futile: empty of any real result, so it cannot deliver what it seems to promise
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong
The charge this word makes is not that something is hollow inside but that it gets nowhere. Another Greek word for "empty" (κενός) pictures a container with nothing in it. This word looks instead at the result: whatever it describes may be busy, full, and impressive, yet it produces nothing and cannot deliver what it appeared to promise.
The Greek Old Testament had already made this word a standard verdict on idols, calling them "the empty things": objects that look like gods and do nothing whatever. That background is audible when Paul stands in Lystra and urges the crowd to turn from "these worthless things" to the living God. It also shows in the Hebrew words this Greek one commonly stood in for, above all "a breath" (הֶבֶל) and "emptiness" (שָׁוְא).
Everything the New Testament calls futile is something people were counting on:
a faith resting on a Christ who was never raised
religion that never learns to control the tongue
quarrels about the law that settle nothing
the reasoning of the wise, weighed and found empty
a whole way of living handed down from parents and grandparents
In each case the word passes a verdict rather than paints a picture. It says the thing will not work, and it says so about exactly the things people most rely on.
Nuances
1aof a belief, a religious practice, or an argument: achieving nothing, so it comes to nothing
TranslatabilityDirect
1Co 15:17Tit 3:9Jas 1:26
1bof human thinking and the way of life built on it: leading nowhere
1Co 3:201Pe 1:18*
1cused as a name for idols: the empty things, gods that are nothing at all
TranslatabilityPartial
Act 14:15
Related words
The English words used to translate mataios
“futile”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
Judges a thing worthless because it cannot deliver what it promises: idols, inherited ways of life, and unprofitable religion.Act 14:151Pe 1:18Jas 1:26
Verdicts human thinking or dispute as futile: activity that runs on but leads nowhere worthwhile.1Co 3:20Tit 3:9
Both
Both can pronounce faith void if its ground fails: within one argument Paul calls the preaching empty and the faith futile if Christ is not raised, using the two words as near-equivalents.1Co 15:141Co 15:17
Stands on its own as a name for idols. Paul urges the crowd at Lystra to turn from "these worthless things" to the living God, using the word as a label for the gods themselves.Act 14:15
Passes verdict on human thinking and on a whole way of life built from it: the reasoning of the wise is weighed and found to lead nowhere, and the manner of living handed down from parents is called the same.1Co 3:201Pe 1:18
Turns on the person who is trusting: it says that someone's own faith or religion comes to nothing, which makes it a warning about where a life is resting and not merely a comment on an activity.1Co 15:17Jas 1:26
Both
Both pass the verdict "this gets nowhere", and Titus stacks them on the same target: quarrels about the law are called both at once, rendered "unprofitable" and "worthless".Tit 3:9
In both, the verdict is the reason to drop the thing: the old commandment is set aside because it did no good, and the crowd at Lystra is told to turn away from the empty things.Heb 7:18Act 14:15
Can be said of something God himself gave: Hebrews explains that the earlier commandment was set aside because it was weak and did no good, so this word marks a genuine thing that simply cannot help rather than a fraud or a counterfeit.Heb 7:18
Its measure is benefit to people, since it is the plain negative of the ordinary verb for doing someone good ("to benefit"). In Hebrews the complaint is that the old rule brought nobody all the way to the goal, not that it produced no effect at all.Heb 7:18
μωρόςfoolish: names a failure of sense and judgment in a person, where this word names a failure of outcome in a thing
Points at emptiness and futility: something that leads nowhere and produces no real result, whether a way of life, a hope, or a kind of worship.1Co 15:17Jas 1:261Pe 1:18
Used of false gods and the empty manner of living tied to them, naming things that are hollow rather than minds that are stupid.Act 14:151Pe 1:18
Both
Both can condemn talk and disputes worth avoiding: arguments that are at once pointless (going nowhere) and foolish (lacking sense).Tit 3:92Ti 2:23
Describes a defect of sense and judgment in a person: the fool who acts without wisdom, set against the one who is prudent.Mat 7:26Mat 25:2Mat 25:3
Strong enough to be an insult hurled at another person, a charge of being a senseless fool that Jesus warns carries real weight.Mat 5:22Mat 23:17
Paul turns it ironically against the world's standards, calling the gospel God's so-called foolishness that outwits human wisdom.1Co 1:251Co 1:271Co 4:10
ματαιότηςthe noun for futility itself, the condition of producing nothing, which Paul says the created world was handed over to
