a made-up mind: the settled judgment someone has reached about a matter, and so what they advise, resolve, or agree to
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong
This word belongs to the family of knowing (γινώσκω), and that is the key to it. A person's settled mind is what they arrive at once they have thought a matter through. English has no single word for that, so translators reach for different ones depending on who holds the settled mind and what power they have to act on it.
Someone with no authority to command offers it, and it amounts to a considered opinion (1 Corinthians 7:25,2 Corinthians 8:10).
A group holds the same one, and it amounts to agreement (1 Corinthians 1:10,Revelation 17:13).
Someone able to act holds it, and it amounts to a decision or a fixed purpose (Acts 20:3,Revelation 17:17).
The person whose permission is needed holds it, and it amounts to consent (Philemon 1:14).
Paul uses the word to draw a careful line. On the question of unmarried believers he says he has no command (ἐπιταγή) from the Lord, and gives his own settled judgment instead. That is not a shrug: he is claiming a conclusion he has thought through, while refusing to turn it into a rule that binds. The same care shows in his appeal to the Corinthians to be joined in the same mind (νοῦς) and the same settled view, where the point is not identical feelings but a common conclusion.
Revelation uses the word twice in a single sentence, and the effect is deliberate. God puts it in the hearts of the ten kings to carry out his own settled purpose and to come to one mind of their own. Their agreement, which looks to them like a joint decision, turns out to be his.
Nuances
1aa considered opinion, offered as counsel rather than imposed as a rule
1Co 7:25*1Co 7:40*2Co 8:10
1bthe same settled view held in common: agreement, being of one mind
1Co 1:10Rev 17:13Rev 17:17 (2×)*
1ca decision or fixed purpose that the one who holds it means to carry out
TranslatabilityApproximate
Act 20:3Rev 17:17 (2×)*
1dthe consent of the person whose approval an action requires
the Greek word also covers a purpose someone sets out to accomplish and the permission someone grants, neither of which the English word can carryRev 17:17Phm 1:14
Both
both name a conclusion reached after weighing a matter and then offered as guidance to others1Co 7:252Co 8:10
Only judgment
the English word leans toward a verdict handed down or an assessment of someone else, importing a courtroom or a criticism that is not in view here
the Greek word names a position reached by thinking a matter through, so it can carry real weight and can even be the decision someone then acts on1Co 7:25Act 20:3
Both
both name what one person has concluded about a matter, as distinct from a rule imposed on everyone1Co 7:402Co 8:10
Only opinion
in ordinary English an opinion is a personal preference that obliges nobody and openly invites disagreement, a lightness the Greek word does not have
Names a fixed, settled purpose reached by deliberation, and is the characteristic word for God's sovereign, predetermined plan that governs history.Act 2:23Act 4:28Eph 1:11Heb 6:17
Refers to the formal decision of a deliberating body or ruling council, the verdict a group arrives at together.Luk 7:30Luk 23:51Act 5:38
θέλημαwhat someone wants or wills, where this word is what they have concluded after weighing a matter
Names a conclusion reached by thinking a matter through, so it can be offered as counsel with no binding force. Paul says plainly that he has no command from the Lord on the question and gives this instead, and he offers the same on the Jerusalem collection rather than ordering it.1Co 7:252Co 8:10
Can be held in common by several parties, so it becomes the word for agreement: Paul asks the Corinthians to be of one settled view, and the ten kings of Revelation reach one between them.1Co 1:10Rev 17:13
Names the consent of the person whose approval an action needs. Paul will not keep Onesimus without getting Philemon's, so here the word is permission granted, not something the holder wants for himself.Phm 1:14
Both
Both can name a fixed purpose that the one holding it carries out, God's included: God puts it in the kings' hearts to accomplish his, and he works everything out in line with his.Rev 17:17Eph 1:11
Both name a private decision a person is entitled to make about their own course. In one chapter of the same letter Paul gives his own on whether a widow should remain unmarried, and describes the man who has authority over his own and has settled the matter in his heart.1Co 7:401Co 7:37
English Bibles render both as "will", which hides the difference: a mind made up after weighing a matter on the one hand, and what someone simply wants or determines on the other.Rev 17:17Mat 6:10
Is the word for what God asks of people, the standard by which conduct is measured: only the one who does it enters the kingdom, believers are to test and discern it, and it is named directly as their holiness.Mat 7:21Rom 12:21Th 4:3
