StrongerBible

eritheia

ἐριθεία

GreekG2052“selfish ambition, rivalry, ...”

Appears 7 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Rom 2:82Co 12:20Gal 5:20Php 1:17(16)Php 2:3Jas 3:14Jas 3:16
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeeh-ree-THAY-ahnoun

What eritheia means

selfish ambition: a self-seeking drive to promote oneself and one's own side, which competes for standing at others' expense and splits a group into rival factions

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

The word began as a term for a hired laborer, the spinner or day-worker who works only for the wages and holds no loyalty beyond the pay. From there it came to describe someone who campaigns for office by underhanded means, pulling strings and courting favor purely to get ahead. By the time of the New Testament it had become a name for a settled attitude: putting your own advancement first, whatever it costs the people around you.

That single attitude shows up in two ways in the New Testament. Sometimes it names the inner motive itself, the self-seeking that drives a person's choices, as when Paul tells the Philippians to do nothing from selfish ambition. Sometimes it names what that motive produces out in the open, the rivalries and factions that tear a community into competing camps, as in the lists of dangers Paul fears at Corinth and among the Galatians.

Older English Bibles rendered it "strife (ἔρις)," as though it meant "quarreling" or "fighting." That rests on an old and now-abandoned guess about where the word came from. It does not mean "conflict" as such; it means the self-serving ambition that causes conflict. Modern Bibles usually say "selfish ambition" or "rivalry," and both are close, though scholars still debate which better catches its edge.

Nuances

1athe inner motive of self-seeking: the drive to put one's own advantage and standing first, the attitude a person acts out of
Rom 2:8Php 1:17(16)Php 2:3Jas 3:14
1brivalry as the visible outworking of that self-seeking: competition and party-spirit that break a group into opposing factions
2Co 12:20Gal 5:20Jas 3:16

Disputed

Whether the word centers on an individual's inner ambition or on outward, socially competitive rivalry, and therefore how best to render it in English.

  • majorityIts core is self-seeking personal ambition, and "selfish ambition" is the best default translation across its New Testament uses.; J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (1930), s.v. ἐριθεία; D. J. Moo, The Letter of James (Pillar NT Commentary, 2000), 173-174; BDAG (Danker, ed.), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 3rd ed. (2000), s.v. ἐριθεία
  • minorityIt names outward competitive rivalry within a community more than a private inner drive, so "rivalry" captures it better and "selfish ambition" undertranslates its factional, social edge.; L. T. Johnson, The Letter of James (Anchor Bible 37A, 1995), 271-272; L. T. Johnson, "James 3:13-4:10 and the topos peri phthonou," Novum Testamentum 25 (1983): 327-347; R. P. Martin, James (Word Biblical Commentary 48, 1988), 131-132
  • minorityModern "ambition" carries positive overtones the Greek word never had, so an envy word better fits its consistently negative force.; J. Wright, "Ambitious Translations? An Investigation into the Meaning of Eritheia in the New Testament," Reformed Theological Review 78.1 (2019): 28-50

What scholars say about eritheia

The consensus since C. F. A. Fritzsche (1836) and C. A. Lobeck (1843) derives ἐριθεία not from ἔρις ("strife") but from ἔριθος ("day-laborer, hireling, wool-spinner") via the verb ἐριθεύομαι ("to work for hire; to canvass or intrigue for office"). Chantraine, Frisk, and Beekes endorse the ἔριθος derivation, and ἔριθος itself is likely Pre-Greek. The side-by-side listing of ἐριθεία with ἔρις at Galatians 5:20 and 2 Corinthians 12:20 tells decisively against equating the two (so Spicq). Aristotle, Politics 5 (1302b, 1303a, 1305b), is the fullest early witness, using it of corrupt electioneering, the self-seeking pursuit of office by unfair means, a vice the Romans called ambitus (so W. L. Newman). BDAG's statement that the noun occurs before the New Testament "only in Aristotle" is inaccurate: Moulton-Milligan already noted Syll. 344.45 (a letter of Antigonus to Teos, c. 303 BC, with the compound ἀνερίθευτος), Cretan and Delphic inscriptions, and Philo (a constitution with "neither faction nor intrigue"); the base noun ἔριθος and the verb also appear in the papyri, in Isaiah 38:12 LXX (a weaver), and in Tobit 2:11. The noun does not occur in the canonical Septuagint or in Josephus. The Greek Fathers read it as self-glory rather than strife: Chrysostom glosses it as κενοδοξία and φιλαρχία, Theodoret as φιλοδοξία. Modern commentators agree on a core of self-seeking ambition while weighting its nuance by context: "self-seeking" at Romans 2:8, set against seeking God's glory in v. 7 (Cranfield, Dunn, Fitzmyer, Jewett); "rivalries" for the plural at 2 Corinthians 12:20 and Galatians 5:20 (Thrall, Furnish); "selfish ambition" in James (Moo, Davids, McKnight). Luke Timothy Johnson (Anchor Bible James; Novum Testamentum 25, 1983) and Ralph Martin stress the social, factional side and prefer "rivalry," arguing that "selfish ambition" is too individualistic, while Jai Wright (Reformed Theological Review 78.1, 2019) argues that "ambition" imports a positive modern coloring the word never bore and proposes an envy word instead.

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDAG (Danker, ed.), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 3rd ed. (2000), s.v. ἐριθείαlexicon
  • Liddell-Scott-Jones (LSJ), A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. ἐριθεία / ἔριθοςlexicon
  • J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (1930), s.v. ἐριθείαlexicon
  • F. Büchsel, "ἐριθεία," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 2:660-661theological-dictionary
  • C. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (TLNT), vol. 2, s.v. ἐριθείαtheological-dictionary
  • W. L. Newman, The Politics of Aristotle (1887-1902), notes on Politics 5.2-3commentary
  • C. E. B. Cranfield, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (ICC, 1975), 1:148-149commentary
  • P. T. O'Brien, The Epistle to the Philippians (NIGTC, 1991), 104-107commentary
  • D. J. Moo, The Letter of James (Pillar NT Commentary, 2000), 173-174commentary
  • L. T. Johnson, The Letter of James (Anchor Bible 37A, 1995), 271-272commentary
  • L. T. Johnson, "James 3:13-4:10 and the topos peri phthonou," Novum Testamentum 25 (1983): 327-347article
  • J. Wright, "Ambitious Translations? An Investigation into the Meaning of Eritheia in the New Testament," Reformed Theological Review 78.1 (2019): 28-50article

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of ἐριθεία

accusative f s

ἐριθείαν

Php 2:3, Jas 3:14

genitive f s

ἐριθείας

Rom 2:8, Php 1:17

nominative f p

ἐριθείαι, ἐριθεῖαι

2Co 12:20, Gal 5:20

nominative f s

ἐριθεία

Jas 3:16