αὐτάρκεια

From the study of 1 Timothy 6:6

Range of meaning

(1) Sufficiency: having what is enough, a sufficient supply (2 Cor 9:8). (2) Self-sufficiency: the state of not depending on external goods or circumstances. This was a central ideal for Cynic and Stoic philosophers. (3) The attitude that goes with it: contentment, being satisfied with enough.

Against the English

"Contentment" captures the attitude well. It can lose the objective side, having enough. It can also lose the philosophical idea of freedom from outside things, and it may sound like passive resignation or a pleasant feeling.

How it drifted

"Contentment" today mostly names a feeling of satisfaction. The Greek word stood on a firmer base: an actual sufficiency, together with a settled independence from wanting more.

Used elsewhere in the period

Aristotle uses it for a household or city that has enough. Cynic and Stoic writers (Teles, Epictetus, Seneca's sufficientia) praise the wise man's autarkeia. In Jewish texts, Proverbs 30:8 LXX prays "give me what is needful and sufficient (τὰ αὐτάρκη)" instead of riches or poverty. Sirach 40:18 says "the life of the self-sufficient and the worker is sweet". Psalms of Solomon 5:16 blesses the one God remembers "with a moderate sufficiency". Paul says "I have learned to be autarkēs in whatever state I am" (Phil 4:11), then roots that in Christ who strengthens him (4:13).

From the study of 2 Corinthians 9:8

Range of meaning

Literally 'self-sufficiency', from autos (self) and arkeō (to be enough). It can mean:

1. outwardly, having enough to live on, a sufficient supply;
2. inwardly, the contentment of someone who does not depend on outside goods.

Paul uses it only here and in 1 Tim 6:6 ('godliness with contentment'). The related adjective appears in Phil 4:11 ('I have learned to be content').

Against the English

The KJV, ESV and NASB keep 'all sufficiency'. The NIV and BSB say 'all that you need', and the NLT says 'everything you need and plenty left over'. 'Sufficiency' is closest. The NLT's 'plenty left over' brings out the purpose, but it could suggest more than 'enough'. Some readers hear 'all-sufficiency' as limitless wealth, which the word does not mean.

How it drifted

Modern readers rarely know that the word was a slogan of the philosophers. Without that background, 'all sufficiency' can sound like 'more than you could ever need', when the ancient sense was 'enough, so that you depend on no one'.

Used elsewhere in the period

• For Aristotle, autarkeia marked the complete good life and the self-supporting city (Nicomachean Ethics 1.7; Politics 1.2).
• Epicurus called it 'a great good' (Letter to Menoeceus 130).
• For Cynics and Stoics it was the wise man's freedom from needing external goods.
• In Jewish texts, the Greek Proverbs 30:8 asks God for 'what is needed and sufficient'.
• Psalms of Solomon 5:16 calls happy the one God remembers 'with a moderate sufficiency'.