ἐπιθυμία
epithumia
desire
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
ExploredThe Greek word ἐπιθυμία (epithumia) is a concept that appears 38 times in the Bible, defined as "desire". This term encompasses a range of feelings and motivations, from basic human needs to intense cravings and lusts. In its various occurrences, epithumia often connotes a strong, often uncontrollable, longing for something. The usage of epithumia in the Bible spans different contexts, including physical appetites, material possessions, and relationships. It can also imply a sense of covetousness or envy, where individuals are driven by a desire for something that belongs to others. This broad range of applications highlights the complexity of human desire and its potential impact on.ImageAlign the human experience. The significance of epithumia lies in its ability to capture the multifaceted nature of human desire, revealing both its positive and negative aspects. By examining this concept, we can gain insight into the human condition, acknowledging the role of desire in shaping our thoughts, emotions, and actions.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
38 total occurrences across the text
and the cares of this age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
Luke 22:15He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer,
John 8:44You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.
Romans 1:24Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves;
Romans 6:12Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
Romans 7:7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin, except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting, unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”
Romans 7:8But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead.
Romans 13:14But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, for its lusts.
Galatians 5:16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Galatians 5:24Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.
Ephesians 2:3We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
Ephesians 4:22that you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit,
Philippians 1:23But I am hard pressed between the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.
Colossians 3:5Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
1 Thessalonians 2:17But we, brothers, being bereaved of you for a short season, in presence, not in heart, tried even harder to see your face with great desire,
1 Thessalonians 4:5not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who don’t know God,
1 Timothy 6:9But those who are determined to be rich fall into a temptation, a snare, and many foolish and harmful lusts, such as drown men in ruin and destruction.
2 Timothy 2:22Flee from youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
2 Timothy 3:6For some of these are people who creep into houses and take captive gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,
2 Timothy 4:3For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts,
Titus 2:12instructing us to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we would live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age;
Titus 3:3For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
James 1:14But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed.
James 1:15Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin. The sin, when it is full grown, produces death.
1 Peter 1:14as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance,
1 Peter 2:11Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
1 Peter 4:2that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.
1 Peter 4:3For we have spent enough of our past time doing the desire of the Gentiles, and having walked in lewdness, lusts, drunken binges, orgies, carousings, and abominable idolatries.
2 Peter 1:4by which he has granted to us his precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust.
2 Peter 2:10but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries;
2 Peter 2:18For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error;
2 Peter 3:3knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts
1 John 2:16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, isn’t the Father’s, but is the world’s.
1 John 2:16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, isn’t the Father’s, but is the world’s.
1 John 2:17The world is passing away with its lusts, but he who does God’s will remains forever.
Jude 1:16These are murmurers and complainers, walking after their lusts—and their mouth speaks proud things—showing respect of persons to gain advantage.
Jude 1:18They said to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, walking after their own ungodly lusts.”
Revelation 18:14The fruits which your soul lusted after have been lost to you. All things that were dainty and sumptuous have perished from you, and you will find them no more at all.