θελω
to will
Full lexicon entry — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
From Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Where this word appears
See every Present-tense verb in the Greek New Testament →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Tense
- Present
- Ongoing or general action in present time (imperfective aspect).
- Imperfect
- Continuous or repeated action in past time (“was writing”).
- Aorist
- Action viewed as a simple whole, without regard to duration — often past (perfective aspect).
Voice
- Active
- The subject performs the action.
Mood
- Indicative
- States a fact or asks a factual question (the mood of reality).
- Participle
- A verbal adjective (“writing,” “having written”).
- Subjunctive
- Expresses probability, purpose, or possibility (the mood of contingency).
- Infinitive
- A verbal noun (“to write”), unmarked for person or number.
- Optative
- Expresses a wish or a remote possibility.
Case
- Nominative
- The case of the subject (and the predicate nominative).
- Genitive
- The case of source, possession, or “of” — answers “whose / from what.”
- Dative
- The case of the indirect object, means, or location — “to / for / with / in.”
- Accusative
- The case of the direct object and of extent.
Person
- 1st person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 3rd person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 2nd person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one.
Every verse where G2309 appears in the Book of Colossians — 3 distinct verses. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Greek form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Greek New Testament; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences of this word are not indexed here.
Colossians
- Colossians 1:27 ἠθέλησεν aor act ind 3sg to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory;
- Colossians 2:1 Θέλω pres act ind 1sg For I desire to have you know how greatly I struggle for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;
- Colossians 2:18 θέλων pres act ptcp nom sg masc Let no one rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
At its core, θελω (thélō) means “to will.” Translators differ — “would” in the King James Version, then “do you want” (Berean Standard Bible) and “want” (unfoldingWord Literal Text), as the renderings breakdown shows. With 199 verses in 22 books, it is a common word in the Greek New Testament. First canonically at Matthew 1:19, it enters the text early. From the same root come αιρεομαι, αιρεσις and αιρετιζω. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's G2309 catalogs a Greek word from the Greek New Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Greek New Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 199
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 199 distinct verses.
- 22 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 22 of 27 New Testament books.
- #79
- by frequency
- Top 100 most frequent Greek words (rank 79 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 199 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the New Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Some books belong to more than one corpus (Luke is in both the Gospels and the Lukan corpus, and so on), so these shares overlap and need not total 100%. Each figure is a share of the word’s 199 distinct verses.
- Gospels 114 verses · 57%
- Pauline corpus 58 verses · 29%
- Lukan (Luke–Acts) 40 verses · 20%
- Johannine 26 verses · 13%
- General (Catholic) Epistles 6 verses · 3%
- Hebrews 4 verses · 2%
- Revelation 4 verses · 2%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Would 27×, Will 23×, I will 15×
- American Standard Version: Would 20×, I would 13×, Will 11×
- Berean Standard Bible: Do you want 18×, Wants 18×, I want 11×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Want 25×, Wanting 15×, Willing 15×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G2309 across 208 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 38 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 5 further occurrences.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders G2309 across 215 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 60 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders G2309 across 207 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 50 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders G2309 across 252 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 44 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in Thayer's
The 1 sense Thayer's distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- to will, have in mind, intend
Word origin
Derived from αιρεομαι (hairéomai) (G138) — to choose.
Either the first or the second form may be used. In certain tenses θελέω theleō thel-eh'-o (and ἐθέλέω etheleō eth-el-eh'-o ) are used which are otherwise obsolete; apparently strengthened from the alternate form of G138 ; to determine (as an active voice option from subjective impulse; whereas G1014 properly denotes rather a passive voice acquiescence in objective considerations) that is choose or prefer (literally or figuratively); by implication to wish that is be inclined to (sometimes adverbially gladly ); impersonally for the future tense to be about to ; by hebraism to delight in : - desire be disposed (forward) intend list love mean please have rather (be) will (have -ling -ling [ly]).
— Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (1890), public domain.
Forms in the corpus
The 35 distinct written forms G2309 takes in the Greek New Testament, most frequent first — each parse links to that tense’s occurrences in the concordance.
