own page. Scholars call that shared part the stem.

κατεργάζομαιkatergazomaito workout/produceUses22
κατέχωkatechoto hold back/fastUses17
κατεσθίωkatesthioto devourUses14
κατέναντιkatenantibeforeUses8
κατευθύνωkateuthynoto guideUses3
κατενώπιονkatenopionbeforeUses3
κατεξουσιάζωkatexousiazoto ruleUses2
κατείδωλοςkateidolosidolatrousUses1
κατεφίστημιkatephistemito attackUses1

All 16, in canonical order

Every use, in order

Every use, grouped by book, with its verse.

9 spellings and their grammar

STEP Bible tags every word of the Hebrew and Greek text with its spelling and its grammar. Both lists below count the rows printed underneath, written out in English, with the code beside each one as it was tagged.

How it is spelled

  • κατῆλθον4
  • κατελθὼν3
  • κατελθεῖν2
  • κατήλθομεν2
  • κατελθόντες1
  • κατελθόντων1
  • κατερχομένη1
  • κατῆλθεν1
  • κατῆλθέν1

The grammar of each form

  • verb · aorist active, indicative · 3rd person plural4V-2AAI-3P
  • verb · aorist active, participle · nominative (subject) · masculine singular3V-2AAP-NSM
  • verb · aorist active, indicative · 1st person plural2V-2AAI-1P
  • verb · aorist active, indicative · 3rd person singular2V-2AAI-3S
  • verb · aorist active, infinitive (“to…”)2V-2AAN
  • verb · aorist active, participle · genitive (“of”) · masculine plural1V-2AAP-GPM
  • verb · aorist active, participle · nominative (subject) · masculine plural1V-2AAP-NPM
  • verb · present middle or passive form, participle · nominative (subject) · feminine singular1V-PNP-NSF

Luke

two uses
  • Then He went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath He began to teach the people.

    Luke 4:31

    • κατῆλθενkatelthenverb · aorist active, indicative · 3rd person singulartagged: He went down
  • The next day, when they came down from the mountain, Jesus was met by a large crowd.

    Luke 9:37

    • κατελθόντωνkatelthontonverb · aorist active, participle · genitive (“of”) · masculine pluraltagged: when were descending

Acts

thirteen uses
  • Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them.

    Acts 8:5

    • κατελθὼνkatelthonverb · aorist active, participle · nominative (subject) · masculine singulartagged: having gone down
  • As Peter traveled throughout the area, he went to visit the saints in Lydda.

    Acts 9:32

    • κατελθεῖνkateltheinverb · aorist active, infinitive (“to…”)tagged: descending
  • In those days some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.

    Acts 11:27

    • κατῆλθονkatelthonverb · aorist active, indicative · 3rd person pluraltagged: came down
  • After Herod had searched for him unsuccessfully, he examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent some time there.

    Acts 12:19

    • κατελθὼνkatelthonverb · aorist active, participle · nominative (subject) · masculine singulartagged: having gone down
  • So Barnabas and Saul, sent forth by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus.

    Acts 13:4

    • κατῆλθονkatelthonverb · aorist active, indicative · 3rd person pluraltagged: went down
  • Then some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

    Acts 15:1

    • κατελθόντεςkatelthontesverb · aorist active, participle · nominative (subject) · masculine pluraltagged: having come down
  • So the men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they assembled the congregation and delivered the letter.

    Acts 15:30

    • κατῆλθονkatelthonverb · aorist active, indicative · 3rd person pluraltagged: went
  • And when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself fully to the word, testifying to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ.

    Acts 18:5

    • κατῆλθονkatelthonverb · aorist active, indicative · 3rd person pluraltagged: came down
  • When Paul had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church at Jerusalem. Then he went down to Antioch.

    Acts 18:22

    • κατελθὼνkatelthonverb · aorist active, participle · nominative (subject) · masculine singulartagged: having landed
  • While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the interior and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples

    Acts 19:1

    • κατελθεῖνkateltheinverb · aorist active, infinitive (“to…”)tagged: to come down
  • After sighting Cyprus and passing south of it, we sailed on to Syria and landed at Tyre, where the ship was to unload its cargo.

    Acts 21:3

    • κατήλθομενkatelthomenverb · aorist active, indicative · 1st person pluraltagged: we disembarked
  • After we had been there several days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.

    Acts 21:10

    • κατῆλθένkatelthenverb · aorist active, indicative · 3rd person singulartagged: came down
  • And when we had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra in Lycia.

    Acts 27:5

    • κατήλθομενkatelthomenverb · aorist active, indicative · 1st person pluraltagged: we came

James

one use
  • Such wisdom does not come from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

    James 3:15

    • κατερχομένηkaterchomeneverb · present middle or passive form, participle · nominative (subject) · feminine singulartagged: coming down

Where it leads

How the numbers are counted

Every count on this page comes from STEP Bible's tagged Hebrew and Greek text, the same text the ledger prints. A use is counted once each time the tagging marks a word with this key.

Spellings are counted as the Greek text spells them, with the sentence's own punctuation taken off the word first, so a form that ends a clause is not counted as a second spelling.

The family is read from the lexicon by the stem the two words share, with the accents off, and a person or a place named on the stem is left out.

Hebrew and Greek text, word tagging and grammar: STEP Bible (www.STEPBible.org), Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0. Their grammar codes are written out in English here and shown as tagged beside each one.

Meaning and senses: STEP Bible TBESG (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0), the Brief lexicon based on Abbott-Smith (1922).

Dictionary key: Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890, public domain). English verse text: Berean Standard Bible (public domain, 2023).

Revised 2026-09-05. Every cited work, the sources registry →