Plan
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G1012, boulḗ, names counsel, purpose, plan, decision, intention, or the result of deliberation. It can describe God's purpose, human planning, a council's decision, concealed motives, or advice about a course of action.
Reader summary
Full entry for βουλή (G1012) · Open the biblical lexicon
G1012, boulḗ, names counsel, purpose, plan, decision, intention, or the result of deliberation. It can describe God's purpose, human planning, a council's decision, concealed motives, or advice about a course of action.
The BSB source-word alignment has 12 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include purpose (4), will (2), counsel (1), decided (1), decision (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Luke 7:30. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (7), Luke (2), 1 Corinthians (1), Ephesians (1).
G1012, boulḗ, names counsel, purpose, plan, decision, intention, or the result of deliberation. It can describe God's purpose, human planning, a council's decision, concealed motives, or advice about a course of action. The noun does not make every plan sovereign or every decision wise. Luke distinguishes Joseph of Arimathea from the council's action, Acts tests human plans by whether God is behind them, and Paul speaks of motives that the Lord will expose.
The cross provides the most demanding use. Acts 2 says Jesus was delivered according to God's set plan and foreknowledge, while lawless people put Him to death. Divine purpose and human guilt remain together. God's plan does not make betrayal and execution righteous, and human evil does not overturn redemption. Acts later says David served God's purpose in his generation, and Paul declares the whole counsel of God. These uses call for obedient participation and full proclamation, not speculation about a secret blueprint.
Ephesians says God works all things according to the counsel of His will, and Hebrews stresses the unchanging nature of His purpose for heirs of the promise. This assurance is Christ-centered and promise-shaped, not fatalism or permission to call every event good. Luke 7 warns that people can reject God's purpose for themselves, while Luke 23 honors a council member who refuses a corrupt decision. Faithful teaching therefore trusts God's accomplished purpose, names evil truthfully, refuses institutional conformity, serves one's generation, and does not confuse human motives or plans with the counsel of the Lord.
G1012 traces rejected divine purpose, dissent from a council decision, God's plan at the cross, tested human schemes, generational service, full proclamation, election in Christ, and promise secured by God's unchanging purpose.
But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.
Religious experts refuse John's baptism and thereby reject God's purpose in the unfolding ministry. Knowledge and office do not guarantee receptive obedience.
Who had not consented to their decision or action. He was from the Judean town of Arimathea and was waiting for the kingdom of God.
Joseph dissents from the council's decision and action, then cares for Jesus' body. Institutional membership does not remove personal moral responsibility.
He was delivered up by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, and you, by the hands of the lawless, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross.
Peter holds God's redemptive plan together with the guilt of lawless executioners. Sovereignty does not turn murder into innocence or make the cross an accident.
So in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone. Let them go! For if their purpose or endeavor is of human origin, it will fail.
Gamaliel distinguishes merely human purpose from work that may be of God. His advice is prudent within the hearing, not a universal rule that survival proves divine approval.
For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep. His body was buried with his fathers and saw decay.
David's generational service is real but mortal, preparing the contrast with Jesus, whom God raised and who did not see decay.
For I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole will of God.
Paul's innocence as a watchman includes declaring God's whole counsel rather than selecting only comfortable themes. The surrounding farewell displays humility, tears, warning, and service.
In Him we were also chosen as God’s own, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything by the counsel of His will,
God's counsel appears within blessing in Christ, inheritance, hope, and praise. It should not be detached from union with Christ or used as a fatalistic slogan.
So when God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath.
God accommodates the heirs of promise with an oath so they may have strong encouragement. His unchanging purpose anchors hope rather than speculative timetable claims.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Deliberate counsel or purpose, often divine; implies reasoned determination rather than mere will.
Deliberate counsel or purpose, often divine; implies reasoned determination rather than mere will.
(βούλομαι), [in LXX frequently for עֵצָה ;] counsel, purpose (in cl., esp. of the gods): Luk.23:51, Act.4:28 5:38 19:1 27:12, 42; pl., 1Co.4:5; of the Divine purpose, Heb.6:17; τ. βουλὴν τ. θελήματος αὐτοῦ, Eph.1:11; β. τ. Θεοῦ, Luk.7:30, Act.2:23 13:36 20:27.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
12 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
counsel, deliberate wisdom
Read versecounsel, deliberate wisdom
Read versecounsel, deliberate wisdom
Read versecounsel, deliberate wisdom
Read versecounsel, deliberate wisdom
Read versecounsel, deliberate wisdom
Read versecounsel, deliberate wisdom
Read versecounsel, deliberate wisdom
Read versecounsel, deliberate wisdom
Read versecounsel, deliberate wisdom
Read versecounsel, deliberate wisdom
Read versecounsel, deliberate wisdom
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 5 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 12 lexical occurrence verses.
βουλή is built from this root:
Refers to God’s sovereign redemptive purpose.Acts 20:25-38
Affirms comprehensive proclamation of God’s redemptive plan.Luke 7:18–35
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G1012 places human counsel and decision beneath God's accomplished purpose without making human action unreal. Religious experts can reject God's purpose; Joseph can dissent from a council's corrupt decision. At the cross, God's set plan and foreknowledge do not excuse the lawless hands that kill Jesus. Acts tests human schemes, praises David for serving God's purpose in his generation, and describes Paul declaring the whole counsel of God.
Ephesians locates God's effective counsel in blessing and inheritance in Christ, while Hebrews makes its unchanging character a source of strong encouragement to heirs of promise. These uses resist both anxiety and fatalism. Believers do not need access to a secret blueprint in order to obey. They need the revealed gospel, moral courage, truthful proclamation, and hope in God's promise.
Leaders cannot call their own decisions providence, and institutions cannot erase dissent by appealing to unity. God's purpose reaches its center in Christ and remains unthreatened by human evil, yet Scripture continues to name perpetrators, motives, decisions, and responsibilities.
Acts.2.23
G1012 is a feminine noun occurring twelve times in singular and plural across nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative forms. Its range includes counsel, plan, purpose, decision, will, and motive. The governed word table and artifact both count twelve occurrences. Grammar identifies whose counsel is in view; theology must follow the clause and book.
The Old Testament repeatedly contrasts enduring divine counsel with finite or wicked human plans. The New Testament centers that purpose in Christ's death, resurrection, inheritance, and promised hope. Hebrew H6098 often overlaps counsel language, but direct contexts govern each cross-language comparison.