Eirene: The Greek Word for Peace
Every letter Paul wrote opens with a blessing of eirene. It is the Greek word standing behind every “peace” in the New Testament, and it carries far more than calm. Behind it stands the Hebrew shalom: wholeness, welfare, things set right.
noun, feminine.
Eirene is the New Testament word for peace: not merely the absence of conflict but well-being restored on every side, with God, with others, and within.
In everyday Greek, eirene mostly meant the absence of war. The New Testament writers, thinking in Hebrew, poured shalom into it: completeness, health, rest, right relationship. So when Jesus says “my peace I give unto you,” He is not offering a quiet afternoon. He is offering a settled wholeness that holds while circumstances do not.
The New Testament orders peace carefully. First comes peace with God, made through justification: the war is over, the relationship is set right. Out of that grows the peace of God, the guard that stands watch over hearts and minds in Christ Jesus when anxiety presses in. One is a fact to rest on; the other is an experience to pray for. Philippians 4 says the second comes through prayer with thanksgiving, not through resolving everything first.
Key verses
“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
Jesus bequeaths His own peace on the night of His arrest, and marks it as different in kind from what the world gives.
“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
The peace of God is not the reward for solving your worries but the guard God posts while they are still unsolved.
“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:”
Peace with God is a settled result of justification. It rests on what Christ did, not on how today went.
“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
Jesus promises tribulation and peace in the same breath. One does not cancel the other.
“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.”
Peace can act as referee, ruling in the heart when competing anxieties and demands each want the final say.
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (KJV), public domain.
Related words
Keep your prayers. Open the Word.
Your prayer journal
Save every prayer, revisit them, and watch how God answers over time.
The full Bible
Fifteen translations, words of Jesus in red, and plain-language verse explanations.
Explore any topic
A concordance that gathers every verse on the things you pray about.
Free. No subscriptions. Every feature included.