Exploring the Meaning of Perideo in Greek

περιδέω refers to wrapping something around. It appears in the account of Lazarus coming out of the tomb, where the verb describes how his face is treated with a cloth.

Root and Related Words

περιδέω is formed from peri (περί), “about,” and deo (δέω), “to bind.” The combination naturally describes binding in a way that goes “around,” emphasizing enclosure or encircling rather than a simple fastening.

Occurrences

He who was dead came out, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Free him, and let him go.” (John 11:44)

In this scene the verb is applied specifically to Lazarus’s face: “his face was wrapped around with a cloth.” The surrounding details set a vivid contrast between different kinds of restraint. First, Lazarus is described as “bound hand and foot with wrappings,” which already conveys that his movement is constrained. Then the narrative adds a second, more focused restraint: the cloth around his face. By using a verb that highlights wrapping around, the description suggests that the cloth is not merely placed on him but encircles his face in a way that covers and confines. The result is a picture of a man who has come out alive, yet still bears the physical conditions of burial—he emerges, but he is still enclosed by what has been wrapped around him.

The command that follows—“Free him, and let him go”—shows the practical consequence of such wrapping. What has been wrapped around him must be removed if he is to be released into ordinary movement and life among the living. The verb therefore contributes to the flow of action: Lazarus comes out; he is visibly constrained by wrappings; Jesus directs others to undo what is binding and allow him to go.

Sense and Usage

The single use in John 11:44 places the idea of “wrapping around” in a concrete, physical setting: cloth applied to a body. The wording distinguishes the general state of being “bound hand and foot with wrappings” from the particular manner in which the face is treated. Even without adding new actions, the sentence structure narrows the reader’s attention from limbs to face, from multiple “wrappings” to “a cloth.” In that narrowing, the sense of wrapping around becomes especially graphic: the face is the part of the body most associated with seeing, speaking, and being recognized, and the cloth’s being wrapped around it intensifies the impression that Lazarus’s burial state is comprehensive.

Because peri (περί), “about,” contributes the idea of aroundness, the verb’s force in this context is not simply that cloth is present but that it is applied in a way that encircles. The narrative does not describe a loose drape; it presents a wrapping that is fitted around the face. The verb thus helps the reader imagine the tactile and spatial reality of the scene: fabric arranged so that it goes around, forming a boundary that must be undone. That boundary is consistent with the next imperative—“Free him”—which implies that the wrapping is an obstacle to normal freedom of motion.

Within the verse, the wrapping around functions as an observable sign that Lazarus truly “was dead”: he is treated as one prepared for burial, complete with wrappings and a cloth around the face. At the same time, the fact that “He who was dead came out” while still wrapped creates a tension between life and the apparatus of death. The verb sits right in that tension. It does not describe the giving of life, but it describes the tangible remnants of death’s procedures that still cling to Lazarus as he steps out. The instruction to remove the bindings shows that the transition back to ordinary life involves not only coming out but also being unwrapped—having what is around him taken away.

Imagery

John 11:44 pairs the act of wrapping around with the act of freeing. The cloth around the face is an image of enclosure: fabric going around in a way that restricts. Jesus’ brief directive—“Free him, and let him go”—answers that enclosure with release. The verb therefore carries a strong visual quality in this passage: wrapping around creates a visible, external constraint, and the scene invites the reader to picture that constraint being removed so that the one who came out may truly “go.”

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).