HEARING — A Word-Study Dossier ἀκούω and εἰσακούω in John 11:41–42 and Hebrews 5:7, with their threads, related hearing and obedience words, and the LXX background This dossier assembles the texts. It does not deliver a verdict. The occurrences stand first, the related words and the background second, the open question last. ———————————————————————————— I. THE TWO TEXTS "So they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, 'Father, I thank you that you listened to me. I know that you always listen to me, but because of the multitude standing around I said this, that they may believe that you sent me.'" (John 11:41–42, WEB) "He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear, though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered." (Heb 5:7–8, WEB) Two words stand in the two passages: ἀκούω (akouō, Strong's 191) — to hear, to listen; and εἰσακούω (eisakouō, Strong's 1522) — to hear into, to listen to, to heed, a compound of εἰς and ἀκούω. In John the Father is the hearer and the Son is heard. In Hebrews the Son is the one heard, and the verb is the compound, in the passive. ———————————————————————————— II. EVERY OCCURRENCE OF ἀκούω IN THE JOHN 11 THREAD (John 11:1–44) The thread is the sickness, death, and raising of Lazarus. ἀκούω occurs six times in the range. The first four occurrences are men and women hearing reports. The last two are the Father hearing the Son. 1. John 11:4 — ἀκούσας (akousas) ἀκούω, aorist active participle, nominative masculine singular (V-APA-NMS). Ἀκούσας δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν. "But when Jesus heard it, he said, 'This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that God's Son may be glorified by it'" (John 11:4, WEB). The thread's only participle of ἀκούω, and its first occurrence. The sisters' message was sent in 11:3; the hearing is stated as a participle, and the main verb is εἶπεν — he said. The hearing issues at once in a word about the end of the sickness, spoken before any journey is made. 2. John 11:6 — ἤκουσεν (ēkousen) ἀκούω, aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular (V-AIA-3S). ὡς οὖν ἤκουσεν ὅτι ἀσθενεῖ. "When therefore he heard that he was sick, he stayed two days in the place where he was" (John 11:6, WEB). The same report, heard again in the narration — and the act that follows the hearing is a staying, not a going. The narrator places ἠγάπα, "he loved," between the two hearings (11:5): the love is stated in the same breath as the delay. 3. John 11:20 — ἤκουσεν (ēkousen) ἀκούω, aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular (V-AIA-3S). ἡ οὖν Μάρθα ὡς ἤκουσεν ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἔρχεται. "Then when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary stayed in the house" (John 11:20, WEB). The hearer is now Martha, and the thing heard is a coming, not a sickness. Her hearing issues in movement: she went out to meet him. In the same verse Mary remains seated in the house — the contrast is in the arrangement, and the text makes no comment on it. 4. John 11:29 — ἤκουσεν (ēkousen) ἀκούω, aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular (V-AIA-3S). δὲ ὡς ἤκουσεν ἠγέρθη ταχύ. "When she heard this, she arose quickly and went to him" (John 11:29, WEB). The hearer is Mary, and what she hears is her sister's word: "The Teacher is here and is calling you" (John 11:28, WEB). The response repeats Martha's pattern — hearing, rising, going to him — with ταχύ, quickly, added. 5. John 11:41 — ἤκουσας (ēkousas) ἀκούω, aorist active indicative, 2nd person singular (V-AIA-2S). εὐχαριστῶ σοι ὅτι ἤκουσάς μου. "Father, I thank you that you listened to me" (John 11:41, WEB). The direction of the verb reverses. Through the thread, Jesus and the sisters have been the hearers; here the Father is the hearer and Jesus is the one heard — μου, "me," stands as the object. The thanksgiving is spoken after the stone is taken away and before the cry of 11:43: the hearing is thanked for before the dead man moves. 