Covers plain wanting with no reasoning behind it, including appetite and craving: the cravings of body and mind that people once lived by, and the passions the believer no longer lives for.Eph 2:31Pe 4:2
Sets one party's willing against another's, so it is the word used when a will is surrendered: Jesus asks that the Father's be done and not his own, and says he came not to do his own.Luk 22:42Jhn 6:38
νοῦςthe mind itself, the faculty that thinks, where this word is the particular view that mind has arrived at
Names a decision actually reached and then acted on, the point where deliberating stops and a course is set.Act 20:3Rev 17:17
Used for a considered opinion or piece of advice that Paul offers without binding anyone, which is why he sets it beside a command rather than calling it one.1Co 7:252Co 8:10
Can mean the agreement or consent one person needs from another before acting, so it is something that can be asked for and given.Phm 1:14
Both
Both can name the settled outlook a group is asked to hold in common, and Paul stacks them together when he pleads for an undivided church.1Co 1:10
Both can name where a person has landed on a debated question, whether that is Paul saying how the matter looks to him or a believer being fully persuaded about a day and a food.1Co 7:40Rom 14:5
Names the thinking faculty itself, the part of a person that can be renewed or ruined, so it is spoken of as something God remakes or God gives up on.Rom 12:2Rom 1:28Eph 4:23Tit 1:15
Stands for the capacity to grasp something, the understanding a person must have if a puzzle or a vision is going to make sense.Luk 24:45Rev 13:18Rev 17:9
Is used of God himself, for the way he thinks and what he knows, which no one can survey or advise.Rom 11:341Co 2:16
Describes a person's understanding as engaged or left idle during an activity, so praying and singing can happen with it or without it.1Co 14:141Co 14:151Co 14:19
ἐπιταγήa command that binds the hearer, which Paul sets against his own settled judgment when he has no order from the Lord to pass on
Names the settled opinion a person has reached and then offers as counsel, leaving the hearer free to weigh it. Paul says plainly that this is his own view, and even adds that he thinks he has God's Spirit in saying it, which is a way of commending a judgment rather than imposing it.1Co 7:402Co 8:10
Can describe the frame of mind a group holds in common, so that a shared outlook, and not just a shared action, is in view. Paul asks a divided church to be knit together in the same one, and Revelation says the ten kings have one and the same one.1Co 1:10Rev 17:13
Can mean a person's agreement or permission: the go-ahead someone else needs before acting. Paul refuses to keep Onesimus without getting it from Philemon, precisely so that the good done will be willing and not forced.Phm 1:14
Can also be the decision a person reaches about their own course of action, with nobody else being told what to do. Paul comes to one about his travel route after a plot against him.Act 20:3
Both
Both name something one party puts to another about what should be done, which is why Paul sets them directly against each other to grade how binding his own words are: on the unmarried he has no command from the Lord, so what he gives instead is his considered judgment. The pair marks the difference between an instruction that obliges and one that advises.1Co 7:25
Carries the weight of an order given by someone with the standing to give it, and in most of its uses that someone is God: the gospel is made known, and Paul is made an apostle and entrusted with the message, by God's own charge.Rom 16:261Ti 1:1Tit 1:3
Serves as the benchmark of binding force that Paul twice explicitly declines to claim: he tells the Corinthians that what he is saying is a concession, and that his appeal for the collection is not one of these, so that their giving proves genuine love instead of mere compliance.1Co 7:62Co 8:8
Can stand for the authority behind a person's speaking rather than the content of any single order, so it is rendered "authority" where Titus is told to teach with all of it and let nobody disregard him.Tit 2:15
Stands for a decision already reached that sets a course of action: Paul made up his mind to go back through Macedonia, and the kings act because God has put his own settled purpose in their hearts to carry out.Act 20:3Rev 17:17
Can be a view held in common, so it becomes the thing that holds people together or lines them up behind one course: Paul asks the Corinthians to be of the same judgment, and the ten kings hand over their power because they are of one mind.1Co 1:10Rev 17:13
Names a person's own considered opinion, offered as counsel and marked openly as his and nobody else's: a widow is happier staying as she is "in my judgment", and about the collection Paul says he is giving his "advice".1Co 7:402Co 8:10
