Parrhesia began as the citizen’s right to speak freely; in the New Testament it becomes the open, unafraid speech of witnesses before rulers () and the confident access of believers before God (; ).
occurs 31 times in the NT and the verb (“speak boldly”) 9 times; the noun is concentrated in John, Acts, Hebrews and 1 John.
Secondary· historical evidencehigh
In classical Athens parrēsia (from pan, “all”, + rhēsis, “speech”) named the free citizen’s right to say everything in the assembly; later moral philosophers used it for frank speech between friends.
Source: H. Schlier, “parrēsia”, TDNT 5; Plutarch, How to Tell a Flatterer from a Friend
Primary· what the text sayshigh
NT usage has three directions: openly, not in secret (; ); boldly before people (; ); confidently before God (; ; ).
Secondary· theological synthesishigh
The Old Testament has no single Hebrew equivalent. Moses, Elijah, Nathan, Jeremiah, Daniel, Esther and Nehemiah are included here as thematic parallels — people who spoke truth to power — not as occurrences of the word.
1 John grounds confidence before God in a heart that does not condemn and in obedience ().
Cautions — what the evidence does not establish
Secondary· scholarly interpretationhigh
Parrēsia in the NT is not general self-assertion; it is speech grounded in God’s word, Christ’s work or a clean conscience.
Secondary· linguistic evidencemedium
Statements about Septuagint usage rely on standard concordances and lexica; the Greek OT text is not part of this app’s dataset.
Tertiary· devotional applicationtraditional gloss
The OT episodes illustrate boldness by analogy; applying them to modern situations is devotional reflection, not exegesis.
Primary
The biblical text, original languages, manuscripts and lexical data
Secondary
Scholarship, historical research and archaeology
Tertiary
Tradition, denominational and popular interpretation, devotional application
Cross-reference network
Each dot is a curated text placed in canonical order; arcs join consecutive texts that share a theme. Curated selection, not an exhaustive concordance — see Word study for full occurrence data.
Freedom of speech
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Jesus spoke “openly to the world” and “said nothing in secret” ().
Texts:
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Jesus spoke “quite openly” about His death.
Primary· what the text sayshigh
“Now You are speaking plainly and not in figures of speech.”
Primary· what the text sayshigh
“I have spoken openly to the world.”
Bold proclamation
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Paul preached “with all boldness and without hindrance” ().
Texts:
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Peter at Pentecost: “I can tell you with confidence that the patriarch David died.”
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Filled with the Spirit, they “spoke the word of God boldly”.
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Saul “had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus” in Damascus.
Primary· what the text sayshigh
The last words of Acts: “with all boldness and without hindrance”.
Confidence before God
Primary· what the text sayshigh
“We have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus” ().
Texts:
Primary· what the text sayshigh
“If we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope of which we boast.”
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Confidence to enter the sanctuary.
Primary· what the text sayshigh
“If our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God.”
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Confidence on the day of judgment.
Confidence in prayer
Primary· what the text sayshigh
“Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence” (); “if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us” ().
Texts:
Primary· what the text sayshigh
“Enable Your servants to speak Your word with complete boldness.”
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Paul asks prayer “that I may proclaim it fearlessly, as I should”.
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Approach the throne of grace with confidence.
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Confidence that He hears us.
Courage under persecution
Primary· what the text sayshigh
“We had previously suffered and been mistreated in Philippi … but we were bold in our God” ().
Texts:
Primary· what the text sayshigh
No one spoke “openly” about Him for fear of the Jews.
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Paul and Barnabas at Iconium “spoke boldly for the Lord”.
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Bold in God after suffering at Philippi.
Primary· what the text sayshigh
“Do not throw away your confidence; it holds a great reward.”
Fearless witness
Primary· what the text sayshigh
The council saw “the boldness of Peter and John” and realized they were unschooled ().
Texts:
Primary· what the text sayshigh
The boldness of Peter and John.
Primary· what the text sayshigh
“With all boldness Christ will be exalted in my body.”
Confidence in Christ
Primary· what the text sayshigh
“In Him and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence” (); confidence at His coming ().
