StrongerBible

euaresteō

εὐαρεστέω

GreekG2100“please, be pleased”

Appears 3 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Heb 11:5Heb 11:6Heb 13:16
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeyoo-ar-es-TEH-ohverb

What euaresteō means

to be well-pleasing to God: to live in a way that meets his full approval

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

This is a strong, wholly positive word for pleasing. It is built from "well" plus a verb meaning "to please," and the "well" is doing real work. The plainer Greek verb for pleasing (ἀρέσκω) can carry a shade of flattery or currying favor, but this compound has none of that aftertaste: it names the genuine approval a person, a city, or God gives to service that truly measures up.

In the New Testament the verb appears only in Hebrews, three times, and always about God. It does not describe giving God a passing good feeling. It names the divine verdict on a whole life. Its background helps here: in Genesis, Enoch and Noah are said to have "walked with God" (הָלַךְ), and the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament reworded that intimate phrase as "pleased God." Hebrews inherits exactly that wording when it says Enoch "was attested to have pleased God" (Hebrews 11:5) and then draws the general rule that "without faith it is impossible to please him" (Hebrews 11:6).

The word works from two sides, and both are the same relationship seen from different angles:

  • the active side, where a person pleases God by a life of faith (Hebrews 11:5, 11:6);
  • the passive side, where God himself is pleased, satisfied by concrete acts of doing good and sharing with others (Hebrews 13:16).

Nuances

1ato please God, to be well-pleasing to him (a person as the one who pleases)
Heb 11:5Heb 11:6
1bto be pleased with something (God as the one who is satisfied)
TranslatabilityDirect
Heb 13:16

Disputed

Whether the active "to please, cause to be pleased" and the passive "to be pleased with" constitute two distinct senses of the verb or one relational reality expressed through different grammatical voices.

  • minorityThe active ("to please someone," with dative) and the passive/stative ("to be pleased with," as in Hebrews 13:16) are distinct senses that a lexicon should separate.; Louw and Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, sections 25.93-94; BDAG, s.v. εὐαρεστέω
  • majorityThe two are the same relationship viewed from different grammatical angles, not genuinely separate senses; Hebrews unites them across 11:5-6 and 13:16.; Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Hermeneia); William L. Lane, Hebrews (Word Biblical Commentary 47A-B); Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews (NIGTC)

What scholars say about euaresteō

The verb εὐαρεστέω ("to be well-pleasing, acceptable") is a Hellenistic compound of εὖ and the verbal adjective of ἀρέσκω. Foerster (TDNT 1:455-57) notes that the compound sheds the pejorative shading (flattery, servility) that simple ἀρέσκω can carry, making it the fitting term for pleasing gods, kings, and cities; Spicq (Theological Lexicon of the New Testament) documents its role as an honorific epithet in Hellenistic civic and cultic inscriptions and its commercial sense ("choice, of prime quality") in the papyri. The decisive background is the Septuagint, which rendered the Hebrew idiom "walk with God" (הִתְהַלֵּךְ אֶת־הָאֱלֹהִים) at Genesis 5:22, 24 and 6:9 with εὐαρεστέω, shifting the picture from relational "walking" to the divine verdict "pleased"; Wevers (Notes on the Greek Text of Genesis) and Rösel treat this as interpretive translation, and Sirach 44:16 and Wisdom 4:10 canonize the Enoch tradition. In the New Testament the verb is confined to Hebrews (11:5, 11:6, 13:16), where Attridge, Lane, Ellingworth, and Cockerill read it as part of a deliberate framing of the letter's ethical exhortation; 11:5 quotes LXX Genesis 5:24 almost verbatim, and the argument that pleasing God requires faith (11:6) depends on the Greek wording rather than the Hebrew. Louw-Nida (25.93-94) and BDAG distinguish an active sense from the passive at 13:16 (God as subject, the classic passive attestation), while most commentators treat active and passive as one reality in different voices. Muraoka's and the LEH Septuagint lexicons place the LXX usage in the moral-relational domain, distinct from the standard cultic term δεκτός, though Paul later fuses the two vocabularies.

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. εὐαρεστέωlexicon
  • Werner Foerster, "ἀρέσκω κτλ," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, 1:455-457theological-dictionary
  • Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. εὐαρεστέω, εὐάρεστοςlexicon
  • Louw and Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, sections 25.93-94lexicon
  • Takamitsu Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, s.v. εὐαρεστέωlexicon
  • Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Hermeneia), pp. 316-318, 400-401commentary
  • Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews (NIGTC), pp. 574-575commentary
  • John William Wevers, Notes on the Greek Text of Genesismonograph

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

All attested forms of εὐαρεστέω

aorist active infinitive

εὐαρεστῆσαι

Heb 11:6

perfect active infinitive

εὐαρεστηκέναι

Heb 11:5

present passive indicative 3s

εὐαρεστεῖται

Heb 13:16