Exploring the Meaning of Peritrepo in Greek

περιτρέπω is used for the idea of being driven into insanity. It appears once, in Acts 26:24, in a shouted interruption that frames Paul’s speech as the product of a mind pushed past sanity.

Root and Related Words

περιτρέπω is connected with περί (peri), “about” (Strong’s G4012), and τροπή (tropē), “turning” (Strong’s G5157). Together these related elements give the term a verbal shape that fits an experience described as a mental “turning” or upheaval.

Occurrences

“As he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are crazy! Your great learning is driving you insane!”” (Acts 26:24)

The setting is a formal defense: Paul is speaking at length and presenting an argument. Into that structured scene Festus breaks in “with a loud voice,” not to counter Paul’s claims point by point but to reclassify the whole performance as madness. The charge has two parts: a blunt verdict—“Paul, you are crazy!”—and then an explanation: “Your great learning is driving you insane!” In this line, περιτρέπω supplies the idea of an external push or pressure leading to a mental collapse. Festus does not merely call Paul mistaken or reckless; he treats Paul’s intellectual resources (“great learning”) as the very agent of the breakdown, as though accumulation of knowledge has tipped the mind over into insanity.

Within the sentence, the term functions as an accusation aimed at the source of Paul’s reasoning. Festus connects learning with the alleged result, so that what Paul likely presents as careful argument becomes, in Festus’s portrayal, a kind of cognitive overload. The word thus carries a strong evaluative force: it is not neutral description but a public, stigmatizing diagnosis delivered in the middle of a defense speech. Because it is spoken “with a loud voice,” it is also performative—meant to halt or discredit the defense in the hearing of others by portraying Paul as someone no longer fit to be taken seriously.

Sense and Usage

In its lone New Testament appearance, περιτρέπω is used to describe insanity as something brought on—something one is driven into. The immediate context shows how such a claim functions rhetorically. Paul is “making his defense,” implying ordered speech and conscious intent; Festus counters not by disputing the defense but by alleging that the mind behind it has been pushed into madness. The focus falls on the transition into insanity: the verb points to a process in which a person is propelled beyond mental soundness, rather than simply labeled with a static condition.

The accusation also locates a cause. Festus attributes the driving force to “great learning,” which means that, in this usage, the verb can express the idea that something socially valued—education, study, intellectual attainment—has become excessive to the point of harm. The sentence does not portray insanity as random; it is represented as the end point of an imbalance, where the mind is turned by what it has taken in. This makes the charge sharper: Paul’s learning is not only unhelpful, in Festus’s view, but actively destabilizing.

Because the word is embedded in direct address (“Paul”) and a shouted interruption, its sense is inseparable from its function as an attempt to delegitimize testimony. Calling someone insane is a way of removing their words from the realm of rational debate. In Acts 26:24, περιτρέπω contributes to that move by making the alleged insanity sound like an observable outcome: the learning is “driving” Paul into it. The effect is to frame Paul’s defense as the speech of someone whose mind has been forced into a state where argument no longer counts as argument.

Imagery

The imagery carried by περιτρέπω in Acts 26:24 is of a mind forced into a disastrous turn. Festus’s outburst pictures Paul’s “great learning” as a pressure that tips him over the edge, converting what is presented as a reasoned defense into what an onlooker derides as insanity. The verb’s force sits in that picture of being driven—an inner life pushed around by a powerful influence until it breaks into madness.

Sources: Lexical data from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and the Translators Brief Lexicon of Extended Strongs for Greek (STEPBible, CC BY). Occurrence data from the Translators Amalgamated Greek New Testament (STEPBible, CC BY). Scripture quotations from the World English Bible (public domain).