Mental soundness
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Sōphrosynē means self-control, sound-minded restraint, or prudent modesty. First Timothy asks women to adorn themselves with respectable clothing, modesty, and sound judgment rather than status display.
Reader summary
Full entry for σωφροσύνη (G4997) · Open the biblical lexicon
Sōphrosynē means self-control, sound-minded restraint, or prudent modesty. First Timothy asks women to adorn themselves with respectable clothing, modesty, and sound judgment rather than status display.
The BSB source-word alignment has 3 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include [with] self-control (1), self-control (1), sobriety (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Acts 26:25. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Timothy (2), Acts (1).
Sōphrosynē means self-control, sound-minded restraint, or prudent modesty. First Timothy asks women to adorn themselves with respectable clothing, modesty, and sound judgment rather than status display. The same chapter joins faith, love, holiness, and self-control in a difficult verse about women and childbearing. In Acts, Paul answers Festus's charge of madness by saying he speaks words of truth and sound judgment.
The noun does not define one gender's value, demand cultural invisibility, or prove that faithful believers never face mental illness. It describes disciplined judgment that orders conduct and speech under truth, love, and holiness. Such restraint belongs to every disciple, not women alone.
Sōphrosynē describes prudent, self-controlled judgment expressed in dress, holy conduct, and truthful speech under accusation. It is a moral quality formed by God, not a clinical diagnosis or code for suppressing women.
Likewise, I want the women to adorn themselves with respectable apparel, with modesty, and with self-control, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes,
First Timothy 2:9 asks women to adorn themselves with respectable apparel, modesty, and sound-minded restraint rather than elaborate status display. The contrast addresses worship, wealth, and good works, not bodily shame.
Women, however, will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.
First Timothy 2:15 joins salvation, faith, love, holiness, and self-control within a difficult statement about childbearing. It cannot mean women earn salvation through motherhood or domestic performance.
But Paul answered, “I am not insane, most excellent Festus; I am speaking words of truth and sobriety.
Acts 26:25 records Paul rejecting Festus's claim that he is mad and saying he speaks true and reasonable words. Sound judgment appears in coherent gospel testimony before power.
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. Prudent self-control rooted in mental clarity; the opposite of mania or reckless abandon.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
3 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
sanity, sobriety
Read versesanity, sobriety
Read versesanity, sobriety
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 1 case and number pattern. 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.
σωφροσύνη is built from this root:
Sōphrosynē describes a life not ruled by display, impulse, or panic. In Ephesus, it addresses status competition expressed through costly adornment and redirects attention toward reverence and good works. The difficult childbearing verse must be held within salvation by grace and the listed perseverance in faith, love, holiness, and self-control, never converted into a requirement that women become mothers.
Paul demonstrates another dimension before Festus: he answers a demeaning accusation with truthful and coherent speech. Churches should cultivate prudent self-command in every believer while rejecting body policing and clinical stigma. Sound judgment can coexist with strong emotion, treatment, disability, and the need for support. It is not a performance of invulnerability but disciplined fidelity under God.
Acts.26.25
Sōphrosynē is related to sōphrōn and denotes self-control, sound judgment, prudence, or modest restraint. Its ethical range should not be confused with a modern clinical category or a narrow dress code.
Wisdom praises prudent speech, modest conduct, and mastery of impulse, while prophets condemn luxury joined to injustice. Gospel formation directs outward presentation and inward judgment toward truth and good works.