Word For Evil

Jonathan Robie jwrobie at mindspring.com
Tue Aug 24 08:18:12 EDT 1999


At 12:56 AM 8/24/99 -0700, Dave Burris wrote:

>Kakos= from what I see is an evil one can be involved in or better yet
>"can become"; ie 1 Thess 5:15

I'm not sure what you are reasoning from. The phrase here is:

1 Thess 5:15 hORATE MH TIS KAKON ANTI KAKOU TINI APODWi

In this passage, KAKOS is something that one can give to another, and the 
command is to not give evil in exchange for evil. I see no "get involved 
in" or "become" in the context. KAKOS can mean that which is morally bad, 
that which is just yucky, or that which is injurious.

>Poneros= from what I understand is the desire intent to cause, or commit
>evil. or " a  desire to commit evil that is already in you".

PONHROS often does mean wicked, evil, bad, worthless, degenerate, and can 
refer to an evil or wicked person. And it is often applied to the devil. I 
don't know if this holds water, but I think that PONHROS is used for a 
fairly extreme form of evil, that it is much stronger than KAKOS, and that 
KAKOS is used to describe the kind of bad and evil that occurs in the 
believing community, but PONHROS generally refers to a kind of evil that is 
strong enough that those who practice it are not part of the community. I 
am not sure that this is correct, but there are enough people on this list 
who can correct me that I don't mind saying this to see how it holds up. My 
reading of the passage is that there are forms of evil, and we are to stay 
away from them.

On this list, we focus on the text, so I am not responding to the sermon 
points you are making.

Jonathan
___________________________________________________________________________

Jonathan 
Robie 
jwrobie at mindspring.com

Little Greek Home 
Page: 
http://metalab.unc.edu/koine
Little Greek 
101: 
http://metalab.unc.edu/koine/greek/lessons
B-Greek Home 
Page: 
http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
B-Hebrew Home 
Page: 
http://metalab.unc.edu/bhebrew



More information about the B-Greek mailing list