StrongerBible

adēmoneō

ἀδημονέω

GreekG0085“distressed, troubled, ...”

Appears 3 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 26:37Mrk 14:33Php 2:26
Word studyResearch-gradeah-day-mon-EH-ohverb

What adēmoneō means

to be in acute, disorienting distress: anguished and thrown off one's inner balance, far beyond ordinary worry

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This is one of the strongest words the New Testament has for emotional pain. It does not mean mild worry or being a little upset. It describes a person who is knocked off balance inside: restless, at a loss, unable to settle, close to coming apart. A century and a half of commentary keeps returning to one description of it, "the confused, restless, half-distracted state" a person falls into under crushing pressure.

The word appears only three times, and two of them are the same scene: Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, where it is paired first with grief (λυπέω in Matthew) and then with being appalled and shaken (ἐκθαμβέω in Mark). In both, the second verb pushes the emotion past sorrow into something that unsettles the whole person. The third use describes Epaphroditus, a sick man who is distressed not mainly for himself but because he has heard that the people he loves are worried about him.

Outside the Bible the word turns up in medical writing for patients gripped by restless, physical-and-mental turmoil, and in Plato for a man who is "troubled and at a loss." That is the heart of it: a distress that disorders both mind and body and leaves a person with nowhere to stand.

The same word carrying both Jesus' agony and an ordinary sick disciple's anxious love is part of its power. It is not a specialized religious term but a real, current word for human anguish, chosen because the situations genuinely called for it.

Mat 26:37Mrk 14:33Php 2:26
Mat 26:37

Whether the verb marks a contained, preliminary emotion in Jesus or full anguish.

  • minorityIt signals only a pre-emotion, an onset of feeling that never dominates Jesus, preserving his composure.; Jerome, Commentarius in Matthaeum, on 26:37; K. Madigan, "Ancient and High-Medieval Interpretations of Jesus in Gethsemane," Harvard Theological Review 88.1 (1995): 157-73
  • majorityIt marks Jesus entering genuine, acute distress in earnest, taken at full emotional force.; W. D. Davies and D. C. Allison, The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, ICC vol. 3 (T&T Clark, 1997); R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, NICNT (Eerdmans, 2007); J. Marcus, Mark 8-16, AYB (Yale, 2009)

Disputed

Scholars agree the word denotes acute distress but disagree on its precise coloring.

  • contestedRestless, agitated, half-distracted bewilderment.; J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistle to the Philippians (Macmillan, 8th ed. 1888), 123; H. B. Swete, The Gospel According to St. Mark, 3rd ed. (Macmillan, 1927); A. Yarbro Collins, Mark, Hermeneia (Fortress, 2007)
  • contestedPsychological breakdown, a falling apart or coming apart.; J. Marcus, Mark 8-16, AYB (Yale, 2009); J. Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark, PNTC (Eerdmans, 2002), 431-33; R. G. Bratcher and E. A. Nida, A Translator's Handbook on the Gospel of Mark (UBS, 1961), 446
  • contestedHorror or shrinking back from something loathsome.; J. A. Brooks, Mark, NAC (Broadman, 1991)

What scholars say about adēmoneō

The major lexicons converge on strong glosses: LSJ "to be sorely troubled or dismayed, be in anguish"; BDAG "be in anxiety, be distressed, troubled"; Louw-Nida (25.247) "to be distressed and troubled, with the probable implication of anguish." The verb is absent from the LXX proper (Hatch-Redpath; Abbott-Smith), surfacing only in the later Jewish revisers (Aquila at Job 18:20; Symmachus at Ps 60[61]:3, 115:2, Eccl 7:17, Ezek 3:15), so the NT writers reached outside Septuagintal diction for it. It has no dedicated TDNT entry; EDNT (Balz-Schneider) glosses "be in anguish, be distressed" and notes it intensifies its Gospel partners. Classical usage anchors it in medical and philosophical distress (Hippocrates, De virginum morbis 1; Plato, Theaetetus 175d ademonon te kai aporon, Phaedrus 251d; Xenophon, Hellenica 4.4.3), and P.Oxy. II 298.45, a first-century private letter voicing acute worry over a sick foster-child, is the closest documentary parallel to Philippians 2:26 (Moulton-Milligan; Spicq, TLNT). Lightfoot's phrase "the confused, restless, half-distracted state" (Philippians, 123) remains the standard characterization. The etymology is genuinely unsettled among the ademon/a-demos, adesai, and demon proposals, with LSJ and most modern handbooks preferring agnosticism; scholars also distribute across several colorings of the emotion (horror, agitation, grief, breakdown) while agreeing it lies well beyond ordinary sorrow.

Where scholars disagree about adēmoneō

The word's origin is disputed, though the dispute does not change its agreed meaning.

  • contestedFrom a word meaning "not at home" (a negating prefix plus the word for one's community), giving the idea of being ill at ease or unsettled.; A. Buttmann, Lexilogus ii.136; J. H. Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (1889), s.v.
  • contestedFrom a root meaning "sated to loathing," giving a sense of surfeit-driven revulsion or discontent.; C. A. Lobeck, Pathologiae Sermonis Graeci Prolegomena, 160, 238; J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistle to the Philippians (Macmillan, 8th ed. 1888), 123
  • contestedFrom an adjective meaning "knowing, prudent," so the verb first suggested bewilderment or not-knowing.; T. W. Allen, Classical Review 20 (1906): 5
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

  • Liddell, Scott, Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford, 1940; rev. suppl. 1996), s.v. ἀδημονέωlexicon
  • W. Bauer, F. W. Danker, et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (BDAG), 3rd ed. (Chicago, 2000), s.v.lexicon
  • J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains (UBS, 1988), §25.247lexicon
  • J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (London, 1914-29), s.v., citing P.Oxy. II 298.45lexicon
  • C. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (Hendrickson, 1994), s.v.lexicon
  • H. Balz and G. Schneider, eds., Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (Eerdmans, 1990-93), s.v.lexicon
  • J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistle to the Philippians (Macmillan, 8th ed. 1888), 123commentary
  • P. T. O'Brien, The Epistle to the Philippians, NIGTC (Eerdmans, 1991)commentary
  • G. D. Fee, Paul's Letter to the Philippians, NICNT (Eerdmans, 1995), 268-71commentary
  • W. D. Davies and D. C. Allison, The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, ICC vol. 3 (T&T Clark, 1997)commentary
  • J. Marcus, Mark 8-16, AYB (Yale, 2009)commentary

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

All attested forms of ἀδημονέω

present active infinitive

ἀδημονεῖν

Mat 26:37, Mrk 14:33

present active participle nominative m s

ἀδημονῶν

Php 2:26