StrongerBible

arkeō

ἀρκέω

GreekG0714be enough, suffice, ...

Appears 8 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 25:9Luk 3:14Jhn 6:7Jhn 14:82Co 12:91Ti 6:8Heb 13:53Jn 1:10
Root family
Names & words formed with this
Word studyar-KEH-ohverb

What arkeō means

to be enough: for a supply to cover the need, and so, of a person, to treat what one already has as enough

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

The whole word turns on one idea: there is enough. What shifts from verse to verse is only who is being measured.

Usually the subject is the supply, and the question is whether it will cover a need. Philip does the arithmetic on the hillside and says two hundred days' wages would not buy enough bread (John 6:7), and the wise bridesmaids say their oil will not stretch to cover both groups (Matthew 25:9). The two most quoted lines use that same everyday word for something nobody can count out: show us the Father "and it is enough for us" (John 14:8), and "my grace is sufficient for you" (2 Corinthians 12:9). Neither is a promise that more is coming. Both say that nothing more is needed.

Turn the word around so the person is the subject and it means treating what you already have as enough. English Bibles say "content," and the New Testament reaches for the word whenever money is in view: a soldier's pay (Luke 3:14), food and clothing (1 Timothy 6:8), a life free from the love of money (Hebrews 13:5). Its one negative use is Diotrephes, who is not satisfied with slandering the apostle and goes on to expel people from the church (3 John 1:10). A close relative, the word for a person who needs no outside supply (αὐτάρκης), is what Paul uses in Philippians 4:11 for the same settled state.

That is why these are one word and not two. Contentment here is not first of all a mood or a temperament. It is a judgment about supply, made from the inside: the person who is content has decided that what is in hand covers what is needed.

Nuances

1ato be enough: for a supply, a sum, or a gift to cover what is needed
TranslatabilityDirect
Mat 25:9Jhn 6:7Jhn 14:82Co 12:9
1bto be content: to reckon what one already has as enough and stop reaching for more
Luk 3:141Ti 6:8Heb 13:53Jn 1:10

What scholars say about arkeō

BDAG divides ἀρκέω into an active use ("be enough, be sufficient, be adequate," commonly with a dative naming the person for whom something suffices) and a passive or middle use with the dative meaning "be satisfied with, be content with." LSJ, TDNT, and EDNT agree on the same two-way split, and LSJ's classical and Hellenistic citations show that the range is ordinary Greek well before the New Testament rather than a biblical development. None of the eight New Testament occurrences calls for a specialized sense: in 2 Corinthians 12:9 the theological weight rests on the subject of the verb, ἡ χάρις μου, and not on any unusual meaning of ἀρκεῖ, as the critical commentaries on 2 Corinthians observe. Discussion of the passive occurrences normally runs alongside the cognate αὐτάρκεια and αὐτάρκης word group and its Cynic and Stoic background, treated in TDNT and in the critical commentaries on the Pastoral Epistles, which generally distinguish the contentment of 1 Timothy 6:6 to 8, grounded in God's provision, from the Stoic ideal of self-sufficiency.

Sources

  • BDAG (Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich), s.v. ἀρκέωlexicon
  • LSJ (Liddell-Scott-Jones), s.v. ἀρκέωlexicon
  • TDNT (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament), s.v. ἀρκέω, αὐτάρκειαdictionary
  • EDNT (Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament), s.v. ἀρκέωdictionary
  • Margaret E. Thrall, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (ICC), on 12:9commentary
  • I. Howard Marshall, The Pastoral Epistles (ICC), on 1 Timothy 6:6 to 8commentary

All attested forms of ἀρκέω

present active indicative 3s

ἀρκεῖ

Jhn 14:8, 2Co 12:9

aorist active subjunctive 3s

ἀρκέσῃ

Mat 25:9

future passive indicative 1p

ἀρκεσθησόμεθα

1Ti 6:8

present active indicative 3p

ἀρκοῦσιν

Jhn 6:7

present passive imperative 2p

ἀρκεῖσθε

Luk 3:14

present passive participle nominative m p

ἀρκούμενοι

Heb 13:5

present passive participle nominative m s

ἀρκούμενος

3Jn 1:10