StrongerBible

teleios

τέλειος

GreekG5046“perfect, mature, ...”

Appears 19 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 5:48 (2×)Mat 19:21Rom 12:21Co 2:61Co 13:101Co 14:20Eph 4:13Php 3:15Col 1:28Col 4:12Heb 5:14Heb 9:11Jas 1:4 (2×)Jas 1:17Jas 1:25Jas 3:21Jn 4:18
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeTEH-lay-osadjective

What teleios means

brought all the way to its proper goal: whole, complete, and lacking nothing it should have

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This word is built on the idea of a goal reached, an end fully arrived at. Something is teleios when it has become everything it was meant to be, with no part missing. Greek used it for a grown ox, a ratified contract, a sacrifice without blemish, an adult as opposed to a child. Across all of these the thread is the same: the thing is fully there, finished, entire.

The New Testament inherits this word loaded with extra weight from the Greek Old Testament, where it often translated Hebrew words for being whole and wholly devoted to God. So its uses fan out along a few related lines rather than splitting into unrelated meanings. When the word is set against the word for infant, it means grown-up, mature. When it describes a thing such as a gift, a law, a work, or God's will, it means complete, whole, lacking nothing. When it describes a person's heart before God, it leans toward being undivided and wholly committed.

These senses are not separate words but one idea seen from different angles, and the surrounding sentence decides which angle is in view. The danger is to read the English word perfect, with its sense of flawless or sinless, back into every occurrence. That is almost never what the writers were asking for. They were asking people to be all there: grown up, undivided, complete in character, carried through to the goal God had in mind.

Nuances

1agrown-up, mature, full-grown, as opposed to an infant or child
1Co 2:61Co 14:20Eph 4:13Php 3:15Heb 5:14
1bcomplete, whole, entire, lacking nothing it should have, said of a thing
Rom 12:21Co 13:10Heb 9:11Jas 1:4 (2×)Jas 1:17Jas 1:251Jn 4:18
1cwholehearted and undivided in devotion to God, whole in character and loyalty
Mat 5:48 (2×)Mat 19:21Col 1:28Col 4:12Jas 3:2

What scholars say about teleios

The dominant view in current critical scholarship reads τέλειος as a context-sensitive word meaning whole, complete, mature, or wholeheartedly devoted, rather than the English "perfect" understood as flawless. This rests on classical and everyday Koine usage (where the word meant full-grown, of legal age, in working order, or valid), on the Septuagint's regular use of τέλειος to render the Hebrew תָּמִים and שָׁלֵם (wholeness and undivided loyalty), and on the post-1961 lexical method launched by James Barr against building a theology out of a single word. Gerhard Delling's TDNT article argued the philosophical concept of perfection is absent from the New Testament; BDAG and Louw-Nida organize the word into context-selected sense clusters (highest-standard, mature/full-grown, complete). Major commentators read the maturity sense where the word is set against "infant" (1 Cor 2:6; 14:20; Eph 4:13; Heb 5:14; Phil 3:15), the completeness sense where it describes a thing (James 1:4; Rom 12:2; 1 Cor 13:10), and the wholehearted-devotion sense in covenantal demand-language echoing Deuteronomy 18:13 (Matt 5:48; 19:21). Live disputes remain over the precise force at Matthew 5:48, over whether Paul ironically appropriates opponents' self-designation as τέλειοι in 1 Cor 2:6 and Phil 3:15, and over the distinctive τελει- vocabulary applied to Christ in Hebrews.

Where scholars disagree about teleios

Whether the New Testament ever uses τέλειος in the strong sense of absolute moral perfection, or whether it always means whole, complete, mature, or wholeheartedly devoted.

  • majorityThe philosophical and moral concept of flawless perfection is absent; the word builds on the Old Testament idea of wholeness set in an eschatological frame, and context selects the operative sense each time.; Gerhard Delling, "τέλειος," TDNT 8:67-78; BDAG (Danker, 3rd ed., 2000), s.v. τέλειος; M.A.E. Silva, ed., NIDNTTE (2014), s.v. τέλειος
  • minorityA stronger moral-perfection sense is in play in select passages, with the New Testament writer raising the standard rather than only calling for wholeness.; Robert Gundry, Matthew (1982/1994); Hans Dieter Betz, The Sermon on the Mount (Hermeneia, 1995)

Whether Paul borrowed τέλειος from the vocabulary of pagan mystery-religion initiation to mean "the initiated," especially in 1 Corinthians 2:6.

  • majorityDerivation from the mystery cults is linguistically untenable; the New Testament conspicuously lacks the characteristic initiation vocabulary, and lexical overlap does not entail shared meaning.; A.D. Nock, "Hellenistic Mysteries and Christian Sacraments," Mnemosyne 5 (1952); Bruce Metzger, HTR 48 (1955); Anthony Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC, 2000)
  • minorityPaul drew directly on mystery-cult initiation vocabulary, with τέλειοι designating initiates.; Richard Reitzenstein, Die hellenistischen Mysterienreligionen (1910); Walter Schmithals, Die Gnosis in Korinth (1956)
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. τέλειος, 995-996lexicon
  • Louw-Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, s.v. τέλειοςlexicon
  • Gerhard Delling, "τέλειος," TDNT 8:67-78theological-dictionary
  • M.A.E. Silva, ed., NIDNTTE (2014), s.v. τέλειοςtheological-dictionary
  • James Barr, The Semantics of Biblical Language (Oxford, 1961)monograph
  • D.A. Carson, Exegetical Fallacies (2nd ed., 1996), ch. 2monograph
  • Ulrich Luz, Matthew 1-7 (Hermeneia, rev. 2007)commentary
  • W.D. Davies and Dale Allison, Matthew (ICC, vol. 1, 1988)commentary
  • R.T. France, The Gospel of Matthew (NICNT, 2007)commentary
  • Gordon Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT, rev. 2014)commentary
  • Anthony Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC, 2000)commentary
  • David Peterson, Hebrews and Perfection (SNTSMS 47, Cambridge, 1982)monograph
  • Patrick Hartin, A Spirituality of Perfection (Liturgical Press, 1999)monograph

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

All attested forms of τέλειος

nominative m p

τέλειοι

Mat 5:48, 1Co 14:20, Php 3:15, Col 4:12, Jas 1:4

accusative m s

τέλειον

Eph 4:13, Col 1:28, Jas 1:25

nominative m s

τέλειος, τέλειός

Mat 19:21, Jas 3:2, Mat 5:48

nominative n s

τέλειον

Rom 12:2, 1Co 13:10, Jas 1:17

accusative n s

τέλειον

Jas 1:4

dative m p

τελείοις

1Co 2:6

genitive f s

τελειοτέρας

Heb 9:11

genitive m p

τελείων

Heb 5:14

nominative f s

τελεία

1Jn 4:18