Temptation/testing: temptation
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.
πειρασμός covers both 'trial' (an experience that tests and proves) and 'temptation' (an enticement toward sin), and the English distinction between these two meanings is not always present in the Greek. The same word covers both because the root meaning is testing — whether the test is a fiery trial that reveals the quality of faith, or an enticement that puts loyalty under pressure.
Reader summary
Full entry for πειρασμός (G3986) · Open the biblical lexicon
πειρασμός covers both 'trial' (an experience that tests and proves) and 'temptation' (an enticement toward sin), and the English distinction between these two meanings is not always present in the Greek. The same word covers both because the root meaning is testing — whether the test is a fiery trial that reveals the quality of faith, or an enticement that.
The BSB source-word alignment has 21 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include temptation (9), trials (4), of testing (2), [was a] trial (1), [you are] tempted (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 6:13. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (6), 1 Corinthians (2), 1 Peter (2), James (2).
πειρασμός covers both 'trial' (an experience that tests and proves) and 'temptation' (an enticement toward sin), and the English distinction between these two meanings is not always present in the Greek. The same word covers both because the root meaning is testing — whether the test is a fiery trial that reveals the quality of faith, or an enticement that puts loyalty under pressure. The NT context usually clarifies which direction is in view, though often both are present simultaneously.
James 1:2-4 presents peirasmos as joy-producing precisely because of what it produces: 'Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet various trials (peirasmois), because you know that the testing (dokimion) of your faith produces endurance (hypomone).' The trial in James is an external difficulty that puts faith under pressure — not an enticement to sin. The joy is not for the difficulty itself but for what it produces in the person who endures through it.
James 1:13-14 then makes the critical distinction for the temptation direction: 'Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.' The source of temptation toward sin is not God but the person's own disordered desire (epithumia). God sends trials; God does not send enticements to sin. This is the theological guardrail built into the passage that uses the same word for both.
The Lord's Prayer petition 'lead us not into temptation (peirasmon) but deliver us from evil' (Matt 6:13) sits in the middle of this range: the prayer asks God to spare the disciple from the testing situation that exceeds their current capacity to bear — which is what 1 Corinthians 10:13 promises ('he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it').
For the preacher, πειρασμός is the word that holds the connection between suffering and temptation — the external difficulty that tests faith often opens the door to the internal temptation to abandon God. Understanding this connection helps pastoral care of people under trial.
πειρασμός is locally indexed at about 21 NT occurrences. In the Synoptics it appears primarily in the Lord's Prayer and the Gethsemane account. In James it is the central word for trials that test faith. In 1 Corinthians 10:13 it is the common human experience of testing from which God provides escape. In the Pastorals it appears as dangerous enticement. The word's range from proving-test to enticement-to-sin reflects the Greek peiraz root, which covers any kind of testing.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds,
The opening move: the command to count trials as joy-producing. The 'various' (poikilois — many-colored) trials names the diversity of what peirasmos covers — illness, persecution, poverty, relational conflict, and the accumulated weight of ordinary hardship. James does not say to feel joyful; he says to count (hegeomai — reckon, evaluate) the trials as joy-producing.
The reckoning is based on what you know (v. 3): you know that the testing of faith produces endurance. The joy is grounded in knowledge, not in feeling.
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone.
The critical distinction: God sends trials (peirasmos in v. 2) but does not send temptations toward sin (v. 13). The person who is tempted toward sin cannot attribute that enticement to God — it comes from their own desire (epithumia, v. 14). James's argument has a seam here: same word, but two different sources and two different meanings. The trial tests and proves; the temptation toward sin entices and lures.
God is the author of the former (as the Giver of good gifts, v. 17); the human desire is the origin of the latter.
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide an escape, so that you can stand up under it.
