What does ἡδονή (hēdonḗ) mean in the Bible?
ἡδονή (hēdonḗ): Sensual pleasure pursued for its own sake, often contrasted with spiritual discipline in NT warnings against worldly indulgence.
Greek · G2237
ἡδονή
Sensual delight; by implication, desire
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ἡδονή G2237
Pronunciation hēdonḗ
What does ἡδονή (hēdonḗ) mean in the Bible?
ἡδονή (hēdonḗ): Sensual pleasure pursued for its own sake, often contrasted with spiritual discipline in NT warnings against worldly indulgence.
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).
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It pleasures 3× Luke 8:14, Titus 3:3, James 4:3
a pleasure 1× 2 Peter 2:13
passions 1× James 4:1
Show sample aligned rows
Luke 8:14 ἡδονῶν to pleasures Noun - Genitive Feminine Plural Titus 3:3 ἡδοναῖς to pleasures Noun - Dative Feminine Plural James 4:1 ἡδονῶν to passions Noun - Genitive Feminine Plural James 4:3 ἡδοναῖς to pleasures Noun - Dative Feminine Plural 2 Peter 2:13 ἡδονὴν to a pleasure Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Luke 8:14
Aligned rows 5
Books represented 4
Luke 1 Titus 1 James 2 2 Peter 1
Source forms
ἡδοναῖς 2x hēdonais Titus 3:3, James 4:3
ἡδονῶν 2x hēdonōn Luke 8:14, James 4:1
ἡδονὴν 1x hēdonēn 2 Peter 2:13
Parsing patterns
Noun - Dative Feminine Plural 2x Titus 3:3, James 4:3
Noun - Genitive Feminine Plural 2x Luke 8:14, James 4:1
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 1x 2 Peter 2:13
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Sensual pleasure pursued for its own sake, often contrasted with spiritual discipline in NT warnings against worldly indulgence.
Strong's G2237
Lexical occurrences 5 verses Greek text appearances 5 times Word forms 3 forms 5 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link James 4:1–6 Source Gloss
sensual delight; by implication, desire
Extended definition Source: 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 corpus Greek 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 8:14 Noun Genitive Plural Feminine
ἡδονῶν hdonwn
pleasure, lust, strong desire
Read verse Titus 3:3 Noun Dative Plural Feminine
ἡδοναῖς hdonaiv
pleasure, lust, strong desire
Read verse James 4:1 Noun Genitive Plural Feminine
ἡδονῶν hdonwn
pleasure, lust, strong desire
Read verse James 4:3 Noun Dative Plural Feminine
ἡδοναῖς hdonaiv
pleasure, lust, strong desire
Read verse 2 Peter 2:13 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ἡδονὴν hdonhn
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 patterns 3 Aligned forms 5 Case pattern Dative (2) Number pattern Plural (4)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Genitive · Plural · Feminine Luke 8:14 · Jas 4:1 2×
Dative · Plural · Feminine Titus 3:3 · Jas 4:3 2×
Accusative · Singular · Feminine 2 Pet 2:13 1×
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
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain