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G458 ἀνομία (anomía)

Greek 📖 Greek Word Study
Noun, Feminine
‹ G457 Greek Dictionary G459 ›

Quick Definition

ἀνομία, ας, ἡ n.f. lawlessness, iniquity

Strong's Definition

illegality, i.e. violation of law or (genitive case) wickedness

Derivation: from G459 (ἄνομος);

KJV Usage: iniquity, X transgress(-ion of) the law, unrighteousness

UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament

noun, f. | -ας | ἀ- + νομίζω

88.139 · Moral and Ethical Qualities and Related Behavior · Act Lawlessly

to live lawlessly, lawlessness, lawless living to behave with complete disregard for the laws or regulations of a society In some languages one may translate ἀνομία in MAT 13:41 as ‘to live as though there were no laws,’ ‘to refuse completely to obey the laws,’ or ‘to live as one who despises all laws.’

MAT 7:23 · MAT 13:41 · MAT 23:28 · MAT 24:12 · ROM 4:7 · ROM 6:19 · ROM 6:19 · 2CO 6:14 · 2TH 2:3 · 2TH 2:7 · TIT 2:14 · HEB 1:9 · HEB 10:17 · 1JN 3:4 · 1JN 3:4

UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament © United Bible Societies, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Thayer's Greek Lexicon

ἀνομία, -as, ἡ, (ἄνομος) ; 1. prop. the condition of one without law, — either because ignorant °f it, or because violating it. 2. contempt and violation of law, iniquity, wickedness: Mt. xxiii. 28; xxiv. 12; 2 Th. ii. 3 (T Trtxt. WH tat. ; cf. ἁμαρτία, 1 p. 30 sq.), 7; Tit. ii. 14; 1 In. iii. 4. opp. to ἡ δικαιοσύνη, 2 Co. vi. 14; Heb. i. 9 [not Tdf.], (Xen. mem. 1, 2, 24 ἀνομίᾳ μᾶλλον ἢ δικαιοσύνῃ χρώμενοι); and to ἡ δικαιοσύνη and ὁ ἁγιασμός, Ro. vi. 19 (τῇ ἀνομίᾳ εἰς τὴν ἀνομίαν to iniquity — personified —in order to work iniquity) ; ποιεῖν THY ἀνομίαν to do iniquity, act wickedly, Mt. xiii. 41; 1 Jn. iii. 4; in the same sense, ἐργάζεσθαι τὴν av. Mt. vii. 23; plur. ai ἀνομίαι manifestations of disregard for law, iniquities, evil deeds: Ro. iv. 7 (Ps. xxxi. (xxxii.) 1); Heb. viii. 12 [RGL]; x.17. (In Grk. writ. fr. [Hdt. 1, 96] Thue. down; often in Sept.) [Syn. cf. Trench § lxvi.; Tittm. i. 48; Ellic. on Tit. ii. 14.]

Mounce Concise Greek Dictionary

ἀνομία anomia 15x

lawlessness; violation of law, 1 Jn. 3:4; iniquity, sin, Mt. 7:23

Abbott-Smith Greek Lexicon

ἀνομία, -ας, ἡ

(< ἄνομος), [in LXX for עָוֺן, פֶּשַׁע, תּוֹעֵבָה, רֶשַׁע, etc.;]

lawlessness, iniquity: Mt 7:23 13:41 23:28 24:12, Ro 6:19, II Co 6:14, II Th 2:3, 7, Tit 2:14, He 1:9, I Jo 3:4; in pl. (as LXX, Ps 31:1, al.; v. Bl., § 32, 6; Swete, Mk., 153), of acts or manifestations of lawlessness: Ro 4:7(LXX), He 10:17.†

SYN.: v.s. ἁμάρτημα, ἄνομος.

