Greek word · G193

ἀκρατής

akratēs

intemperate

From the alpha-privative plus kratos, 'strength, mastery'. It means without self-mastery, unable to control one's desires, whether for food, drink, sex, anger or money. The related noun akrasia was a central topic of Greek ethics: knowing what is right but being overpowered by desire.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

ἀκρατής, -ές

(κράτος), [in LXX: Proverbs 27:20 * ;]

(a) powerless, impotent;

(b) in moral sense, lacking self-control, incontinent: 2 Timothy 3:3.†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of 2 Timothy 3:3

Range of meaning

From the alpha-privative plus kratos, 'strength, mastery'. It means without self-mastery, unable to control one's desires, whether for food, drink, sex, anger or money. The related noun akrasia was a central topic of Greek ethics: knowing what is right but being overpowered by desire.

Against the English

KJV and YLT 'incontinent' was accurate in 1611, when the word meant a general lack of self-restraint, often sexual. Today it suggests loss of bladder or bowel control. BSB, NIV, ESV and WEB 'without self-control' is accurate.

How it drifted

The Latin Vulgate's incontinentes ('not holding in') passed into English. Over the following centuries 'incontinent' became mainly a medical word.

Used elsewhere in the period

Aristotle devotes Book 7 of the Nicomachean Ethics to akrasia and enkrateia, lack of self-control and self-control. Xenophon and the Stoics treat self-mastery as a basic virtue. In the New Testament, akrasia appears at Matthew 23:25 and 1 Corinthians 7:5, and enkratēs ('self-controlled') is required of an overseer at Titus 1:8.

Where it appears

2 Timothy · 1

  1. 2 Timothy 3:3 ἀκρατεῖς, without self-control,

    unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, without love of good,

    Here: 'Without power (kratos) over oneself.' This is the person ruled by appetites and impulses: the well-known moral failure Greek philosophers called akrasia. It is the exact opposite of the 'self-controlled' (enkratēs) leader of Titus 1:8.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.