StrongerBible

merimnaō

μεριμνάω

GreekG3309“worry, care for, ...”

Appears 19 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 6:25Mat 6:27Mat 6:28Mat 6:31Mat 6:34 (2×)Mat 10:19Luk 10:41Luk 12:11Luk 12:22Luk 12:25Luk 12:261Co 7:321Co 7:331Co 7:34 (2×)1Co 12:25Php 2:20Php 4:6
Names & words formed with this
Word studyResearch-grademeh-rim-NAH-ohverb

What merimnaō means

1

to worry, be anxious: to be gripped by fretful, distrustful concern about one's needs or circumstances

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

This is the fearful, inward fretting that Jesus repeatedly forbids. It is not planning or honest work: Jesus points to birds that gather food and flowers that flourish, so the target is not activity but the dread that God will not provide. Worry of this kind borrows tomorrow's trouble and lives as though the Father were absent.

Whether the anxiety is about food, drink, and clothing, or about what to say when dragged before authorities, it is the same posture of heart. The New Testament ties it directly to weak faith: the person who worries this way is the one of "little faith." The cure it offers is not indifference but trust, whether in the Father's provision, the Spirit's help, or answered prayer.

This worry can also spill out of the mind into restless, driven busyness. Martha is described as anxious and troubled about many things, her inner unrest showing up as outward bustle, which is why some readers hear in this word both a worried heart and the frantic activity it produces.

Nuances

1aanxious worry over the necessities and course of everyday life, such as food, clothing, and what tomorrow may bring
Mat 6:25Mat 6:27Mat 6:28Mat 6:31Mat 6:34 (2×)Luk 10:41Luk 12:22Luk 12:25Luk 12:26Php 4:6
1banxiety about what to say when brought before rulers and courts for the faith
Mat 10:19Luk 12:11
2

to care for, attend to: to give focused, active concern to someone or something, devoting attention to their interests

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

Pointed at a worthy object, the very same word simply means to care, to be genuinely and attentively concerned. Paul praises Timothy for caring in this way about the Philippians, and he says the members of a body should have this concern for one another, making it a mark of real love rather than a fault.

Greek does not build a moral judgment into the word; the object of the concern and the state of the heart supply it. Paul can use the one verb four times in two sentences: the unmarried person is concerned with the Lord's affairs, the married with the world's. The concern for the Lord is good and the concern that pulls the heart toward the world is dangerous, yet the word itself stays the same. What decides its worth is what a person is devoted to and whether that devotion divides the heart or serves the Lord.

Nuances

2awholehearted, selfless concern for the welfare of other people
1Co 12:25Php 2:20
2bto be occupied with and devoted to a whole sphere of affairs, its worth decided by what that sphere is
1Co 7:321Co 7:331Co 7:34 (2×)

What scholars say about merimnaō

Standard lexica (BDAG, LSJ, Louw and Nida) agree that the verb carries two related senses, an anxious "be apprehensive, be unduly concerned" and a neutral-to-positive "attend to, care for, be concerned about," with context rather than the lexeme fixing the valence; Louw and Nida formalize this by placing the negative sense in the domain of attitudes and emotions and the positive in the domain of focused attention. Spicq's papyrological dossier and Bultmann's TDNT article (IV.589 to 593) trace a mature classical and Hellenistic range from Sophocles onward, including a philosophical "ponder, brood" use; Bultmann reads the New Testament prohibition existentially, as the casting of self-securing care upon God. On the Sermon on the Mount cluster, Davies-Allison, Luz, France, and Hagner concur that the target is faith-deficient anxiety rather than prudent labor, climaxing in the diagnosis of "little faith," with Nolland the notable dissent in hearing both inner worry and outer striving in the verb. For 1 Corinthians 7:32 to 34, the crux of the semantic range, Fee and Thiselton (with Garland and Ciampa-Rosner) argue Paul deliberately exploits the verb's neutrality, the negative force supplied by the object (the affairs of the world) and by the divided heart, framed by the ideal of undistracted devotion; Balch (JBL 102, 1983) and Deming showed the surrounding freedom-from-distraction vocabulary is Cynic-Stoic marriage-debate terminology. O'Brien and Fee note Paul's deliberate paradox in praising Timothy's positive concern (Philippians 2:20) while prohibiting anxiety in 4:6, resolved by the object test and the trust test. On etymology, Frisk, Chantraine, and Pokorny derive the noun from a root meaning "to be mindful," Beekes proposes Pre-Greek substrate, and the serious authorities reject the popular derivation from the verb "to divide" behind the "divided mind" image, which survives only as a homiletical figure.

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, 3rd ed. 2000), s.v. μεριμνάω, p. 632lexicon
  • LSJ (Liddell-Scott-Jones), s.v. μεριμνάωlexicon
  • Louw & Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, §25.225 and Domain 30lexicon
  • Pierre Chantraine, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque (DELG), s.v. μέριμναlexicon
  • Ceslas Spicq, "μεριμνάω," Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (1994)dictionary
  • Rudolf Bultmann, "μεριμνάω, μέριμνα," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) IV:589-593dictionary
  • Moisés Silva, ed., New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis (NIDNTTE, 2014), s.v. μεριμνάωdictionary
  • W. D. Davies & Dale C. Allison, Matthew, ICC, vol. 1 (1988), 647-663commentary
  • Ulrich Luz, Matthew 1-7, Hermeneiacommentary
  • R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, NICNT (2007)commentary
  • John Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew, NIGTC (2005), p. 308commentary
  • Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, NIGTC (2000), 588-594commentary
  • Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, NICNTcommentary
  • Peter T. O'Brien, The Epistle to the Philippians, NIGTC (1991), 326-328commentary
  • David L. Balch, "1 Cor 7:32-35 and Stoic Debates about Marriage, Anxiety, and Distraction," JBL 102 (1983): 429-439article
  • Will Deming, Paul on Marriage and Celibacy: The Hellenistic Background of 1 Corinthians 7, SNTSMS 83 (1995)monograph

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

All attested forms of μεριμνάω

aorist active subjunctive 2p

μεριμνήσητε

Mat 6:31, Mat 6:34, Mat 10:19, Luk 12:11

present active indicative 3s

μεριμνᾷ

1Co 7:32, 1Co 7:33, 1Co 7:34, 1Co 7:34

present active imperative 2p

μεριμνᾶτε

Mat 6:25, Luk 12:22, Php 4:6

future active indicative 3s

μεριμνήσει

Mat 6:34, Php 2:20

present active indicative 2p

μεριμνᾶτε

Mat 6:28, Luk 12:26

present active participle nominative m s

μεριμνῶν

Mat 6:27, Luk 12:25

present active indicative 2s

μεριμνᾷς

Luk 10:41

present active subjunctive 3p

μεριμνῶσιν

1Co 12:25