Exploring the Meaning of Exairo in Greek

ἐξαίρω means “to expel” and is attested in the instruction to deal with “the wicked man” within the Corinthian community (1 Corinthians 5:13). In that setting it expresses a decisive removal that changes who is counted as being “among” the group.

Root and Related Words

ἐξαίρω is formed with ἐκ (ek), “out from” (Strong’s G1537), joined to αἴρω (airō), “to take up” (Strong’s G142). The combined shape of the word fits the idea of a movement “out from” a group by an act of “taking up,” yielding the sense of forcible removal from within a defined circle.

Occurrences

“But those who are outside, God judges. “Put away the wicked man from among yourselves.”” (1 Corinthians 5:13)

In this verse the word functions in a direct imperative: a command addressed to the community itself. The surrounding wording draws a boundary between “those who are outside” and the people addressed as “yourselves.” The instruction concerns someone described as “the wicked man,” and the direction is not merely to disapprove of him but to change his location with respect to the group—he is to be removed “from among” them.

The contrast in the first sentence (“those who are outside, God judges”) frames the action the community is to take in the second. The community is not told to carry out God’s judging of outsiders; instead, the focus narrows to an internal situation: a person presently situated “among” them. ἐξαίρω, in this setting, names the concrete step that enacts that distinction. The command presupposes that the man currently belongs to their shared space and social standing in some recognizable way, and the expulsion is the means by which he is no longer treated as part of that internal circle.

The prepositional phrase “from among yourselves” clarifies the target of the action: the removal is not vague or symbolic but a relocation away from the community’s midst. The verse’s language is communal and spatial—“outside,” “among,” “yourselves”—and the verb answers the question of how a community responds when a person’s conduct is labeled “wicked” within its own boundaries: by expelling him from the group’s shared life.

Sense and Usage

The single attestation of ἐξαίρω places its sense squarely in a disciplinary, boundary-marking command. “To expel” here is not an inner attitude or a private decision; it is an action that results in a changed communal reality. The verb inherently implies that the object is first present within the group from which he is expelled. That is made explicit by “from among yourselves”: the expulsion is not about keeping someone out in advance, but about removing someone who is already inside the community’s sphere.

Because the verse pairs “outside” with “among yourselves,” ἐξαίρω carries a strong “inside-to-outside” force in this context. The community’s action creates or confirms a boundary. The first clause assigns the judging of outsiders to God; the second clause assigns the expulsion of the “wicked man” to the community. Within the logic of the sentence, expulsion is the community’s concrete response that corresponds to the moral assessment “wicked,” while ultimate judgment is placed in God’s hands. Thus the verb conveys an act of separation without turning the community into the final judge of “those who are outside.”

The imperative form also gives ἐξαίρω a public and corporate tone. The instruction is directed to “yourselves” as a group, not to an individual acting alone. Expulsion, as expressed here, is something done by the community as a community: it changes who is present “among” them. The verse offers no procedural detail, but the wording makes clear the outcome that the command seeks: the wicked man is no longer “from among” the Corinthian believers; he is put away.

Finally, the wording “put away” and “from among yourselves” gives the verb a practical, even physical, orientation. Even when carried out in social and ecclesial terms, expulsion is described with the language of removal, as one might remove an object from a space. That concreteness suits the verb’s components: an act of taking up (αἴρω) and moving out from (ἐκ) results in someone no longer occupying the shared space of the group.

Imagery

The verse’s imagery is that of a defined community with an “among” and an “outside.” ἐξαίρω evokes the moment when someone who stood within the circle is moved out of it. In 1 Corinthians 5:13 the language is not abstract: it pictures a group’s midst, a person located there, and a decisive act that removes him from that interior place.

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).