θεότης

From the study of Colossians 2:9

Range of meaning

Deity, divinity in the full sense: the state or essence of being God (theos + the abstract suffix -tēs, as English 'god' + '-hood'). BDAG: 'the state of being god, divine character/nature, deity'. It is used only here in the New Testament.

Against the English

• KJV, YLT: 'Godhead'. In older English this simply meant 'godhood, divinity'. Today many readers hear it as a name for the Trinity, the three persons taken together, which is not what the Greek word denotes.
• BSB, WEB, NASB: 'the Deity', which can sound like a title for God the Father.
• ESV: 'deity', with no article. This sits closest to the abstract sense.

How it drifted

Middle English godhede (= godhood) was formed like 'manhood' and 'childhood'. In later Protestant usage 'the Godhead' came to be used as a collective term for Father, Son and Spirit. Modern readers of the KJV therefore often hear a statement about the persons of the Trinity where Paul wrote about the nature or being of God.

Used elsewhere in the period

• Close in time: Plutarch (On the Obsolescence of Oracles 10, 415C) speaks of a few souls rising until they share in theotēs, deity. Lucian also uses the word.
• Contrast with Rom 1:20: Paul uses theiotēs, a word built on the adjective 'divine', for God's divine character as seen in creation.
• Trench (Synonyms of the New Testament) and Lightfoot: they drew a sharp line between the two. Theotēs means being God; theiotēs means having divine attributes.
• Modern lexicographers: they accept the basic difference but treat the boundary as less rigid in ordinary Greek usage.