Exploring the Meaning of Pareisago in Greek

παρεισάγω means “to introduce.” It appears once in the New Testament, in 2 Peter 2:1, where it describes the covert action of false teachers within the community.

Root and Related Words

παρεισάγω is connected with the verb εἰσάγω (eisagō), “to bring in” (Strong’s G1521), and with παρά (para), “from/with/beside” (Strong’s G3844). Together these elements frame an act of bringing something into a setting with an added sense of adjacency—an insertion alongside what is already present.

Occurrences

“But false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction.” (2 Peter 2:1)

In this warning, the verb describes a concealed introduction carried out by “false teachers” who are already “among you.” The setting is not an external invasion but an internal presence: the teachers exist within the same social and religious space as those addressed, and the action happens under cover—“secretly.” Within the sentence, what is introduced is specified as “destructive heresies,” and the verse places that introduction in a chain of connected outcomes: the secret bringing-in accompanies “denying even the Master who bought them,” and it culminates in “swift destruction” that the teachers draw upon themselves.

The word therefore contributes a particular picture of how harm enters: not through open declaration, but through insertion that is quiet enough to escape immediate detection. The object introduced is not neutral information; it is portrayed as inherently ruinous (“destructive”) and as something that can be carried into a community as an added element alongside its existing confession and teaching. The verb’s role is to name the manner of entry—covert introduction—while the surrounding clauses identify both the content being introduced and the moral-theological posture that accompanies it (“denying even the Master who bought them”).

Sense and Usage

The sense “to introduce” in 2 Peter 2:1 is shaped by three features supplied by the verse itself. First, the introduction is clandestine: “secretly” defines the mode of action and highlights concealment as essential to the act. The teachers do not merely speak; they contrive to get something admitted without proper recognition. Second, the introduced item is characterized and evaluated in advance: it is “destructive heresies.” The verb presents the movement of these heresies into the community, while the adjective “destructive” interprets the effect they carry once admitted. Third, the introduction is bound to denial: the teachers’ covert insertion of error is not isolated from their stance toward authority, because the same verse pairs the act with “denying even the Master who bought them.”

Because the word occurs here only, its use is best read in close relation to the rhetoric of warning that surrounds it. The verse sets up an analogy (“as false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you”), and then it describes what these teachers do. The verb “secretly bring in” functions as the central description of their method: the danger is portrayed not simply as the presence of false teachers, but as their ability to introduce something into the community’s life that does not arrive by honest, open presentation.

The action of introducing also implies a boundary: there is a recognizable body of teaching and allegiance already present, and the teachers’ work is to insert an alien element into it. The verse does not describe a public replacement but a surreptitious addition that can coexist long enough to do damage. Thus the definition “to introduce” is not merely logistical; it is ethically charged by the adverb “secretly” and by the consequences named in the verse. What is introduced is positioned as the means by which denial takes shape and by which destruction follows.

Within the grammar of the sentence, the covert introduction is part of a profile of the false teachers: (1) they will be “among you,” (2) they “will secretly bring in destructive heresies,” (3) they are “denying even the Master who bought them,” and (4) they are “bringing on themselves swift destruction.” The same passage uses “bringing” again (“bringing on themselves swift destruction”), which underscores the theme of self-incurred outcome: the teachers bring in teachings that destroy, and they bring upon themselves destruction. The word παρεισάγω marks the initiating movement of the harmful content into the community, the first step in the sequence the verse sketches.

Imagery

The imagery carried by this use is that of a hidden insertion: something is slipped into a shared space without open acknowledgment. In 2 Peter 2:1 the introduced thing is explicitly “destructive,” so the picture is not of a harmless addition but of a concealed admission of what will corrode and ruin—an act done quietly “among you,” yet leading, by the verse’s own logic, to “swift destruction.”

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).