6. John 11:42 — ἀκούεις (akoueis) ἀκούω, present active indicative, 2nd person singular (V-PIA-2S). ἐγὼ δὲ ᾔδειν ὅτι πάντοτέ μου ἀκούεις. "I know that you always listen to me, but because of the multitude standing around I said this, that they may believe that you sent me" (John 11:42, WEB). The thread's only present-tense form of ἀκούω, and its only form with πάντοτε, "always," beside it. The aorist of 11:41 states the hearing in this instance; the present of 11:42 states it as the standing pattern. Jesus adds that the words were spoken aloud for the multitude — so that they may believe that the Father sent him. Checked and excluded: the count is exact. ἀκούω occurs six times in John 11:1–44 — once as a participle (11:4), four times as an aorist indicative (11:6, 20, 29, 41), once as a present indicative (11:42). No other form of the verb stands in the range. Two near forms are recorded so that nothing is merged into the count: — εἰσακούω does not occur in John 11 at all. Where the Father's hearing of the Son is stated, John uses the simple verb, twice, in the second person. — ὑπακούω does not occur in John 11. Nor is any verb of hearing predicated of Lazarus: at the raising he is not said to hear; Jesus "cried with a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come out!'" (John 11:43, WEB), and the next verse states the outcome, not a hearing: "He who was dead came out" (John 11:44, WEB). Summary of the thread: six occurrences, five aorist and one present. The aorists carry the narrative — a report received, a coming heard of, a call repeated. The single present carries the one statement about God's hearing: it is what the Father always does toward the Son. Human hearing in this thread moves people toward Jesus. The Father's hearing is confessed at the tomb, in thanksgiving, before the sign it precedes. ———————————————————————————— III. EVERY OCCURRENCE IN THE HEBREWS THREAD (Heb 5:5–10) The thread is the appointment of the Son as high priest: two sayings of God (5:5–6), the prayers of His fleshly days (5:7), the learning of obedience (5:8), the perfection and the salvation (5:9), and the designation (5:10). The hearing word of the thread is not ἀκούω but its compound, and it occurs once. 1. Heb 5:7 — εἰσακουσθείς (eisakoustheis) εἰσακούω, aorist passive participle, nominative masculine singular (V-APP-NMS). καὶ εἰσακουσθεὶς ἀπὸ τῆς εὐλαβείας. "He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear" (Heb 5:7, WEB). The form is passive: the Son is the one heard, and the Hearer is not the grammatical subject of the participle. The One addressed is named by His power instead — "him who was able to save him from death." The participle stands second of two aorist participles: προσενέγκας, "having offered up," and εἰσακουσθείς, "having been heard." Both precede the main verb of the sentence, which waits until 5:8: ἔμαθεν, "he learned." The ground of the hearing is named with ἀπό and the genitive: ἀπὸ τῆς εὐλαβείας — "for his godly fear" (WEB). Εὐλάβεια (eulabeia, Strong's 2124) is reverence, godly fear, piety. Related forms inside the thread, distinguished — neither is a form of ἀκούω: — Heb 5:8 — ἔμαθεν (emathen) μανθάνω (manthanō, Strong's 3129), aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular. καίπερ ὢν Υἱὸς ἔμαθεν ἀφ' ὧν ἔπαθεν τὴν ὑπακοήν. "Though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered" (Heb 5:8, WEB). The learning verb is μανθάνω, not ἀκούω. Its tense is aorist, its voice active, and its subject is the Son. What is learned is not information received by the ear; its object is an accusative noun, and its school is named in the same clause: ἀφ' ὧν ἔπαθεν, "by the things which he suffered." — Heb 5:8 — τὴν ὑπακοήν (tēn hypakoēn) ὑπακοή (hypakoē, Strong's 5218), noun, accusative feminine singular. This is the obedience that is learned. Ὑπακοή is the noun of the ὑπακούω word-family (see section IV), not a form of ἀκούω and not a form of εἰσακούω. The thread's one hearing-word is spent on the prayer of 5:7; the thread's obedience-word is a noun, carried as the object of the learning. — Heb 5:9 — ὑπακούουσιν (hypakouousin) ὑπακούω (hypakouō, Strong's 5219), present active participle, dative masculine plural. The writer says that the Son, having been made perfect, became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him (Heb 5:9). The obeying ones are named by this participle of ὑπακούω. It belongs to the related-words record of section IV; it is not counted as an occurrence of ἀκούω. Checked and excluded: plain ἀκούω does not occur in Heb 5:5–10. εἰσακούω occurs once, at 5:7, in the passive participle. Just outside the thread's range, the hearing noun ἀκοή stands at 5:11, where the readers are said to have become dull in their hearings; it lies outside Heb 5:5–10 and is not counted here. Summary of the thread: one occurrence of the hearing word, the compound εἰσακούω, aorist and passive. Around it the thread sets an offering of prayer (5:7, participle), a learning of obedience through suffering (5:8, μανθάνω with ὑπακοή as its object), and a perfection from which salvation flows to the obeying (5:9–10, in paraphrase). ———————————————————————————— IV. RELATED WORDS DISTINGUISHED — AND THE LXX BACKGROUND A. The three words 1. ἀκούω (akouō, Strong's 191) — to hear, to listen, to hear a report. The simple verb. In the John 11 thread it covers both directions of hearing: creatures hearing news and comings (11:4, 6, 20, 29), and the Father hearing the Son (11:41–42). John states the Father's hearing with no compound and no qualification except πάντοτε, "always" (John 11:42). 2. εἰσακούω (eisakouō, Strong's 1522) — to hear into, to listen to, to heed. The compound of εἰς and ἀκούω. In the New Testament it is used of prayer being heard: the angel tells Zacharias that his prayer was heard (Luke 1:13), and Cornelius is told that his prayer was heard (Acts 10:31), both in paraphrase. In the Hebrews thread its form is passive and its subject is the praying Son (Heb 5:7). The compound does not appear in John 11; the simple verb there must not be silently upgraded to it, and the compound here must not be flattened into it. 3. ὑπακούω (hypakouō, Strong's 5219) and ὑπακοή (hypakoē, Strong's 5218) — to obey; obedience. The compound of ὑπό and ἀκούω: a hearing under, hearing that answers in obedience. In the Hebrews thread the family appears twice, both times on the far side of the hearing: the obedience the Son learned through suffering (Heb 5:8, the noun), and the obeying ones to whom the perfected Son becomes the source of salvation (Heb 5:9, the participle). Neither form is ἀκούω, and John 11 contains neither. B. The LXX background Ἀκούω is the Septuagint's ordinary rendering of the Hebrew שָׁמַע (šāmaʿ), to hear. Its most famous occurrence is an imperative: — Deut 6:4 (LXX): Ἄκουε, Ισραηλ· κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν κύριος εἷς ἐστιν. "Hear, Israel: Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one" (Deut 6:4, LXX, in the Brenton rendering). Ἄκουε is the present active imperative, 2nd person singular, of ἀκούω, rendering the Hebrew šəmaʿ. The hearing commanded is Israel's hearing of God. Εἰσακούω also renders šāmaʿ in the LXX, and it is the form chosen where God's hearing of a cry stands at the turn of a narrative: — Gen 21:17 (LXX): εἰσήκουσεν δὲ ὁ θεὸς τῆς φωνῆς τοῦ παιδίου. "And God heard the voice of the child from the place where he was" (Gen 21:17, LXX, in the Brenton rendering). Εἰσήκουσεν is the aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular, of εἰσακούω, and it occurs twice in the verse — once in the narration, once in the angel's own words to Hagar. The Hebrew behind it is šāmaʿ. What God hears is a voice, τῆς φωνῆς, and the hearing is followed within the chapter by opened eyes and a well (Gen 21:19). — Ex 2:24 (LXX): καὶ εἰσήκουσεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν στεναγμὸν αὐτῶν. "And God heard their groanings, and God remembered his covenant made with Abraam and Isaac and Jacob" (Ex 2:24, LXX, in the Brenton rendering). Again εἰσήκουσεν, aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular, rendering šāmaʿ. What God hears is a groaning, τὸν στεναγμόν, and the clause that follows the