Greek word · G1468

ἐγκρατής

enkratēs

self-controlled

From en ('in') and kratos ('power, strength'): 'holding power over', and so self-controlled, master of one's desires. The noun enkrateia is 'self-mastery'. In ethics it is the opposite of akrasia, 'weakness of will'.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

ἐγκρατής, -ές

(κράτος), [in LXX: Wisdom of Solomon 8:20, Sirach 6:27 15:1 26:15 27:30, al. ;]

1. strong, powerful.

2. C. genitive of thing(s), master of, hence,

3. (sc. ἑαυτοῦ), self -controlled, exercising self-control: Titus 1:8.

† SYN.: σώφρων (see reff. s. ἐγκράτεια). (AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Titus 1:8

Range of meaning

From en ('in') and kratos ('power, strength'): 'holding power over', and so self-controlled, master of one's desires. The noun enkrateia is 'self-mastery'. In ethics it is the opposite of akrasia, 'weakness of will'.

Against the English

KJV 'temperate'. Since the nineteenth-century temperance movement, 'temperate/temperance' tends to suggest giving up alcohol, a narrower idea than mastery over every appetite. BSB 'disciplined', and WEB/YLT/NASB 'self-controlled', are accurate.

How it drifted

'Temperance' became the name of anti-alcohol campaigns in the 1800s, so in many readers' minds it narrowed to 'not drinking'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics book 7) distinguishes the enkratēs, who feels wrong desires but overcomes them, from the sōphrōn, whose desires are already in order. Philo praises enkrateia often. In the New Testament: self-control is part of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:23); the athlete 'exercises self-control in all things' (1 Corinthians 9:25); see also Acts 24:25 and 2 Peter 1:6. This verse is the adjective's only New Testament use. Onasander lists it beside sōphrōn as a quality of a good general.

Similar words

Where it appears

Titus · 1

  1. Titus 1:8 ἐγκρατῆ, [and] disciplined,

    Instead, he must be hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.

    Here: Literally 'having power within': someone who holds the reins over his appetites, temper and desires. It closes the list and sums up the opposite of the uncontrolled man of verse 7.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.