StrongerBible

eirēneuō

εἰρηνεύω

GreekG1514“be at peace, live in peace, ...”

Appears 4 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mrk 9:50Rom 12:182Co 13:111Th 5:13
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeay-ray-NYOO-ohverb

What eirēneuō means

to be at peace: to live in ongoing, harmonious relationship with other people.

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This verb names a settled way of living together, not a single act. In the New Testament it is always a command to a group ("keep on being at peace"), pointing to the daily work of staying on good terms rather than to one moment of making up.

Its backdrop is the rich Old Testament idea of peace as wholeness and well-being, not merely the absence of a quarrel. So the call is warmer and fuller than "stop fighting": it is an invitation to the kind of thriving, unbroken community that God himself gives. Every time the word appears, a mention of the "God of peace" is close by, so the command is never bare advice but a summons to live out the peace God is and grants.

The reach of that peace widens by context. Most often it is peace inside the community, believers with one another. In one case it stretches as far as it possibly can: "as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone," enemies included, with the realistic admission that the other side may still refuse.

One thing this word does not do in the New Testament is describe forcing peace on someone or brokering a settlement between two parties. Ancient Greek could use it that way (the Roman Empire boasted of "pacifying" the seas), and the New Testament has other words for actively making peace (εἰρηνοποιέω) or reconciling estranged parties (καταλλάσσω). This word stays on the quieter side of the family: not imposing peace from above, but living at peace side by side.

Mrk 9:50Rom 12:182Co 13:111Th 5:13
1Th 5:13

Whether the original wording of 1 Thessalonians 5:13 is the reflexive "among yourselves" or the variant "with them," which decides whether the call to peace is church-wide or aimed at the relationship with the leaders named in the previous verse.

  • majorityThe reflexive "among yourselves": a church-wide call to mutual peace. Adopted by the standard modern critical editions and essentially every recent commentary.; Nestle-Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th ed. (2012); Charles A. Wanamaker, The Epistles to the Thessalonians, NIGTC (1990); Gordon D. Fee, The First and Second Letters to the Thessalonians, NICNT (2009); Abraham J. Malherbe, The Letters to the Thessalonians, AB 32B (2000)
  • minorityThe variant "with them": the command concerns the congregation's relationship with its leaders. Preferred by some earlier editors and reflected in the Latin tradition.; Constantin von Tischendorf, Novum Testamentum Graece, editio octava critica maior (1869-72); Samuel P. Tregelles, The Greek New Testament (1857-79)

What scholars say about eirēneuō

Every major lexicon that surveys the word's history (BDAG 288; LSJ s.v.; Louw-Nida 22.42) recognizes two related senses, a transitive causative "to reconcile, pacify" and an intransitive stative "to be at peace, live peaceably," and all agree the New Testament uses only the second. Foerster (TDNT 2:400-420, esp. 417) traces how the classical Greek word, originally the opposite of war, absorbs the Hebrew concept of shalom (wholeness, well-being, covenantal blessing) in the Septuagint, where the verb becomes almost entirely stative and chiefly renders shalam (H7999) and shaqat (H8252); he notes that Stoic writers applied the noun peace to inner tranquility but pointedly did not extend this verb that way, so it stays communal rather than psychological. The transitive "pacify" sense is a post-classical, Roman-era development (Augustus's Res Gestae; Josephus; Dio Cassius), which the New Testament writers avoid, reaching instead for eirenopoieo (G1517) and katallasso (G2644) when they mean actively making peace (Furnish, II Corinthians, AB 32A, 581-82; Spicq, TLNT 1:424-438). The four occurrences are all second-person plural present, stressing habitual behavior; commentators are essentially united on the intransitive sense at each (France, Marcus, and Yarbro Collins on Mark 9:50; Moo, Cranfield, Jewett, and Dunn on Romans 12:18; Harris and Thrall on 2 Corinthians 13:11). The one genuine textual debate is at 1 Thessalonians 5:13, between the reflexive "among yourselves" (adopted by NA28/UBS5 and modern commentators such as Wanamaker, Fee, and Malherbe) and the variant "with them" (preferred by Tischendorf and Tregelles); this affects the scope of the command, not the meaning of the verb.

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 (Danker), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 3rd ed. (2000), 288lexicon
  • LSJ (Liddell-Scott-Jones), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. with revised supplement (1996), s.v.lexicon
  • Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon Based on Semantic Domains, 2nd ed. (1989), 22.42lexicon
  • Werner Foerster, "eirene ktl.," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 2:400-420dictionary
  • Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (TLNT) 1:424-438dictionary
  • Horst Balz and Gerhard Schneider, Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (EDNT) 1:394dictionary
  • R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark, NIGTC (2002), 384-85commentary
  • Joel Marcus, Mark 8-16, AYB 27A (2009), 694-96commentary
  • Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, NICNT (1996), 785-86commentary
  • C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans, ICC, vol. 2 (1979), 645-46commentary
  • Robert Jewett, Romans: A Commentary, Hermeneia (2007), 774-75commentary
  • Murray J. Harris, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, NIGTC (2005), 934-37commentary
  • Victor Paul Furnish, II Corinthians, AB 32A (1984), 581-82commentary
  • Charles A. Wanamaker, The Epistles to the Thessalonians, NIGTC (1990), 191-93commentary
  • Gordon D. Fee, The First and Second Letters to the Thessalonians, NICNT (2009), 205-7commentary
  • Abraham J. Malherbe, The Letters to the Thessalonians, AB 32B (2000), 306-8commentary

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

All attested forms of εἰρηνεύω

present active imperative 2p

εἰρηνεύετε

Mrk 9:50, 2Co 13:11, 1Th 5:13

present active participle nominative m p

εἰρηνεύοντες

Rom 12:18