Exploring the Meaning of Euergeteo in Greek

εὐεργετέω means “to do good,” and it appears once in the New Testament, in Peter’s speech describing Jesus’ ministry. In its lone occurrence, the word is paired with healing and set within the claim that God’s power and presence accompanied Jesus’ activity.

Root and Related Words

εὐεργετέω corresponds to the related noun euergetes (εὐεργέτης), “benefactor” (Strong’s G2110). The verb expresses action that fits the character of a benefactor, portraying goodness not as an idea but as something carried out.

Occurrences

“even Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” (Acts 10:38)

In Acts 10:38, εὐεργετέω sits inside a compact description of Jesus’ public activity: he “went about,” and the text then names two coordinated actions—“doing good” and “healing.” The verb therefore contributes a broad, positive category for what characterized his movement from place to place. It is not presented as a single isolated act but as a repeated pattern summed up by a general term.

The immediate pairing with “healing all who were oppressed by the devil” gives the reader a concrete horizon for what “doing good” looked like in this narration. The “good” in view is not left as private sentiment; it is placed alongside tangible deliverance—people being healed—and framed as an answer to oppression. The verse’s language also stretches the scope: Jesus heals “all” within the described group (“all who were oppressed”), and “doing good” is likewise described as an activity he “went about” performing, suggesting habitual outward-directed beneficence rather than a momentary gesture.

Peter’s wording further anchors εὐεργετέω in divine commissioning and accompaniment. The verse begins, “how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power,” then moves to Jesus’ ongoing conduct, and closes, “for God was with him.” Within that structure, “doing good” functions as the visible expression of an anointed life empowered by the Spirit. The verb marks the kind of conduct that coheres with God’s presence: the anointing is not described as a status only, but as producing a trail of beneficent deeds as Jesus “went about.”

The clause “even Jesus of Nazareth” also contributes a particularity to the portrayal. The subject is named concretely, and εὐεργετέω attaches to a remembered ministry in real settings, among real sufferers. In this speech, “doing good” is not a timeless abstraction but a summary label for what witnesses could point to in Jesus’ movements and interventions.

Sense and Usage

Across its single attestation, “to do good” functions as a summarizing verb that gathers many actions under one moral description. It stands as a broad heading over Jesus’ public conduct, while the following participle-like phrase “healing all who were oppressed by the devil” provides a representative, named example of the goodness being enacted. In other words, εὐεργετέω is capacious enough to cover varied acts, yet the verse situates it in actions that bring relief and restoration to those under affliction.

The syntax in Acts 10:38 ties “doing good” to movement (“went about”), which gives the sense of goodness as something carried outward into multiple encounters. The verb is therefore not merely evaluative (“good” as a judgment after the fact) but descriptive of an active pattern: it marks what Jesus was engaged in as he moved among people. The phrase is also coordinated with “healing,” which keeps the “good” firmly in the realm of benefit received by others, especially by those in a condition of oppression.

The verse also places εὐεργετέω between two statements about God’s involvement: anointing “with the Holy Spirit and with power” at the beginning and the explanatory line “for God was with him” at the end. In this frame, doing good is presented as consistent with divine empowerment and presence. The goodness described is therefore not portrayed as self-generated virtue alone, but as the outworking of God’s anointing in observable deeds. The point of the speech is not to dissect categories of good, but to identify Jesus’ ministry as one marked by beneficent action that confronts and reverses oppression.

Because εὐεργετέω stands beside the explicit mention of the devil’s oppression, the “good” being done is implicitly set over against a harmful power. The verse depicts a moral contrast through action: oppression is met with healing, and the path of Jesus is characterized by beneficence rather than exploitation. In Peter’s summary, εὐεργετέω thus carries a social and restorative coloring in context, since it is linked to relief granted to suffering persons.

Imagery

The imagery attached to εὐεργετέω in Acts 10:38 is that of a traveling healer whose route is marked by beneficent deeds. The verb evokes goodness in motion—Jesus “went about”—and goodness that can be pointed to: acts that lift oppression through healing, carried out under the stated reality that “God was with him.”

Sources: Lexical data from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and the Translators Brief Lexicon of Extended Strongs for Greek (STEPBible, CC BY). Occurrence data from the Translators Amalgamated Greek New Testament (STEPBible, CC BY). Scripture quotations from the World English Bible (public domain).