Greek word · G5369
φιλήδονος
philēdonos
pleasure-loving
'Loving pleasure' (philos + hēdonē). In Greek moral writing it describes a person whose life is governed by gratification, especially of the senses and appetites, as opposed to someone governed by virtue, reason or God.
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
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 2 Timothy 3:4
- Range of meaning
'Loving pleasure' (philos + hēdonē). In Greek moral writing it describes a person whose life is governed by gratification, especially of the senses and appetites, as opposed to someone governed by virtue, reason or God.
- Against the English
'Lovers of pleasure(s)' is accurate in every major version. The thing to notice is that 'pleasure' (hēdonē) was a loaded word in ancient ethics. It was not simply enjoyment. It was the rival master that moralists, Jewish and pagan, warned against.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Philo, On Husbandry (De Agricultura) 88, sets a person who is 'pleasure-loving and passion-loving rather than virtue-loving and God-loving' in the same contrast, using nearly the same words, with 'rather than' (mallon ē). The parallel is often cited by commentators. Elsewhere in the NT hēdonē is negative: Luke 8:14; Titus 3:3; James 4:1, 3; 2 Pet 2:13.
Where it appears
2 Timothy · 1
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2 Timothy 3:4 φιλήδονοι lovers of pleasure
traitorous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
Here: Literally 'pleasure-friends': people whose life is steered by gratification. In Greek moral writing this was a familiar label for someone ruled by appetite instead of reason or virtue. It picks up the 'love' words that open the list (v. 2: lovers of self, lovers of money).
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.