Trench — Synonyms of the New Testament

παράβασις, παράπτωμα, ἀγνόημα, ἥττημα. A MOURNFULLY numerous group of words, and one which it would be only too easy to make larger still. Nor is it hard to see why. For sin, which we may define in the 240 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. ϑιυχνι. language of Augustine, as ‘ factum vel dictuin yel concuvitum aliquid contra eternam legem’ (Con. Faust. xxii. 27; cf. the Stoic definition, ἁμάρτημα, νόμου ἀπαγόρευμα, Plutarch, De Rep. Stoic. 11); or again, ‘ voluntas admittendi vel retinendi quod justitia vetat, et unde liberum est abstinere’ (Con. Jul. i. 47), may be regarded under an infinite number of aspects, and in all languages has been so regarded; and as the diagnosis of it belongs most of all to the Scriptures, nowhere else are we likely to find it contemplated on so many sides, set forth under such various images. It may be regarded as the missing of a mark or aim; it is then ἁμαρτία or ἁμάρτημα : the overpassing or transgressing of a line; it is then παράβασις: the disobedience to a voice; in which case it is παρακοή : the falling where one should have stood upright; this will be παράπτωμα : ignorance of what one ought to have known; this will be ἀγνόημα : diminishing of that which should have been rendered in full measure, which is ἥττημα : non-observance of a law, which is ἀνομία or παρανομία : a discord in the harmonies of God’s universe, when it is πλημμέλεια : and in other ways almost out of number. To begin with the word of largest reach. In seeking accurately to define ἁμαρτία; and so better to distinguish it from other words of this group, no help can be derived from its etymology, seeing that it is quite uncertain. Suidas, as is well known, derives it from μάρπτω, ‘ ἁμαρτία quasi duaprria, a failing tu grasp. Buttmann’s conjecture (Lexilogus, p. 85, English ed.), that it belongs to the root μέρος, μείρομαι; on which a negative intransitive verb, to be without one’s share of, to miss, was formed (see Xenophon, Cyrop. i. 6. 36), has found more favour (see a long note by Fritzsche, on Rom. v. 12, with excellent philology and execrable theology). Only this much is plain, that when sin is contemplated as ἁμαρτία, it is regarded as a failing and missing the true end and scope of our lives, which is God ; ἡ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ἀπόπτωσις, as Ecumenius: ἡ τοῦ ἀγα§iuxvi. SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 241 θοῦ ἀποτυχία, and ἁμαρτάνειν an ἄσκοπα τοξεύειν, as Suidas; ἡ τοῦ καλοῦ ἐκτροπή, εἴτε τοῦ κατὰ φύσιν, εἴτε τοῦ κατὰ νόμον, as another. We may compare the German “ fehlen.’ Itisa matter of course that with slighter apprehensions of sin, and of the evil of sin, there must go hand in hand a slighter ethnical significance in the words used to express sin. It is therefore nothing wonderful that ἁμαρτία and ἁμαρτάνειν should nowhere in classical Greek obtain that depth of meaning which in revealed religion they have acquired. The words run the same course which all words ultimately taken up into ethical terminology seem inevitably to run. Employed first about things natural, they are then transferred to things moral or spiritual, according to that analogy between those and these, which the human mind so delights to trace. Thus ἁμαρτάνειν signifies, when we meet it first, to miss a mark, being exactly opposed to τυχεῖν. So a hundred times in Homer the warrior is said ἁμαρτάνειν, who hurls his spear, but fails to strike his foe (e.g. Il. iv. 491); 80 τῶν ὁδῶν ἁμαρτάνειν (Thucydides, iii. 98. 2) is to miss one’s way. The next advance is the transfer of the word to things intellectual. The poet ἁμαρτάνει, whoselectsa subject which it is impossible to treat poetically, or who seeks to attain results which lie beyond the limits of his art (Aristotle, Poét. 8 and 25); so we have δόξης ἁμαρτία (Thucydides, i. 31); γνώμης ἁμάρτημα (11.05). Itis constantly set over against ὀρθότης (Plato, Legg. i. 627 d; 11. 668 c; Aristotle, Poét.25). So far from having any ethical significance of necessity attaching to it, Aristotle sometimes withdraws it, almost, if not altogether, from the region of right and wrong (Eth. Nic. v. 8.7). The ἁμαρτία is a mistake, a fearful one it may be, like that of dipus, but nothing more (Poét. 13; cf. Euripides, Hippolytus, 1426). Elsewhere, however, it has as much of the meaning of our ‘sin,’ as any word, employed in heathen ethics, could possess; thus Plato, Phaedo, 113 e; Rep. ii. 3664; Xenophon, Cyrop. v. 4. 19. ει 242 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. § τχνι. ᾿Αμάρτημα differs from ἁμαρτία, in that ἁμαρτία is sin in the abstract as well as the concrete; or again, the act of sinning no less than the sin which is actually sinned, ‘peccatio’ (A. Gellius, xiii. 20. 19) no less than ‘ peccatum’; while ἁμάρτημα (it only occurs Mark iii. 28; iv. 12; Rom. iii. 25; 1 Cor. vi. 18) is never sin regardedas sinfulness, or as the act of sinning, but only sin contemplated in its separate outcomings and deeds of disobedience to a divine law; being in the Greek schools opposed to κατόρθωμα." There is the same difference between ἀνομία and ἀνόμημα (which last is not in the N. T.; but 1 Sam. xxv. 28; Ezek. xvi. 49), ἀσέβεια and ἀσέβημα (not inthe N. T.; but Lev. xviii. 