StrongerBible

thelēma

θέλημα

GreekG2307“will, desire, ...”

Appears 63 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 6:10Mat 7:21Mat 12:50Mat 18:14Mat 21:31Mat 26:42Mrk 3:35Luk 11:2Luk 12:47 (2×)Luk 22:42Luk 23:25Jhn 1:13 (2×)Jhn 4:34Jhn 5:30 (2×)Jhn 6:38 (2×)Jhn 6:39Jhn 6:40Jhn 7:17Act 13:22Act 21:14Rom 1:10Rom 12:2Rom 15:321Co 1:11Co 7:371Co 16:122Co 1:12Co 8:5Eph 1:1Eph 1:5Eph 1:9Eph 1:11Eph 2:3Eph 5:17Col 1:1Col 4:121Th 4:31Th 5:18Heb 10:7Heb 10:9Heb 10:101Pe 2:151Pe 3:171Pe 4:22Pe 1:21Rev 4:11
Word studyResearch-gradeTHEH-lay-mahnoun

What thelēma means

will: what someone has decided shall be, whether a purpose, a desire, or a command

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

At its core this word names what a person determines, wants, or intends to come about. Around four out of five times in the New Testament it is the will of God, and there it covers a wide span:

  • God's settled saving purpose
  • the moral life God asks of people
  • the mission the Father gives the Son

The same word also names ordinary human wanting and the disordered cravings of fallen people. These are not separate words but one word taking its color from its setting, above all from the phrase "the will of God."

The senses below are not airtight compartments. The word usually points to the content of what is willed (the plan, the command, the thing wanted) rather than to the bare faculty of wanting, but a few places lean the other way, and the line between God's sovereign purpose and God's moral demand is often deliberately blurred. The Lord's Prayer petition "your will be done" reaches for both at once: that God's purpose be accomplished and that people do what God asks.

The word's weight is borrowed, not built in. Greek writers before the Bible used it rarely, sometimes for mere appetite. The Greek Old Testament made it the standard rendering of two Hebrew words for delight (חפץ) and favor (רצון), and so handed the New Testament writers a ready-made term for the gracious purpose and pleasure of God.

Nuances

1aGod's sovereign purpose: the saving plan God has resolved to carry out
Jhn 6:39Jhn 6:40Act 13:22Rom 1:10Rom 15:321Co 1:12Co 1:1Gal 1:4Eph 1:5Eph 1:9Eph 1:11Rev 4:11
1bGod's revealed will: the conduct and obedience God asks of people
Mat 7:21Mat 12:50Mat 18:14Mat 21:31Mrk 3:35Luk 12:47 (2×)Jhn 7:17Jhn 9:31Rom 2:18Rom 12:2Eph 5:17Eph 6:6
1cthe petition that God's will be done: that God's purpose come about and his commands be kept
Mat 6:10Luk 11:2
1dthe Father's will the Son obeys: the mission and purpose Jesus came to carry out
Mat 26:42Luk 22:42Jhn 4:34Jhn 5:30 (2×)Jhn 6:38 (2×)Act 21:14Heb 10:7Heb 10:9Heb 10:10
1ehuman will and desire: what a person wants, whether an ordinary choice or a fallen craving
Luk 23:25Jhn 1:13 (2×)1Co 7:371Co 16:12Eph 2:32Ti 2:261Pe 4:22Pe 1:21

What scholars say about thelēma

Lexicographers largely agree on the shape of this word: a late, rare Greek formation with shallow classical roots, reshaped by the Greek Old Testament into a religious term as it rendered the Hebrew words for delight and favor, then taken up by the New Testament as Koine Greek's everyday will-word displacing the older verb behind boule. BDAG and Schrenk's TDNT article give priority to the objective sense (what is willed) while keeping a real but secondary subjective sense (the act of willing) for a few verses such as John 1:13 and 2 Peter 1:21. The genuine disputes are not over the word's meaning but over how to read passages that pile up synonyms (Ephesians 1:11), how the Gethsemane prayers bear on the two wills of Christ, and whether the systematic distinction between God's decree and his commands is warranted, which the lexica treat as a theological framework rather than a feature of the word.

Where scholars disagree about thelēma

Whether this word in the New Testament names the content of what is willed (a plan, command, or desire) or the act and faculty of willing itself.

  • majorityIt names almost exclusively the thing willed; reading it as the faculty of willing imports later Greek philosophical psychology the New Testament does not share.; Gottlob Schrenk, TDNT III:52-62
  • majorityThe objective sense dominates, but a genuine subjective sense (the act of willing) is present in a handful of verses such as John 1:13 and 2 Peter 1:21, and the boundary is fuzzy.; BDAG, 3rd ed., s.v. thelema

Whether the church distinction between God's decreed will (what God sovereignly brings about) and his preceptive will (what God commands) is a feature of this word or a theological framework laid over it.

  • majorityNo major New Testament lexicon treats it as a built-in distinction in the word; the contextual senses are polysemy disambiguated by setting, and the decree/command distinction is a later theological inference.; BDAG, 3rd ed., s.v. thelema; Gottlob Schrenk, TDNT III:52-62
  • contestedThe distinction is a legitimate and necessary theological reading to harmonize texts where God is said to will the salvation of all yet to accomplish a definite plan.; John Piper, "Are There Two Wills in God?" in Still Sovereign, ed. Schreiner and Ware (Baker, 2000)
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

  • Gottlob Schrenk, "thelo, thelema, thelesis," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Gerhard Kittel, vol. 3 (Eerdmans, 1965), 52-62theological-dictionary
  • BDAG (Bauer, Danker, Arndt, Gingrich), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 3rd ed. (2000), s.v. thelemalexicon
  • Takamitsu Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (Peeters, 2009), s.v. thelemalexicon
  • Moises Silva, ed., New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis, rev. ed. (Zondervan, 2014), s.v. thelotheological-dictionary
  • Andrew T. Lincoln, Ephesians, Word Biblical Commentary 42 (Word, 1990)commentary
  • Harold W. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary (Baker Academic, 2002)commentary
  • Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John, Anchor Bible 29-29A (Doubleday, 1966-70)commentary
  • Demetrios Bathrellos, The Byzantine Christ: Person, Nature, and Will in the Christology of Saint Maximus the Confessor (Oxford University Press, 2004)monograph

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

All attested forms of θέλημα

accusative n s

θέλημα, θέλημά

Mat 7:21, Mat 12:50, Mat 21:31, Mrk 3:35, Luk 12:47, Luk 12:47, Jhn 4:34, Jhn 5:30

nominative n s

θέλημα, θέλημά

Mat 18:14, Jhn 6:39, Jhn 6:40, Act 21:14, Rom 12:2, 1Co 16:12, Eph 5:17, 1Th 4:3

genitive n s

θελήματος

Jhn 1:13, Jhn 1:13, Rom 15:32, 1Co 1:1, 1Co 7:37, 2Co 1:1, 2Co 8:5, Eph 1:1

dative n s

θελήματι

Luk 23:25, Rom 1:10, Col 4:12, Heb 10:10, 1Pe 4:2, 2Pe 1:21

accusative n p

θελήματα, θελήματά

Eph 2:3, Act 13:22