What does repentance (metanoia) mean?
Metanoia (μετάνοια) means a change of mind, from meta (change) and nous (mind), a turning of the mind that turns the man. "God... commandeth all men every where to repent" (Acts 17:30).
What the text states
Metanoia is a change of mind that reorients the person, which Chuck Smith glossed on Acts 17:30 as “to turn. To turn from their own selfish ways unto Him.” The Hebrew equivalent is shuv, to turn back. Repentance and faith are two sides of one motion: turning from sin is turning to Christ.
Metanoia is not primarily sorrow (that is a fruit of it, 2 Cor 7:10), and it is not a meritorious work added to faith; it is the about-face that believing is.
Go deeper
Checked 2026-09-29 by Darren. 45 Scripture citations verified against the KJV rows. Every Strong's number in the wave-3 notes resolved against our own strongs_greek / strongs_hebrew and the lemma matched the form in the file. Wave 3. 45 quoted fragments table-passed against the verses table, all pass. 21 Greek and 3 Hebrew Strong's entries cross-checked against strongs_greek (5,523 rows) and strongs_hebrew (8,674). Three notes, none a form mismatch: (1) G2434 hilasmos is glossed in our table as 'atonement... an expiator', usage 'propitiation', so Strong's own wording is softer than the answer's 'not merely expiation'; Thayer and BDAG carry the propitiation sense and the KJV renders it so. (2) G728 is spelled arrhabon in our table (double rho) against the file's arrabon; the same word, a transliteration convention. (3) our table derives skenoo (G4637) from skenos (G4636), while the answer says it is built on skene (G4633); the three are cognate and skene is the LXX's tabernacle word. One reference in the wave-3 verification notes did not exist: Rev 22:24 (Revelation 22 ends at verse 21). Ruled by Darren 2026-09-29 a typo for Rev 22:17 and corrected in the source file. The hilasmos gloss discrepancy was ruled the same day: the answer stands and is not softened.