ἄγνοια

From the study of 1 Peter 1:14

Range of meaning

Not knowing, ignorance. In Jewish and early Christian religious language it often means specifically not knowing God, the state of idol-worshipping nations. In Jewish writing it can also mean unintentional wrongdoing.

Against the English

English 'ignorance' can sound like a lack of information or schooling, or even an insult. Here it is a theological description of a whole former way of life lived without knowing the true God. It is not a comment on anyone's intelligence.

How it drifted

Modern English 'ignorance' has narrowed toward 'lack of facts' or 'being uninformed'. The biblical sense is about relationship and religion: not knowing God, with the moral confusion that follows.

Used elsewhere in the period

Acts 17:30 ('the times of ignorance God overlooked', said to Athenians); Acts 3:17; Eph 4:17-18 (Gentiles 'darkened in understanding... because of the ignorance that is in them' and given over to impurity). Wisdom of Solomon 14:22 calls idolatry 'a great war of ignorance'. Compare 1 Thess 4:5: 'not in the passion of desire like the Gentiles who do not know God.'

From the study of Acts 17:30

Range of meaning

Lack of knowledge or not-knowing. In moral and religious settings it can also mean a culpable failure to know what one should have known. Related words: agnoeō 'not know, fail to understand', agnōstos 'unknown', agnoēma 'sin of ignorance'.

Against the English

English 'ignorance' often suggests mere lack of information, sometimes with an air of innocence ('they didn't know any better'). The Greek word in a religious context can mean something closer to 'blindness about God' that shows up in wrong worship.

How it drifted

English 'ignorance' is accurate as a gloss. The risk is hearing it as complete innocence. In Jewish and early Christian usage, ignorance of God was something one needed to be rescued from and turn away from.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Greek Old Testament (LXX), agnoia and related words describe unintentional sins that still needed atonement (Lev 5:18; 22:14). Wisdom of Solomon 13–14, a Jewish text from before Paul, blames idolatry on people who 'were ignorant of God' and calls them 'not to be excused' (13:1, 8). In Greek philosophy, Socrates and the Stoics treated wrongdoing as rooted in ignorance. Elsewhere in Luke–Acts: Acts 3:17 ('you acted in ignorance'). Pauline tradition: Eph 4:18 ('the ignorance that is in them'); 1 Pet 1:14.

From the study of Ephesians 4:18

Range of meaning

Not-knowing or ignorance, from a- ('not') + the root of ginōskō ('know'). It can be innocent (an error committed unknowingly), but in Jewish and early Christian usage it often names the Gentiles' failure to know the true God, which is a religious and moral condition.

Against the English

English 'ignorance' usually means simply lacking information, often blamelessly. Here the ignorance is 'in them' and is rooted in a hardened heart (the next phrase), so it is a not-knowing that the person's will helps to sustain.

How it drifted

Modern English uses 'ignorance' mostly for a gap in data or education. The biblical idea of 'knowing' God is relational and covenantal: acknowledging him, honouring him, belonging to him.

Used elsewhere in the period

Acts 17:30 ('the times of ignorance God overlooked') and 1 Peter 1:14 ('the passions of your former ignorance') both use it of the Gentile past. Wisdom of Solomon 13:1 says 'all people who were ignorant of God were foolish by nature', and 14:22 says they 'erred in their knowledge of God'. Paul uses a related phrase for 'the Gentiles who do not know God' (1 Thess 4:5; Gal 4:8). The Septuagint uses agnoia for sins of inadvertence (e.g. Lev 22:14).