Texts:
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Freedom of access through faith in Christ.
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Good deacons gain “great confidence in the faith”.
Open declaration of truth
Primary· what the text sayshigh
“Since we have such a hope, we are very bold” (); at the cross Christ made “a public spectacle” (en parrēsia) of the powers ().
Texts:
Primary· what the text sayshigh
“If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Hope makes the minister “very bold”.
Primary· what the text sayshigh
The powers disarmed and exposed publicly.
Original-language word study
Primary· linguistic evidencehigh Occurrence counts are verses whose tagged lemma matches the Strong's number. Glosses are the interlinear's contextual English and vary by translation. Latin terms have no tagged corpus here.
Used only in Acts (7×), and , always of preaching under pressure.
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θαρρέωtharreō“be confident”Greek
Verb: be of good courage
Primary· linguistic evidencehigh
tharreō: “we are always confident” (); “we can say with confidence, the Lord is my helper” ().
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πείθωpeithō“to persuade”Greek
Verb: persuade / be confident
Primary· linguistic evidencemedium
Perfect pepoitha = “I am confident” (; ); related to pistis.
קוֹמְמִיּוּתqo.me.miy.yut“uprightness”Hebrew
Hebrew background
Secondary· scholarly interpretationmedium
qōmĕmiyyût, “upright” (, God made Israel “walk upright”), is rendered “with parrēsia” in the Septuagint — freedom from the slave’s bowed posture.
Source: LXX Leviticus 26:13; Schlier, TDNT 5
בָּטַחba.tach“to trust”Hebrew
Hebrew background
Primary· linguistic evidencehigh
bāṭah, “trust, feel secure”: “the righteous are as bold (yibṭāḥ) as a lion” ().
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Concept neighbourhood
Everything directly linked to Parrhesia: other concepts, themes, people and books. Open the full network →
Primary linkSecondaryTertiaryPersonBookTap a node to list its links.
Development across Scripture and reception
Canonical stages follow the order of the biblical books; reception stages (LXX, Fathers, councils, Latin, medieval, Reformation) are history of interpretation and are labelled as such.
Genesis & Law · canonical text
Walking upright
Secondary· scholarly interpretationmedium
God “broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk upright” (); the Septuagint renders “upright” as “with parrēsia”, linking freedom of bearing with release from slavery.
Source: LXX; Schlier, TDNT 5
Historical books · canonical text
Prophets before kings
Secondary· theological synthesishigh
Elijah and Nathan confront kings to their faces. The narratives show the conduct later called parrēsia, without the word.
Psalms & Wisdom · canonical text
Job and the bold righteous
Secondary· scholarly interpretationmedium
In the Septuagint Eliphaz promises Job that if he returns to God he will “have parrēsia before the Lord” (), and Job asks whether the godless can have parrēsia before Him () — an early link between boldness and standing before God.
Source: LXX Job; Schlier, TDNT 5
Prophets · canonical text
Jeremiah before kings
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Jeremiah tells officials, “The LORD sent me to prophesy,” though they may kill him ().
Septuagint (LXX) · reception history
Septuagint usage
Secondary· historical evidencemedium
The LXX uses parrēsia about a dozen times, including Wisdom crying out “with boldness” in the squares ( LXX). Exact counts depend on the edition.
Source: Hatch–Redpath, Concordance to the Septuagint
Second Temple Judaism · reception history
Philo and Hellenistic Judaism
Secondary· historical evidencemedium
Philo (Who Is the Heir 5–29) presents Moses’ frank speech with God as the parrēsia of a friend — combining Greek political frankness with Israel’s tradition of intercession.
Source: Philo, Quis rerum divinarum heres sit
Gospels · canonical text
Jesus speaks openly
Primary· what the text sayshigh
John uses parrēsia nine times, contrasting public speech with secrecy and fear.
Acts · canonical text
The Spirit-filled church
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Boldness is prayed for, given by the Spirit, and frames the whole book from Pentecost to Rome.
Pauline & General Epistles · canonical text
Access and frankness
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Paul uses the word of confidence before God and before people; 1 John uses it of prayer and the day of judgment.