17), ἀδικία and ἀδίκημα (Acts xviii. 14). Thisis brought out by Aristotle (Ethic. Nic. v. 7. 7), who sets over against one another ἄδικον (ΞΞ ἀδικία) and ἀδίκημα in these words: διαφέρει τὸ ἀδίκημα καὶ τὸ ἄδικον. "Αδικον μὲν yap ἐστι τῇ φύσει, ἢ τάξει" τὸ αὐτὸ δὲ τοῦτο, ὅταν πραχθῇ, ἀδίκημά ἐστι. Compare an instructive passage in Xenophon (Mem. ii. 2. 3): ai πόλεις ἐπὶ τοῖς μεγίστοις ἀδικήμασι ζημίαν θάνατον πεποιήκασιν, ws οὐκ ἂν μείζονος κακοῦ φόβῳ τὴν ἀδικίαν παύσοντες. On the distinction between ἁμαρτία and ἁμάρτημα, ἀδικία and ἀδίκημα, and other words of this group, there is a long discussion by Clement of Alexandria (Strom. ii. 15), but one not yielding much profit. ᾿Ασέβεια, joined with ἀδικία (Xenophon, Apol. 24; Rom. i. 18) ; as ἀσεβής with ἄδικος, with ἀνόσιος (Xenophon, Cyrop. viii. 8. 27), with ἁμαρτωλός (1 Tim. i. 9; 1. Pet. iv. 18), is positive and active irreligion, and this contemplated as a deliberate withholding from God of his dues of 1 ‘When the Pelagians, in their controversy with the Catholic Church, claimed Chrysostom as siding with them on the subject of the moral condition of infants, Augustine (Con. Jul. Pelag. vi. 2) replied by quoting the exact words which Chrysostom had used, and showing that it was not ἁμαρτία, or sin, but ἁμαρτήματα, the several acts and outcomings of sin, from which the Greek Father had pronounced infants to be free. Only in this sense were they partakers of the ἀναμαρτησία of Christ, διχνι. SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, 243 prayer and of service, a standing, so to speak, in battle array against Him. We have always rendered it ‘ ungodliness,’ while the Rheims as constantly ‘impiety,’ and ἀσεβής ‘impious,’ neither of these words occurring anywhere in our English Bible. The ἀσεβής and the δίκαιος are constantly set over against one another_(thus Gen. Xvili. 23), as the two who wage the great warfare between light and darkness, right and wrong, of which God has willed that this earth of ours should be the stage. Ilapaxoy is in the N. T. found only at Rom. v. 19 (where it is opposed to ὑπακοή); 2 Cor. x. 6; Heb. ii. 2. Itis not in the Septuagint, but παρακούειν (in the N.T. only at Matt. xviii. 17) occurs several times there in the sense of to disobey (Esth. iii. 3, 8; Isai. Ιχν. 12). [apaxon is in its strictest sense a failing to hear, or a hearing amiss; the notion of active disobedience, which follows on this inattentive or careless hearing, being superinduced upon the word ; or, it may be, the sin being regarded as already committed in the failing to listen when God is speaking. Bengel (on Rom. τ. 19) has a good note : “παρά in παρακοή perquam apposite de:larat rationem initii in lapsu Adami. Queritur quomodo hominis recti intellectus aut voluntas potuit detrimentum capere aut noxam admittere? Resp. Intellectus et voluntas simul labavit per ἀμέλειαν " neque quicquam potest prius concipi, quam ἀμέλεια, incuria, sicut initium capiende urbis est vigiliarum remissio. Hanc incuriam significat zapaxo7, inobedientia.’ It need hardly be observed how continually in the O. T. disobedience is described as a refusing to hear (Jer. xi. 10; xxxv. 17); and it appears literally as such at Acts vii. 57. Joined with and following παράβασις at Heb. ii. 2, it would there imply, in the intention of the writer, that not merely every actual transgression, embodying itself in an outward act of disobedience, was punished, but every refusal to hear, even though it might not have asserted itself in such overt acts of disobedience. R2 244 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. ὃ τανι. We have generally translated ἀνομία “ iniquity’ (Matt. vii. 23; Rom. vi. 19; Heb. x. 17) ; once ‘ unrighteousness ἢ (2 Cor. vi. 14), and once “transgression of the law” (1 John iii. 4). It is set over against δικαιοσύνη (2 Cor. vi. 14: cf. Xenophon, Mem. i. 2. 24) ; joined with ἀναρχία (Plato, Rep. ix. 575 a), with ἀντιλογία (Ps. liv. [LXX] 10). While ἄνομος is once at least in the N.T. used negatively of a person without law, or to whom a law has not been given (1 Cor. ix. 21; οἵ, Plato, Politic. 302 e, ἄνομος μοναρχία) ; though elsewhere of the greatest enemy of all law, the Man of Sin, the lawless one (2 Thess. ii. 8) ; ἀνομία is never there the condition of one living without law, but always the condition or deed of one who acts contrary to law: and so, of course, παρανομία, found only at 2 Pet. ii. 16; ef. Prov. x. 26, and παρανομεῖν, Acts xxiii. 3. It will follow that where there is no law (Rom. v. 13), there may be ἁμαρτία, ἀδικία, but not ἀνομία : being, as @cumenius defines it, ἡ περὶ τὸν θετὸν νόμον πλημμέλεια : aS Fritzsche, ‘legis contemtio aut morum licentia qué lex violatur.’ Thus the Gentiles, not having a law (Rom. ii. 14), might be charged with sin; but they, sinning without law (ἀνόμως Ξε χωρὶς νόμου, Rom. ii. 12; 111. 