better: superior in worth, rank, or benefit when weighed against something else
This word is a comparative, the Greek equivalent of adding "-er" to "good": it always weighs one thing against another and names the winner as "the better" of the two. It never simply says a thing is good; it says a thing is better than something else. Because Greek uses it as the comparative for both "good" and "strong," it can tip either toward higher quality or toward greater advantage, and the sentence around it tells you which.
Two shades run through its uses. Sometimes it marks intrinsic superiority: one thing stands higher in worth or rank than another, as a greater person outranks a lesser one. Sometimes it marks the more advantageous choice: not that one thing is finer in itself, but that it is the wiser or more beneficial course for someone in a given situation.
The word carries the whole argument of the letter to the Hebrews, which stacks up a chain of "better" things to show that what came in Christ surpasses what came before:
- a better hope that actually draws near to God (Hebrews 7:19)
- a better covenant, resting on better promises (Hebrews 7:22; 8:6)
- better sacrifices than the animal offerings (Hebrews 9:23)
- a better and lasting possession (Hebrews 10:34)
- a better country, a heavenly one (Hebrews 11:16)
- a better resurrection (Hebrews 11:35)
Elsewhere the accent falls on what is preferable: Paul says the unmarried "does better" and that departing to be with Christ is "far better," and Peter says it is "better" to suffer for doing good than for doing wrong. A close relative is καλός, "good, fine," which the Gospels press into the same "it is better for you to..." service; and in Hebrews 1:4 this word stands beside διάφορος, "more excellent," as Christ both becomes better than the angels and inherits a more excellent name.