to set one's heart on something and reach for it with strong desire
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
This verb names desire at full strength: not a passing wish but the heart fixed on something and stretching toward it. On its own it carries no moral verdict. The same word can describe Jesus yearning to share a last meal with his friends and a person craving what belongs to someone else. What makes the desire good or evil is its object, not the verb.
Because of that neutrality, English translators are forced to choose a side the Greek never chooses. When the object is worthy they reach for "long for" or "yearn"; when it is forbidden they switch to "covet" or "lust." Those are two English words for one Greek word, and the reader who only sees the translation may never notice that the craving of the greedy and the longing of the faithful are described with the very same term.
Paul presses that neutrality to make a point. In Galatians the flesh and the Spirit are set against each other, and the same verb of desiring is stretched across both: the flesh desires one way, the Spirit the other. The problem is never desire itself but where it aims. This is also the word the Greek Bible uses for the tenth commandment, "you shall not covet," so a New Testament reader hears the Law's warning behind it whenever the object is another person's spouse or property. The related noun ἐπιθυμία took the darker half of this range and became a near-technical term for sinful craving, but the verb itself keeps the fuller, two-sided sweep.
Nuances
1ato long for or yearn after something good or needful; earnest, legitimate desire
Mat 13:17Luk 15:16Luk 16:21Luk 17:22Luk 22:151Ti 3:1Heb 6:111Pe 1:12Rev 9:6
1bto covet or crave what is forbidden; to fix desire on what one has no right to
Mat 5:28Act 20:33Rom 7:7Rom 13:91Co 10:6Gal 5:17Jas 4:2
Related words
The English words used to translate epithumeō
“desire”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
the Greek verb can also carry real moral fault, a craving that "long for" would softenJas 4:2
Both
both name an intense yearning that reaches toward its object1Pe 1:12
Only long for
"long for" sounds wistful and blameless, missing the word's sharper edge
How epithumeō differs from similar Greek words
ἐπιθυμίαthe noun of the same root; while the verb keeps a neutral range, the noun narrowed toward sinful craving and became the standard word for the flesh's illicit desire.
ὀρέγωto stretch oneself out toward a goal, aspire; it pictures reaching for something, where this verb pictures the heart set on it. The two sit side by side in the same sentence about aspiring to leadership.
This is the New Testament's word for desire that has gone wrong: coveting what belongs to someone else, and wanting a person sexually. It is the verb the commandment against coveting uses, and the verb Jesus uses of a look that has already become adultery.Mat 5:28Rom 7:7Rom 13:9Act 20:331Co 10:6
It stretches down to plain physical craving, the body's want with no moral color at all: a starving man eyeing pig food, a beggar wanting table scraps, the tormented wishing they could die.Luk 15:16Luk 16:21Rev 9:6
What it reaches for is usually a thing, a role, or an occasion rather than a person: a position of oversight in the church, a meal Jesus wanted to eat before he suffered, a day the prophets wanted to see.1Ti 3:1Luk 22:15Mat 13:17Luk 17:22
Both
Both name a reaching for something a person does not have, strong enough that English Bibles render either one "long for". Neither is a mild preference.Luk 22:15Php 1:8
Both can describe a longing the writer praises: wanting responsibility for God's people, and craving the word of God the way a newborn craves milk.1Ti 3:11Pe 2:2
Both are used of wanting what is still out of reach, so the wanting itself is felt as an unfinished ache: days the disciples would wish to see, and a heavenly dwelling not yet put on.Luk 17:222Co 5:2
Its object is nearly always a person, and the longing is the ache of separation between Christians who want to be together again. It runs in both directions, with Paul yearning for churches and churches yearning for him.Rom 1:11Php 1:8Php 2:261Th 3:62Ti 1:42Co 9:14