Pins the verdict on one named thing and says that thing will not work: a faith that rests on a Christ who was never raised, a religion that never bridles the tongue, quarrels about the law that settle nothing.1Co 15:17Jas 1:26Tit 3:9
Can stand on its own as a name for idols, so that Paul calls them simply "these empty things" that the people of Lystra should turn away from.Act 14:15
Reads as the result of weighing something and finding it worthless, and it keeps company with other blunt charges in the same sentence, such as "foolish" and "brings no benefit".1Co 3:20Tit 3:9
Both
Both make the same charge: not that something is small or hollow inside, but that it gets nowhere and cannot deliver what it seemed to promise.1Co 15:17Eph 4:17
Both are aimed at human thinking and the living built on it: the reasoning of the wise comes to nothing, and the nations walk in the emptiness of their own minds.1Co 3:20Eph 4:17
Both describe something people are not simply left in: one is the inherited way of life believers were ransomed out of, the other the state creation was subjected to while it waits for hope to arrive.1Pe 1:18Rom 8:20
Names the emptiness itself as a condition that can be imposed from outside: the created world did not choose it but was handed over to it, and waits in hope of release.Rom 8:20
Works as the setting people move around in or the source their words come out of, rather than as a label on any one object: the nations walk in it, and false teachers speak swollen words made of it.Eph 4:172Pe 2:18
ματαιολογίαnarrows the charge to speech: empty religious talk that has no truth behind it and bears no fruit
A broad adjective that brands almost anything as futile or worthless, not just talk. It is used of idols and false gods as empty nothings.Act 14:15
Applied to the inner life and its convictions: human reasoning, a faith emptied of hope, and a religion that comes to nothing can all be called futile.1Co 3:201Co 15:17Jas 1:26
Describes a whole way of living inherited from the past as empty and pointless, something people are rescued from.1Pe 1:18
Both
Both carry the same core idea of emptiness that produces no result. Where the general word can call fruitless controversy worthless, the specific noun names that very kind of pointless talk.1Ti 1:6Tit 3:9
Names futile speech in particular: a noun for the activity of empty, aimless talking that leads nowhere. It labels a specific fault, people who have wandered off into pointless discussion.1Ti 1:6
μάτηνthe adverb: describes an action carried out to no purpose, as in worship offered pointlessly
Judges a thing itself as empty rather than judging an action: the object, the belief, or the practice is what turns out to have nothing in it. A faith with no resurrection behind it is "futile" (1 Corinthians 15:17), a religion that cannot control the tongue is "worthless" (James 1:26), and the local gods at Lystra are called "empty things" (Acts 14:15).1Co 15:17Jas 1:26Act 14:15
Attaches to a wide spread of subjects: idols, human reasoning, faith, religion, and a whole inherited way of living. In 1 Corinthians 3:20 it is the thinking of the wise that comes to nothing, and in 1 Peter 1:18 it is the manner of life handed down from the ancestors.1Co 3:201Pe 1:18
Reads as a verdict of uselessness, sitting comfortably beside plain words for no benefit: Titus 3:9 pairs it with "unprofitable" to wave off quarrels about genealogies.Tit 3:9
Both
Both deliver the same bottom line: what is described amounts to nothing in the end. James calls a self-deceived person's religion "worthless" (James 1:26), and Jesus tells the Pharisees that their worship is offered "in vain" (Matthew 15:9). In each case the religious effort produces no result.Jas 1:26Mat 15:9
Both are aimed at religion that runs on human tradition instead of God: an inherited way of life on one side (1 Peter 1:18), human commandments taught as though they were God's on the other (Mark 7:7).1Pe 1:18Mrk 7:7
Rates the doing, not the thing: the worship in question genuinely takes place, and it still achieves nothing (Matthew 15:9,Mark 7:7). It says an action misses its target, never that an object is hollow.Mat 15:9Mrk 7:7
Its entire New Testament footprint is one quoted line of Isaiah about worship built on human rules, repeated by Matthew and Mark, so it never ranges beyond that single charge.Mat 15:9Mrk 7:7
mataios in the other biblical languages
הֶבֶלHebrew“vanity”the Hebrew word for a breath or vapor, stressing how fleeting and insubstantial a thing is; the Greek word turns that into a verdict of sheer futility
Judges something as ineffectual: it produces no result, however solid it looks. Faith in a Christ who never rose would achieve nothing.1Co 15:17
Dismisses talk and disputes as getting nowhere, profitless rather than insubstantial.Tit 3:9
Exposes religion that accomplishes nothing: pious activity that fails to deliver what it promises.Jas 1:26
Both
Both become the standard biblical sneer for idols and false gods: empty no-things that cannot help those who trust them. The New Testament word echoes the Old Testament word's idol-polemic.Jer 2:5Act 14:15
