StrongerBible

pikria

πικρία

GreekG4088“bitterness, harshness”

Appears 4 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Act 8:23Rom 3:14Eph 4:31Heb 12:15
Word studyResearch-gradepik-REE-ahnoun

What pikria means

1

bitterness of spirit: a settled, resentful temper that nurses a wrong and refuses to be reconciled, along with the cutting speech it produces.

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

In everyday Greek this was the ordinary word for a soured, resentful temper. The philosopher Aristotle described such people as the kind who nurse an injury and stay angry a long time, refusing to be reconciled until they have paid the other person back. That is the flavor here: not a passing bad mood but a hardened sourness of heart that holds on to a wrong.

Paul puts this word at the head of a list of things to get rid of, ahead of rage (θυμός) and anger. The order matters: the bitterness is the root, and the shouting and slander are what grow out of it. The same soured temper also shows itself in speech, which is why a mouth "full of cursing and bitterness" pictures words meant to wound.

Nuances

1aa settled inner disposition of resentment: an embittered, unforgiving temper that harbors a wrong and will not let it go.
Eph 4:31
1bharsh, cursing, vindictive speech: the bitter cruelty that pours out of an embittered mouth.
Rom 3:14
2

a bitter poison: the corrupting, defiling influence of someone or something that turns away from God and threatens to poison the whole community.

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

This is a very different picture, and it comes from the Greek Old Testament rather than from Greek philosophy. There this word was used to translate the name of a bitter, poisonous plant, wormwood (לַעֲנָה), in a warning against anyone in the community "whose heart turns away" from God. Such a person is a hidden poison, a bitter root that can spread and defile everyone around.

Both New Testament uses lean on that warning. When Peter tells Simon he is caught in "the gall of bitterness," he is naming him a covenant-breaker in the making, someone whose corruption could poison the church. When Hebrews warns against a "root of bitterness" springing up and defiling many, it means the same thing: not a private grudge but a poisonous influence that leads people to abandon God. The way this word is paired with "gall" (χολή) belongs to that same Old Testament language of poison.

Act 8:23Heb 12:15

What scholars say about pikria

The lexicons place πικρία on an arc from "sharp, piercing" (its early Homeric use of arrows) through "bitter to the taste" to "harsh, resentful" (LSJ, s.v. πικρός; BDAG 812-13; Louw-Nida 88.201-204; Michaelis, TDNT 6:122-27). New Testament usage of the noun divides into two registers. In the Hellenistic ethical register (Eph 4:31; Rom 3:14) πικρία is the settled temper of resentment familiar from Aristotle's δυσδιάλυτοι, "those hard to reconcile" (Nic. Eth. 4.11.5), and continued through Plutarch and the papyri; the commentators are unanimous here (Hoehner; Best, ICC; Lincoln, WBC; O'Brien, PNTC). In the Septuagintal register (Acts 8:23; Heb 12:15) πικρία draws on LXX Deuteronomy 29:17, where it renders לַעֲנָה (wormwood) and, paired with χολή (for רֹאשׁ), characterizes the covenant apostate "whose heart turns away." Acts 8:23 is a near-citation of that text, placing Simon in the role of the covenant-turncoat (Barrett, ICC; Fitzmyer, AB; Bock, BECNT), and Heb 12:15 alludes to it (Attridge, Hermeneia; Lane, WBC; Ellingworth, NIGTC), with wide agreement that the "root of bitterness" is an apostate whose defection defiles many, not a private grudge; some also cite 1QS 2:11-18 and 1QH ix.16 as showing the passage was a live intertext for community discipline. At Rom 3:14 Paul follows LXX Psalm 9:28, where πικρία renders Hebrew מִרְמוֹת ("deceits"); scholars debate whether this reflects a textual or aural confusion with the מרר root or a deliberate semantic bridge to hostile, biting speech (Cranfield, ICC; Dunn, WBC; Fitzmyer, AB), but all read it as verbal cruelty. Underlying both registers is the LXX's deliberate use of the πικρ- stem across the adjacent Hebrew fields of מרר ("bitter") and מרה ("rebel").

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

  • LSJ (Liddell-Scott-Jones), s.v. πικρόςlexicon
  • BDAG (Danker), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 3rd ed. (2000), 812-13lexicon
  • Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, §§79.40, 88.201-204lexicon
  • Takamitsu Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (2009), s.v. πικρία, πικραίνωlexicon
  • Wilhelm Michaelis, "πικρός, πικρία, πικραίνω," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 6:122-127dictionary
  • Moisés Silva, ed., New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis (NIDNTTE), rev. ed. (2014), s.v. πικρόςdictionary
  • Robert Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek (2010), 2:1190dictionary
  • Harold W. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary (2002), 636-39commentary
  • Ernest Best, Ephesians, ICC (1998), 460-64commentary
  • Andrew T. Lincoln, Ephesians, WBC 42 (1990)commentary
  • Peter T. O'Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians, PNTC (1999), 348-50commentary
  • Harold W. Attridge, Hebrews, Hermeneia (1989), 368-69commentary
  • William L. Lane, Hebrews 9-13, WBC 47B (1991), 449-53commentary
  • Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, NIGTC (1993), 663-66commentary
  • C. K. Barrett, The Acts of the Apostles, ICC (1994), 1:409commentary
  • Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Acts of the Apostles, AB 31 (1998), 408-09commentary
  • Darrell L. Bock, Acts, BECNT (2007), 340-41commentary
  • C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans, ICC (1975), 1:194-95commentary
  • James D. G. Dunn, Romans 1-8, WBC 38A (1988), 150-51commentary

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

All attested forms of πικρία

genitive f s

πικρίας

Act 8:23, Rom 3:14, Heb 12:15

nominative f s

πικρία

Eph 4:31