Can be the mind of the person being asked, whose agreement the speaker waits for before he acts: Paul will not keep Onesimus without Philemon's consent.Phm 1:14
Both
Paul reaches for each one to mark what he is saying as something short of a binding command: he grants the married couple an allowance rather than an order (1 Corinthians 7:6), and a few verses later gives the unmarried his own view because he has no command from the Lord (1 Corinthians 7:25).1Co 7:251Co 7:6
Means an allowance made for people as they actually are: what Paul has just said to husbands and wives he speaks by way of concession and not as an order, so he permits what he would not require.1Co 7:6
Looks at the hearer rather than the speaker: in its one appearance Paul is not announcing what he thinks but leaving the Corinthians room to do what they can manage.1Co 7:6
gnōmē in the other biblical languages
עֵצָהHebrew“counsel”the Hebrew word for counsel or a plan: the advice given or the course settled on, where the Greek word names the mind that has settled it
Names the consent one person needs from another before acting, so it can be something politely asked of a friend rather than something told to him: Paul will not keep Onesimus without Philemon's agreement.Phm 1:14
Can name one and the same settled view held in common by a group, so it becomes the word for agreement: a church urged to be of one mind, or ten rulers acting with a single will.1Co 1:10Rev 17:13
Marks a speaker's view as his own rather than as a rule laid on the hearer: Paul says he has no command from the Lord and offers this instead, and later says "in my judgment" as he closes the case.1Co 7:251Co 7:40
Describes a private decision a person reaches about his own next move, with no adviser and no hearer in view: Paul makes up his mind to go back through Macedonia.Act 20:3
Both
Both name a purpose that is settled and then carried out, God's own included: the plan of the LORD that stands forever, and the purpose God puts in the hearts of rulers so that they accomplish it.Psa 33:11Rev 17:17
Both cover advice one person offers another and the hearer is free to act on or set aside, which is why English uses "advice" and "counsel" for each: a hearer told to listen to counsel, and Paul giving his advice about a collection.Pro 19:202Co 8:10
English Bibles reach for the same handful of words for both, "counsel", "advice", "judgment", and "purpose", so the two can look interchangeable on the page even though the Hebrew word leans toward the counsel that is given and the Greek toward the mind that has settled it.Pro 1:251Co 7:25
Names the spoken advice of a recognized counselor at a king's court, sought, argued over, and followed or refused, with the outcome of a war turning on which advice wins.2Sa 16:232Sa 17:141Ki 12:8
Can stand for a whole way of life a person walks in or keeps clear of, so the phrase names the company someone keeps rather than any single decision.Psa 1:1
Names an ability someone possesses, the skill of planning wisely, listed alongside wisdom, strength, and understanding rather than pointing to one particular plan.Job 12:13Pro 8:14
Is regularly the human scheme that God overturns, a plan laid and then brought to nothing, so the word often carries the note of a plot doomed to fail.Psa 33:10Neh 4:15
What scholars say about gnōmē
The lexica treat γνώμη as a single lexeme belonging to the γινώσκω family and denoting the view one arrives at, and then by extension the resolve, decree, or consent that follows from it. BDAG divides the New Testament uses into purpose or intention (Acts 20:3;Revelation 17:13, 17), opinion or judgment (1 Corinthians 1:10; 7:25, 40; 2 Corinthians 8:10), and consent (Philemon 14). LSJ shows the same span in classical usage, where γνώμη ranges from inclination and opinion through judgment to the formal resolution of a deliberative body, and Moulton and Milligan document the sense "consent" as ordinary documentary usage in contracts and petitions, which is the background commentators appeal to for Philemon 14. On 1 Corinthians 7:25 and 7:40 Fee and Thiselton argue that Paul's γνώμη is a considered apostolic judgment rather than a merely personal preference, deliberately contrasted with ἐπιταγή, a command, while still stopping short of a ruling from the Lord. Acts 20:3 sets the noun in the genitive with ἐγένετο, an idiom for arriving at a decision, and Revelation 17:17 uses the noun twice in one sentence, first of God's purpose and then of the single mind the kings reach in carrying it out.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. γνώμηlexicon
LSJ, s.v. γνώμηlexicon
EDNT, vol. 1, s.v. γνώμηdictionary
James Hope Moulton and George Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, s.v. γνώμηdictionary
Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT), on 1 Corinthians 7:25-40commentary
Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC), on 1 Corinthians 7:25-40commentary
G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (NIGTC), on Revelation 17:13-17commentary