Piety; specially, the gospel scheme
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Eusebeia means godliness, reverence, or a life of devotion fitting one's confession of God. Paul tells Timothy to train for godliness instead of feeding on myths, says godliness benefits present and coming life, joins it to contentment as true gain, and describes truth as according with godliness.
Reader summary
Full entry for εὐσέβεια (G2150) · Open the biblical lexicon
Eusebeia means godliness, reverence, or a life of devotion fitting one's confession of God. Paul tells Timothy to train for godliness instead of feeding on myths, says godliness benefits present and coming life, joins it to contentment as true gain, and describes truth as according with godliness.
The BSB source-word alignment has 15 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include godliness (12), of godliness (2), godly (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Acts 3:12. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Timothy (8), 2 Peter (4), 2 Timothy (1), Acts (1).
Eusebeia means godliness, reverence, or a life of devotion fitting one's confession of God. Paul tells Timothy to train for godliness instead of feeding on myths, says godliness benefits present and coming life, joins it to contentment as true gain, and describes truth as according with godliness. The noun does not mean a solemn personality, cultural respectability, religious busyness, or a technique for wealth.
It joins sound truth, disciplined practice, worshipful orientation, contentment, love, and hope. Godliness is formed by grace and embodied through ordinary obedience; it cannot excuse abuse or replace competence and accountability. Churches should assess its fruit over time rather than rewarding public performance, and leaders must not monetize devotion or present their preferences as the measure of spiritual maturity.
Eusebeia names reverent, God-oriented life. The Pastoral Epistles join it to disciplined training, durable promise, contentment, and truth that produces fitting conduct.
But reject irreverent, silly myths. Instead, train yourself for godliness.
First Timothy 4:7 tells Timothy to reject irreverent myths and train himself for godliness. Devotion requires purposeful practice directed by truth.
For physical exercise is of limited value, but godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for the present life and for the one to come.
First Timothy 4:8 says bodily training has limited value while godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for present life and the life to come. The comparison does not despise the body.
Of course, godliness with contentment is great gain.
First Timothy 6:6 says godliness with contentment is great gain, opposing teachers who treat devotion as a means of profit.
Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness,
Titus 1:1 says apostolic ministry serves faith and knowledge of truth that accords with godliness. Sound truth possesses an embodied moral direction.
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. Reverent devotion to God expressing itself in righteous conduct and submission to His will
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
15 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
piety, godliness
Read versepiety, godliness
Read versepiety, godliness
Read versepiety, godliness
Read versepiety, godliness
Read versepiety, godliness
Read versepiety, godliness
Read versepiety, godliness
Read versepiety, godliness
Read versepiety, godliness
Read versepiety, godliness
Read versepiety, godliness
Read versepiety, godliness
Read versepiety, godliness
Read versepiety, godliness
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 4 selected witnesses from 15 lexical occurrence verses.
εὐσέβεια is built from this root:
Since Paul states that the knowledge of the truth accords with εὐσέβεια, lifestyle is not a negotiable add-on to faith but an essential expression of authentic knowledge of God in Titus.1 Timothy 3:14-16
The contrast between genuine godliness and its counterfeit form highlights the difference between authentic faith and empty religion.1 Timothy 4:6-10
Christian behavior is grounded in and shaped by Christological truth.2 Timothy 3:1-9
The goal of discipline is Christlike reverence, not mere religious activity.Titus 1:1-4
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Eusebeia describes a whole life oriented toward God, not a religious style. Timothy trains for it by refusing myths and inhabiting truth through disciplined practice. Paul compares it favorably with bodily training because its promise reaches both present and coming life, not because bodies or skills are unimportant. When joined to contentment, godliness becomes real gain precisely by rejecting devotion as a profit strategy.
Titus adds a doctrinal test: truth accords with godliness. Churches should cultivate prayer, Scripture, gathered worship, generosity, work, repentance, and love while examining whether these practices produce humility and justice. A leader's visible devotion cannot cancel hidden harm, incompetence, or unaccountability. Grace-formed godliness welcomes truthful examination.
1Tim.4.8
Eusebeia denotes reverence, piety, or godliness, especially conduct and orientation fitting devotion to God. Context distinguishes Christian godliness from generic religious respectability.
Fear of the Lord, covenant walking, prayer, justice, and mercy provide Old Testament categories for life oriented toward God rather than ritual display alone.