work, deed, action
At its most literal, ἔργον means a work, a deed, or an action. But that translation flattens something important. In classical Greek, ἔργον carried weight. It described the output of skilled labor, the product a craftsman left behind when he walked away from his bench. A farmer's ἔργον was the field he had tended and the harvest it produced. A builder's ἔργον was the structure that stood after his hands were done with it. The word named the visible, durable result of sustained effort.
The New Testament authors inherited all of that weight and pressed it further. Jesus speaks of ἔργα in John 5 and 10 as the works the Father gave him to complete, specific assignments with a specific purpose. Paul uses the word to distinguish between ἔργα νόμου, works of the law, and the faith that justifies. James grabs the same word and says faith without ἔργα is a corpse. Neither man contradicts the other. They're both pointing at the same concrete reality: real belief produces visible output.
In Ephesians 2:10, Paul calls believers God's ποίημα, his craftsmanship, created for ἔργα ἀγαθά, good works, that God prepared beforehand. The ἔργον here is not your effort to earn approval. It is the task the craftsman prepared his finished work to accomplish. Your life is not the worker. It's the work. That is a different posture entirely.
Most of us carry a low-grade guilt about this word. We hear works and immediately brace for one of two sermons: either you're not doing enough, or you're doing too much and trying to earn grace. I spent years bouncing between those two poles and never stopped to ask what the word actually meant to the people who wrote it. When Paul says we are created for good works, he's not giving you a to-do list or a warning. He's telling you that you are a finished product being deployed for a purpose that was decided before you existed. The ἔργον was prepared. You were prepared. The question is not whether you deserve to do it. The question is whether you'll show up.
ἔργον traces to the Proto-Indo-European root werg, meaning to do or to act. This root also gives us the Greek ὀργανον, tool or instrument, and eventually the English words work and organ. The verbal family includes ἐργάζομαι, to work or labor, and ἐνεργέω, to be at work within, from which we derive energy and the theological term energism. The compound ἐνέργεια appears in Philippians 3:21, describing the power by which Christ transforms all things.
Where ergon appears in Scripture, and why each verse showcases it.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
This verse holds the full theological load of ἔργον. The good works are not your initiative; they were prepared beforehand by God, and you are the instrument crafted to carry them out.
So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
James uses ἔργων to insist that genuine faith produces visible, concrete results. A faith with no ἔργον is not a humble faith; it is a lifeless one.
I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
Jesus uses ἔργον in the singular here, pointing to the entire mission the Father assigned him. This framing reveals ἔργον as a completed assignment, not merely scattered activity.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
The ἔργα here are visible and public. Jesus is not describing private spiritual disciplines but deeds that other people can see and trace back to God.
And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.
The phrase what they had done translates ἔργα, works. This verse grounds ἔργον in its most sobering context: deeds are recorded, and they carry lasting consequence.
Words in the same semantic family.
Every video where Adam teaches on this word, in publication order.
