To serve/heal
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through the Connect page. Screenshots are helpful.
θεραπεύω (therapeuō) most often means to heal or cure in the New Testament, while Acts 17 preserves the related sense of serving or attending. Matthew joins Jesus’ healing of disease and sickness to His kingdom teaching and proclamation.
Reader summary
Full entry for θεραπεύω (G2323) · Open the biblical lexicon
θεραπεύω (therapeuō) most often means to heal or cure in the New Testament, while Acts 17 preserves the related sense of serving or attending. Matthew joins Jesus’ healing of disease and sickness to His kingdom teaching and proclamation.
The BSB source-word alignment has 43 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include He healed (8), heal (5), healed (4), were healed (3), had been healed (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 4:23. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (16), Luke (14), Acts (5), Mark (5).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
θεραπεύω (therapeuō) most often means to heal or cure in the New Testament, while Acts 17 preserves the related sense of serving or attending. Matthew joins Jesus’ healing of disease and sickness to His kingdom teaching and proclamation. When the centurion speaks of his servant, Jesus simply answers that He will come and heal him, displaying compassionate authority.
Luke shows Jesus delegating power to cure diseases and instructing the sent disciples to heal the sick while announcing that God’s kingdom has come near. Paul’s Areopagus speech then says the Creator is not served by human hands as though He needed anything. The lexical range should not be manipulated into the claim that all Christian service is healing or that medical cure exhausts biblical care.
Healing signs attest the kingdom and mercy of Jesus, yet their narratives remain specific, and final freedom from sickness belongs to resurrection hope.
θεραπεύω names healing or curing in most selected passages and serving in Acts 17. Jesus heals with authority, delegates healing in kingdom mission, and remains distinct from gods imagined to depend on human attendants.
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.
Matthew coordinates teaching, kingdom proclamation, and healing in Jesus’ Galilean ministry. Healing is neither isolated spectacle nor the whole Gospel; it accompanies the King’s authoritative word and mercy.
“I will go and heal him,” Jesus replied.
Jesus answers the centurion’s report with readiness to heal. The following exchange highlights the centurion’s faith in Jesus’ authority to act by a word, even at a distance.
Then Jesus called the Twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and power to cure diseases.
Healing authority is delegated by Jesus to the Twelve for their mission. It is received, bounded, and joined in the next verse to proclaiming the kingdom rather than treated as personal possession.
Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’
The sent disciples’ care for the sick is joined explicitly to the announcement of God’s approaching kingdom. The instruction does not authorize promises that every present illness will be cured on demand.
Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.
Here the verb means serve or attend rather than heal. Paul denies that the Creator depends on human caretaking and grounds worship in God’s self-sufficiency and generous gift of life.
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.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. To heal or cure, often emphasizing therapeutic treatment rather than instantaneous miraculous restoration.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 44 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I care for, attend, serve, heal
Read verseI care for, attend, serve, heal
Read verseI care for, attend, serve, heal
Read verseI care for, attend, serve, heal
Read verseI care for, attend, serve, heal
Read verseI care for, attend, serve, heal
Read verseI care for, attend, serve, heal
Read verseI care for, attend, serve, heal
Read verseI care for, attend, serve, heal
Read verseI care for, attend, serve, heal
Read verseI care for, attend, serve, heal
Read verseI care for, attend, serve, heal
Read verseI care for, attend, serve, heal
Read verseI care for, attend, serve, heal
Read verseI care for, attend, serve, heal
Read verseI care for, attend, serve, heal
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 mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
How this verb appears across 41 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 5 selected witnesses from 43 lexical occurrence verses.
θεραπεύω is built from this root:
Demonstrates tangible expressions of kingdom mercy. Luke 14:1–6
Highlights restoration as central to Sabbath purpose. Luke 4:38–44
Shows ongoing compassionate ministry. Mark 1:29–34
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Jesus’ healings are acts of compassion and signs of kingdom authority, not detached demonstrations of power. Matthew places them beside His teaching and proclamation, so bodies matter while the kingdom’s good news remains larger than present relief. The centurion trusts that Jesus’ authority is not limited by distance, and Jesus responds with a willingness to heal.
Luke then shows that healing ministry is delegated. The Twelve receive power from Jesus, and the wider mission joins care for the sick to the announcement that God’s kingdom has drawn near. Ministers do not own this authority or control its outcome. Acts 17 supplies a necessary theological boundary through the verb’s service sense: the Creator is not attended by human hands as though He lacked something.
Christian service therefore responds to divine abundance; it does not meet a deficiency in God. The church may pray, care, treat, accompany, and hope without blaming sufferers or guaranteeing a timetable Scripture has not promised. Every healing anticipates the resurrection world, while faithful care continues when immediate cure does not come.
Matt.4.23
The verb’s dominant New Testament use concerns healing or curing, but Acts 17:25 retains the older and broader service or attendance sense. Object and setting decide whether a person is healed or a deity is imagined as served. Etymology cannot be used to turn every healing occurrence into generalized therapy or every service occurrence into cure.
The Old Testament presents the Lord as healer, condemns idolatry that treats gods as manageable objects, and promises restoration for God’s people. Jesus’ kingdom healings embody messianic mercy, while the Creator’s self-sufficiency and the future resurrection keep present ministry from exaggeration.
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