hearing inside the same verse is remembrance of the covenant. The background therefore sets the compound and the simple verb over one Hebrew word. The LXX does not reserve εἰσακούω for a different Hebrew term; it uses both forms for šāmaʿ, and the compound appears where the hearing of God is the hinge on which the narrative turns. ———————————————————————————— V. THE THREADS, SET SIDE BY SIDE John 11 thread: — A report of sickness is sent, and Jesus hears it (11:3–4, participle). His first word after hearing names the end: not to death, but for the glory of God (John 11:4). — The hearing is stated again, and he stays two days where he was (11:6, indicative). The love is stated between the hearings (11:5). — Martha hears that Jesus is coming, and goes out to meet him (11:20, indicative). — Mary hears that the Teacher is here and calls her, and rises quickly and goes to him (11:29, indicative). — At the opened tomb Jesus thanks the Father: you heard me (11:41, aorist indicative, second person) — you always hear me (11:42, present indicative, with πάντοτε). — He cries with a loud voice, and the dead man comes out (11:43–44; no hearing verb is used of Lazarus). In John 11, every hearing before the tomb is a creature's hearing, and every one of them is aorist. The Father's hearing is stated last, in the second person, once as an aorist for this occasion and once as a present for the standing pattern — and it is stated as thanksgiving before the sign, so that the multitude may believe that the Father sent the Son (John 11:42). Hebrews 5 thread: — God speaks, and by His speaking the Son is named and appointed (Heb 5:5–6, in paraphrase). — The Son offers prayers and petitions, with strong crying and tears, to the One able to save him from death (Heb 5:7, participle προσενέγκας). — He is heard, for his godly fear (Heb 5:7, εἰσακουσθείς, aorist passive participle). — Though a Son, he learns obedience by the things which he suffered (Heb 5:8, ἔμαθεν, with τὴν ὑπακοήν as its object). — Made perfect, he becomes the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, and is designated high priest after the order of Melchizedek (Heb 5:9–10, in paraphrase). In Hebrews 5, the hearing stands in the middle of the thread, not at its end. Before it, prayer is offered to the One able to save from death. After it — not deliverance narrated, but suffering, learning, perfection. The hearing word is passive: the writer's subject is not the hearing Father but the heard Son. The forms, set beside each other: — John's Father-hearing: active voice, second person, addressed — ἤκουσας, ἀκούεις (John 11:41–42). — Hebrews' Son-hearing: passive voice, third person, narrated — εἰσακουσθείς (Heb 5:7). — John's thread: the heard Son speaks, and a dead man comes out of the tomb (John 11:43–44). — Hebrews' thread: the heard Son suffers, and learns the obedience that the noun names (Heb 5:8). ———————————————————————————— VI. THE CRUX, LEFT OPEN The crux stays open: John says the Father always hears the Son, and Lazarus comes out (John 11:42–44). Hebrews says the Son was heard, and He still suffered and learned obedience (Heb 5:7–8). What does "heard" secure in each thread — rescue from the trial, resurrection out of death, endurance through suffering, or something the two threads together leave unnamed? This dossier assembles the text under that question. It does not answer it. ———————————————————————————— Sources: Greek text and parsing — Nestle 1904 via BibleHub interlinear and Strong's concordance pages (John 11:4, 6, 20, 29, 41, 42; Heb 5:7), with the Heb 5:8–9 forms (ἔμαθεν, ὑπακοήν, ὑπακούουσιν) parsed per the same text analysis, verified 2026-10-26. English — World English Bible (public domain), via Bible Gateway WEB texts (John 11; Heb 5:7–8), verified 2026-10-26. LXX texts — Deut 6:4; Gen 21:17; Ex 2:24 (Rahlfs text with the Brenton rendering), verified 2026-10-26. Note: the WEB renders John 11:41–42 "listened to me / always listen to me" where the Greek verb is ἀκούω; the dossier follows the Greek forms for the word-study and the WEB for the quotations.