dokeō

δοκέω

GreekG1380“think, seem, ...”

Appears 64 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 3:9Mat 6:7Mat 17:25Mat 18:12Mat 21:28Mat 22:17Mat 22:42Mat 24:44Mat 26:53Mat 26:66Mrk 6:49Mrk 10:42Luk 1:3Luk 8:18Luk 10:36Luk 12:40Luk 12:51Luk 13:2Luk 13:4Luk 17:9Luk 19:11Luk 22:24Luk 24:37Jhn 5:39Jhn 5:45Jhn 11:13Jhn 11:31Jhn 11:56Jhn 13:29Jhn 16:2Jhn 20:15Act 12:9Act 15:22Act 15:25Act 15:28Act 15:34Act 17:18Act 25:27Act 26:9Act 27:131Co 4:91Co 7:401Co 10:121Co 12:221Co 12:232Co 10:92Co 11:162Co 12:19Gal 2:2Gal 2:6 (2×)

Root family

dokeōδοκέωto think64G1380

Names & words formed with this

Word studyResearch-gradedo-KEH-ohverb

What dokeō means

to think or suppose: to hold in one's own mind an opinion about what is the case, from a confident conclusion to a guarded guess, and often one the text goes on to correct

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This is the verb for the judgment a person forms inside their own head. It stretches from a settled "I am certain that" to a careful "I would think," and the New Testament reaches for it again and again to name a conclusion that feels obvious yet proves false:

the disciples are certain they are seeing a ghost
Mary is certain she is speaking to the gardener
the crowd is certain the kingdom is about to arrive

A favorite move of Paul is to aim the word at a person's estimate of himself. "If anyone thinks he is wise," "if anyone thinks he has knowledge," "the one who thinks he stands," "if anyone thinks he is religious": each time the word sets up a self-image the writer is about to challenge. So it often carries a quiet warning built in, that what a person is sure of, whether about the world or about himself, is not the same as what is true.

The two shades below differ only slightly. The first is plain supposing, taking something for granted, where most of the mistaken-belief examples sit. The second is a more deliberate weighing of a question, including the common "what do you think?" and a writer's own measured "I think" or "I think not."

Nuances

1ato suppose, imagine, or take for granted that something is so, frequently a belief the text then shows to be mistaken, including a person's inflated estimate of himself

Mat 3:9Mat 6:7Mat 24:44Mat 26:53Mrk 6:49Luk 8:18Luk 12:40Luk 12:51Luk 13:2Luk 13:4Luk 19:11Luk 24:37

1bto be of the opinion, to reckon: a more deliberate judgment, including the question "what do you think?" and a writer's own guarded "I think"

Mat 17:25Mat 18:12Mat 21:28Mat 22:17Mat 22:42Mat 26:66Luk 10:36Luk 17:9Jhn 11:561Co 4:91Co 7:401Co 12:23

to seem or be reckoned: how a thing or person registers in the eyes of others, whether that is how it looks, what a group decides, or the standing a person is granted

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

Here the same verb turns outward. Rather than naming the opinion a person holds, it names the impression a thing makes or the standing a person carries. Something "seems" a certain way, a course of action "seems good" and is settled on, and certain people are the ones who "are regarded" as leaders.

The three shades are one idea from three angles. The plainest is appearance: how a thing comes across, which may or may not match what is real. Ancient writers loved to set seeming against being (to seem good without being good), and the New Testament keeps that edge, as when hard discipline "seems" painful rather than joyful at the time. From there the word hardens into a fixed expression for a group reaching a decision, the language behind the church's first council ruling in Jerusalem and behind Luke's own decision to write his Gospel. It also settles into a near-title for people of recognized influence, the leaders Paul calls those who are held in regard.

What ties this meaning to the first is that both are about estimation. The first is the estimate a person makes; this one is the estimate that lands on a thing or a person from outside.

Nuances

2ato seem or appear to be a certain way, describing how a thing comes across whether or not it matches what is real

Act 17:18Act 25:271Co 12:222Co 10:9Heb 4:1Heb 12:11

Heb 4:1

Whether the verb in Hebrews 4:1 means "seem / be found to have fallen short" (a judgment that lands on the person, so "lest any of you be found to have come short") or "think / suppose he has fallen short" (the readers' own self-assessment, so "lest any of you think he has come short").

majority"Seem / be found to have come short," a rhetorical softening that points to how one stands before God; several critical editions and early Latin versions (existimetur) go this way.; H. W. Attridge, Hebrews (Hermeneia); P. T. O'Brien, The Letter to the Hebrews (Pillar); G. L. Cockerill, The Epistle to the Hebrews (NICNT)
minority"Think he has come short," the reader's own subjective self-assessment, making the sentence a pastoral warning against despair.; W. L. Lane, Hebrews (WBC)

2bto seem good, to be resolved: the settled expression for a person or group reaching a decision

Luk 1:3Act 15:22Act 15:25Act 15:28Act 15:34Heb 12:10

2cto be of repute, to be regarded as someone of standing or influence

Mrk 10:42Luk 22:24Gal 2:2Gal 2:6 (2×)Gal 2:9

Gal 2:9

How Paul's fourfold description of the Jerusalem leaders as "those of repute" (Galatians 2:2, 6, 9) is toned: a plain honorific, a respectful acknowledgment he nonetheless holds at arm's length, a phrase lifted from his opponents, or open irony.

