Exploring the Meaning of Entruphao in Greek

ἐντρυφάω means “to revel,” and it is used in the New Testament in a warning passage about corrupt conduct and corrupt influence. Its single attested use comes in 2 Peter, where the writer depicts a kind of pleasure-seeking that is brazen, public, and morally damaging.

Root and Related Words

ἐντρυφάω is related to the preposition en (ἐν), “in/on/among” (Strong’s G1722), and to the verb tryphao (τρυφάω), “to self-indulge” (Strong’s G5171). The combined form portrays reveling as something entered into—an activity people are “in,” rather than a momentary lapse at the edges of life.

Occurrences

“receiving the wages of unrighteousness; people who count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, spots and defects, reveling in their deceit while they feast with you;” (2 Peter 2:13)

Here ἐντρυφάω sits in a tightly packed description of character and behavior. The line opens with “receiving the wages of unrighteousness,” placing their actions under a moral category and outcome: unrighteousness has its “wages,” and they accept them. Within that frame the word highlights the kind of pleasure they pursue: they “count it pleasure to revel in the daytime.” The time marker “in the daytime” sharpens the picture. Reveling is not hidden or accidental; it is carried on openly, under full visibility, as something they not only do but also calculate as enjoyable (“count it pleasure”).

The verse then uses blunt, contaminating imagery: “spots and defects.” In context, ἐντρυφάω contributes to why they deserve such labels; reveling is presented as part of what makes them blemishes among others. The wording moves from their public reveling (“in the daytime”) to a more relational harm: “reveling in their deceit while they feast with you.” The same behavior-word is now tethered to “deceit” and to shared table fellowship (“while they feast with you”). In this setting, reveling is not merely loud celebration; it is pleasure taken in a morally warped practice (“their deceit”), and it happens in the very context where trust and fellowship are expected (“with you”). The verb thus helps depict a double corruption: a love of revelry that is shamelessly public and a love of revelry that is parasitic within the community’s meals.

The repetition within the verse (“revel… reveling…”) intensifies the portrayal: their pleasure is not peripheral but characteristic. The second phrase, “reveling in their deceit,” gives the reveling an object or atmosphere—deceit is not simply present; it is the sphere in which their pleasure operates. As they “feast with you,” the reveling becomes a social threat: their enjoyment is bound up with behavior that undermines the very fellowship they are participating in.

Sense and Usage

The sense “to revel” in 2 Peter 2:13 is shaped by three immediate features of the sentence: conscious valuation, public brazenness, and corrupting companionship. First, these people “count it pleasure,” so reveling is depicted as chosen and assessed—something embraced, not regretted. Second, it is done “in the daytime,” which casts it as unashamed; daylight implies openness and refusal to be restrained by public scrutiny. Third, the setting “while they feast with you” anchors reveling in a communal moment. Rather than being isolated private indulgence, it rides alongside shared eating, where one would normally expect straightforwardness. Instead, the reveling coincides with “deceit,” so the pleasure is intertwined with false dealing and the manipulation of relationships.

This usage also shows how reveling can be morally diagnostic within a description: the verse does not treat it as neutral festivity but embeds it in a sequence of evaluative terms (“wages of unrighteousness,” “spots and defects,” “deceit”). In that rhetorical environment, “to revel” functions as a signal of ethical inversion—finding delight where one ought to be restrained—and as a marker of social danger—bringing that delight into the space of Christian fellowship. The word therefore serves as more than a report of mood; it contributes to an accusation about what kind of people they are and what their presence does to others.

Because the only occurrence ties reveling to “the daytime” and to feasting “with you,” the picture is concrete: reveling appears as a lived posture that shows itself in visible behavior and in shared settings. The verse portrays reveling as something that can coexist with outward participation in community life, even as it eats away at the community through deceit. That combination—public pleasure and private duplicity—makes the verb a pointed descriptor in the warning.

Imagery

The imagery around ἐντρυφάω in 2 Peter 2:13 is the imagery of a table and of blemish. “Feast with you” evokes an ordinary scene of eating together, yet the word paints certain participants as taking pleasure in the wrong way and for the wrong reasons. Calling them “spots and defects” frames their reveling as a stain on fellowship: not only do they enjoy themselves, but their enjoyment—bound up with “deceit”—marks and mars the gathering itself.

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).