21), could not be charged with ἀνομία. It is true, indeed, that, behind that law of Moses which they never had, there is another law, the original law and revelation of the righteousness of God, written on the hearts of all (Rom. ii. 14, 15); and, as this in no human heart is obliterated quite, all sin, even that of the darkest and most ignorant savage, must still in a secondary sense remain as ἀνομία, a violation of this older, though partially obscured, law. Thus Origen (in Rom. iv. 5): ‘Iniquitas sane a peccato hance habet differentiam, quod iniquitas in his dicitur que contra legem committuntur, unde et Greecus sermo ἀνομίαν appellat. Peccatum vero etiam illud dici potest, si contra quam natura docet, et conscientia arguit, delinquatur.’ Cf. Xenophon, Mem. iv. 4. 18, 19. It is the same with παράβασις. There must be something to transgress, before there can be a transgression. There was sin between Adam and Moses, as was attested by the fact that there was death ; but those between the law given in Paradise (Gen. ii. 16, 17) and the law given from Sinai, sinning indeed, yet did not sin~“after the similitude of Adam’s transgression” (παραβάσεως, Rom. v. 14). With law came for the first time the possibility of the transgression of law (Rom. iv. 15); and exactly this transgression, or trespass, is παράβασις, from παραβαίνειν, ‘transilire lineam ;’ the French ‘forfait’ (‘faire fors’ or “hors’), some act which is excessive, enormous. Cicero (Parad. 3): ‘ Peccare est tanquam transilire lineas;’ compare the Homeric ὑπερβασίη, Jl. iii. 107, and often. In the constant language of St. Paul this παράβασις, as the transgression of a commandment distinctly given, is more serious than ἁμαρτία (Rom. ii. 23; 1 Tim. ii. 14; cf. Heb. ii. 2; ix. 15). It is from this point of view, and indeed with reference to this very word, that Augustine draws often a distinction between the ‘ peccator’ and the ‘ preevaricator,’ between ‘ peccatum’ (ἁμαρτία) and ‘ preevaricatio’ (παράβασιο). Thus Enarr. in Ps. exviii.; Serm. 25: ‘Omnis quidem prevaricator peccator est, quia peccat in lege, sed non omnis peccator prevaricator est, quia peccant aliqui sine lege. Ubi autem non est lex, nec prevaricatio.” It will be seen that his Latin word introduces a new image, not now of overpassing a line, but of halting on unequal feet; an image, however, which had quite faded from the word when he used it, his motive to employ it lying in the fact that the ‘prevaricator,’ or collusive prosecutor, dealt unjustly with a law. He who, being under no express law, sins, is, in Augustine’s language, ‘peccator’; he who, having such a law, sins, is ‘ preevaricator’ (Ξε παραβάτης, Rom. ii. 25; Jam. ii. 9, a name constantly given by the Church Fathers to Julian the Apostate). Before the law came men might be the 246 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 8 υχσι. former; after the law they could only be the latter. In the first there is implicit, in the second explicit, disobedience. We now arrive at παράπτωμα, a word belonging altogether to the later Greek, and of rare occurrence there; it is employed by Longinus of literary faults (De Subl. 36). Cocceius: ‘Si originem verbi spectemus, significat ea facta pre quibus quis cadit et prostratus jacet, ut stare coram Deo et surgere non potest.’ At Ephes. ii. 1, where παραπτώματα and ἁμαρτίαι are found together, Jerome records with apparent assent a distinction between them ; that the former are sins suggested to the mind and partially entertained and welcomed there, and the latter the same embodied in actual deeds: ‘Aiunt quod παραπτώματα quasi initia peccatorum sint, quum cogitatio tacita subrepit, et ex aliqua parte conniventibus nobis; necdum tamen nos impulit ad ruinam. Peccatum vero esse, quum quid opere consummatum pervenit ad finem.’ This distinction has no warrant. Only this much truth it may be allowed to have; that,as sins of thought partake more of the nature of infirmity, and have less aggravation than the same sins consummated, embodied, that is, in act, so doubtless παράπτωμα is sometimes used when it is intended to designate sins not of the deepest dye and the worst enormity. One may trace this very clearly at Gal. vi. 1, our Translators no doubt meaning to indicate as much when they rendered it by ‘fault’; and not obscurely, as it seems to me, at Rom. v.15, 17,18. Παράπτωμα is used in the same way, as an error, a mistake in judgment, a blunder, by Polybius (ix. 10. 6); compare Ps. xviii. 13, 14, where it is contrasted with the ἁμαρτία μεγάλη : and for other examples see Cremer, Biblisch-Theolog. Worterbuch, p- 501. Toa certain feeling of this we may ascribe another inadequate distinction,—that, namely, of Augustine (Qu. ad Lev. 20), who will have παράπτωμα to be the negative omission of good (‘desertio boni,’ or ‘delictum’), § uxvi. SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 247 as contrasted with ἁμαρτία, the positive doing of evil (‘ perpetratio mali’). But this milder subaudition is very far from belonging always to the word (see Jeremy Taylor, Doctrine and Practice of Repentance, iii. 3. 21). There is nothing of it at Ephes. ii. 1, “ dead in trespasses (παραπτώμασι) and sins.”’ Παράπτωμα is mortal sin, Ezek. xviii. 26 ; and the παραπεσεῖν of Heb. vi.6 is equivalent to the ἑκουσίως ἁμαρτάνειν of x. 26, to the ἀποστῆναι ἀπὸ Θεοῦ ζῶντος of iii. 12; while any such extenuation of the force of the word is expressly excluded in a fragment of Philo (vol. ii. p. 648, ed. Mang.), which very closely resembles these two passages in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and in which he distinctly calls it παράπτωμα, when a man, having reached an acknowledged pitch of godliness and virtue, falls back from, and out of this; ‘he was lifted up to the height of heaven, and is fallen down to the deep of hell.’ ᾿Αγνόημα occurs in the N. T. only at Heb. ix. 7 (see Tholuck, On the Hebrews, Appendix, p. 92), but also at Judith v. 20; 1 Mace. xili. 39; Tob. iii. 3; and ἄγνοια in the same sense of sin, Ps. xxiv. 7, and often; and ἀγνοεῖν. to sin, at Hos. iv. 15; Ecclus. v.15; Heb. v. 2. Sin is designated as an ἀγνόημα when it is desired to make excuses for it, so far as there is room for such, to regard it in the mildest possible light (see Acts iii. 17). There is always an element of ignorance in every human transgression, which constitutes it human and not devilish; and which, while it does not take away, yet so far mitigates the sinfulness of it, as to render its forgiveness not indeed necessary, but possible. Thus compare the words of the Lord, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke xxiii. 34), with those of St. Paul, “I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief” (1 Tim. i. 13), where, as one has well said,‘ Der Ausdruck fasst Schuld und Entschuldigung zusammen.’ No sin of man, except perhaps the sin against the Holy Ghost, which may for 248 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 8 τινι. this reason be irremissible (Matt. xii. 32), is committed with a full and perfect recognition of the evil which is chosen as evil, and of the good which is forsaken as good. Compare the numerous passages in which Plato identifies vice with ignorance, and even pronounces that no man is voluntarily evil; οὐδεὶς ἑκὼν κακός, and what is said qualifying or guarding this statement in Archer Butler’s Lectures on Ancient Philosophy, vol. ii. p. 285. Whatever exaggerations this statement of Plato’s may contain, it still remains: true that sin is always, in a greater or a less deyree, an ἀγνόημα, and the more the ἀγνοεῖν, as opposed to the ἑκουσίως ἁμαρτάνειν (Heb. x. 26), predominates, the greater the extenuation of the sinfulness of the sin. There is therefore an eminent fitness in the employment of the word on the one occasion, referred to already, where it ᾿ appears in the N. T. The ἀγνοήματα, or ‘ errors’ of the people, for which the High Priest offered sacrifice on the great day of atonement, were not wilful transgressions, “presumptuous sins” (Ps. xix. 13), committed xara προαίρεσιν, κατὰ πρόθεσιν, against conscience and with a high hand against God ; those who committed such were cut off from the congregation; no provision having been made in the Levitical constitution for the forgiveness of such (Num. xv. 30, 31); but they were sins growing out of the weakness of the flesh, out of an imperfect insight into God’s law, out of heedlessness and lack of due circumspection (ἀκουσίως, Lev. iv. 13; cf. v. 15-19; Num. Xv. 22-29), and afterwards looked back on with shame and regret. The same distinction exists between ἄγνοια and ἀγνόημα which has been already traced between ἁμαρτία and ἁμάρτημα, ἀδικία and ἀδίκημα : that the former is often the more abstract, the latter is always the concrete. ἽἭττημα appears nowhere in classical Greek ; but ἧττα, a briefer form of the word, is opposed to νίκη, as discomfiture or worsting to victory. It has there past very much §uxvi. SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, 249 through the same stages as the Latin ‘clades.’ It appears once in the Septuagint (Isai. xxxi. 8), and twice in the N. T., namely at Rom. xi. 12; 1 Cor. vi. 7; but only in the latter instance having an ethical sense, as a coming short of duty, a fault, the German ‘Fehler,’ the Latin ‘delictum.’? Gerhard (Loc. Theoll. xi): “ἥττημα diminutio, defectus, ab ἡττᾶσθαι victum esse, quia peccatores succumbunt carnis et Satane tentationibus.’ Πλημμέλεια, a very frequent word in the O. T. (Lev. Υ. I 5; Num. xviii. 9, and often), and not rare in later ecclesiastical Greek (thus see Clement of Rome, Cor. 41), does not occur in the New. Derived from πλημμελής, one who sings out of tune (πλὴν and pédos),—as ἐμμελής is one who isin tune, and ἐμμέλεια, the right modulation of the voice to the music; it is properly a discord or dis~ harmony (πλημμέλειαι καὶ ἀμετρίαι, Plutarch, Symp. ix. 14. 7) ;—so that Augustine’s Greek is at fault when he finds in it μέλει, ‘cure est’ (Qu. in Lev. iii. 20), and makes πλημpédeva = ἀμέλεια, carelessness. Rather it is sin regarded as a discord or disharmony in the great symphonies of the universe : ‘disproportioned sin Jarred against nature’s chime, and with harsh din Broke the fair music that all creatures made To their great Lord.’ Delitzsch, on Ps. xxxii. I, with whom Hupfeld, on the same passage, may be compared, observes on the more important Hebrew words, which more or less correspond with these: ‘Die Siinde heisst "Ὁ 8 als Losreissung von Gott, Treubruch, Fall aus dem Gnadenstande [= ἀσέβεια]. mspq als Verfehlung des gottgewollten Zieles, Abirrung vom Gottgefilligen, Vollbringung des Gottwidrigen [ΞΞ- ἁμαρτία], 2% als Verkehrung des Geraden, Missethat. Verschuldung [=dvopia, adixia].? 250 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. § uxvu.

