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Do Men Seek God? "THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS?"

Do men seek the Lord? There may seem to be a contradiction in scripture between Rom 3 where a translation may give "There is none who seeks after God" while there are instance in the Bible where it says that someone(s) sought the Lord,
as well as the famous:
Seek ye the Lord while He may be found . . . let the wicked forsake his way.
A closer look at the text dispels apparent contradictions.

Rom 3 ASV "there is none that seeketh after God." Modern English: "There is none seeking out God."
"Seeks" in Greek is a present participle (seeking) from the verb ekzeteo, which is literally ek = a preposition (intensifier) + zeteo = seek.
Thus far it would appear that Rom 3 does not say that none seeks God, but that there is no one intensely seeking God.
But further study is in order.


BDAG Lexicon:
ἐκζητέω
to exert effort to find out or learn someth., seek out…
ἐ. τὸν κύριον seek the Lord to serve him (Ps 33:5; 68:33; Dt 4:29 al.) Ac 15:17 (Am 9:12); cp. Ro 3:11 (Ps 13:2; 52:3); Hb 11:6…
περί τινος seek for someth. 1 Pt 1:10 (w. ἐξεραυνάω…
to look for someth. with a view to securing it, desire, seek to get…
to look for in expectation of fixing blame, look for, seek, in the judicial sense charge (to, with) τὸ αἷμα (ἀπό τινος Lk 11:50f"
Thunkful2 31 minutes ago
There is no one who is intensely seeking God. This does not rule out incidents of seeking God. A participle indicates continuous action, process of seeking.
Dictionary form of word = ἐκζητέω = ekzeteo. The 4th letter is an eta (η) to be pronounced as the e in Señor, not like the e in bet. The sound is foreign to English.The 3rd letter is a z. Last letter is omega (long o), it looks like a w.
The actual form is a present active participle in Greek ἐκζητῶν (ων = -ing = present participle)

zeteo BDAG LEXICON
ζητέω
1. try to find someth., seek, look for in order to find
a. what one possessed & has lost…
Mt 28:5; Mk 1:37; Lk 2:48f; J 6:24, 26; 7:34, 36. τί Mt 18:12; Lk 19:10…Lk 15:8.

b. what one desires somehow to bring into relation w. oneself or to obtain w/out knowing where it is to be found
ζητεῖν τ…εἰ ἄρα γε αὐτὸν εὕροιεν search for God, in the hope that they may find him 17:27
Ro 10:20 (Is 65:1)…Mt 2:13; 12:43; 13:45 (in the special sense seek to buy…
Lk 11:24.…
fruit on a tree…Mt 7:7f; Lk 11:9f

c. be on the search for look for, search out τινά someone Mk 3:32; Ac 9:11…

2. to seek information, investigate, examine, consider, deliberate…
τὸ ζητούμενον ‘question, problem’…
.—As legal t.t. investigate ἔστιν ὁ ζητῶν κ. κρίνων there is one who investigates and judges J 8:50b… J 11:56 may also have this technical sense.

3. to devote serious effort to realize one’s desire or objective, strive for, aim (at), try to obtain, desire, wish (for)
a. desire to possess τὶ someth. …
b. wish for, aim at τὶ someth. τὸν θάνατον Rv 9:6. λύσιν 1 Cor 7:27a.
c. w. interrog. pron. τί ζητεῖτε; (cp. Gen 37:15) what do you want? J 1:38…
d. w. inf. foll…
e. OT lang. apparently is reflected in ζ. τὴν ψυχήν τινος seek the life of someone Mt 2:20…

4. ask for, request, demand τὶ someth. σημεῖον Mk 8:12. σοφίαν [wisdom] 1 Cor 1:22. δοκιμήν 2 Cor 13:3. τινά J 4:23. τὶ παρά τινος demand someth. fr. someone