StrongerBible

apatē

ἀπάτη

GreekG0539“deceitfulness, deceit, ...”

Appears 7 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 13:22Mrk 4:19Eph 4:22Col 2:82Th 2:10Heb 3:132Pe 2:13
Root family
Names & words formed with this
Word studyResearch-gradeah-PAH-taynoun

What apatē means

deceit: the deliberate trick or false appeal by which someone is misled into believing or wanting what is not real

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyContested

This word names the active deception itself, the trick, stratagem, or false promise, not the mistaken state it leaves a person in (πλάνη). Across the New Testament it is almost always rendered "deceit" or "deceitfulness", and the word behaves as a near power in its own right: people are ruled by desires that come from Deceit, or taken in by an empty deceit dressed up as wisdom.

What gives the word its edge in these texts is that the deception works by luring. Wealth, sin, false teaching, and the great adversary all mislead by holding out something attractive that they cannot actually deliver:

  • The deceitfulness of riches promises security
  • sin promises satisfaction
  • the false teacher promises depth

In each case the trap is baited, so the word sits very close to seduction even while it means "deceit".

One passage pulls in a different direction. In 2 Peter 2:13, written amid a scene of feasting and luxury, many scholars hear the word as "pleasures" or "dissipations" rather than "deceptions", possibly as a pointed play on the love-feasts named in Jude. Whether that is a genuine second sense or only the color the setting lends the ordinary meaning is disputed, and it affects no other verse.

Nuances

1athe trick or false promise by which wealth, sin, false teaching, or the great deceiver lures a person into ruin
CertaintyStrong
Mat 13:22Mrk 4:19Eph 4:22Col 2:82Th 2:10Heb 3:13
1bin a scene of the false teachers' feasting, either their self-indulgent revels (pleasures, dissipations) or the deceits they work while sharing the meal
2Pe 2:13
2Pe 2:13

Whether ἀπάταις in 2 Peter 2:13 means deceptions or pleasures, dissipations, possibly a deliberate play on the love-feasts (ἀγάπαις) of Jude 12.

  • majorityPleasures or dissipations: in a passage saturated with feasting and luxury, and playing on Jude's love-feasts, the word names the false teachers' self-indulgent revels.; R. Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter, WBC 50 (1983); J. Neyrey, 2 Peter, Jude, Anchor Bible 37C; D. Moo, 2 Peter, Jude, NIV Application Commentary, p. 481
  • minorityDeceits: the classical sense is kept, so the false teachers deceive the community even as they feast alongside them.; T. Schreiner, 1, 2 Peter, Jude, NAC; J. N. D. Kelly, The Epistles of Peter and of Jude

What scholars say about apatē

Every major lexicon builds on the classical baseline of trick, fraud, deceit (LSJ, citing Homer through Attic prose). Trench groups ἀπάτη with πλάνη and δόλος as the active deceit or stratagem itself rather than the resulting error. The one live lexical question is whether Koine Greek added a sense pleasure, enjoyment. Deissmann (1903) proposed it for ἡ ἀπάτη τοῦ πλούτου at Matthew 13:22 and Mark 4:19, resting on the grammarian Moeris, Polybius, Dio Chrysostom, and the Priene inscription. Read carefully, that evidence attests only a narrow theatrical sense of aesthetic illusion or diversion (the Gorgianic tradition), not general hedonism; the papyri and the Septuagint know only deceit, and the Shepherd of Hermas, the pillar of the pleasure thesis, keeps τρυφή (pleasure) and ἀπάτη (deceit) as distinct terms that merely operate together. BDAG and Louw-Nida nonetheless register a distinct pleasure sense confined to 2 Peter 2:13, where the feasting context and a probable pun on Jude 12 lead a slight majority (Bauckham, Neyrey, Davids, Moo, G. Green) to render dissipations, against a minority (Schreiner, Kelly) that keeps deceits. For every other New Testament occurrence the reading deceit is effectively unanimous, though France and others stress that the deceit in view lures by false promise.

Where scholars disagree about apatē

Whether ἀπάτη carries a distinct sense pleasure, enjoyment in the New Testament, or means only deceit throughout, with any pleasure being at most a coloring lent by the context.

  • majorityOnly deceit, deception is a lexical sense of the word; the apparent pleasure at 2 Peter 2:13 is contextual coloring driven by its setting, not a separate meaning.; LSJ, A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. ἀπάτη; A. Oepke, 'ἀπάτη,' TDNT 1:384-85; M. Silva (ed.), NIDNTTE, s.v. ἀπάτη
  • minorityA distinct sense pleasure, harmful enjoyment exists, localized to 2 Peter 2:13.; BDAG, 3rd ed. (2000), s.v. ἀπάτη, p. 99; Louw and Nida, Greek-English Lexicon Based on Semantic Domains, 25
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

  • LSJ, A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. ἀπάτηlexicon
  • BDAG, 3rd ed. (2000), s.v. ἀπάτη, p. 99lexicon
  • Louw and Nida, Greek-English Lexicon Based on Semantic Domains, 88.264 and 25 (Enjoy, Take Pleasure In)lexicon
  • R. C. Trench, Synonyms of the New Testamentmonograph
  • A. Oepke, 'ἀπάτη,' TDNT 1:384-85theological-dictionary
  • C. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, vol. 1, s.v. ἀπάτηtheological-dictionary
  • Moulton and Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, s.v. ἀπάτηlexicon
  • M. Silva (ed.), NIDNTTE, s.v. ἀπάτηtheological-dictionary
  • R. Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter, WBC 50 (1983)commentary
  • P. Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, NIGTC, p. 227commentary
  • R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, NICNT (2007), pp. 526-27commentary

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

All attested forms of ἀπάτη

dative f s

ἀπάτῃ

2Th 2:10, Heb 3:13

genitive f s

ἀπάτης

Eph 4:22, Col 2:8

nominative f s

ἀπάτη

Mat 13:22, Mrk 4:19

dative f p

ἀπάταις

2Pe 2:13