Status: Core study Faith & Logic Published August 28, 2026 Updated September 3, 2026
Turn. Not a mood.
The older word in Israel’s Scriptures is שׁוּב (shuv): to turn, to go back. The prophets are not asking for a feeling. They are asking a people to come back to the God who already spoke.
In the Greek of the New Testament the usual word is μετανοέω (metanoeō), μετάνοια (metanoia). It is a change of mind that changes direction. First hearers did not hear “feel worse in a church basement.” They heard: stop walking that way. Walk this way.
John the Immerser preached it. Yeshua preached it. Peter’s first public answer after the resurrection was “Repent” (Acts 2:38). Paul told Greeks that God now commands all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30). Same turn. Different streets.
What it is not: a performance of tears. A sentence you recite so God will owe you. A one-time mood that never touches what you do next. Sorrow may come with it. Sorrow is not the same thing.
On this site, repent means the turn in the call: away from sin, toward Yeshua.
The gift is still a gift. The turn is how a hearer answers/responds.