Understanding the Meaning of Anatrepho in Greek

ἀνατρέφω means “to bring up” and appears in three New Testament settings: Stephen’s retelling of Moses’ early life and Paul’s account of his own upbringing and training. In each passage it marks formative care that shapes a person’s place, identity, and preparation.

Root and Related Words

ἀνατρέφω is related to ana (ἀνά), glossed “each,” and trepho (τρέφω), glossed “to feed.”

Occurrences

Acts 7:20: “At that time Moses was born, and was exceedingly handsome. He was nourished three months in his father’s house.”

Here the word frames Moses’ earliest months in explicitly domestic terms: “in his father’s house.” The setting is intimate and bounded, and the action described is sustained care over a defined period (“three months”). In Stephen’s narration, this brief span of being “nourished” introduces Moses not first as a public leader but as a child whose life begins under shelter and attentive provision. The verb’s placement after Moses’ birth report gives the sense of an initial stage of life in which the child’s continuance depends on being brought up within a household.

Acts 7:21: “When he was thrown out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up and reared him as her own son.”

The same life is now described under starkly changed circumstances. The clause “When he was thrown out” presents rupture and exposure, but the next actions reverse the trajectory: Pharaoh’s daughter “took him up” and “reared him.” In this scene ἀνατρέφω belongs to an act of adoption-like incorporation expressed by the phrase “as her own son.” The word does not merely signal that Moses survived; it conveys that he was brought up within a new household and under a new guardian, with a new social standing implied by being treated as a son. The narrative movement from being “thrown out” to being “reared” highlights upbringing as the means by which a vulnerable child is gathered into protection and given a recognized place.

Acts 22:3: ““I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed according to the strict tradition of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, even as you all are today.”

In Paul’s speech, ἀνατρέφω shifts from infancy narratives to the formation of a conscious adult identity. The contrast “born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city” uses the verb to distinguish birthplace from the environment that shaped him. The following phrases specify what that upbringing entailed: “at the feet of Gamaliel” and “instructed according to the strict tradition of the law of our fathers.” Upbringing here is not presented as mere childhood maintenance but as a locale-linked process that includes instruction and disciplined formation. Paul ties this brought-up status to recognizable outcomes—alignment with “the strict tradition,” and a disposition described as “zealous for God.” In the rhetoric of the verse, being “brought up” supports Paul’s claim to shared ground with his hearers (“even as you all are today”), because it anchors his story in the city and its educational and religious world.

Sense and Usage

Across these three passages, ἀνατρέφω consistently marks the sustained action by which a person is formed through care and setting. In Acts 7 it belongs to the earliest stages of Moses’ life, where being brought up is expressed first as nourishment within “his father’s house,” then as rearing within Pharaoh’s daughter’s household “as her own son.” The two statements together show upbringing as something that can occur under different guardians and in different homes, and that the identity conveyed by “son” can be attached to the one who is brought up, not merely to the one who gives birth.

In Acts 22 the verb’s force is broadened by its immediate context of education and tradition. “Brought up in this city” is not an abstract claim; it is concretized by a posture of learning (“at the feet of Gamaliel”) and a curriculum-like description (“instructed according to the strict tradition of the law of our fathers”). Upbringing, then, can include the patterns, disciplines, and loyalties a person acquires through formative instruction. The verse also shows how the term can function in argument: Paul uses where and how he was brought up to situate his zeal and his credentials in terms his audience would understand.

Taken together, these occurrences display “to bring up” as a word of formation through ongoing provision—whether the provision is physical nurture in a house, social incorporation as a child treated “as her own son,” or structured instruction within a city and tradition. The passages keep the emphasis on the person being brought up and the environment that does the shaping: a father’s house, Pharaoh’s daughter’s household, and “this city” with a named teacher and a defined tradition.

Imagery

The word’s imagery in these texts is concrete and relational: a child kept and nourished in a home, a foundling taken up and reared into sonship, and a student formed in a particular city through close instruction. In Stephen’s narrative the movement from being “nourished” to being “reared” places upbringing alongside rescue and belonging; in Paul’s testimony, being “brought up” stands beside “instructed,” linking upbringing with the shaping of convictions and zeal.

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).