StrongerBible

agalliasis

ἀγαλλίασις

GreekG0020“exultation, joy, ...”

Appears 5 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Luk 1:14Luk 1:44Act 2:46Heb 1:9Jud 1:24
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeah-gal-lee-AH-sisnoun

What agalliasis means

exultation: exuberant, celebratory joy, the kind that is sung, shouted, or leapt rather than quietly felt

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This is not ordinary contentment but joy at full volume. It is the word Greek-speaking Jews built to carry the loudest rejoicing of the Hebrew Psalms: the joy that circles in dance and breaks out in a ringing shout. So it belongs with festival, music, and open celebration far more than with a quiet, private good mood.

In the New Testament it clusters around the great turning points of God's rescue. It is:

  • the exultation promised at John the Baptist's birth
  • the leap of the unborn child in the womb
  • the glad shared meals of the first believers
  • the jubilation of God's people when Christ finally presents them faultless

Its natural home is the joy of the last day, tasted already because, in Christ, that day has begun to dawn.

The one place it steps slightly aside from personal feeling is the "oil of gladness" of Hebrews, where it names the festive character of a royal anointing rather than an emotion someone is having. Even there the flavor is the same: the atmosphere of a coronation feast.

Nuances

1aexuberant, openly expressed exultation: the jubilant joy people sing, shout, or leap with, above all at God's saving action
Luk 1:14Luk 1:44Act 2:46Jud 1:24
1bthe festive gladness that belongs to a celebration: the atmosphere of a coronation or a feast, more than a feeling in one person
Heb 1:9

Disputed

How much ἀγαλλίασις means beyond ordinary joy: whether it intrinsically denotes a louder, more physical, more festal and eschatological exultation, or whether it is largely near-synonymous with χαρά and takes that stronger coloring only from context.

  • majorityIt is a specialized religious term for demonstrative, cultic, festal exultation, more intense than the general word for joy and weighted toward the joy of the last day; its Septuagintal background fixes this coloring.; R. Bultmann, "ἀγαλλιάομαι, ἀγαλλίασις," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 1:19-20; C. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (TLNT), vol. 1, s.v.; W. G. Morrice, Joy in the New Testament (1984)
  • minorityThe word overlaps heavily with χαρά, with which it is repeatedly paired, and its stronger nuance comes from context rather than intrinsic meaning; reading loud or eschatological content into every occurrence overloads the lexeme.; J. Barr, The Semantics of Biblical Language (Oxford, 1961); J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 25.125-134

What scholars say about agalliasis

ἀγαλλίασις is effectively a Septuagintal creation. The classical parent verb ἀγάλλομαι means "to adorn, glorify" and (in the middle) "to take pride, delight in," but the ‑ιάω formation ἀγαλλιάω and this noun are absent from classical and secular Greek: LSJ can cite only the Septuagint, the New Testament, and later Christian sources, and Moulton-Milligan found no pre-Christian papyri. Bultmann (TDNT 1:19-20) judged it "a new biblical construct," a Hellenistic-Jewish reformation of ἀγάλλομαι recalibrated for religious use. In the Septuagint the noun occurs roughly 76 times, concentrated in the Psalter, rendering the vigorous joy roots גִּיל (circling, dancing joy) and רָנַן (a ringing shout), along with שׂוּשׂ, עָלַץ, and others, while the quieter שָׂמַח is more often given to εὐφραίνω. Spicq (TLNT) and the DGE stress its cultic, communal, festal character, and Bultmann its eschatological center of gravity, the joy of God's saving act, to which even the cosmos is summoned (Isa 12:6). In the New Testament the noun (five times: Luke 1:14, 1:44; Acts 2:46; Heb 1:9; Jude 24) is concentrated in Luke and, with the verb, in 1 Peter, and is notably absent from Paul. Louw-Nida (25.133) rate it above χαρά in intensity ("often involving verbal expression and appropriate body movement"), and BDAG, EDNT, and NIDNTTE agree it is the most demonstrative member of the joy cluster. Since James Barr's Semantics of Biblical Language (1961), scholarship is more cautious about reading loud or eschatological content into every instance, noting the frequent pairing with χαρά and the more ordinary use of the cognate verb in John 5:35.

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDAG (Danker, ed.), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 3rd ed. (2000), s.v. ἀγαλλιάομαι / ἀγαλλίασιςlexicon
  • Liddell-Scott-Jones (LSJ), A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. ἀγάλλομαι / ἀγαλλιάωlexicon
  • J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains (1988), 25.133-134lexicon
  • J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (1930), s.v.lexicon
  • R. Bultmann, "ἀγαλλιάομαι, ἀγαλλίασις," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 1:19-20theological-dictionary
  • C. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (TLNT), vol. 1, s.v.theological-dictionary
  • H. Balz and G. Schneider, eds., Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (EDNT) 1:7-8theological-dictionary
  • M. Silva, ed., New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis (NIDNTTE), vol. 1, s.v.theological-dictionary
  • J. Barr, The Semantics of Biblical Language (Oxford, 1961)monograph
  • W. G. Morrice, Joy in the New Testament (1984)monograph
  • H. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Hermeneia, 1989), 60-61commentary
  • R. Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter (WBC 50, 1983), 122-124commentary
  • J. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke I-IX (AB 28, 1981), 325-326commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of ἀγαλλίασις

dative f s

ἀγαλλιάσει

Luk 1:44, Act 2:46, Jud 1:24

genitive f s

ἀγαλλιάσεως

Heb 1:9

nominative f s

ἀγαλλίασις

Luk 1:14