Greek word · G2550

κακοήθεια

kakoētheia

malice

Literally 'bad character/disposition'. In use it means spite, malignity, the habit of putting the worst construction on everything and everyone, often with crafty ill-will.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

κακοήθεια (WH, -θία), -ας, ἡ

(κακός, ἦθος), [in LXX: Esther 8:13, 3Ma.3:22 3Mac 7:3 A, 4Ma.1:4 4Mac 3:4 * ;]

malignity, malevolence: Romans 1:29 (Cremer, 329).†

(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 Romans 1:29

Range of meaning

Literally 'bad character/disposition'. In use it means spite, malignity, the habit of putting the worst construction on everything and everyone, often with crafty ill-will.

Against the English

KJV 'malignity'; YLT 'evil dispositions'; WEB 'evil habits'; BSB/NIV 'malice'; ESV 'maliciousness'. 'Malice' is fair but general; it misses the specific trait of suspicious, worst-case reading of others.

Used elsewhere in the period

Aristotle, Rhetoric 2.13 (1389b): kakoētheia 'is taking everything in the worse sense' (said of embittered old men). It appears in 3 and 4 Maccabees (4 Macc 1:4 in a vice list) and in the Greek additions to Esther for cunning, malicious scheming.

Where it appears

Romans · 1

  1. Romans 1:29 κακοηθείας, maliciousness,

    They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,

    Here: Literally 'bad-characteredness.' Aristotle defined it as assuming the worst about everything: a malicious habit of reading others in the worst light and acting on it.

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