Exploring the Meaning of Siniazo in Greek

σινιάζω means “to sift,” and it appears in the Lord’s warning to Simon in Luke’s account of the final supper. The verb is set within a vivid comparison that frames spiritual testing in terms of an agricultural action.

Occurrences

“The Lord said, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have all of you, that he might sift you as wheat,” (Luke 22:31)

In this scene the verb sits inside a purpose clause: “that he might sift you as wheat.” The immediate setting is a direct address—“Simon, Simon”—with a solemn “behold” marking the gravity of what follows. The subject of the intended action is “Satan,” and the object is “all of you,” so the saying is not limited to Simon alone; the requested testing encompasses the wider group addressed by the Lord. Within that warning, σινιάζω supplies the central image of what the adversary wants permission to do: to treat the group the way wheat is treated when it is sifted.

The phrase “as wheat” anchors σινιάζω in a concrete, recognizable process. Wheat is a grain that is handled, shaken, and worked through some means of separation; the comparison places the disciples in the position of something being acted upon rather than acting. The verb therefore contributes a sense of intentional, directed pressure: the adversary’s request is not merely to trouble or to oppose in a general way, but to put the group through an ordeal pictured as the vigorous handling involved in sifting grain. Because the line is introduced as something “Satan asked,” the image also carries the idea of sought permission for the process; the “sifting” is conceived as a trial that has been requested, not as a random accident.

Within the spoken line, σινιάζω also intensifies the personal tone. The Lord does not speak abstractly about hardship; he uses an everyday action (“to sift”) and ties it to the disciples’ situation, compressing the threat into a single, forceful comparison. The verb’s placement at the end of the clause gives it rhetorical weight: the warning culminates in the picture of being sifted, leaving the listener with the image of wheat undergoing separation and agitation.

Sense and Usage

The force of σινιάζω in Luke 22:31 comes from the way the verb’s concrete meaning is applied metaphorically to people. “To sift” names a process in which something is subjected to repeated movement and passing-through in order to separate. In the saying, that action becomes the controlling metaphor for a hostile testing directed at a group: “Satan asked to have all of you, that he might sift you as wheat.” The comparison suggests a deliberate attempt to expose what is in them under pressure, as grain is handled to separate and sort. The verb’s meaning remains the same—sifting—but its target shifts from grain to persons, which is precisely what makes the line striking.

The grammar of the sentence helps define the verb’s role. The Lord describes an antecedent request (“Satan asked to have all of you”) and then states the aim (“that he might sift you as wheat”). σινιάζω thus functions as the purpose of the adversary’s request: having them is for the sake of sifting them. This link between “asked to have” and “might sift” frames the action as something sought with intent, not merely done impulsively. The verb therefore contributes not only imagery but also a sense of directed design within the threat.

The object “you” is plural in the English line (“all of you … sift you”), which fits the earlier “all of you.” In usage here, σινιάζω is not individualized to one disciple; it characterizes a potential experience that can encompass the group. The repetition of the name “Simon, Simon” provides the immediate addressee, but the sifting itself is described as extending beyond him. The verb’s sense is therefore compatible with both personal warning (Simon is being addressed) and communal vulnerability (the group is in view).

Because the verb is tied to “wheat,” its imagery stays earthy and tactile. Wheat is valuable and intended for food, yet it must be processed; the metaphor, without changing the verb’s meaning, implies that the coming experience involves forceful handling and separation-like pressure. The saying does not spell out the mechanics of how such sifting occurs in human life; it simply sets the disciples’ situation alongside a familiar agricultural action. In that way σινιάζω communicates intensity through concreteness: an invisible threat becomes visible as a shaking, sorting action applied to something that otherwise looks stable.

Even in a single occurrence, the verb carries a narrow but potent semantic profile: σινιάζω points to a specific kind of action rather than a broad category of opposition. Luke 22:31 does not use multiple terms or extended explanation; it relies on the single verb and its “as wheat” comparison to convey what the adversary aims to do. The result is a compact warning in which the verb itself bears much of the weight—depicting testing as something that works a person over, not simply confronts them.

The choice of σινιάζω also fits the tone of direct speech. In conversation, vivid verbs can function as shorthand for complex realities; here “to sift” compresses the idea of a severe, purposeful ordeal into an image that can be grasped instantly. The Lord’s “behold” draws attention to the seriousness, the adversary’s request establishes hostility, and σινιάζω gives shape to the threatened experience. Its usage in this line is therefore both descriptive and evocative: the verb states an action and simultaneously paints it.

Imagery

The line “that he might sift you as wheat” makes σινιάζω an image of rigorous handling and separation applied to human lives. With one comparison the disciples are pictured not as spectators but as grain being worked through a process, and the adversary is pictured as seeking the right to perform that process upon “all of you.” The verb’s imagery is physical and unsettling: the coming pressure is portrayed not as a single blow but as an ongoing action, like the repeated motion involved in sifting wheat.

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).