StrongerBible

prepō

πρέπω

GreekG4241“fitting, proper, ...”

Appears 7 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 3:151Co 11:13Eph 5:31Ti 2:10Tit 2:1Heb 2:10Heb 7:26
Names & words formed with this
Word studyResearch-gradePREH-pohverb

What prepō means

it is fitting: what is proper and becoming, in keeping with who someone is or what a situation calls for.

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

The word makes a simple claim: something is fitting, proper, or becoming, in keeping with who a person is or what the moment calls for. It says an action suits its situation, not that it is commanded. That is why a New Testament writer reaches for it instead of the ordinary words for "must" (δεῖ) or "ought" (ὀφείλω): the point is a good match, a congruity, rather than raw obligation.

In the letters it usually measures behavior against identity. Certain conduct simply befits people who are holy, women who profess reverence for God, or teaching that is healthy, and the opposite conduct clashes with what they are. Paul can even put the question to a congregation's own sense of what is seemly and let them judge for themselves.

In a handful of places the reference point rises higher, and the word measures an act against God himself: what befits God's saving plan and character. At Jesus's baptism it marks the act as suited to God's purpose, and twice in Hebrews it makes a bold claim, that it was fitting for God to bring his Son to glory through suffering. That turns an old philosophical rule, that nothing unworthy may be said of God, on its head.

Nuances

1aproper to who God's people are: conduct, speech, or teaching that suits a holy community and its calling.
1Co 11:13Eph 5:31Ti 2:10Tit 2:1
1bfitting to God's own character and saving plan: an act that matches who God is and what he is doing to rescue people.
Mat 3:15Heb 2:10Heb 7:26
Heb 2:10

Whether ἔπρεπεν in Hebrews 2:10 states that saving through suffering was appropriate and congruous for God, or that it was in some sense necessary.

  • majorityAppropriateness, not necessity: the word states that the path of suffering fits God's character and saving purpose, without asserting logical necessity.; Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Hermeneia; Fortress, 1989), 78-83; Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews (NIGTC; Eerdmans, 1993), on 2:10; Craig R. Koester, Hebrews (Anchor 36; Doubleday, 2001), on 2:10
  • minorityFitting and, in effect, necessary: the fittingness shades into inevitability given God's purpose.; James Moffatt, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (ICC; T&T Clark, 1924), 30-31

What scholars say about prepō

The lexicons agree on the sense. BDAG glosses πρέπω "to be fitting or seemly, suitable, proper," and notes that the classical sense "be conspicuous" (Homer's visual use) has dropped out by the New Testament period; Louw-Nida place it in the domain of proper and improper (66.1), and Muraoka finds only the sense "to be becoming, fitting" in the Septuagint. The word's history runs from a Homeric term for standing out to the eye, through the tragedians' moral "conspicuousness," to the philosophical category τὸ πρέπον ("the fitting") developed by Plato and Aristotle and turned into an ethical criterion (Latin decorum) by Panaetius and Cicero; Pohlenz (1933) is the classic study of that arc, and Spicq stresses that a writer who chooses πρέπει over δεῖ invokes moral and aesthetic congruity rather than bare obligation. In the Septuagint the verb renders the Hebrew root נָאָה in three Psalter verses. The New Testament uses split into ethical-decorum passages (1 Cor 11:13; Eph 5:3; 1 Tim 2:10; Titus 2:1), where commentators (Thiselton, Fee, Marshall, Towner) trace an appropriation of Hellenistic moralist vocabulary redirected toward Christian identity and sound teaching, and theological-fittingness passages (Matt 3:15; Heb 2:10; 7:26). Moffatt's dictum on Hebrews 2:10, "Philo has the phrase, not the idea," captures the consensus that Hebrews borrows the philosophical idiom τὸ πρέπον θεῷ ("what befits God") while inverting its content: the suffering that Hellenistic thought judged unworthy of God is here declared fitting for him. TDNT carries no article on the word, treating it as ordinary decorum vocabulary; EDNT and especially Spicq give the fullest exegetical treatments.

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 (Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (Chicago, 2000), s.v. πρέπωlexicon
  • Louw and Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 66.1lexicon
  • LSJ (Liddell-Scott-Jones), A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. πρέπωlexicon
  • T. Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (Peeters, 2009), s.v. πρέπωlexicon
  • Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (Hendrickson, 1994), s.v. πρέπωdictionary
  • EDNT (Balz-Schneider), Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 3, s.v. πρέπωdictionary
  • Max Pohlenz, "Tò prépon: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des griechischen Geistes," Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen (1933): 53-92article
  • James Moffatt, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (ICC; T&T Clark, 1924)commentary
  • Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Hermeneia; Fortress, 1989)commentary
  • Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews (NIGTC; Eerdmans, 1993)commentary
  • Craig R. Koester, Hebrews (Anchor 36; Doubleday, 2001)commentary
  • Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC; Eerdmans, 2000), 838-48commentary
  • Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, rev. ed. (NICNT; Eerdmans, 2014), 526-29commentary
  • I. Howard Marshall (with Philip Towner), The Pastoral Epistles (ICC; T&T Clark, 1999)commentary
  • Philip H. Towner, The Letters to Timothy and Titus (NICNT; Eerdmans, 2006)commentary
  • R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew (NICNT; Eerdmans, 2007), 121commentary
  • Duane Litfin, "'To Fulfill All Righteousness': What Did Jesus Mean?" JETS 65.4 (2022): 667-88article

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

All attested forms of πρέπω

present active indicative 3s

πρέπει

Eph 5:3, 1Ti 2:10, Tit 2:1

imperfect active indicative 3s

ἔπρεπεν

Heb 2:10, Heb 7:26

present active participle nominative n s

πρέπον

Mat 3:15, 1Co 11:13