Moulton & Milligan — Vocabulary of the Greek NT

ἀνομία. P Par 1457 (ii/B.c.) they assaulted me ἀφορήτῳ ἀνομίᾳ ἐξενεχθέντες. P Oxy VIII. 112129 (a.p. 295) ἅπαντα ὡς ἐν ἀνομίᾳ[ι]5 ἀπεσύλησαν, ‘“lawlessly carried them all off” (Ed.).

Liddell-Scott-Jones — Greek-English Lexicon

ἀνομία (anomia) — lawlessness. ἀνομ-ία, Ionic dialect -ιη, ἡ, lawlessness, lawless conduct, opposed to δικαιοσύνη, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

2. the negation of law, opposed to νόμος, [Refs 4th c.BC+]

STEPBible — Tyndale Abridged Greek Lexicon

ἀνομία, -ας, ἡ (ἄνομος), [in LXX for עָוֺן, פָּשַׁע, פֶּשַׁע, תּוֹעֵבַה, רֶשַׁע, etc. ;] lawlessness, iniquity: Mat.7:23 13:41 23:28 24:12, Rom.6:19, 2Co.6:14, 2Th.2:3 2:7, Tit.2:14, Heb.1:9, 1Jn.3:4; in pl. (as LXX, Psa.31:1, al.; see 131., § 32, 6; Swete, Mk., 153), of acts or manifestations of lawlessness: Rom.4:7 (LXX), Heb.10:17.† SYN.: see: ἁμάρτημα, ἄνομος (AS)

Bible Occurrences (13)