A bounded promise for tempted and tested people: Paul says the pressure is common to humanity, God is faithful, and God provides a way of escape so His people may endure. The 'way of escape' (ekbasis) is not necessarily removal from the trial; it may be the God-given path through it. The verse should not be used to accuse struggling Christians of weak trust. Its context is communal warning from Israel's wilderness failure, with God's faithfulness named as the ground for endurance.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’
The Lord's Prayer petition covers both the test and the deliverer. 'Lead us not into temptation' asks God to spare the disciple from the testing situation that exceeds their current capacity — it is a prayer of acknowledged weakness, not a promise of exemption. 'Deliver us from the evil one' (poneros — which is probably personal, 'the evil one,' not neuter) pairs the request with recognition that there is an agent behind the temptations.
The two petitions together frame peirasmos as both circumstantial (the trial) and personal (the adversary).
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in various trials
The temporal framing of peirasmos in 1 Peter: 'for a little while.' The trials are real and grievous — Peter does not minimize the grief. But they are bounded in time, and their purpose is the proving of faith that results in 'praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ' (v. 7). The grief of the trial is placed within the larger arc of an inheritance that is imperishable and unfading (v. 4) — not to eliminate the grief but to set it in its proper temporal frame.
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. Trial or test that can lead either to spiritual strengthening or to sin, depending on response.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 21 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
trial, testing, temptation
Read versetrial, testing, temptation
Read versetrial, testing, temptation
Read versetrial, testing, temptation
Read versetrial, testing, temptation
Read versetrial, testing, temptation
Read versetrial, testing, temptation
Read versetrial, testing, temptation
Read versetrial, testing, temptation
Read versetrial, testing, temptation
Read versetrial, testing, temptation
Read versetrial, testing, temptation
Read versetrial, testing, temptation
Read versetrial, testing, temptation
Read versetrial, testing, temptation
Read versetrial, testing, temptation
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 6 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 5 selected witnesses from 21 lexical occurrence verses.
πειρασμός is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
πειρασμός names both external trial and internal enticement toward sin, and its pastoral power lies in the way those experiences can overlap. A person under loss, suffering, or persecution may also be tempted to lose trust in God, seek relief through sin, or abandon allegiance to Christ. James addresses both dimensions: trials can produce steadfastness, while temptation toward sin must not be blamed on God.
The preacher who addresses external hardship without the temptations it may awaken, or temptation without the suffering context that intensifies it, can divide what the NT often holds together. First Corinthians 10:13 anchors endurance in God's faithfulness and His provision of a way through the test; it should be taught as comfort and warning, not as a formula that guarantees an easy escape.
Jas.1.2
πειρασμός is derived from the verb peirazein (to test, to try, to tempt). The root peir- is connected to the idea of attempting, trying, probing. In Greek usage outside the NT, it could refer to any kind of attempt or testing. In the NT, the Septuagint background is important: the testing of Abraham (Gen 22:1), the testing in the wilderness (Deut 8:2), and Israel's testing of God (Ps 78:41; 106:14) all use this root.
The NT inherits this field of meaning and applies it to the experience of believers under difficulty. The verb form peirazein is used for the devil's tempting of Jesus (Mat 4:1) and for the Pharisees' testing of Jesus (Mat 16:1) — two different agents with two different purposes, both using the same word. This confirms that peirasmos is morally neutral as a test-event; the moral dimension comes from the purpose and response.
The OT background for peirasmos is rich and multi-layered. The 'testing of Abraham' in Genesis 22 is one of the most theologically dense testing texts in all of Scripture: God tests Abraham, but the test is not an enticement to sin — it is the proving of faithfulness. The wilderness narratives in Exodus and Deuteronomy use testing language in two directions: God tests Israel (Deut 8:2 — 'the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you') and Israel tests God (Num 14:22; Ps 106:14 — provoking God by demanding signs).
Jesus' temptation in the wilderness (Mat 4:1-11) echoes and reverses Israel's wilderness testing: Israel failed where tested; Jesus, the true Israel, succeeds. The Lord's Prayer petition 'lead us not into temptation' may allude to the wilderness testing pattern — the disciples pray not to be brought into the situation where, like Israel, they might fail. The OT's wisdom literature also addresses testing: the refiner's fire image (Prov 17:3; Ps 66:10) pictures peirasmos as the process that separates genuine faith from counterfeit, just as fire separates pure metal from dross.
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