Greek word · G462

ἀνόσιος

anosios

unholy

Impious or unholy in the sense of violating hosios: what is right by divine and natural law, especially the basic duties owed to the gods, the dead, family and guests. It was used of crimes such as killing a relative or leaving the dead unburied.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

ἀν-όσιος, -ον

(ἀ- neg., ὅσιος), [in LXX: Ezekiel 22:9 (זִמָּה, Wisdom of Solomon 12:4, 2Ma.7:34 2Mac 8:32, 3Ma.2:2 3Mac 5:7, 4Ma.12:11 * ;]

unholy, profane (Cremer, 464): 1 Timothy 1:9, 2 Timothy 3:2 (MM, VGT, see word).†

(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 3:2

Range of meaning

Impious or unholy in the sense of violating hosios: what is right by divine and natural law, especially the basic duties owed to the gods, the dead, family and guests. It was used of crimes such as killing a relative or leaving the dead unburied.

Against the English

'Unholy' (most versions) can sound to modern ears like 'not sanctified' or 'not spiritual enough'. YLT's 'unkind' is too weak. NLT's paraphrase 'consider nothing sacred' captures the sense well.

How it drifted

In church English, 'holy/unholy' became mostly a matter of personal spirituality or ritual status. The Greek hosios family was about the sacred decencies of ordinary life.

Used elsewhere in the period

1 Timothy 1:9 places anosioi right next to 'those who kill their fathers or mothers'. In Greek tragedy and law the word marks outrages against kin and the gods. In the Greek Old Testament, hosios often translates ḥasid, the faithful and devout person.

Where it appears

1 Timothy · 1

  1. 1 Timothy 1:9 ἀνοσίοις for [the] unholy

    We realize that law is not enacted for the righteous, but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for killers of father or mother, for murderers,

    Here: People who lack hosiotēs, the sense of what is sacredly fitting toward God and toward sacred bonds. In Greek it can describe outrages against gods, the dead or kin.

2 Timothy · 1

  1. 2 Timothy 3:2 ἀνόσιοι, unholy,

    For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

    Here: People who trample what is sacred: the basic decencies owed to God, to the dead and to family, which everyone took to be divinely sanctioned. This is less about lacking ritual holiness than about recognising no sacred limits.

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