Hebrews · canonical text
Hold fast your confidence
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Hebrews makes parrēsia the believer’s right of access through Christ’s priesthood, and urges readers not to throw it away.
Church Fathers · reception history
Martyr literature
Tertiary· traditiontraditional gloss
Early martyr accounts (e.g. the Martyrdom of Polycarp 10) describe confession before magistrates in language of bold speech; later writers (e.g. John Chrysostom) speak of the saints’ parrēsia before God in intercession.
Source: Martyrdom of Polycarp; Chrysostom, homilies
People in this study
Secondary· theological synthesishigh
The 21 people are those named in the module brief. “Called righteous” is checked against the Hebrew/Greek wording, so only some are explicit. Hebrews 11 commends faith, not sinlessness: most of these people have a recorded failure or lament, and where none is recorded the narrative is usually very short.
Dot colour: green = called righteous in the text · blue = implied by the text · violet = tradition only.
Person
Era
Status
Texts
Exodus
Implied (near-synonyms / commended for faith)
Undated (wisdom narrative)
Called righteous in the text
Divided monarchy
Implied (near-synonyms / commended for faith)
Exile
Called righteous in the text
Late monarchy / exile
Implied (near-synonyms / commended for faith)
Acts / epistles
Called righteous in the text
Moses
ExodusImplied (near-synonyms / commended for faith)
Why called righteous
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Not called ṣaddîq; called faithful in all God’s house (; ).
Faith
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Chose ill-treatment with God’s people; “he persevered as if seeing Him who is invisible” ().
Obedience
Primary· what the text sayshigh
“Moses did everything just as the LORD had commanded him” ().
Undated (wisdom narrative)Called righteous in the text
Why called righteous
Primary· what the text sayshigh
The narrator calls him “blameless and upright” ( wəyāšār, ); Job calls himself “righteous and blameless” (); Ezekiel names him with Noah and Daniel “by their righteousness” ().
Faith
Primary· what the text sayshigh
“Though He slay me, I will hope in Him” (); “I know that my Redeemer lives” ().
Obedience
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Feared God and shunned evil (); his oath of innocence lists his conduct ().
Tests
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Loss of children, wealth and health (; ).
Failures
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Elihu and the LORD rebuke him for words “without knowledge” (); Job repents (). The LORD still says Job spoke rightly, unlike the friends ().
Victories
Primary· what the text sayshigh
“The LORD restored his prosperity” (); “you have heard of Job’s perseverance” ().
Ezekiel names “Noah, Daniel and Job” as men saved “by their righteousness” (; ). Whether Ezekiel’s Dan(i)el is the Daniel of the book of Daniel or an ancient figure (cf. Ugaritic Danel) is debated.
Faith
Primary· what the text sayshigh
“No wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God” (); Hebrews alludes to those who “shut the mouths of lions” ().
Obedience
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Resolved not to defile himself (); prayed three times a day despite the decree ().
Tests
Primary· what the text sayshigh
The lions’ den ().
Failures
Primary· what the text sayshigh
None recorded; he confesses the sins of the people as “we” ().
Calls himself “as to righteousness in the law, faultless” () but counts it loss for “the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith” (); “how holy, righteous and blameless we were” ().
Faith
Primary· what the text sayshigh
“The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God” ().
Obedience
Primary· what the text sayshigh
“I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision” ().
Tests
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Imprisonments, beatings, shipwreck (); the thorn in the flesh ().
Failures
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Persecuted the church (; ); sharp disagreement with Barnabas ().
Victories
Primary· what the text sayshigh
“I have fought the good fight … I have kept the faith” (); preached “with all boldness” to the end of Acts ().
New Testament commentary
Primary· what the text sayshigh
Paul is the main NT voice on righteousness by faith (; ; ) and on parrhesia in ministry (; ).
SecondaryPhilo, Who Is the Heir; Plutarch, How to Tell a Flatterer — Hellenistic and Jewish background.
TertiaryMartyrdom of Polycarp; John Chrysostom — Patristic reception.
Secondary· theological synthesismedium This page is a curated study, not an exhaustive treatment; interpretive claims are labelled with their tier and confidence.