StrongerBible

dianoia

διάνοια

GreekG1271“mind, understanding, ...”

Appears 12 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 22:37Mrk 12:30Luk 1:51Luk 10:27Eph 2:3Eph 4:18Col 1:21Heb 8:10Heb 10:161Pe 1:132Pe 3:11Jn 5:20
Compound of
diaδιάthrough/because of687G1223
nousνοῦςmind24G3563
Word studydee-AH-noy-ahnoun

What dianoia means

the mind: a person's power to understand and think, bound up with the heart rather than standing apart from it as pure intellect

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

This word names the thinking side of a person, but not as a separate compartment labeled the intellect. In the Greek Old Testament it is one of the standard words for the inner life the Hebrew Bible calls the heart (לֵבָב), and that background shapes every New Testament use. When Jesus tells his hearers to love God with all their heart, soul, strength, and mind, the mind he names is not an extra faculty tacked onto the list; it is the whole person considered as one who understands.

That is why this mind has a spiritual condition rather than just a level of ability:

  • it can be darkened, so that a person cannot see
  • it can be turned against God in open hostility
  • it can be given, so that a person knows the truth
  • it is the inward place where God promises to write his law

Peter can even picture it as someone tucking up a long robe to move freely: an understanding braced and ready for action.

From there the word slides naturally to what the mind turns out. The proud are scattered in the thinking of their hearts, and people once lived out the cravings of the body and of their thoughts. The capacity and its products share one word, much as English "thinking" can mean both the activity and the conclusions someone has reached.

Nuances

1athe mind: a person's power to understand and think, the inner seat that can be darkened, made ready, or given
TranslatabilityApproximate
Mat 22:37Mrk 12:30Luk 10:27Eph 4:18Heb 8:10Heb 10:161Pe 1:132Pe 3:11Jn 5:20
1bthe settled bent of a person's thinking: the inward stance one takes up, whether toward God or toward others
Col 1:21
1cthoughts: the plans, cravings, and imaginings a mind turns out
TranslatabilityDirect
Luk 1:51Eph 2:3

What scholars say about dianoia

BDAG (s.v. διάνοια, 234) distinguishes the faculty of understanding and thinking from its derived product, thought, assigning the plural at Eph 2:3 and the phrase διανοίᾳ καρδίας at Luke 1:51 to the latter; Louw-Nida separates the faculty (26.14) from a manner of thinking or disposition (30.5), where Col 1:21 is usually placed. The decisive lexical fact for the New Testament is Septuagintal: διάνοια is one of the regular Greek renderings of לֵב and לֵבָב (Hatch-Redpath; Muraoka), which is why most of the twelve occurrences stand in or near citation contexts, the Shema in the triple tradition (Matt 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27) and Jeremiah 31:33 at Heb 8:10 and 10:16. Gerhardsson argues that the term in the Shema quotations is not a fourth anthropological faculty but part of a Semitic accumulation of words for the undivided self; Attridge notes that in Hebrews it pairs with καρδία as a doublet for the inner person, following the Greek text of Jeremiah. Behm, treating the word within the νοέω group (TDNT IV.948-1022), stresses that in contrast to Philonic usage the New Testament occurrences describe a capacity with a spiritual condition: darkened (Eph 4:18), hostile (Col 1:21), or divinely given (1 John 5:20). Lincoln and Best both read τῶν διανοιῶν at Eph 2:3 as thoughts or inward inclinations rather than a discrete faculty parallel to σάρξ, and Brown takes διάνοια at 1 John 5:20 as the God-given capacity for knowing the true One rather than a body of doctrine. There is no live disagreement about the word's semantic range; the debates are exegetical, over which sense a given verse instantiates.

Sources

  • BDAG (Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 3rd ed., s.v. διάνοια, 234lexicon
  • Liddell-Scott-Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. διάνοιαlexicon
  • J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 2nd ed. (New York: United Bible Societies, 1989), 26.14; 30.5lexicon
  • Edwin Hatch and Henry A. Redpath, A Concordance to the Septuagint, s.v. διάνοιαlexicon
  • Takamitsu Muraoka, A Greek-Hebrew/Aramaic Two-way Index to the Septuagint (Leuven: Peeters, 2010)lexicon
  • J. Behm, "νοέω, νοῦς, διάνοια", in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament IV.948-1022theological-dictionary
  • Moises Silva (ed.), New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014), s.v. διάνοιαtheological-dictionary
  • Birger Gerhardsson, The Shema in the New Testament: Deut 6:4-5 in Significant Passages (Lund: Novapress, 1996)monograph
  • Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Hermeneia) (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1989), 226-229commentary
  • Andrew T. Lincoln, Ephesians (WBC 42) (Dallas: Word, 1990), 98-99, 277-279commentary
  • Ernest Best, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Ephesians (ICC) (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1998)commentary
  • James D. G. Dunn, The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon (NIGTC) (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 105-108commentary
  • Raymond E. Brown, The Epistles of John (Anchor Bible 30) (Garden City: Doubleday, 1982), 625-627commentary

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

All attested forms of διάνοια

dative f s

διανοίᾳ

Mat 22:37, Luk 1:51, Luk 10:27, Eph 4:18, Col 1:21

accusative f s

διάνοιαν

Heb 8:10, Heb 10:16, 2Pe 3:1, 1Jn 5:20

genitive f s

διανοίας

Mrk 12:30, 1Pe 1:13

genitive f p

διανοιῶν

Eph 2:3