StrongerBible

phileō

φιλέω

GreekG5368“love, kiss, ...”

Appears 25 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 6:5Mat 10:37 (2×)Mat 23:6Mat 26:48Mrk 14:44Luk 20:46Luk 22:47Jhn 5:20Jhn 11:3Jhn 11:36Jhn 12:25Jhn 15:19Jhn 16:27 (2×)Jhn 20:2Jhn 21:15Jhn 21:16Jhn 21:17 (3×)1Co 16:22Tit 3:15Rev 3:19Rev 22:15
Root family
Names & words formed with this
Word studyResearch-gradefee-LEH-ohverb

What phileō means

1

to love: to feel warm personal affection for someone or to be fond of something

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This is the ordinary Greek verb for love. It covers the whole warm middle of human attachment: the love of parents and children, of friends, of a guest welcomed into the home, and of God for people and people for God. It can also weaken into a lighter "to be fond of" or "to like," the way we say someone loves attention or loves to talk. Its center is felt closeness and the sense that the other person belongs to you.

The popular idea that this word names a "lower" or merely emotional love, in contrast to a "higher" sacrificial love, does not hold up in the New Testament. The same writers use this verb of the highest love there is:

  • the Father's love for the Son
  • the Father's love for believers
  • Christ's love for those he corrects

The word does not carry a fixed grade of love; it takes its weight from who or what is loved and from what the passage says about that love.

Because its heart is affection rather than approval, the senses gathered here range from the deepest bonds to the smallest preferences. What ties them together is not the worthiness of the object but the warmth of the attachment: in each case the subject is drawn toward someone or something and treats it as dear.

Nuances

1ato love a person warmly: to hold someone dear as family, friend, or one's own
Mat 10:37 (2×)Jhn 5:20Jhn 11:3Jhn 11:36Jhn 16:27 (2×)Jhn 20:2Jhn 21:15Jhn 21:16Jhn 21:17 (3×)1Co 16:22Tit 3:15Rev 3:19
1bto be fond of, to like: to take pleasure in something or in doing it
Mat 6:5Mat 23:6Luk 20:46
1cto set one's affection on a thing: to cling to or prize something, often something one ought not to
Jhn 12:25Jhn 15:19Rev 22:15

Disputed

Whether John 21:15-17 intends a meaningful contrast between this verb and the more common Greek verb for love

  • majorityThe verb alternation in John 21 is stylistic variation, not a graded contrast; the two verbs overlap and are used interchangeably in John.; D. A. Carson, Exegetical Fallacies, 2nd ed. (Baker, 1996), 51-53; F. F. Bruce, The Gospel of John (Eerdmans, 1983), 405; C. K. Barrett, The Gospel According to St John, 2nd ed. (SPCK, 1978), 486
  • minorityThe change of verb is a deliberate exchange in which the higher and lower loves are distinguished, with Peter declining or being unable to claim the fuller love.; Richard Chenevix Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament (London, 1854), section xii; B. F. Westcott, The Gospel According to St John (London, 1908)
2

to kiss: to greet or show affection by a kiss

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

Alongside its use for love, this verb is the standard Greek word for "kissing," a meaning it carried from the classical poets through the everyday papyri of the New Testament era. The kiss was the outward, physical sign of the affection the verb otherwise names, which is why one word serves for both.

In the New Testament this sense appears only in the account of Judas betraying Jesus, where Judas had arranged a kiss as the signal that would mark out Jesus to the soldiers. The same word that elsewhere means "warm affection" becomes, in his mouth, the cover for treachery. A related, stronger form of the verb (καταφιλέω) is used for the kiss Judas actually gives, and for tender kisses elsewhere in the Gospels.

Mat 26:48Mrk 14:44Luk 22:47

What scholars say about phileō

The standard reference works agree that this is an ordinary, broad Greek verb for love, with two basic senses, affection or fondness and kissing, and that in the New Testament it overlaps so heavily with the more common love verb that the two are near-synonyms. BDAG glosses it as to have a special interest in or affection for someone, and to kiss. Louw and Nida scatter it across the love, liking, and friendship domains and place it in the same primary domain as the more common love verb. Stählin's long article in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament derives the root from a sense of belonging and shows the two verbs overlapping completely in John. Historically the proportions reversed: in classical Greek this was the default verb for love and the other was rare, but by the time of the Greek Old Testament the other verb outnumbers this one by roughly ten to one, a general shift in Hellenistic Greek that Joly traced and that Barr and Silva used to expose the fallacy of reading fixed theological content into a single word. The popular ranking of the two verbs as lower and higher love, fed by Nygren's contrast of agape and eros, is rejected across the lexica and major commentaries.

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

  • Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 3rd ed., rev. F. W. Danker (BDAG; University of Chicago Press, 2000), s.v. φιλέωlexicon
  • J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains (United Bible Societies, 1988), 25.43, 25.103, 34.64-66lexicon
  • H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, and H. S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. with revised supplement (LSJ; Oxford, 1996), s.v. φιλέωlexicon
  • Gustav Stählin, φιλέω κτλ., in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. G. Friedrich, trans. G. W. Bromiley, vol. 9 (Eerdmans, 1974), 113-171dictionary
  • Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, trans. James D. Ernest (Hendrickson, 1994), s.v. φιλέω, φιλίαdictionary
  • James H. Moulton and George Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (Hodder and Stoughton, 1914-1929), s.v. φιλέωlexicon
  • D. A. Carson, Exegetical Fallacies, 2nd ed. (Baker, 1996), 51-53monograph
  • D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (Pillar New Testament Commentary; Eerdmans, 1991), 676-677commentary
  • F. F. Bruce, The Gospel of John (Eerdmans, 1983), 405commentary
  • Robert Joly, Le vocabulaire chrétien de l'amour est-il original? Philein et agapan dans le grec antique (Presses Universitaires de Bruxelles, 1968)monograph
  • James Barr, The Semantics of Biblical Language (Oxford University Press, 1961)monograph
  • Moisés Silva, Biblical Words and Their Meaning, rev. ed. (Zondervan, 1994)monograph
  • Anders Nygren, Agape and Eros, trans. Philip S. Watson (SPCK, 1953)monograph

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

All attested forms of φιλέω

present active participle nominative m s

φιλῶν

Mat 10:37, Mat 10:37, Jhn 12:25, Rev 22:15

imperfect active indicative 3s

ἐφίλει

Jhn 11:36, Jhn 15:19, Jhn 20:2

present active indicative 1s

φιλῶ

Jhn 21:15, Jhn 21:16, Jhn 21:17

present active indicative 2s

φιλεῖς

Jhn 11:3, Jhn 21:17, Jhn 21:17

present active indicative 3s

φιλεῖ

Jhn 5:20, Jhn 16:27, 1Co 16:22

aorist active subjunctive 1s

φιλήσω

Mat 26:48, Mrk 14:44

present active indicative 3p

φιλοῦσιν

Mat 6:5, Mat 23:6

aorist active infinitive

φιλῆσαι

Luk 22:47

perfect active indicative 2p

πεφιλήκατε

Jhn 16:27

present active participle accusative m p

φιλοῦντας

Tit 3:15

present active participle genitive m p

φιλούντων

Luk 20:46

present active subjunctive 1s

φιλῶ

Rev 3:19