Greek word · G6027
ἐκζήτησις
ekzētēsis
speculation
A "seeking out" or "searching out": investigation, inquiry. Here it is used negatively for speculative probing that yields only more questions. The word is extremely rare. This is its only NT use, and earlier examples are scarce or lacking.
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 1 Timothy 1:4
- Range of meaning
A "seeking out" or "searching out": investigation, inquiry. Here it is used negatively for speculative probing that yields only more questions. The word is extremely rare. This is its only NT use, and earlier examples are scarce or lacking.
- Against the English
BSB, ESV and NIV have "speculation(s)." KJV and YLT have "questions" and WEB has "disputes," both following the variant zētēseis or giving its sense. "Questions" in modern English sounds innocent, as if asking questions were wrong. The Greek pictures fruitless, contentious probing.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The related verb ekzēteō is common in the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) for "seeking out" God or his law (e.g. Ps 119:2, 10). The writer may be twisting a pious word: these people "seek out" diligently, but they seek the wrong thing. The simpler zētēsis appears for wrangling disputes in 1 Tim 6:4, 2 Tim 2:23 and Titus 3:9.
Similar words
Where it appears
1 Timothy · 1
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1 Timothy 1:4 ἐκζητήσεις speculations
or devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculation rather than the stewardship of God’s work, which is by faith.
Here: An intensified "seeking out": digging and investigating that never reaches a result. The reader should picture idle speculation and endless debating-points, not honest study. (Later manuscripts read zētēseis, "disputes.")
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.