Greek · Strong's G4710
σπουδή
spoudḗ (spoo-DAY)
noun, feminine
Earnest haste and diligence—the kind of urgent, focused effort that takes a matter seriously and acts on it now.
Spoudē carries two complementary nuances: outward haste ("speed, hurry") and inward earnestness ("diligence, zeal, eagerness"). The two go together. A person with spoudē is one who treats a matter as important enough to drop other things and act on it without delay.
Luke uses the word of Mary's swift journey to Elizabeth—she "went into the hill country with haste" (Luke 1:39)—and Mark of Herodias' daughter coming "with haste" to ask for John's head (Mark 6:25). The same word, very different motives. In the New Testament letters spoudē almost always names a virtue: diligence in leadership (Romans 12:8), in collecting the Jerusalem offering (2 Corinthians 8:7-8, 16), and in Titus's care for the Corinthian church (2 Corinthians 7:11-12; 8:16).
Hebrews 6:11 calls believers to "shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end," and 2 Peter 1:5 commands, "giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue." Spoudē is the antidote to drift. It assumes the gospel is too important and the time too short to coast.
Common English renderings
- diligence
- earnestness
- haste
- care
Key verses
"And she came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou forthwith give me on a platter the head of John the Baptist."
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"And Mary arose in these days and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judah;"
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"or he that exhorteth, to his exhorting: he that giveth, let him do it with liberality; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness."
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"For behold, this selfsame thing, that ye were made sorry after a godly sort, what earnest care it wrought in you, yea what clearing of yourselves, yea what indignation, yea what fear, yea what longing, yea what zeal, yea what avenging! In everything ye approved yourselves to be pure in the matter."
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"And we desire that each one of you may show the same diligence unto the fulness of hope even to the end:"
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"Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue; and in your virtue knowledge;"
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