Greek word · G2688

κατάστημα

katastēma

behavior

A 'state' or 'condition', and especially of a person, their 'demeanor, bearing, deportment': the settled outward expression of character in posture, face, speech and manner.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament.

What it means

κατά-στημα, -τος, τό

(καθίστημι), in LXX: 3Ma.5:45 (-εμα, A) * ;]

1. condition, of health, etc.

2. demeanour: Titus 2:3 (for exx. see Field, Notes, 220).†

(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 2:3

Range of meaning

A 'state' or 'condition', and especially of a person, their 'demeanor, bearing, deportment': the settled outward expression of character in posture, face, speech and manner.

Against the English

'Behavior' (BSB, ESV, NASB, WEB, KJV) points to actions. 'Deportment' (YLT) and the NIV's 'the way they live' come closer to the whole-person sense. The Greek is less about rules kept and more about the composed presence a person has.

Used elsewhere in the period

Found in Hellenistic writers, including Josephus and Plutarch, for a person's outward bearing. Ignatius (To the Trallians 3.2, early 2nd century) says of a bishop that 'his very demeanor (katastēma) is a great lesson', which shows that early Christians understood bearing as a form of teaching.

Similar words

Where it appears

Titus · 1

  1. Titus 2:3 καταστήματι behavior

    Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior, not slanderers or addicted to much wine, but teachers of good.

    Here: Not only discrete actions but a whole settled way of carrying oneself: manner, expression, composure, the impression a person gives. Occurs only here in the New Testament.

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