StrongerBible

noutheteō

νουθετέω

GreekG3560“admonish, warn, ...”

Appears 8 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Act 20:31Rom 15:141Co 4:14Col 1:28Col 3:161Th 5:121Th 5:142Th 3:15
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradenoo-theh-TEH-ohverb

What noutheteō means

to admonish: to correct someone with words, appealing to the mind so as to turn them from a wrong or harmful course, done out of care.

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

The word is built from two Greek parts meaning roughly "to put in the mind." At its heart it names a particular kind of correction. It is not punishment, and it is not neutral teaching, but a serious word spoken to reach a person's thinking and turn them off a wrong or dangerous path. Something is off, and the speaker names it plainly so the hearer can change.

What keeps it from being mere scolding is the setting the New Testament always gives it. Paul admonishes the Ephesian elders "with tears" (Acts 20:31), corrects the Corinthians not to shame them but as "beloved children" (1 Corinthians 4:14), and tells the Thessalonians to admonish a wayward believer "not as an enemy but as a brother" (2 Thessalonians 3:15). The correction is real, yet it is delivered inside a bond of love and aimed at winning the person back, not defeating them.

It also has a forming, teaching side. Twice Paul pairs it with teaching (Colossians 1:28; 3:16), and the goal in both places is maturity. In one verse it is his own apostolic work; in the other it is something the whole church does for one another, even through singing. Paul simply assumes ordinary believers are "able to admonish one another" (Romans 15:14).

So the word covers a range of tone: sharper toward those who are out of line, gentler toward the discouraged, patient with everyone. But it is always a word aimed at the mind and the will, meant to put something right.

Act 20:31Rom 15:141Co 4:14Col 1:28Col 3:161Th 5:121Th 5:142Th 3:15

Disputed

How wide the word's range is, and whether its center of gravity is confrontation or a broader corrective-and-forming appeal.

  • minorityThe word centers on confrontation: naming a specific problem, correcting it by word, motivated by concern. Jay Adams built the nouthetic-counseling movement on this reading, condensing it to confrontation, concern, and change.; Jay E. Adams, Competent to Counsel (Zondervan, 1970)
  • majorityThe word holds correction, teaching, and parental warmth together, and its register is calibrated to the hearer rather than fixed as confrontation.; Johannes Behm, TDNT 4:1019-22, s.v. νουθετέω; Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, NIGTC (Eerdmans, 2000), 371; Abraham J. Malherbe, The Letters to the Thessalonians, AB 32B (Doubleday, 2000), 309-13

What scholars say about noutheteō

Every major lexicon derives νουθετέω from νοῦς + τίθημι, "to place in the mind," and glosses it as corrective admonition or warning directed at the intellect and will (BDAG 679; LSJ; Spicq, TLNT 2:548-51). The standard definition is Behm's (TDNT 4:1019): the earnest effort to influence mind and disposition by instruction, warning, and correction, explicitly distinguished from punishment (κόλασις, παιδεία). Louw-Nida (33.231) separates it from purely didactic διδάσκω by its corrective thrust, and Trench, Synonyms xxxii, fixed the classic contrast of νουθεσία (training by word) with παιδεία (training by act and discipline). The verb is nearly exclusive to Paul in the NT and rare in the LXX, where it renders יסר, בין, and כהה in a narrow verbal-instructional niche; its theological weight comes especially from Wisdom of Solomon's picture of God as πατὴρ νουθετῶν (Wis 11:10), which stands behind 1 Corinthians 10:11 and Ephesians 6:4 (Winston, Wisdom of Solomon, AB 43, 234-36; Thiselton, NIGTC, 744-46). Malherbe (Paul and the Thessalonians, 1987; AB 32B, 309-13) and Glad (Paul and Philodemus, NovTSup 81, 1995) situate the term within Greco-Roman soul-guidance, where frank correction is calibrated to the hearer, which illuminates the graded responses of 1 Thessalonians 5:14.

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. νουθετέω, 679lexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. νουθετέωlexicon
  • Johannes Behm, TDNT 4:1019-22, s.v. νουθετέω, νουθεσίαtheological-dictionary
  • C. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (Hendrickson, 1994), 2:548-51lexicon
  • J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains (UBS, 1988), 33.231lexicon
  • R. C. Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament, xxxiimonograph
  • Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, NIGTC (Eerdmans, 2000), 371, 744-46commentary
  • Abraham J. Malherbe, The Letters to the Thessalonians, AB 32B (Doubleday, 2000), 309-13commentary
  • Clarence E. Glad, Paul and Philodemus, NovTSup 81 (Brill, 1995), 101-160monograph
  • David Winston, The Wisdom of Solomon, AB 43 (Doubleday, 1979), 234-36commentary

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

All attested forms of νουθετέω

present active imperative 2p

νουθετεῖτε

1Th 5:14, 2Th 3:15

present active participle nominative m p

νουθετοῦντες

Col 1:28, Col 3:16

present active participle nominative m s

νουθετῶν

Act 20:31, 1Co 4:14

present active infinitive

νουθετεῖν

Rom 15:14

present active participle accusative m p

νουθετοῦντας

1Th 5:12