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Lexicon / Greek

μετάνοια

metanoia

a change of mind; repentance

G3341noun, feminine

Semantic range

  1. 1a change of mind and purpose
  2. 2a reversal of judgement about oneself and one's course
  3. 3regret leading to change

Meta (after, beyond) plus nous (mind): to think differently afterward. The Greek is about reorientation of the whole mind, and it renders the Hebrew šûb, which is about turning around and going back. Neither word is centred on feeling bad.

Latin translated it paenitentiam agite — do penance — and English inherited "repent" through a root meaning to regret. Both drifts pushed a positive word toward punishment. President Russell M. Nelson addressed this directly in April 2019: repentance, he taught, is not punishment but the joyful privilege of change, and the Greek word means a change of mind, knowledge, spirit and breath.

The Book of Mormon's structure of repentance — godly sorrow, confession, forsaking, restitution, obedience — is not a set of hoops but the anatomy of an actual turn (see Mosiah 26:29; Alma 39:13; D&C 58:42–43).

In the King James Version

repentance

Where it appears

  • Matthew 3:2John's preaching: "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
  • 2 Corinthians 7:10Godly sorrow works repentance; the sorrow of the world works death.

See also

Sources