Greek word · G700

ἀρέσκω

areskō

to please

To please, to win someone's favour; to accommodate, to act to suit someone's wishes or interests. In Hellenistic usage it could carry a sense of rendering service to someone, and BDAG notes the overtone of obligation ("please, accommodate").

Appears 17 times in 16 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

ἀρέσκω

[in LXX chiefly for טוֹב ;]

1. to please (Hom., Hdt., al.): with dative of person(s), Matthew 14:6, Mark 6:22, Romans 8:8 15:2, 1 Thessalonians 2:15 4:1, 1 Corinthians 7:32-34 Galatians 1:10, 2 Timothy 2:4; before ἐνώπισν (= Heb. בּעֵנֵי, Bl., § 37, 1; 40, 7), Ac 65.

2. In late Gk., esp. in Inscr., to render service to (see M, Th., ICC, 1 Co., ll with; Cremer, 640 f.); Romans 15:1, 3, 1 Corinthians 10:33, 1 Thessalonians 2:4.†

(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 15:1

Range of meaning

To please, to win someone's favour; to accommodate, to act to suit someone's wishes or interests. In Hellenistic usage it could carry a sense of rendering service to someone, and BDAG notes the overtone of obligation ("please, accommodate").

Against the English

"Please ourselves" can sound like "enjoy ourselves", as if any personal pleasure were suspect. The Greek concerns whose interests set the course of one's actions.

How it drifted

Modern "pleasing yourself" suggests indulgence or fun. The Greek idea is more about orientation: whom you accommodate.

Used elsewhere in the period

Paul uses it for both bad and good accommodation: "not to please people but God" (1 Thess 2:4; Gal 1:10), and also "I try to please everyone in everything, not seeking my own advantage but that of the many" (1 Cor 10:33). In Romans 8:8, those "in the flesh cannot please God."

From the study of 1 Corinthians 7:32

Range of meaning

To please, to act acceptably toward someone, to win their approval, to accommodate them. It often describes the loyal service a client gives a patron or a servant gives a master.

Against the English

'Please' is accurate. The risk lies in modern associations: 'people-pleasing', or nervously trying to earn favour.

Used elsewhere in the period

Paul uses it often, in both directions. Positively: 1 Thessalonians 4:1, 'how you ought to walk and to please God'; 1 Corinthians 10:33, 'I try to please everyone in everything'. Negatively: Galatians 1:10, 'if I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ'; Romans 15:1–3, 'Christ did not please himself'. In Greek moral and civic language it describes acceptable service toward those one is bound to.

From the study of Romans 8:8

Range of meaning

To please, to be acceptable to someone, to win their favour. Also, as BDAG and Moulton-Milligan note from inscriptions, to serve someone's interests or do what is useful to them; civic decrees praise people who acted to the city's satisfaction. In Paul it can carry a bad sense, 'people-pleasing' (Gal 1:10; 1 Thess 2:4), or a good sense, 'please your neighbour for his good' (Rom 15:2). 'To please God' is a standard Jewish phrase for a life that answers to God's will (compare 1 Thess 4:1, 'how you ought to walk and to please God'; LXX Ps 68:32 [69:31 Eng]).

Against the English

'Please' is accurate. Modern ears may hear an emotional sense, making God happy, or a performance sense, earning his approval. The Greek points to a life that is acceptable to God and does what he wants, that fits his purposes.

Used elsewhere in the period

1 Thess 2:15 (the opposite: 'not pleasing God'); 1 Thess 4:1; 1 Cor 7:32 ('how to please the Lord'). Close to the related verb euaresteō, used of Enoch in LXX Gen 5:22, 24 ('Enoch pleased God'), picked up in Heb 11:5–6.

Where it appears

Matthew · 1

  1. Matthew 14:6 ἤρεσεν pleased

    On Herod’s birthday, however, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod

    Here: 'She pleased', meaning she delighted or won the favour of Herod. It is a general word for gratifying someone. Its weight comes from the result: in verse 7 Herod swears an open-ended oath because of it.

Mark · 1

  1. Mark 6:22 ἤρεσεν she pleased

    When the daughter of Herodias came and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests, and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.”

    Here: 'She pleased.' It means she gave Herod and his guests pleasure and won their favour. The same verb is used of the young Esther pleasing the Persian king (LXX Esther 2:4, 9).