The longing is always healthy, and never once something to resist. Even when the object is not a person, it is a hunger believers ought to feel: newborn appetite for the word, or the wish to be clothed with the resurrection body.1Pe 2:22Co 5:2
It is the only one of the two that can have God as its subject. In James 4:5 the yearning is divine, whether the sentence makes God the one who yearns for us or the Spirit he placed in us; readers differ on which, but either way it is a longing on heaven's side.Jas 4:5
It names desire that is morally wrong, the coveting or lusting the law and the apostles single out for warning: looking at someone with lust, the Tenth Commandment's ban on coveting a neighbor's goods, and wanting what is not one's own so badly it leads to conflict. Hungering never carries this negative charge on its own.Mat 5:28Rom 7:7Jas 4:2
It also names a plainly good ambition or longing with no bodily image behind it at all: wanting the work of an overseer, longing for the disciples to grow in hope, or angels longing to look into the gospel. The wanting can attach to a role, a future day, or an idea, none of which involve any felt physical lack.1Ti 3:1Heb 6:111Pe 1:12
Both
Both stretch past their base meaning to picture an intense longing for something spiritual rather than physical: hungering and thirsting for righteousness as if it were food the soul cannot do without, and longing to grasp the realities of the gospel the way one might long for an eagerly awaited meal.Mat 5:61Pe 1:12
It reports the plain bodily fact of having no food, inside ordinary narrative: Jesus after forty days without eating, the disciples plucking grain because they had nothing else, and the fig tree episode. Desiring never functions this way as a simple statement of physical condition.Mat 4:2Mat 12:1Mrk 11:12
It anchors a recurring picture of God reversing fortunes, where the hungry are filled and the full are sent away hungry, tied to a coming day when there will be no more hunger at all. This filled-versus-empty contrast belongs to hungering's built-in image of bodily lack and its removal, which desiring does not carry.Luk 1:53Luk 6:21Rev 7:16
epithumeō in the other biblical languages
חָמַדHebrew“to desire”the Hebrew of the tenth commandment, to covet what is desirable, often what the eye finds attractive; this Greek verb translates it in the New Testament's quotations of "you shall not covet."
Often names a wholly good or innocent longing, with no hint of grasping after what is forbidden. Jesus longs to share the Passover with his disciples, and reaching for the office of overseer is called a fine thing to want.Luk 22:151Ti 3:1
Reaches toward what is not yet seen or possessed, a yearning that may go unsatisfied. Prophets and righteous people longed to see what the disciples saw, and angels long to look into the gospel.Mat 13:171Pe 1:12Luk 17:22
Names the craving of someone in want, a hunger driven by lack rather than by the pull of something attractive. The prodigal longed to fill his stomach with the pigs' pods, and the beggar longed for scraps from the rich man's table.Luk 15:16Luk 16:21
Both
Both stand at the heart of the command against coveting. Hebrew uses this verb in the prohibition against wanting a neighbor's house and wife, and the Greek verb is the one the New Testament uses when it quotes that same command.Exo 20:17Rom 7:7
Both name illicit sexual desire, the wanting of a person one has no right to. The Hebrew warns against desiring a woman's beauty in the heart, and the Greek describes looking at a woman in order to want her.Pro 6:25Mat 5:28
Centers on coveting what belongs to a neighbor, taking aim at another person's house, spouse, fields, or goods. This is the verb behind seizing forbidden plunder and behind powerful men scheming to grab the lands of others.Jos 7:21Mic 2:2
Springs from the eye, kindled by how attractive a thing looks. The forbidden tree was a delight to the eyes, and the trees of Eden were made pleasant to the sight.Gen 3:6Gen 2:9
Shades into simply being precious or desirable, a worth that draws people rather than an act of wanting. God's words are more to be desired than fine gold, and silver and gold can be called the desirable things of a nation.Psa 19:10Dan 11:38
אָוָהHebrew“to desire”to crave or long for, the appetite reaching after what it wants (food, and in the same commandment, a neighbor's household); close to this verb's neutral, appetitive side.
