What does ἡδονή (hēdonḗ) mean in the Bible?
Hedone names pleasure or gratification. Its five New Testament witnesses place pleasure within warnings about what governs people and damages their response to God and neighbor.
Greek · G2237
ἡδονή
Hedone names pleasure or gratification. Its five New Testament witnesses place pleasure within warnings about what governs people and damages their response to God and neighbor.
Reading a lexicon entry
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ἡδονήG2237
Pronunciationhēdonḗ
What does ἡδονή (hēdonḗ) mean in the Bible?
Reader summary
Full entry for ἡδονή (G2237) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G2237?
The BSB source-word alignment has 5 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include pleasures (3), a pleasure (1), passions (1).
Where does ἡδονή (hēdonḗ) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Luke 8:14. Its strongest book concentrations include James (2), 2 Peter (1), Luke (1), Titus (1).
What This Word Actually Means
Hedone names pleasure or gratification. Its five New Testament witnesses place pleasure within warnings about what governs people and damages their response to God and neighbor. Luke lists life's pleasures with worries and riches that choke the heard word. James identifies pleasures at war within the community and prayer aimed at spending on them. Titus remembers a former shared bondage to desires and pleasures before proclaiming salvation according to God's kindness and mercy.
Second Peter describes corrupt teachers enjoying public carousing while deceiving and exploiting others. The noun therefore invites attention to pleasure's direction, control and consequences in these passages. It does not make all enjoyment sinful or treat the needs of a body as spiritual defects. The warnings expose selfish mastery and harm, while their surrounding appeals make room for mercy, humble return and fruitful care.
How the Bible Uses It
Five direct BSB noun forms identify pleasures choking the word, fueling quarrels, shaping wrongly motivated prayer, enslaving former life and accompanying deceptive teachers' carousing. Their contexts specify the harmful pattern.
- Luke.8.14
The seeds that fell among the thorns are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the worries, riches, and pleasures of this life, and their fruit does not mature.
Pleasures stand with worries and riches that choke hearers' fruit, contrasted with holding the word and producing a crop through perseverance.
- Jas.4.1
What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you?
The pleasures are at war within the community and are linked to conflict and frustrated craving, not simply to the experience of enjoyment.
- Jas.4.3
And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures.
Wrongly motivated prayer seeks resources to spend on pleasures, within a passage that also announces greater grace and calls for humility.
- Titus.3.3
For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
The shared former enslavement introduces God's kindness, merciful salvation and Spirit renewal, followed by good works meeting pressing needs.
- 2Pet.2.13
The harm they will suffer is the wages of their wickedness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deception as they feast with you.
Pleasure in public carousing belongs to the portrait of deceptive, greedy teachers who exploit others and falsely promise freedom.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders Itpleasures3×Luke 8:14, Titus 3:3, James 4:3
a pleasure1×2 Peter 2:13
passions1×James 4:1
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowLuke 8:14
Aligned rows5
Books represented4
Luke1Titus1James22 Peter1
Source forms
ἡδοναῖς2xhēdonaisTitus 3:3, James 4:3
ἡδονῶν2xhēdonōnLuke 8:14, James 4:1
ἡδονὴν1xhēdonēn2 Peter 2:13
Parsing patterns
Noun - Dative Feminine Plural2xTitus 3:3, James 4:3
Noun - Genitive Feminine Plural2xLuke 8:14, James 4:1
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular1x2 Peter 2:13
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Discuss harmful patterns with dignity, practical support and attention to their effects on neighbors.
- Preserve rest and wholesome enjoyment while testing desires that dominate conduct or prayer.
Avoid claiming...
- These five contexts do not establish that every enjoyable activity is sin.
- A warning about pleasure supplies no diagnosis, guaranteed cure or authority to control another person's body.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Sensual pleasure pursued for its own sake, often contrasted with spiritual discipline in NT warnings against worldly indulgence.
Strong'sG2237
Lexical occurrences5 versesGreek text appearances5 timesWord forms3 forms5 referencesVerse guides0 guides
Study linkJames 4:1–6Source Gloss
sensual delight; by implication, desire
Extended definitionSource: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
Sensual pleasure pursued for its own sake, often contrasted with spiritual discipline in NT warnings against worldly indulgence.
(ἥδομαι, to be glad) [in LXX: Num.11:8 (טַעַם), Pro.17:1, Wis.7:2 16:20, and frequently in 4Mac ;] pleasure: 2Pe.2:13; pl., Luk.8:14, Tit.3:3, Jas.4:1,
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
5 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Luke 8:14Noun Genitive Plural Feminine
ἡδονῶνhdonwn
pleasure, lust, strong desire
Read verseTitus 3:3Noun Dative Plural Feminine
ἡδοναῖςhdonaiv
pleasure, lust, strong desire
Read verseJames 4:1Noun Genitive Plural Feminine
ἡδονῶνhdonwn
pleasure, lust, strong desire
Read verseJames 4:3Noun Dative Plural Feminine
ἡδοναῖςhdonaiv
pleasure, lust, strong desire
Read verse2 Peter 2:13Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ἡδονὴνhdonhn
pleasure, lust, strong desire
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.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 3 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.
Form patterns3Aligned forms5Case patternDative (2)Number patternPlural (4)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Genitive · Plural · FeminineLuke 8:14 · Jas 4:12×
Dative · Plural · FeminineTitus 3:3 · Jas 4:32×
Accusative · Singular · Feminine2 Pet 2:131×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Additional Occurrences
pleasures, passions
New Testament Witnesses
pleasures, self-indulgent desires
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 5 lexical occurrence verses.
Why This Word Matters
Identifies the internal source of conflict.James 4:1–6
For the Preacher and Teacher
James does not offer a method for obtaining everything one wants by adjusting prayer technique. He exposes desires that fuel conflict and prayers aimed at spending on pleasure, then announces that God gives more grace and calls people to humble return. Titus adds a shared confession: we too were once enslaved, and salvation came through mercy rather than our righteous performance.
That movement prevents warnings about pleasure from becoming a platform for humiliating others. Luke asks whether hearers cling to the word and bear mature fruit; Second Peter names deceptive teachers whose promises of freedom hide their own bondage. Teach pleasure here by its mastery and consequences, making room for honest help, repentance and renewed care.
Ordinary enjoyment need not be erased, but gratification must not make neighbors expendable or turn prayer into an instrument of entitlement.
Anchor passage
Titus.3.3
Doctrinal connections
- Luke's seed explanation joins mature fruit to holding the word with perseverance.
- James connects conflict to desires that seek gratification at another's expense.
- Prayer's selfish motive is challenged within an appeal to greater grace and humility.
- Titus remembers shared former bondage before announcing God's kindness and mercy.
- The Spirit's renewal and justification by grace lead toward good deeds meeting actual needs.
- Second Peter exposes exploitation concealed behind teachers' deceptive promises of freedom.
The noun appears singular in the carousing account and plural in the other direct witnesses. Number distinguishes a described pleasure from pleasures generally in that sentence; it does not expand the five contexts into a condemnation of every possible delight.
From Old to New Testament
Psalm 16:5-11 gives thanks for the Lord's portion, counsel and the joy and enduring pleasures of His presence. That supporting witness keeps these Greek warnings from becoming a general attack on delight; its Hebrew vocabulary is not counted among the five direct New Testament noun forms.