majorityThe wording itself is a neutral honorific ("those of recognized standing"); it is well attested as a respectful term in wider Greek, and any distancing edge in Galatians comes from Paul's context (the fourfold repetition, the parenthesis in 2:6, his insistence that his gospel came from God), not from the word. This is the consolidated mainstream.; E. D. Burton, The Epistle to the Galatians (ICC); BDAG, s.v. δοκέω; P. Malik, The Alleged Slur in Paul's Reference to οἱ δοκοῦντες, ExpTim 128 (2017)
minorityThe phrase is a title Paul's opponents used for the Jerusalem authorities, which Paul quotes and turns back on them: even your "reputed men" endorsed my gospel.; W. Foerster, Die δοκοῦντες in Gal 2, ZNW (1937); J. L. Martyn, Galatians (Anchor Bible)
minorityPaul writes with open irony, hinting that the leaders only seemed to be pillars; now widely judged to overreach the Greek.; C. K. Barrett, Paul and the Pillar Apostles (Studia Paulina)

What scholars say about dokeō

The standard lexica treat δοκέω as a single, stable verb with two broad functions: a transitive cognitive sense ("think, believe, suppose," often of a mistaken opinion) and an intransitive sense ("seem, appear"), the latter developing the impersonal δοκεῖ μοι / ἔδοξέν μοι ("it seems good to me," hence "resolve, decide") and the substantival idiom οἱ δοκοῦντες ("those of repute"). See BDAG and LSJ, s.v. δοκέω. The range runs essentially unchanged from Homer through Koine; notably, while its cognate noun δόξα shifted dramatically in the Septuagint from "opinion" to "glory" under the pressure of Hebrew כָּבוֹד, the verb absorbed no such freight (Kittel, TDNT 2:237; with the caution of Barr and Silva, NIDNTTE, against over-theologizing common vocabulary). Luke's ἔδοξεν formula in Acts 15:22, 25, 28 and Luke 1:3 consciously echoes the Hellenistic civic decree ἔδοξε τῇ βουλῇ καὶ τῷ δήμῳ, for which 2 Maccabees 1:20 (ἔδοξεν τῷ θεῷ) supplies the Jewish-Greek precedent that pairs a divine subject with the assembly (Barrett, Keener on Acts 15). Two verses carry genuine debate. On οἱ δοκοῦντες in Galatians 2:2, 6, 9, readings range from a neutral honorific (Burton, ICC) through mild distancing (Lightfoot; Bruce; Betz, Hermeneia) and an opponents' slogan (Foerster, TDNT and ZNW; Martyn, Anchor Bible) to open irony (Barrett), with the mainstream now holding the phrase lexically neutral and any edge contextual (Malik, ExpTim 128 [2017]). On Hebrews 4:1, the choice between "seem / be found" (Attridge; O'Brien; Cockerill) and "think / suppose" (Lane) genuinely alters the pastoral force.

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

BDAG, s.v. δοκέωlexicon
LSJ, s.v. δοκέωlexicon
W. Foerster, δοκέω κτλ., in TDNT (ed. G. Kittel), vol. 2theological dictionary
M. Silva (ed.), NIDNTTE, s.v. δοκέωtheological dictionary
T. Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (2009), s.v. δοκέωlexicon
J. B. Lightfoot, The Epistle of St Paul to the Galatianscommentary
E. D. Burton, The Epistle to the Galatians (ICC)commentary
H. D. Betz, Galatians (Hermeneia)commentary
P. Malik, The Alleged Slur in Paul's Reference to οἱ δοκοῦντες, ExpTim 128 (2017): 168-76article
C. K. Barrett, The Acts of the Apostles (ICC), on Acts 15commentary
H. W. Attridge, Hebrews (Hermeneia)commentary
W. L. Lane, Hebrews (WBC)commentary

dokeō

What dokeō means

to think or suppose: to hold in one's own mind an opinion about what is the case, from a confident conclusion to a guarded guess, and often one the text goes on to correct

Nuances

to seem or be reckoned: how a thing or person registers in the eyes of others, whether that is how it looks, what a group decides, or the standing a person is granted

Nuances

What scholars say about dokeō

Sources

All attested forms of δοκέω

present active indicative 3s

present active indicative 2p

aorist active indicative 3s

present active indicative 1s

present active participle nominative m p

aorist active indicative 3p

aorist active participle nominative m p

aorist active subjunctive 3s

imperfect active indicative 3p

aorist active indicative 1s

aorist active subjunctive 1s

aorist active subjunctive 2p

imperfect active indicative 3s

present active imperative 2p

present active indicative 1p

present active indicative 2s

present active indicative 3p

present active infinitive

present active participle accusative n s

present active participle dative m p

present active participle genitive m p

present active participle nominative f s

present active participle nominative m s

present active participle nominative n p

present active subjunctive 3s

What dokeō means

to think or suppose: to hold in one's own mind an opinion about what is the case, from a confident conclusion to a guarded guess, and often one the text goes on to correct

Nuances

to seem or be reckoned: how a thing or person registers in the eyes of others, whether that is how it looks, what a group decides, or the standing a person is granted

Nuances

Related words

The English words used to translate dokeō

How dokeō differs from similar Greek words

dokeō in the other biblical languages

What scholars say about dokeō

Sources

All attested forms of δοκέω

present active indicative 3s

present active indicative 2p

aorist active indicative 3s

present active indicative 1s

present active participle nominative m p

aorist active indicative 3p

aorist active participle nominative m p

aorist active subjunctive 3s

imperfect active indicative 3p

aorist active indicative 1s

aorist active subjunctive 1s

aorist active subjunctive 2p

imperfect active indicative 3s

present active imperative 2p

present active indicative 1p

present active indicative 2s

present active indicative 3p

present active infinitive

present active participle accusative n s

present active participle dative m p

present active participle genitive m p

present active participle nominative f s

present active participle nominative m s

present active participle nominative n p

present active subjunctive 3s