δεῖ
deî · G1163 · Greek · 102 occurrences
Meanings
-
to be necessary, must
To be that which must necessarily take place, often with the implication of inevitability
ExamplesMatthew 16:21 From that time Jesus began to point out to His disciples that it was necessary for Him to go to Jerusalem and to suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and to be killed, and to be raised up on the third day.
Matthew 17:10 And His disciples asked Him, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”
Matthew 24:6 “And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.
-
should, ought, to have to do
To be something which should be done as the result of compulsion, whether internal (as a matter of duty) or external (law, custom, and circumstances)
ExamplesMatthew 18:33 ‘Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’
Matthew 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the Law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.
Matthew 26:54 “How then would the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way?”
How it’s used In 6 roles
Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.
the word studied the word it goes with
Who or what does itSubject
22 occurrences in 24 groups
- πάσχωto suffer 3
- Other words · 23 groups that occur once or twice (25) 25
What it acts on, or what is saidObject
2 occurrences in 5 groups
- εἰμίto be 1
- ζάωto be alive, to live, to come back to life 1
- καταριθμέωto be counted as a member 1
- λαγχάνωto receive 1
- ἀπόλλυμιto destroy, to perish, to lose 1
With adverbsAdverbs
3 occurrences in 2 groups
- μήnot 2
- ἄρτιnow, just now, presently 1
Named alongside itApposition
2 occurrences in 2 groups
- ἡμέραday 1
- ἀντιμισθίαrecompense 1
What is done to itIt is the object
3 occurrences in 3 groups
- δοκέωto think, to suppose, to seem 1
- λαλέωto speak 1
- βοάωto cry out 1
After prepositionsPrepositional phrases
2 occurrences in 2 groups
- ἀπόfrom 3
- πρόςto, toward, with 2
When two words share a role, as in “Paul and Barnabas said”, the verse appears under each, so a section’s counts can add up to more than the number of occurrences.
MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
Semantic domains 2 entries
- Should, ought, to have to do71.21
- Used of a fitting obligation, as of the rebuke that the unforgiving slave should have had mercy just as he had received mercy in Matthew 18:33 and the question why the scribes say Elijah must come first in Matthew 17:10.
- To be necessary, must71.34
- Used of a binding necessity, as of Jesus beginning to point out that it was necessary for Him to go to Jerusalem and suffer in Matthew 16:21 and the necessary events preceding the end that must not cause alarm in Matthew 24:6.
Word family 42 words
Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon subjunctive present δέῃ; imperfect ἔδει; an impersonal verb (cf. Buttmann, § 132, 12; cf.…
b. necessity brought on by circumstances or by the conduct of others toward us: Mt 26:35 (κἄν δέῃ με ἀποθανεῖν), cf. Mk 14:31; Jn 4:4; Acts 27:21; 2 Cor 11:30; (2 Cor 12:1 L T Tr WH text); or imposed by a condition of mind: Lk 2:49; Lk 19:5.
c. necessity in reference to what is required to attain some end: Lk 12:12; Jn 3:7; Acts 9:6; Acts 16:30; 1 Cor 11:19; Heb 9:26 (on this cf. Winers Grammar, 283 (266); (also Buttmann, 216 (187); 225 (195))); Heb 11:6.
d. a necessity of law and command, of duty, equity: Mt 18:33; Mt 23:23; Lk 11:42; Lk 13:14; Lk 15:32; Lk 18:1; Lk 22:7; Jn 4:20; Acts 5:29; Acts 15:5; Rom 1:27 (ἀντιμισθίαν, ἥν ἔδει, namely, ἀπολαμβάνεσθαι, the recompense due by the law of God); Rom 8:26; Rom 12:3; 1 Cor 8:2, etc. or of office: Lk 4:43; Lk 13:33; Jn 9:4; Jn 10:16; Eph 6:20; Col 4:4; 2 Tim 2:24.
e. necessity established by the counsel and decree of God, especially by that purpose of his which relates to the salvation of men by the intervention of Christ and which is disclosed in the O. T. prophecies: Mt 17:10; Mt 24:6; Mk 9:11; Acts 4:12; 1 Cor 15:53; in this use, especially of what Christ was destined finally to undergo, his sufferings, death, resurrection, ascension: Lk 24:46 (R G L brackets); Mt 26:54; Jn 3:14; Acts 3:21, etc. (of the necessity of fate in Herodotus 5, 33; with the addition κατά τό θεοπρόπιον, 8, 53; Thucydides 5, 26.) [SYNONYMS: δεῖ, χρή: δεῖ seems to be more suggestive of moral obligation, denoting especially that constraint which arises from divine appointment; whereas χρή signifies rather the necessity resulting from time and circumstance. Schmidt, chapter 150.]
G1163 — δέον
, δεοντος, τό (participle of δεῖ, which see), from (Sophocles and) Herodotus down, that of which there is need, which is requisite, due, proper: δέον ἐστι there is need, 1 Pet 1:6 (T Tr text WH omit; Tr marginal reading brackets ἐστι); followed by the accusative with an infinitive Acts 19:36; τά μή δέοντα that are not proper, 1 Tim 5:13.
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (1889), public domain
Topical studies with this word 2 entries
Meanings adapted from the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament, © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0 and the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (from the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew), © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0; MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
Sources
eRhema lexical overview, based on the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (© United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Macula Hebrew and Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0); released under CC BY-SA 4.0
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