Greek word · G889

ἀχρειόω

achreioō

to make worthless

To make useless or unserviceable. Passive: to become useless, good-for-nothing, spoiled, depraved (BDAG). Related to ἀχρεῖος, 'useless', as in the 'worthless servant' of Matthew 25:30 and the 'unworthy servants' of Luke 17:10.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

ἀχρεόω (Rec. -ειόω, Polyb., LXX), -ῶ

(ἄχρεος = ἀχρεῖος) [in LXX (-ειόω) for אָלַח ni., etc. ;]

to make useless, unprofitable: pass., Romans 3:12 (LXX).†

(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 Romans 3:12

Range of meaning

To make useless or unserviceable. Passive: to become useless, good-for-nothing, spoiled, depraved (BDAG). Related to ἀχρεῖος, 'useless', as in the 'worthless servant' of Matthew 25:30 and the 'unworthy servants' of Luke 17:10.

Against the English

KJV and WEB 'unprofitable' and NASB/NLT-style 'useless' stay close to the Greek. 'Worthless' (BSB, NIV, ESV) is a fair dictionary option, but modern ears hear it as 'having no value as a person'.

How it drifted

In older English 'worthless' meant 'good for nothing, of no use'. Today it is also strongly tied to talk about self-worth and personal dignity, which is foreign to this word.

Used elsewhere in the period

Paul's wording comes straight from the Septuagint, Psalm 13:3 and 52:4. There it translates Hebrew ne'elachu (from 'alach). That verb appears only in these psalms and Job 15:16 ('abominable and corrupt'). Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) link it to an Arabic word for milk turning sour: it means gone off, rotten. In other Hellenistic Greek the verb is used of making things unfit for use.

Similar words

Where it appears

Romans · 1

  1. Romans 3:12 ἠχρεώθησαν· they became worthless;

    All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

    Here: 'They were made useless': no longer fit for the purpose they were made for. The Hebrew of the Psalm behind it, ne'elachu, means 'gone bad, turned rotten', like food that has spoiled. The word is about being unfit, not about having no value.

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