Greek word · G5367

φίλαυτος

philautos

selfish

'Fond of oneself, self-loving', almost always in the bad sense of being selfish and self-centred, putting your own interest first. It appears only here in the New Testament.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

φίλ-αυτος, -ον

loving oneself (Arist.); in bad sense (ib.), selfish: 2 Timothy 3:2.†

SYN.: αὐθάδης (see Tr., Syn., § xciii) (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

'Fond of oneself, self-loving', almost always in the bad sense of being selfish and self-centred, putting your own interest first. It appears only here in the New Testament.

Against the English

'Lovers of self' (ESV, NASB, WEB) and 'lovers of themselves' (BSB, KJV, NIV) are accurate. 'Selfish' catches the moral tone well. The English phrase can now be heard through the modern idea of healthy 'self-love', which the Greek word does not address.

How it drifted

Modern therapeutic language made 'self-love' a positive term meaning self-acceptance or self-care. Some readers then hear this verse as condemning that. Others treat it as a clinical diagnosis of narcissism. Neither is what the ancient word was about.

Used elsewhere in the period

Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics 9.8) discusses whether a person should be philautos. He notes that the word is used as a reproach for people who grab more than their share of money, honours and bodily pleasures, and he contrasts them with the noble person who 'loves himself' by pursuing virtue. The Jewish philosopher Philo, a contemporary of Paul, uses the word harshly and repeatedly; he pairs the self-loving mind with the godless mind (Allegorical Interpretation 1.49) and sets it against love of God.

Where it appears

2 Timothy · 1

  1. 2 Timothy 3:2 φίλαυτοι, lovers of self,

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

    Here: 'Self-loving' in the bad sense Greek moralists used: putting yourself at the centre and grabbing for your own advantage. It heads the list as the root trait, and the list closes in verse 4 with its opposite: 'lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.'

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