Greek word · G147
αἰσχροκερδῶς
aischrokerdōs
greedily
Built from aischros ("shameful, disgraceful") and kerdos ("gain, profit"): "in a way that seeks shameful profit", greedily, for base gain. The gain is shameful because of the greedy motive or the dishonest method; the word does not say that money is shameful.
Appears once in the Greek New Testament.
What it means
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
Built from aischros ("shameful, disgraceful") and kerdos ("gain, profit"): "in a way that seeks shameful profit", greedily, for base gain. The gain is shameful because of the greedy motive or the dishonest method; the word does not say that money is shameful.
- Against the English
KJV/YLT "for filthy lucre" now sounds quaint and can suggest that money itself is dirty. WEB/NIV "dishonest gain" stresses fraud. ESV "shameful gain" is closest to the word's honour-shame meaning. NASB "sordid gain" is close too. BSB "greed" names the motive. The word covers both the greedy motive and the dishonest method.
- How it drifted
"Filthy lucre" comes from Tyndale's English and the Latin turpe lucrum; turpis means "disgraceful" more than "dirty". Over time "filthy" took on a physical sense, and "filthy lucre" became a jokey idiom for money in general.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The related adjective aischrokerdēs is used in lists of qualifications: deacons must not be "greedy for gain" (1 Timothy 3:8), and overseers must not be either (Titus 1:7). Titus 1:11 condemns teachers who teach "for shameful gain". Greek moralists regularly attacked philosophers and religious teachers who taught for profit, and early Christian writings test traveling teachers by whether they ask for money (Didache 11–12).
Similar words
Where it appears
1 Peter · 1
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1 Peter 5:2 αἰσχροκερδῶς for base gain
Be shepherds of God’s flock that is among you, watching over them not out of compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not out of greed, but out of eagerness;
Here: "In a shameful-profit way": serving with an eye to what you can get out of it, so that the gain is shameful because of the motive or the method. The word appears only here in the New Testament. Related words describe disqualified leaders in 1 Timothy 3:8 and Titus 1:7, 11.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.