αὐτάρκης

From the study of Philippians 4:11

Range of meaning

Made of autos ("self") and arkeō ("to be enough, to suffice"). Basic sense: sufficient in oneself, needing nothing outside oneself. Applied to:

• a city or household: self-supporting, economically independent
• things: enough, an adequate amount
• persons: content, inwardly independent of circumstances

BDAG gives "content, self-sufficient" for this verse.

Against the English

English versions all say "content". Today that word mostly names a feeling: being satisfied or happy enough with what you have. The Greek word is more about adequacy and independence. Paul is not first saying he feels pleased. He is saying his footing does not depend on whether supplies come in. The feeling follows from that, but it is not the core of the word.

How it drifted

English "content" comes from Latin contentus, "held together, contained" (from continere). Seneca used exactly that Latin word for the Stoic ideal: se contentus est sapiens, "the wise man is sufficient to himself" (Epistle 9). Over time, English "content" shifted from "self-contained" toward "emotionally satisfied", and the idea of independence faded.

Used elsewhere in the period

• Philosophy. Aristotle makes autarkeia a mark of the good life and of the complete city (Nicomachean Ethics 1.7; Politics). Cynics and Stoics turned it into a personal virtue: the wise man is unshaken by wealth or poverty (Teles; Epictetus; Seneca, Epistle 9; Socrates as Xenophon portrays him).
• Jewish Greek. Proverbs 30:8 LXX prays for "what is needful and sufficient" (ta autarkē). Sirach 40:18 speaks of "the life of the self-sufficient and the worker". Psalms of Solomon 5:16 calls happy the one whom God remembers "with a moderate sufficiency".
• New Testament. The adjective appears only here. The noun autarkeia appears in 2 Cor 9:8 (God makes you have "all sufficiency in everything") and 1 Tim 6:6 ("godliness with contentment").