Discipline
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G3809 names training, discipline, or instruction that shapes a person toward mature life, not merely information transfer. Readers often come to this word asking about training in righteousness, discipline, instruction, and how Scripture forms mature disciples.
Reader summary
Full entry for παιδεία (G3809) · Open the biblical lexicon
G3809 names training, discipline, or instruction that shapes a person toward mature life, not merely information transfer. Readers often come to this word asking about training in righteousness, discipline, instruction, and how Scripture forms mature disciples.
The BSB source-word alignment has 6 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include discipline (3), [the] discipline (2), training (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Ephesians 6:4. Its strongest book concentrations include Hebrews (4), 2 Timothy (1), Ephesians (1).
G3809 names training, discipline, or instruction that shapes a person toward mature life, not merely information transfer. Readers often come to this word asking about training in righteousness, discipline, instruction, and how Scripture forms mature disciples. In the Pastoral Epistles, the word must be read inside the sentence, the paragraph, and the local charge to Timothy or Titus before it becomes a broader teaching category.
This companion keeps the search question useful while refusing to let a search term control the text. It helps shepherds, teachers, leaders, churches, groups, families, and disciples ask what the passage is actually doing, how the word serves the book argument, and how the gospel governs the application. It also guards against reducing biblical instruction to facts while neglecting the formation Scripture intends.
The aim is not to create a shortcut around Scripture but to make the word a doorway back into Scripture with clearer questions and better boundaries.
Training; discipline; instruction matters for readers because it opens the usefulness of Scripture for forming the servant of God in righteousness and readiness.
Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath; instead, bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Fathers are told to bring children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
Scripture is useful for training in righteousness.
And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you.
The language of discipline frames the Father's corrective care for His children.
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. Discipline that includes correction and instruction, not mere punishment; formative training.
Discipline that includes correction and instruction, not mere punishment; formative training.
(παιδεύω), [in LXX chiefly for מוּסָר ;]
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
6 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
discipline
Read versediscipline
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Read versediscipline
Read versediscipline
Read versediscipline
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 4 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 1 selected witness from 6 lexical occurrence verses.
παιδεία is built from this root:
Defines suffering as formative instruction. Hebrews 12:4-11
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Teach G3809 by starting with the local passage and the burden that caused the word to matter there. The entry opens the usefulness of Scripture for forming the servant of God in righteousness and readiness. A faithful teacher should define the word plainly, show how the immediate context uses it, and then move carefully to related witnesses without pretending that one word proves every doctrine attached to the subject.
This matters for end users who may search for training in righteousness, discipline, instruction, and how Scripture forms mature disciples but need more than a dictionary answer. The word should bring them back to Christ, the gospel, the household of God, and the obedience Scripture calls for. It corrects approaches to Bible study that stop at information and never press toward obedience, correction, and maturity.
Keep the tone clear and sober: enough definition to orient the reader, enough canonical connection to deepen trust, and enough restraint to avoid making the word say more than the passage says.
Eph.6.4
The noun can include instruction and discipline. In 2 Timothy, it names Scripture's formative work in righteousness.
Use the Old Testament and wider canonical background only where the cited passages or the local lexicon artifact warrant it. The Pastoral Epistles remain the controlling entry point for this batch.
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