Greek word · G982

βιωτικός

biōtikos

of this life

Belonging to bios, meaning livelihood, means of living, and everyday life. It refers to ordinary practical affairs: business, property, making ends meet.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Greek New Testament. · Updated November 09, 2026

What it means

βιωτικός, -ή, -όν

(βιός),

pertaining to life, hence, worldly (Field, Notes, 171): Luke 21:34, 1 Corinthians 6:3, 4.†

(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 Luke 21:34

Range of meaning: Belonging to bios, meaning livelihood, means of living, and everyday life. It refers to ordinary practical affairs: business, property, making ends meet.
Against the English: 'Of this life' (KJV, WEB) can suggest 'this world as opposed to heaven'. The Greek is more practical: everyday living and earning a living.
Used elsewhere in the period: 1 Cor 6:3-4 uses biōtika for everyday legal matters. In the papyri and Hellenistic writers the word means practical, business affairs. Compare 2 Tim 2:4, 'the affairs of everyday life (tou biou pragmateiais)'.

From the study of 1 Corinthians 6:3

Range of meaning: Belonging to bios: life as lived, meaning livelihood, means of living, property, daily affairs. Greek has two words for life. Bios is ordinary life and the means to live it. Zōē is life itself, the condition of being alive. In the plural (biōtika) the word means "everyday matters," "business affairs," "the practical concerns of living."
Against the English: BSB, NIV and NASB say "the things/matters of this life"; KJV and WEB say "things that pertain to this life." These are accurate, but "this life" can make a modern reader think of "this life versus the afterlife." The word itself is about livelihood and practical business. NLT's "ordinary disagreements" brings out the meaning in context. The Latin Vulgate's saecularia ("worldly/secular things") pushed later readers toward a sacred-versus-secular split that the Greek does not make.
How it drifted: Through the Vulgate's saecularia and later "secular" language, the phrase came to be read as "secular affairs" in contrast to religious ones. Paul's contrast is between petty and weighty, not between secular and religious.
Used elsewhere in the period: The word is used from Aristotle onward and is common in Hellenistic prose and the papyri for practical, everyday concerns, including business. It appears in the New Testament only in Luke 21:34 ("cares of daily life," merimnais biōtikais), here, and in the next verse, 1 Cor 6:4 (biōtika kritēria, "cases about everyday matters").

Where it appears

Luke · 1

Luke 21:34 βιωτικαῖς, of life —

But watch yourselves, or your hearts will be weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of life—and that day will spring upon you suddenly like a snare.

Here: The ordinary business of staying alive: earning, providing, managing affairs. These are not wicked things in themselves. The danger is that they take over the heart.

1 Corinthians · 2

1 Corinthians 6:3 βιωτικά; [the] things of this life?

Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!

Here: "Everyday matters," the business of making a living: property, money, contracts, the ordinary disputes of daily life. In context it means the kind of civil lawsuits the Corinthians were bringing against each other (v. 4).
1 Corinthians 6:4 βιωτικὰ Things of this life

So if you need to settle everyday matters, do you appoint as judges those of no standing in the church?

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