Greek word · G4913

συνήδομαι

synēdomai

to delight

Built from syn ("with") and hēdomai ("to be pleased, take pleasure"). Older Greek uses it for sharing someone else's joy: rejoicing with a friend or congratulating them. Over time it also came to mean being glad about something, approving it with pleasure, gladly agreeing with it.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

συν-ήδομαι

to rejoice together; with dative, to rejoice with or in: τ. νόμῳ τ. θεοῦ, Romans 7:22 (see Lft., Notes, 304).†

(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 Romans 7:22

Range of meaning

Built from syn ("with") and hēdomai ("to be pleased, take pleasure"). Older Greek uses it for sharing someone else's joy: rejoicing with a friend or congratulating them. Over time it also came to mean being glad about something, approving it with pleasure, gladly agreeing with it. BDAG gives "(joyfully) agree with" for this verse. Other lexicons give "delight in".

Against the English

Most versions say "delight in" (KJV, ESV, NIV, BSB, WEB, YLT). That gets the pleasure but loses the sense of agreeing. NASB's "joyfully concur with" gets both. NLT's "love … with all my heart" makes the warmth stronger but blurs the agreeing.

How it drifted

Not much drift. The one risk is that "delight" can sound like a feeling only. In Greek the word carries approval and agreement as well: the inner self says a glad "yes" to what the law requires.

Used elsewhere in the period

Classical moral writers use the verb for friends sharing in each other's good fortune; Aristotle's discussion of friendship is an example. In letters it is a stock way to say "I rejoice with you". The word appears nowhere else in the New Testament. The idea behind it is the psalmists' piety: "his delight is in the law of the LORD" (Ps 1:2) and "your law is my delight" (Ps 119:77, 174), although the Greek Old Testament uses different words in those verses.

Where it appears

Romans · 1

  1. Romans 7:22 συνήδομαι I delight

    For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.

    Here: "I take joyful pleasure in / I gladly agree with." The prefix syn- ("with") gives a sense of rejoicing along with something, here God's law. The present tense describes a settled, ongoing attitude, not a passing feeling. This is the only place the word appears in the New Testament.

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