The Greek noun hēdonē (ἡδονή) means pleasure, enjoyment, sensual desire. It appears five times in the NT (Luke 8:14; Titus 3:3; James 4:1, 3; 2 Pet 2:13). The English word 'hedonism' derives from this Greek root. In every NT occurrence, hēdonē carries a negative connotation — pleasure as a rival to God rather than a gift from God.
In James 4:1–3, hēdonē is diagnosed as the root of conflict: 'What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your hēdonai (pleasures) are at war in your members?' The pleasures wage an internal campaign that spills into external violence. In Luke 8:14 (the Parable of the Sower), hēdonai are among the thorns that choke the word. In Titus 3:3, Paul recalls his pre-conversion state: 'enslaved to various passions and pleasures (hēdonais).' The consistent NT witness is that hēdonē, when disordered, is not merely harmless indulgence but an enslaving and destructive power.