The Greek verb apospaō means to draw away, to pull away by force, to separate, to withdraw. It suggests a forcible pulling — not a gentle departure but a wrenching away from one place or attachment to another.
The word's most theologically significant use is Paul's farewell warning to the Ephesian elders: 'Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away (apospaō) disciples after them' (Acts 20:30). This is a pastoral warning against sectarianism and personality cults in the church — the danger that false teachers will leverage relationship and rhetoric to pull people away from Christ and into their own orbit. Luke 22:41 uses it for Jesus withdrawing from the disciples to pray: 'He withdrew (apespasthē) about a stone's throw beyond them.' Matthew 26:51 uses the related word for the disciple drawing a sword. In all uses, apospaō involves deliberate, effortful separation.