to benefit: to do someone real good, to be of use, to profit
This verb asks one plain question: does this actually do any good? It means to benefit, to be of use, to profit. It can take a personal object (to do someone good, to help them) or stand on its own (to be of use, to avail). At heart it measures real return, not good intentions.
What stands out in the New Testament is that the answer is almost always no. The word keeps company with a flat negative:
- the flesh "profits nothing" (John 6:63)
- gaining the whole world profits a person nothing if it costs his life (Mark 8:36)
- the physicians left the bleeding woman no better (Mark 5:26)
- tongues without plain teaching benefit the church nothing (1 Corinthians 14:6)
- giving away all one owns profits nothing without love (1 Corinthians 13:3)
The verb becomes a test the writers use again and again to expose things that look valuable but deliver nothing real. Even circumcision "benefits" only if the law is kept (Romans 2:25), and the message the wilderness generation heard "did not benefit" them because it met no faith (Hebrews 4:2).
A close cousin, συμφέρω, weighs what is advantageous or expedient in a given situation, while this word asks the blunter question of whether something does any good at all. The standard Hebrew counterpart (יָעַל) carries the same edge, most often in the prophets' verdict on idols that "profit nothing."