Acts · 1

  1. Acts 6:5 ἤρεσεν pleased

    This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, as well as Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.

    Here: 'Was pleasing, met with approval.' The past tense presents a single moment of agreement. The wording matches Old Testament phrasing for a proposal that wins the assembly's consent (compare Greek Deuteronomy 1:23).

Romans · 4

  1. Romans 8:8 ἀρέσαι to please

    Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God.

    Here: To be acceptable to someone, to do what fits their will and serves their purposes. The aorist (simple, one-off) infinitive presents 'pleasing God' as a single whole: they cannot manage it at all.

  2. Romans 15:1 ἀρέσκειν· to please;

    We who are strong ought to bear with the shortcomings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

    Here: To act so as to suit or satisfy someone, often with a sense of serving or accommodating them. "Not to please ourselves" means not making our own preferences and freedoms the measure of how we act. Verse 3 grounds this in Christ, who "did not please himself".

  3. Romans 15:2 ἀρεσκέτω should please

    Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

    Here: A present-tense command in the third person, 'let him keep pleasing': an ongoing habit, not a single act. It picks up 'not to please ourselves' from verse 1. Pleasing the neighbor replaces pleasing yourself.

  4. Romans 15:3 ἤρεσεν pleased

    For even Christ did not please Himself, but as it is written: “The insults of those who insult You have fallen on Me.”

    Here: An aorist (simple past) that sums up Christ's whole course of life, and especially his death, as one act seen whole. It means more than "make happy": it means acting to suit and benefit someone. Christ did not set his life up to suit himself.

1 Corinthians · 4

  1. 1 Corinthians 7:32 ἀρέσῃ he may please

    I want you to be free from concern. The unmarried man is concerned about the work of the Lord, how he can please the Lord.

    Here: To act in a way the other person welcomes and approves. The very same phrase comes back in v. 33 for the husband: 'how he may please his wife.' Pleasing a spouse is not presented as wrong, only as a second claim on the same attention.

  2. 1 Corinthians 7:33 ἀρέσῃ he may please

    But the married man is concerned about the affairs of this world, how he can please his wife,

  3. 1 Corinthians 7:34 ἀρέσῃ she may please

    and his interests are divided. The unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the work of the Lord, how she can be holy in both body and spirit. But the married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world, how she can please her husband.

  4. 1 Corinthians 10:33 ἀρέσκω please

    as I also try to please everyone in all I do. For I am not seeking my own good, but the good of many, that they may be saved.

    Here: A present tense describing his ongoing habit, and often read as 'I try to please' (BSB, NIV, ESV). The sense is adjusting his conduct to what helps others. The rest of the verse defines it: seeking their advantage, not his own.

Galatians · 2

  1. Galatians 1:10 ἀρέσκειν; ἤρεσκον, to please?, I were pleasing,

    Am I now seeking the approval of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

    Here: To make oneself agreeable to someone, to fit what you say and do to their wishes. Here it means trimming the message to suit an audience.

1 Thessalonians · 3

  1. 1 Thessalonians 2:4 ἀρέσκοντες pleasing

    Instead, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, not in order to please men but God, who examines our hearts.

    Here: Present participle: 'being people who please'. Here it means trimming the message to win approval. Next to 'flattery' and 'greed' in v.5, it calls up the image of the crowd-pleasing orator.

  2. 1 Thessalonians 2:15 ἀρεσκόντων pleasing

    who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men,

    Here: Present participle: an ongoing state. It echoes 2:4, where Paul says he speaks 'not to please people but God'. His opponents stand on the other side of that line.

  3. 1 Thessalonians 4:1 ἀρέσκειν to please

    Finally, brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to live in a way that is pleasing to God, just as you have received from us. This is how you already live, so you should do so all the more.

    Here: To win the approval of the one you serve. Paul has already set this against pleasing people (2:4, 2:15).

2 Timothy · 1

  1. 2 Timothy 2:4 ἀρέσῃ. he may please.

    A soldier refrains from entangling himself in civilian affairs, in order to please the one who enlisted him.

    Here: To gain the approval of a superior by serving him well. In this world that meant honour, promotion and reward. This is what all of the soldier's single-mindedness is for.

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