in Paul it becomes the technical verb for indwelling sinful desire, the point where sin springs to life and the flesh strains against the SpiritRom 7:7Gal 5:17Rom 13:9
names a longing that cannot be satisfied, a reaching for relief or escape that stays out of reachLuk 17:22Rev 9:6
Both
both name raw physical appetite, the craving of a hungry body for foodLuk 15:16Luk 16:21Num 11:4Psa 106:14
both name illicit coveting, the desire that reaches for what belongs to another or is forbiddenMat 5:281Co 10:6Deu 5:21Pro 21:26
both name an earnest, wholesome longing, whether to share a meal, to witness God's work, or to seek God himselfLuk 22:15Mat 13:17Isa 26:9Psa 45:11
anchors the fixed idiom whatever your soul desires, covering the full range of legitimate wanting, especially sanctioned eating and acquiringDeu 12:20Deu 14:262Sa 3:211Ki 11:37
takes God himself as its subject, naming the LORD's own settled choice of Zion as the place he desires to dwellPsa 132:13Psa 132:14
is the New Testament word for coveting: the craving the Tenth Commandment forbids and the illicit desire that fuels lust, wanting what is not yours or looking on another with wrongful longing.Mat 5:28Rom 7:7Rom 13:9Act 20:33
often names a frustrated, unmet craving: a longing that reaches for what it cannot have and goes unsatisfied, whether for food, for a day one will not see, or even for death that flees.Luk 15:16Luk 16:21Luk 17:22Rev 9:6
Both
both name a strong desire fixed on a specific person, the heart or soul drawn toward someone with intense longing.Mat 5:28Gen 34:8
both can name a wholesome, legitimate longing set on something one purposes to do or obtain, an earnest wish that is good and not craving after what is forbidden.Luk 22:151Ki 9:19
describes God setting his electing love and affection upon his people or a person: a covenant attachment freely chosen, not a desire for something lacking but a settled devotion to the one loved.Deu 7:7Deu 10:15Psa 91:14
carries a concrete, physical sense the Greek verb never has: the silver bands that bind the tabernacle pillars together, the root's idea of attaching and fastening made visible in objects.Exo 27:17Exo 38:17Exo 38:28
The word itself is morally neutral, so only its object decides whether the craving is sin: the same verb describes a man who looks at a woman in order to want her and Jesus saying how deeply he wanted to eat the Passover with his disciples.Mat 5:28Luk 22:15
It covers plain bodily hunger with no moral weight at all: the starving son who craved the pods fed to the pigs, and the beggar at the gate who craved the scraps falling from a rich man's table.Luk 15:16Luk 16:21
Where it does name sin, the sin is often about property rather than sex: it is the verb of the commandment translated "you shall not covet", and Paul uses it to insist he never wanted anyone's silver or gold.Rom 7:7Rom 13:9Act 20:33
It can name desire the writers openly approve: wanting the work of an overseer is called wanting a good thing, and prophets and even angels are said to have longed to see what has now been revealed.1Ti 3:1Mat 13:171Pe 1:12
Both
Both can name wanting a person who is not yours to have: Jesus calls looking at a woman in order to want her adultery already committed in the heart, and Ezekiel says the nation wanted her lovers while bound to the Lord.Mat 5:28Ezk 23:5
In both, the eye starts it: the craving is described as beginning with a look, whether at a woman or at figures painted on a wall.Mat 5:28Ezk 23:16
English Bibles reach for the same word "lust" for both, which hides the real difference: the Greek verb is not by itself a word for sin, while the Hebrew one is only ever used of sin.1Co 10:6Ezk 23:7
It is never innocent: every one of its seven appearances stands inside a prophet's charge of unfaithfulness, so the craving is condemned wherever the word is used, not just when its object happens to be wrong.Ezk 23:5Jer 4:30
The one who craves is always a nation pictured as a woman chasing foreign lovers, so the word tells the story of political alliance as sexual betrayal: first the men of Assyria, then the men of Babylon.Ezk 23:7Ezk 23:16
The craving is granted as its own punishment: God hands the woman over to the very people she wanted, and in the end the ones she chased are the ones who despise her.Ezk 23:9Jer 4:30
What draws the craving is display and physical impressiveness: officers in fine clothes riding horses, and bodies described in deliberately coarse terms.Ezk 23:12Ezk 23:20
What scholars say about epithumeō
The lexica treat ἐπιθυμέω as a single verb of intense desire (BDAG: to have a strong desire to do or secure something, to long for), morally neutral in itself and taking its value from the object and context. Büchsel's TDNT article on the ἐπιθυμία word group stresses this neutrality and traces how the noun, more than the verb, came to denote self-seeking desire opposed to God, especially in Paul, against the background of the Decalogue's prohibition of coveting (Exodus 20:17;Deuteronomy 5:21), which the Septuagint renders with this verb. NIDNTT (Schönweiss) likewise divides the usage between legitimate longing and forbidden desire without positing two verbs.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. ἐπιθυμέωlexicon
F. Büchsel, "ἐπιθυμία κτλ.," TDNT 3:168-172theological-dictionary
H. Schönweiss, "Desire, Lust," NIDNTT 1:456-458theological-dictionary