Same root — word family
Other Thayer's entries built from the same root as G2309, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
- αιρεσις haíresis G139 choice
- αιρετιζω hairetízō G140 to choose
- αλωσις hálōsis G259 capture
- αρπαζω harpázō G726 to seize
- ελκυω helkýō G1670 to draw
- ηλιος hḗlios G2246 sun
- ιλεως híleōs G2436 merciful
- σεληνη selḗnē G4582 moon
- σπειρα speîra G4686 cohort
- συλαω syláō G4813 to rob
- συρω sýrō G4951 to drag
- τιλλω tíllō G5089 to pluck
Derived from this word
- εθελοθρησκεια ethelothrēskeía G1479 will-worship
- θελημα thélēma G2307 will
- θελησις thélēsis G2308 willing
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 17 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint usage
The same Greek word θελω appears 113 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 108 verses in 24 books.
- 113
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 108
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 24 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 24 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Genesis 24:8 θέλω
- Exodus 2:7 θέλω
- Numbers 20:21 θέλω
- Deuteronomy 1:26 θέλω
- Joshua 24:10 θέλω
- Judges 13:23 θέλω
- 1 Samuel 14:15 θέλω
- 2 Samuel 2:21 θέλω
- 1 Kings 9:1 θέλω
- 2 Kings 8:19 θέλω
- 1 Chronicles 11:18 θέλω
- 2 Chronicles 7:11 θέλω
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G2309) appears in the Greek Septuagint — showing the first 50 of 108. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context; the Greek form is the matched word — the English is not keyword-highlighted.
- Genesis 24:8 θέλω If the woman isn't willing to follow you, then you shall be clear from this my oath. Only you shall not bring my son there again."
- Genesis 37:35 θέλω All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted. He said, "For I will go down to Sheol to my son mourning." His father wept for him.
- Genesis 39:8 θέλω But he refused, and said to his master's wife, "Behold, my master doesn't know what is with me in the house, and he has put all that he has into my hand.
- Genesis 48:19 θέλω His father refused, and said, "I know, my son, I know. He also will become a people, and he also will be great. However, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his seed will become a multitude of nations."
- Exodus 2:7 θέλω Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Should I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?"
- Exodus 2:14 θέλω He said, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you plan to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?" Moses was afraid, and said, "Surely this thing is known."
- Exodus 8:28 θέλω Pharaoh said, "I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to Yahweh your God in the wilderness, only you shall not go very far away. Pray for me."
- Exodus 10:4 θέλω Or else, if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country,
- Exodus 11:10 θέλω Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and Yahweh hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he didn't let the children of Israel go out of his land.
- Numbers 20:21 θέλω Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: why Israel turned away from him.
- Numbers 22:14 θέλω The princes of Moab rose up, and they went to Balak, and said, Balaam refuses to come with us.
- Deuteronomy 1:26 θέλω Yet you wouldn't go up, but rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God:
- Deuteronomy 2:30 θέλω But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him; for Yahweh your God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into your hand, as at this day.
- Deuteronomy 10:10 θέλω I stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights: and Yahweh listened to me that time also; Yahweh would not destroy you.
- Deuteronomy 21:14 θέλω It shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she will; but you shall not sell her at all for money, you shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her.
- Deuteronomy 23:6 θέλω You shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days forever.
- Deuteronomy 23:23 θέλω That which is gone out of your lips you shall observe and do; according as you have vowed to Yahweh your God, a freewill-offering, which you have promised with your mouth.
- Deuteronomy 25:7 θέλω If the man doesn't want to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders, and say, My husband's brother refuses to raise up to his brother a name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.
- Deuteronomy 29:19 θέλω and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to destroy the moist with the dry.
- Joshua 24:10 θέλω but I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered you out of his hand.
- Judges 13:23 θέλω But his wife said to him, If Yahweh were pleased to kill us, he wouldn't have received a burnt offering and a meal-offering at our hand, neither would he have shown us all these things, nor would at this time have told such things as these.
- Judges 20:5 θέλω The men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about me by night; me they thought to have slain, and my concubine they forced, and she is dead.
- 1 Samuel 14:15 θέλω There was a trembling in the camp, in the field, and among all the people; the garrison, and the spoilers, they also trembled; and the earth quaked: so there was an exceeding great trembling.
- 1 Samuel 18:12 θέλω Saul was afraid of David, because Yahweh was with him, and was departed from Saul.
