Blog

by Katie Erickson

I began studying Biblical Greek in 2007 when I started my master of divinity degree at Winebrenner Theological Seminary, and it was through that class that God revealed my love for languages, particularly Biblical Greek and Hebrew (which I began learning the following year). One of my favorite aspects of these original languages of the Bible is the words that we just don’t have good English equivalents for. It takes multiple words in English to get to the general idea of these words, which adds so much beauty to these languages.

Before I get back into writing through the book of Hebrews next week, I wanted to write a post on one such word: teleios (τελειος), pronounced like TE-ley-ahs. This is an adjective (a word that describes a noun), and generally speaking, it means perfect, mature, finished, or complete. In the Greek New Testament, there are 17 occurrences of this adjective form, one of the related noun form, and 23 of the related verb. I won’t go over all 41 occurrences in this blog post, but I do want to highlight a few of them to give an idea of what this word means in its various usages.

The noun form has the meaning of perfecter, and the one occurrence happens in Hebrews 12:2a: “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” You can read more about that verse’s context here. Most common English versions translate this word as “perfecter” in that context, though a few translate it as “finisher.” Either of those meanings is good, of course, but the idea in context is that of the beginning and the end. The word translated above as “pioneer” is sometimes translated as author, source, or origin. These two words together have the idea of the beginning and the end. Jesus is the beginning and the end of faith, and everything in the middle too!

Here are some of the uses of the adjective of teleios in the New Testament, with that word highlighted for you in English. I’m quoting the NIV for each of these.

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)

“Jesus answered, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’” (Matthew 19:21)

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2)

“We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.” (1 Corinthians 2:6)

“For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.” (1 Corinthians 13:9-10)

“Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.” (1 Corinthians 14:20)

“Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13)

“He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.” (Colossians 1:28)

“Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:4)

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17)

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” (1 John 4:18)

The other uses of the adjective form that I’m not directly quoting here are in Philippians 3:15, Colossians 4:12, Hebrews 5:14, Hebrews 9:11, James 1:25, and James 3:2.

You can see from these verses that the translators of the NIV do use different English words for teleios depending on the context of the passage. That’s the thing with translating the Bible; context is king! Most words do not have a one-to-one English equivalent that’s always used for every occurrence. But with all of these translations, we get a better picture of the idea of teleios – the idea of maturity, perfection, and completeness. None of these English words fully capture this idea, though they all give us a piece of the teleios puzzle.

The occurrences of the verb form (the root is teleiow, pronounced te-ley-AH-oh) also help us get a fuller picture of this idea. A few of the occurrences are in John 4:34, Acts 20:24, Philippians 3:12, and 1 John 4:12. Look up those passages (or click the links) and see if you can find them.

You may be wondering, why am I writing so much about this one Greek word? Teleios is the goal of every person who believes in Jesus Christ. We all strive to live like Jesus, who is fully mature, complete, and perfect. We all aim to grow and mature in our faith, and the epitome of that maturity is this idea of teleios. Remember that there is only one occurrence of this word’s noun form in the New Testament, and that is describing Jesus as the perfecter of faith. Jesus embodies teleios, and we all strive to become as close as possible to imitating Jesus.

We will never fully reach teleios this side of heaven, but it is still the goal of every believer – to become perfect, mature, whole, and complete in Jesus Christ. Keep growing in your faith, growing in relationship with God, and growing in teleios.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.