Exploring the Meaning of Anoikodomeo in Greek

ἀνοικοδομέω expresses the action “to rebuild,” and it appears in a restoration promise voiced in the Jerusalem discussion recorded in Acts. In that setting it is used for the renewed raising of what has collapsed, pictured with concrete structures and their remains.

Root and Related Words

ἀνοικοδομέω is formed from two elements noted in its related words: ἀνά (ana), glossed “each,” and οἰκοδομέω (oikodomeo), “to build.” Together they frame rebuilding as a building action marked by the prefix element ἀνά.

Occurrences

“‘After these things I will return. I will again build the tabernacle of David, which has fallen. I will again build its ruins. I will set it up” (Acts 15:16).

Here ἀνοικοδομέω stands in a sequence of first-person promises: “I will return… I will again build… I will again build… I will set it up.” The word contributes the notion of building anew in response to collapse: the tabernacle “has fallen,” and what is to be built is described not only as the “tabernacle of David” but also in terms of what remains after its fall—“its ruins.” By pairing the rebuilding action with both the original structure (“tabernacle”) and the debris state (“ruins”), the line presents rebuilding as more than routine construction; it is construction that takes up a once-standing entity now in a broken condition and raises it into standing form again. The repeated “I will again build” also gives the rebuilding act rhetorical weight: the restoration is deliberate, repeated, and reinforced before the final stabilizing clause, “I will set it up.”

Sense and Usage

In Acts 15:16, “to rebuild” is applied to a revered communal structure in its fallen state: a “tabernacle” that “has fallen.” The surrounding wording guides how the rebuilding is to be understood. First, rebuilding answers a prior loss: the structure is not merely unfinished; it has suffered collapse. Second, rebuilding is directed at both the named structure and its “ruins,” so the act reaches down into what is broken and scattered and brings it into renewed form. Third, rebuilding is portrayed as an intentional act of return and restoration: it follows the promise “I will return,” and it is followed by “I will set it up,” so the rebuilding is part of a broader movement from absence to presence and from instability to establishment.

The verse’s internal parallelism also shapes the sense. The two clauses “I will again build the tabernacle of David” and “I will again build its ruins” place the rebuilding action alongside two different objects: one is the identity-bearing whole (“tabernacle of David”), and the other is the damaged remainder (“ruins”). This juxtaposition keeps the word’s force anchored in restoration of a whole that has continuity with the past (it is still “the tabernacle of David”) while remaining honest about the condition from which it is raised (it is presently characterized by “ruins”).

Because the promise is framed in first-person resolve (“I will”), ἀνοικοδομέω also carries an assurance tone in this passage: rebuilding is not a tentative plan but a declared action that will be carried out. The immediate context (the series of future acts) portrays rebuilding as purposeful and effective—an act that results in something standing, summed up by “I will set it up.”

Imagery

The imagery attached to ἀνοικοδομέω in Acts 15:16 is architectural and visible: a fallen “tabernacle,” its “ruins,” and the act of building again until it is “set… up.” The word evokes a scene in which what lies in collapse is gathered into ordered structure, moving from ruin to standing form under a single, determined builder.

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).