to be in good bodily health: to be well, or to recover and be well again
TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled
This is the ordinary Greek word for being in good physical health, and it is the root behind the English word "hygiene." In the Gospels it simply marks people as well rather than sick: the healthy who feel no need of a doctor, a servant found fully recovered, a son welcomed home safe and well.
In an ordinary letter greeting the same word carries the everyday wish that a friend enjoy good health, exactly as a modern note might hope the reader is keeping well. Nothing figurative is at work in this sense; it is bodily wellness, plain and concrete.
The related adjective (ὑγιής) covers the same ground for a person or a body part that is whole and healthy.
Luk 5:31Luk 7:10Luk 15:273Jn 1:2
2
to be sound: to be healthy and free from error, said of teaching, of words, and of people held firm in the faith
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
The letters to Timothy and Titus take the picture of bodily health and apply it to teaching. True Christian instruction is "sound": healthy in itself and health-giving to those who hold it, over against false teaching that spreads through a community like a disease. This medical image is one of the distinctive marks of these letters, which speak repeatedly of "sound doctrine" and "sound words."
The word works at two levels here. It describes the teaching itself as healthy and reliable, and it describes people who are kept sound, that is steadfast and healthy, in the faith. The two shade into each other, since teaching that is sound is exactly what keeps believers sound.
The contrast is deliberate: Paul sets sound words directly opposite the false teacher whose mind is diseased with pointless controversy (a word for being morbidly sick, νοσέω, in 1 Timothy 6:4). Healthy teaching and a diseased craving for novelty are the two poles.
Nuances
2ato be sound, said of teaching and words: healthy, correct, and free from error
1Ti 1:101Ti 6:32Ti 1:132Ti 4:3Tit 1:9Tit 2:1
2bto be sound in the faith, said of people: kept healthy and steadfast in belief and character
keeps a living medical image: teaching that is healthy and gives health to those who hold it1Ti 1:10Tit 1:9
Both
both mean free from defect or error, trustworthy and reliable2Ti 1:13
Only sound
in modern English "sound" has drifted toward "logically valid" or "orthodox," losing the picture of health and disease
“healthy”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“be in health”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“whole”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How hugiainō differs from similar Greek words
ὑγιήςthe adjective from the same root, "healthy, whole, sound"; it is the word for a body or limb made whole in the Gospel healings and for "sound speech" in Titus 2:8, where this entry is the verb "to be healthy."
This is the verb Paul uses for teaching that is "sound" or healthy, set against teaching that is diseased or corrupt. It is the standard word for "sound doctrine" and "sound words" running through the letters to Timothy and Titus.1Ti 1:102Ti 4:3Tit 1:9
Used of a person simply being in good health or well, as a general state, rather than of someone cured from a specific illness: the well who need no physician, and the wish that a friend may be in good health.Luk 5:313Jn 1:2
Both
Both stretch the picture of bodily health over to speech and teaching: the verb gives "sound doctrine," and the adjective gives "sound speech that cannot be condemned." What is healthy in a body becomes the image for what is healthy in what is said.Tit 2:1Tit 2:8
Both are used plainly of physical health and wholeness, describing a body that is well and unharmed.Luk 7:10Mrk 5:34
This is the Gospels' word for a body or limb made whole again by a healing: a withered hand restored, a long-disabled man able to walk, a lame man standing sound before the council. It describes the finished, intact result of a cure.Mat 12:13Jhn 5:9Act 4:10
νοσέωits opposite, "to be sick," used of a mind diseased with craving for controversy (1 Timothy 6:4); the two are set as deliberate poles of health and sickness in teaching.
Covers plain bodily wellness, which the sick word never does: being physically well and not needing a doctor, a servant found in good health, a son come home safe and well.Luk 5:31Luk 7:10Luk 15:273Jn 1:2
Describes people themselves as spiritually well, staying steady and whole "in the faith" and in love and patience, not just the teaching they hold.Tit 1:13Tit 2:2
Both
Both are words for health and sickness that Paul turns into a way of talking about teaching. They are the two poles of one picture: false teaching leaves people diseased, while true teaching keeps them well. He sets them side by side in the same breath, contrasting "sound words" with the man who is "sick" over controversies.1Ti 6:41Ti 6:3
Names only the sick side of the picture. Its single use is a diseased, craving state of mind: a person with an unhealthy appetite for arguments and word-battles, never anything sound or well.1Ti 6:4
hugiainō in the other biblical languages
שָׁלוֹםHebrew“peace”the broad Hebrew word for peace and well-being that also covers health; Greek translators of the Old Testament often used this verb to render its use in greetings that ask whether someone is well.
Names bodily health in the strict sense: being physically well, or recovered and restored after sickness. This is the verb for the healthy person who has no need of a doctor and for the sick servant found well again.Luk 5:31Luk 7:10Luk 15:27
Extends to the idea of teaching that is "sound": healthy, uncorrupted doctrine and faith, as a body free of disease. This medical metaphor for right teaching is a distinctly Greek development that the Hebrew word never carries.1Ti 1:102Ti 1:13Tit 1:9Tit 2:1
Both
Both can describe a person being physically well and in good health. The Greek Old Testament sometimes reaches for this Greek verb to carry the Hebrew word's sense of bodily well-being, the point where their ranges genuinely meet.Gen 43:283Jn 1:2
Means peace as the end of hostility and friendly relations between people or nations: parting on good terms, terms of peace offered to a city, a treaty between former enemies.Gen 26:31Deu 20:10Jos 9:15Jdg 4:17
Serves as a greeting and a way of asking after someone's welfare, roughly "is it well with you?" or "how are you?": a courtesy the health verb does not cover.Gen 29:6Gen 43:271Sa 17:18
Reaches far beyond health to total flourishing and God-given wholeness: prosperity, safety, and the whole-life blessing, as in the priestly benediction and the covenant of peace.Num 6:26Num 25:12Lev 26:6
What scholars say about hugiainō
BDAG divides the verb into a literal sense (to be in good physical health) and a figurative one (to be sound or free from error), the latter concentrated in the Pastoral Epistles in the fixed collocations of sound teaching, sound words, and being sound in the faith. TDNT (Luck, s.v. ὑγιής κτλ, 8:308-313) and standard commentary on the Pastorals (Marshall, ICC; Knight, NIGTC) trace the figurative use to the language of Hellenistic moral philosophy, where reason and teaching could be described as healthy or diseased, and note its polemical function against the false teachers of these letters. The medical metaphor is a recognized stylistic hallmark of the Pastorals; scholarly discussion concerns its cultural background rather than its meaning, which is not in doubt.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. ὑγιαίνωlexicon
U. Luck, "ὑγιής, ὑγιαίνω," TDNT 8:308-313dictionary
I. H. Marshall, The Pastoral Epistles (ICC), on 1 Timothy 1:10commentary
G. W. Knight III, The Pastoral Epistles (NIGTC)commentary