To instruct
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through the Connect page. Screenshots are helpful.
Paideuo means train, educate, instruct, correct, or discipline with a formative purpose. Its range includes Moses’ education, gentle correction of opponents, grace training believers to renounce ungodliness, a father’s discipline, and Christ’s rebuke and discipline of those He loves.
Reader summary
Full entry for παιδεύω (G3811) · Open the biblical lexicon
Paideuo means train, educate, instruct, correct, or discipline with a formative purpose. Its range includes Moses’ education, gentle correction of opponents, grace training believers to renounce ungodliness, a father’s discipline, and Christ’s rebuke and discipline of those He loves.
The BSB source-word alignment has 13 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include [Our fathers] disciplined [us] (1), after I punish (1), be taught (1), discipline (1), disciplines (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Luke 23:16. Its strongest book concentrations include Hebrews (3), Acts (2), Luke (2), 1 Corinthians (1).
Paideuo means train, educate, instruct, correct, or discipline with a formative purpose. Its range includes Moses’ education, gentle correction of opponents, grace training believers to renounce ungodliness, a father’s discipline, and Christ’s rebuke and discipline of those He loves. The word can describe ordinary education or painful correction, so no single English term captures every occurrence.
Scripture’s central pastoral emphasis is purposeful formation: truth, correction, practice, and even hardship are directed toward repentance, holiness, wisdom, and mature obedience. Discipline is not identical with condemnation, abuse, or uncontrolled punishment. Titus 2 places training under saving grace, Hebrews 12 under the Father’s loving purpose, and Revelation 3 under Christ’s call to earnest repentance.
Faithful teaching preserves both tenderness and seriousness, showing how God forms rather than merely penalizes His people.
Paideuo describes education, corrective instruction, or discipline that forms a person. The agent, means, and goal determine whether a passage stresses learning, gentle correction, chastening, repentance, or holiness.
So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.
The verb describes Moses’ broad education in Egyptian wisdom. This ordinary formative use prevents the lexical range from being reduced to punishment.
He must gently reprove those who oppose him, in the hope that God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.
The Lord’s servant corrects opponents with gentleness and hope. God grants repentance, and the correction serves knowledge of truth.
It instructs us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live sensible, upright, and godly lives in the present age,
Saving grace trains believers negatively and positively: renouncing corrupt desires and learning godly life while awaiting Christ.
For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.”
The quotation interprets discipline through the Lord’s fatherly love and reception of sons. Pain is not presented as abandonment.
Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness.
God’s discipline is distinguished from limited human judgment and directed toward His people’s good and participation in holiness.
Those I love I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.
The risen Christ joins love, rebuke, discipline, earnestness, and repentance in His address to Laodicea.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Combines teaching with corrective discipline; instruction that includes chastening to shape character and behavior.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
13 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I discipline, educate, train, chastise
Read verseI discipline, educate, train, chastise
Read verseI discipline, educate, train, chastise
Read verseI discipline, educate, train, chastise
Read verseI discipline, educate, train, chastise
Read verseI discipline, educate, train, chastise
Read verseI discipline, educate, train, chastise
Read verseI discipline, educate, train, chastise
Read verseI discipline, educate, train, chastise
Read verseI discipline, educate, train, chastise
Read verseI discipline, educate, train, chastise
Read verseI discipline, educate, train, chastise
Read verseI discipline, educate, train, chastise
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 12 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 13 lexical occurrence verses.
παιδεύω is built from this root:
Grace functions as a teacher, actively shaping behavior rather than merely excusing sin. Titus 2:11-15
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Paideuo presents formation as purposeful rather than merely punitive. Acts 7 uses the verb for Moses’ education, displaying the breadth of the lexical range. Second Timothy 2 places corrective instruction within gentleness and hope that God may grant repentance. Titus 2 makes saving grace the teacher that trains believers to reject ungodliness and practice wise, righteous, godly life while awaiting Christ.
Hebrews 12 interprets discipline through sonship, love, endurance, good, and participation in God’s holiness, while still acknowledging that it is painful. Revelation 3 joins Christ’s love to rebuke, discipline, earnestness, and repentance. These texts do not authorize harshness or suggest that every suffering can be confidently identified as a specific disciplinary act.
They show that God’s grace and fatherly care form His people through truth, correction, endurance, and obedient practice toward holiness.
Titus.2.12
Paideuo belongs to the word family of child-rearing and formation and can describe education, instruction, correction, or chastening. Voice, agent, object, means, and purpose clarify the emphasis. The local Greek artifact currently groups about 13 occurrences, which include both ordinary educational and spiritually formative settings.
Wisdom literature presents parental instruction and the Lord’s correction as paths toward life, while Israel’s history shows God teaching His people through word and chastening. The New Testament places this formation under saving grace, the Father’s love, Christ’s lordship, and the Spirit-shaped pursuit of holiness.
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain