To persuade
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πείθω (peithō) means to persuade, convince, win over, satisfy, assure, trust, rely upon, or in some contexts obey because one has yielded to another. Its range turns on voice, tense, construction, and object.
Reader summary
Full entry for πείθω (G3982) · Open the biblical lexicon
πείθω (peithō) means to persuade, convince, win over, satisfy, assure, trust, rely upon, or in some contexts obey because one has yielded to another. Its range turns on voice, tense, construction, and object.
The BSB source-word alignment has 52 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include I am convinced (3), . . . (2), Obey (2), we are convinced (2), [and] urged (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 27:20. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (17), Philippians (6), Romans (5), 2 Corinthians (4).
πείθω (peithō) means to persuade, convince, win over, satisfy, assure, trust, rely upon, or in some contexts obey because one has yielded to another. Its range turns on voice, tense, construction, and object. Crowds can be persuaded toward violence against Paul, while Paul seeks to persuade hearers about Jesus from the Law and the Prophets. Jesus’ story of the rich man and Lazarus warns that people who refuse Moses and the Prophets will not be persuaded even by a resurrection.
Paul learns not to trust himself but the God who raises the dead, and he is convinced that Christ can guard what he has entrusted to Him. The verb therefore does not make persuasion good or bad by itself. Claims, evidence, desires, authorities, and allegiances shape what conviction becomes. Christian witness may reason and appeal openly, but it must not manipulate, coerce, flatter, or pretend that rhetorical force can produce saving faith.
Confidence is faithful when its object is the trustworthy God and its content accords with His revealed truth.
πείθω spans persuading others, being convinced, placing confidence, and yielding in obedience. The selected passages contrast hostile influence, Scripture-grounded witness, resistant unbelief, misplaced self-trust, and settled confidence in Christ.
Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and won over the crowds. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, presuming he was dead.
Persuasion turns a crowd toward lethal violence. The narrative exposes how influence can exploit hostility, reminding readers that successful persuasion is not evidence of truth or moral legitimacy.
So they set a day to meet with Paul, and many people came to the place he was staying. He expounded to them from morning to evening, testifying about the kingdom of God and persuading them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and the Prophets.
Paul’s appeal is public, sustained, and scriptural. He bears witness to God’s kingdom and argues about Jesus from Israel’s Scriptures, offering reasons rather than relying on pressure or spectacle.
Then Abraham said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”
The obstacle is not lack of dramatic evidence alone but refusal to hear God’s existing word. Persuasion involves moral receptivity, and a hardened will can reinterpret even extraordinary signs.
Indeed, we felt we were under the sentence of death, in order that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead.
Severe affliction exposes self-confidence and redirects reliance toward the God who raises the dead. Paul does not glorify suffering itself; he names the theological reorientation God worked through it.
For this reason, even though I suffer as I do, I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day.
Paul’s conviction is personal without being subjective: he knows the One he has trusted and rests in Christ’s ability to guard his deposit through suffering until the final day.
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. To persuade by winning confidence; passive sense emphasizes resulting belief and obedience to persuasion received.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 55 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I persuade, urge
Read verseI persuade, urge
Read verseI persuade, urge
Read verseI persuade, urge
Read verseI persuade, urge
Read verseI persuade, urge
Read verseI persuade, urge
Read verseI persuade, urge
Read verseI persuade, urge
Read verseI persuade, urge
Read verseI persuade, urge
Read verseI persuade, urge
Read verseI persuade, urge
Read verseI persuade, urge
Read verseI persuade, urge
Read verseI persuade, urge
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.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 47 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 52 lexical occurrence verses.
πείθω is a primary verb - no further derivation.
Reflects earnest effort to bring hearers to faith.Acts 18:1-4
Highlights the personal appeal embedded in gospel proclamation.Acts 26:24-32
Describes Paul’s earnest appeal from Scripture.Acts 28:23-28
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Persuasion is never evaluated by effectiveness alone. Acts can use the same verb family for crowds won over to violence and for Paul’s reasoned testimony about Jesus from the Scriptures. The difference lies in truth, means, object, and fruit. Luke presses deeper by showing that more spectacle does not guarantee conviction. A person who refuses God’s word may remain unpersuaded even before resurrection evidence, because unbelief is not merely an information shortage.
Paul’s letters then turn the verb inward toward confidence. Affliction taught him not to rely on himself but on the God who raises the dead. His settled conviction in 2 Timothy rests on knowing Christ and trusting His ability to guard what has been entrusted. Christian proclamation may explain, answer, urge, warn, and appeal. It should welcome honest questions and give reasons from Scripture.
Yet it must refuse deception, emotional trapping, social pressure, and claims that a preacher can engineer conversion. The Spirit works through truthful witness, but the messenger remains a servant. Mature conviction is neither gullibility nor self-certainty; it is a reasoned, obedient reliance on the trustworthy God revealed in Christ.
2Tim.1.12
Active forms often mean persuade or seek someone’s approval; passive and middle forms may mean be persuaded, obey, trust, or be confident. Perfect forms frequently express a settled state of conviction. Translation must attend to subject, object, complement, and discourse setting rather than forcing one English gloss across the family.
The prophets reason, plead, and call Israel to hear, while wisdom contrasts receptive instruction with hardened refusal. Moses and the Prophets supply the scriptural witness named in Luke 16 and Acts 28. The New Testament announces their fulfillment in Jesus, reasons from the Scriptures, and locates saving confidence in the God who raised Him from the dead.