The Greek word is the standard rendering of the Hebrew word for empty human thinking; Paul quotes the Psalm that calls human thoughts a vapor, using the Greek word in place of the Hebrew.Psa 94:111Co 3:20
Keeps the concrete picture of breath or vapor, naming a human life as a passing puff of air that is gone almost as soon as it appears.Job 7:16Psa 39:5Psa 144:4
Stresses transience and insubstantiality, the thing that cannot be grasped or that vanishes; the great refrain of Ecclesiastes turns on this.Ecc 1:2Pro 21:6
שָׁוְאHebrew“vanity: vain”the Hebrew word for emptiness with a strong edge of falsehood and deceit, often of lying words and worthless idols
stresses that something comes to nothing and bears no fruit: an effort, a hope, or a belief that simply fails to deliver what it promised1Co 15:171Co 3:20
applied to religion that is busy yet empty: a practice or way of life that looks devout but accomplishes nothing realJas 1:261Pe 1:18
names pointless wrangling that leads nowhere, the opposite of useful talkTit 3:9
Both
both name what is empty and worthless, with no substance behind the appearancePsa 60:111Co 3:20
both describe trust placed in something that cannot deliver, so the one who relies on it is left with nothingPsa 127:1Act 14:15
Passes judgment on worship itself. Paul tells the crowd at Lystra to turn away from "these worthless things", meaning the gods they were about to sacrifice to (Acts 14:15), and James says that a religion which lets the tongue run loose is "worthless" however sincere it looks (James 1:26). The Hebrew word is never aimed at an act of worship this way.Act 14:15Jas 1:26
Calls a thing worthless for what it is, not for how much effort was poured into it. The pattern of living handed down from earlier generations is "futile" (1 Peter 1:18), and quarrels over family trees are "worthless" and simply to be dropped (Titus 3:9). Neither verdict rests on someone having worked hard and gotten nothing back.1Pe 1:18Tit 3:9
Both
Both words flatten human planning and clever talk into nothing. The nations plot to no purpose (Psalm 2:1) and people love empty words (Psalm 4:2); Paul quotes Scripture to say that the reasonings of the wise are "futile" (1 Corinthians 3:20). The Greek word is one of the words the New Testament reaches for to say this, though the Old Testament word is more often carried into Greek by a different word for "empty".Psa 2:1Psa 4:21Co 3:20
Both can be turned on devotion itself, asking whether faith has gained anything at all. The psalmist wonders whether he has kept his heart clean for nothing (Psalm 73:13), and Paul says that if Christ has not been raised, the readers' faith is "futile" (1 Corinthians 15:17).Psa 73:131Co 15:17
Its home ground is work that yields nothing. Seed is sown and enemies eat it (Leviticus 26:16), strength is used up with no harvest to show (Leviticus 26:20), the ostrich's eggs are lost so her labor is for nothing (Job 39:16), the servant complains "I have labored for nothing" (Isaiah 49:4), and God promises a people who will not toil for nothing (Isaiah 65:23). Whole nations wear themselves out to no purpose (Jeremiah 51:58,Habakkuk 2:13). The Greek word is never used of labor that fails to pay off.Lev 26:16Lev 26:20Job 39:16Isa 49:4Isa 65:23Jer 51:58Hab 2:13
Can mean plainly empty, with nothing in it: Babylon has swallowed the speaker and set her down like an empty jar (Jeremiah 51:34). The Greek word carries only the figurative verdict "pointless" and never describes a container with nothing inside.Jer 51:34
What scholars say about mataios
The lexica agree on the sense. BDAG glosses μάταιος as "idle, empty, fruitless, useless, powerless" and treats the substantival τὰ μάταια of Acts 14:15 as idols and idolatrous worship; LSJ gives "vain, idle, trifling." Bauernfeind (TDNT 4:519-524) argues that the group's distinctive force is emptiness of EFFECT rather than of content, contrasting μάταιος with κενός, and endorses Cremer's verdict that in biblical Greek the word-group becomes an expression of total repudiation; Spicq sharpens this to "deceptive ineffectuality." Silva (NIDNTTE) treats the family together and stresses its Septuagintal profile: μάταιος renders הֶבֶל, שָׁוְא, רִיק and אָוֶן, and τὰ μάταια functions as a near-technical designation for idols (Jeremiah 2:5; 10:15; 2 Kings 17:15).1 Corinthians 3:20 is a citation of LXX Psalm 93:11 (English 94:11), where human διαλογισμοί are μάταιοι, so Paul's judgment on the wise is drawn from the Psalter rather than coined. On 1 Peter 1:18 commentators divide over the referent of the πατροπαράδοτος ἀναστροφή: most take it as the Gentile religion the addressees had left, in line with the word's idol-polemic, while a minority read ancestral Jewish custom.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. μάταιοςlexicon
LSJ, s.v. μάταιοςlexicon
O. Bauernfeind, "μάταιος κτλ.," TDNT 4:519-524theological-dictionary
C. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. μάταιοςtheological-dictionary