- 1 Samuel 26:23 θέλω Yahweh will render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness; because Yahweh delivered you into my hand today, and I wouldn't put forth my hand against Yahweh's anointed.
- 2 Samuel 2:21 θέλω Abner said to him, Turn you aside to your right hand or to your left, and lay you hold on one of the young men, and take you his armor. But Asahel would not turn aside from following him.
- 2 Samuel 12:17 θέλω The elders of his house arose, [and stood] beside him, to raise him up from the earth: but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them.
- 2 Samuel 13:9 θέλω She took the pan, and poured them out before him; but he refused to eat. Amnon said, Have out all men from me. They went out every man from him.
- 2 Samuel 13:14 θέλω However he would not listen to her voice; but being stronger than she, he forced her, and lay with her.
- 2 Samuel 13:16 θέλω She said to him, Not so, because this great wrong in putting me forth is [worse] than the other that you did to me. But he would not listen to her.
- 2 Samuel 13:25 θέλω The king said to Absalom, No, my son, let us not all go, lest we be burdensome to you. He pressed him: however he would not go, but blessed him.
- 2 Samuel 14:29 θέλω Then Absalom sent for Joab, to send him to the king; but he would not come to him: and he sent again a second time, but he would not come.
- 2 Samuel 23:16 θέλω The three mighty men broke through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: but he would not drink of it, but poured it out to Yahweh.
- 2 Samuel 23:17 θέλω He said, Be it far from me, Yahweh, that I should do this: [shall I drink] the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives? therefore he would not drink it. These things did the three mighty men.
- 1 Kings 9:1 θέλω It happened, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of Yahweh, and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he was pleased to do,
- 1 Kings 10:9 θέλω Blessed be Yahweh your God, who delighted in you, to set you on the throne of Israel: because Yahweh loved Israel forever, therefore made he you king, to do justice and righteousness.
- 1 Kings 10:13 θέλω King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatever she asked, besides that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So she turned, and went to her own land, she and her servants.
- 1 Kings 21:8 θέλω So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders and to the nobles who were in his city, [and] who lived with Naboth.
- 1 Kings 21:35 θέλω
- 2 Kings 8:19 θέλω However Yahweh would not destroy Judah, for David his servant's sake, as he promised him to give to him a lamp for his children always.
- 2 Kings 13:23 θέλω But Yahweh was gracious to them, and had compassion on them, and had respect to them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, neither cast he them from his presence as yet.
- 2 Kings 24:4 θέλω and also for the innocent blood that he shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood: and Yahweh would not pardon.
- 1 Chronicles 11:18 θέλω The three broke through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: but David would not drink of it, but poured it out to Yahweh,
- 1 Chronicles 19:19 θέλω When the servants of Hadarezer saw that they were put to the worse before Israel, they made peace with David, and served him: neither would the Syrians help the children of Ammon any more.
- 1 Chronicles 28:4 θέλω However Yahweh, the God of Israel, chose me out of all the house of my father to be king over Israel forever: for he has chosen Judah to be prince; and in the house of Judah, the house of my father; and among the sons of my father he took pleasure in me to make me king over all Israel;
- 1 Chronicles 28:9 θέλω You, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind; for Yahweh searches all hearts, and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts: if you seek him, he will be found of you; but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.
- 2 Chronicles 7:11 θέλω Thus Solomon finished the house of Yahweh, and the king's house: and all that came into Solomon's heart to make in the house of Yahweh, and in his own house, he prosperously effected.
- 2 Chronicles 9:8 θέλω Blessed be Yahweh your God, who delighted in you, to set you on his throne, to be king for Yahweh your God: because your God loved Israel, to establish them forever, therefore made he you king over them, to do justice and righteousness.
- 2 Chronicles 36:5 θέλω Jehoiakim was Twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh his God.
- Ezra 11:11 θέλω
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G2309) in the Septuagint — not a translation of any one Hebrew word. The store carries no word-level Hebrew↔Greek alignment, so no Hebrew original is asserted here. Counts come from the recovered LXX Strong's tagging — high-frequency vocabulary is well covered, while rare or late forms may be untagged — so they reflect tagged occurrences and may slightly undercount.