3:4

📖 Greek Word Study — In-Depth Study from Precept Austin

Lawlessness (458) anomia

Lawlessness (458) (anomia) from a = negates what follows + nomos = law) literally describes that which is without the law and signifies, not merely the abstract idea, but disregard for, or actual breach of, the law of God. Anomia means “no law,” and emphasizes an attitude of disregard for the statutes of God. It means living as if there were no law. A person who rejects God’s authority doesn’t care what God thinks about his habits. Lawlessness is living as though your own ideas are superior to God's. Lawlessness says, "God may demand it but I don't prefer it." Lawlessness says, "God may promise it but I don't want it." Lawlessness replaces God's law with my contrary desires. I become a law to myself. Lawlessness is rebellion against the right of God to make laws and govern His creatures. Lawlessness signifies everything that is contrary to the will and law of God and is more intentional and flagrant sin. It is direct and open rebellion against God and His ways. Lawlessness describes one who has the quality of not being regulated by, restrained by or controlled by law. It is one who is not governed by nor obedient to laws and who is thus unbridled and uncontrolled in general. Some close synonyms include the quality of a person that manifests lawlessness include words such as -- anarchy, rebellion, insurgence, insubordination, chaos, disorderliness, mutiny, recklessness, sedition, unruliness (that's enough for starters!) Anomia -15 times - Mt 7:23-note; Mt 13:41; 23:28; 24:12; Ro 4:7-note; Ro 6:19-note; 2 Co. 6:14; 2Th 2:3, 7; Titus 2:14-note; Heb 1:9-note; He 10:17-note; 1Jn. 3:4. NAS = lawless deed, 1; lawless deeds, 2; lawlessness, 12. There are about 188 uses of anomia in the non-apocryphal Septuagint (LXX) - Ge 19:15; Ex 34:7, 9; Lv 16:21; 19:29; 20:14; 22:16; 26:43; Nu 14:18; Dt 31:29; 2Sa 14:9; 19:19; 22:5, 24; 24:10; 2Ki 7:9; 1Chr. 9:1; 10:13; Ezra 9:6, 7, 13; Neh. 4:5; 9:2; Job 7:21; 8:4; 10:6, 14; 13:23; 14:17; 20:27; 31:3, 28; 34:37; Ps. 5:4, 5; 6:8; 7:14; 14:4; 18:4, 23; 26:10; 31:18; 32:1, 5; 36:2, 3, 4, 12; 37:1; 38:4, 18; 39:8, 11; 40:12; 41:6; 45:7; 49:5; 50:21; 51:2, 3, 5, 9; 52:1; 53:1, 4; 55:3, 9, 10; 57:1; 58:2; 59:2, 3, 4; 64:2, 6; 65:3; 69:27; 73:19; 74:20; 79:8; 85:2; 89:22, 32; 90:8; 92:7, 9; 94:4, 16, 20, 23; 101:8; 103:3, 10, 12; 106:43; 107:17, 42; 109:14; 119:3, 133, 150; 125:3, 5; 129:3; 130:3, 8; 139:24; 141:4, 9; Pr 13:11; Isa 1:5; 3:8; 5:7, 18; 6:7; 9:18; 21:4; 24:20; 27:9; 33:15; 43:25, 26; 44:22; 50:1; 53:5, 8, 9; 58:1; 59:3, 4, 6, 12; 64:6; Jer. 5:25; 16:18; 29:23; Lam 4:6, 22; Ezek 3:19; 7:23; 8:6, 9, 13, 17; 9:4; 11:18, 21; 12:16; 16:2, 36, 43, 47, 51, 58; 18:12, 13, 20,21, 24, 27; 20:4, 30; 22:2, 5; 23:21, 36, 44; 28:16; 29:16; 32:27; 33:6, 8, 10, 12, 13, 18, 19; 36:31, 33; 37:23; 43:8; 44:6, 7; Da 9:24; Hos. 6:9; Zech 3:4; 5:8; Mal 1:4 Matthew 7:23 (note) And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice (as the habit of your lives, as your lifestyle) lawlessness. Comment: Beware if you claim Christ as Savior and say you have His Holy Spirit indwelling you if you have never experienced a time of repentance, of turning from your old ways of sin. If you have never experienced a time of turning from Sin and unto God, you may be among those Jesus is warning about -- those who continue to practice lawlessness, even in the face of having made a profession of Christ. Only God knows your heart, dear reader. Make certain (cp Peter's warning - 2Pe 1:10 11-note) you have not been deceived by the false and deadly teaching (which is not really the Gospel but is "another gospel" Gal 1:6, 7, 8, 9) that you can pray a prayer to "receive Christ" and then go on living any way you wish, because you have never been made by the Spirit into a new creation in Christ (2Co 5:17-note) and you have never experienced the times of refreshing which come from the presence of the Lord and from a new heart (Ezek 36:26, 27, Acts 3:19). See Mt 23:28 and Titus 2:14-note below for amplification this "eternally" important point. Don't dare go to sleep tonight without 100% assurance (see following paragraph regarding "assurance") that you are not among those who are tragically self-deluded and self-deceived and who will one day cry out "Lord, Lord" (Mt 7:21-note) even though during their time on earth they continually practiced lawlessness, a practice which itself is a clear "marker" of their still unregenerate state, because they lack the power to say "no" to their old nature (cp 2Ti 3:5-note, be willing to read and heed Paul's commands in 2Co 13:5-note) How can a person who is unsure about his or her salvation gain true assurance? (cp 1Jn 5:10 11 12 13 - Especially from 1Jn 5:13, what is the practical step one can take to assure one's assurance? [Clue: What are "these things"? See 1Jn 2:29, 3:9, 14, 4:7, 5:4] cp Ro 10:17-note If that passage is true [which it is], "listen" to the following Words... Heb 6:11 12-note, Sin damages assurance = Ps 32:3-note ["The Spanish inquisition with all its tortures was nothing to the inquest which conscience holds within the heart." - Spurgeon] Assurance is a lifelong fight = 1Ti 6:12 Assurance is to be prayed for = Eph 1:18, 19-note; Assurance is God's will and gift to be received = Ro 8:16-note)? How can we know that we have entered through the narrow door of Mt 7:13, 14-note? (See Jn 20:31, 2Co 5:17-note) Matthew 13:41 (At the end of the Great Tribulation) The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, Matthew 23:28 Even so you too (the "religious" ones! Look out! Religion does not save! Only relationship with Christ and a new heart saves!) outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Matthew 24:12 And because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. Romans 4:7 (note) "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. (Paul quotes Ps 32:1 - Spurgeon's note) Romans 6:19 (note) I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. 2 Corinthians 6:14 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? 2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness (the Antichrist -1Jn 2:18, 22, 4:3, 2Jn 1:7, the Beast - Rev 13:3, 4, 5, 6, 6, the Little Horn - Da 7:8, 11, 20, 21, the prince who is to come - Da 9:26, the king Da 11;36, 45) is revealed, the son of destruction, 2Thessalonians 2:7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Titus 2:14 (note) (Christ) Who gave Himself for (substitution) us, that He might redeem (buy with a price - His precious blood - 1Pe 1:18, 19-note) us from every (how many?) lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession (It is not so much "who we are in Christ" but "Whose we now are" beloved!), zealous for good deeds (Good deeds are "God" deeds, not our plans and programs, but His will done on earth as it is in heaven - see Eph 2:10 [see notes] for where "good deeds" originate. We need to be alert to and ready to walk in those good deeds.). Hebrews 1:9 (note) "Thou (Christ) hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee With the oil of gladness above Thy companions." Hebrews 10:17 (note) "And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." 1John 3:4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. Anomia describes those who live immoral, ungodly, unrighteous lives as a matter of continuous practice. They hate God’s righteousness and perpetually live as if they were sovereign over God’s law. Lawlessness is used by John as the definition of sin, who writes that... Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. (1Jn 3:4) Godet says that lawlessness is contempt of the standard of right written in the law of every man's conscience (Ro 2:14, 15) (Romans Commentary - Online) Vine writes that... Lawlessness” (anomia) is not merely transgression of a law, nor simply its nonobservance; it has a far deeper significance; it denotes the denial or rejection of law or restraint, in the spirit of self-will and resistance to God. This is what characterizes sin. (Vine, W. Collected writings of W. E. Vine. Nashville: Thomas Nelson ) Barclay adds that anomia is... the sin of the man who knows the right, and who yet does the wrong: the sin of the man who knows the law, and who yet breaks the law. The first of all the human instincts is the instinct to do what we like; and therefore there come into any man’s life times when he wishes to kick over the traces, and to defy the law, and to do or to take the forbidden thing. (Barclay, W: The Daily Study Bible Series, Rev. ed. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press) Impurity defiles the being, whereas lawlessness violates the law of God. Impurity refers to inward and lawlessness to outward sin. The unregenerate person is both internally and externally sinful, and as he lives out his sinfulness it results in further lawlessness. Like a cancer that reproduces itself until the whole body is destroyed, sin reproduces itself until the whole person is destroyed. Like a vicious animal, sin’s appetite only grows when it is fed like the "beast" God warned Cain about in Genesis declaring that... "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, Sin (here personified as a ferocious, ravenous beast) is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it." (Genesis 4:7). Lawlessness birthing further lawlessness is reminds one of cancer which reproduces itself until the whole body is destroyed, sin reproduces itself until the whole person is destroyed. After the brilliant writer Oscar Wilde’s homosexuality and other deviant behavior was made public, he wrote, “I forgot that what a man is in secret he will some day shout aloud from the housetop.” Another famous writer, Sinclair Lewis, was the toast of the literary world and received the Nobel Prize in literature in 1930. To mock what he considered the hypocrisy of Christianity, he wrote Elmer Gantry, the fictitious story of a Bible-pounding evangelist who was secretly an alcoholic, a fornicator, and a thief. Few people know, however, that Lewis himself died an alcoholic in a third-rate clinic outside Rome, a devastated victim of his own sinful life-style. His lawlessness led to further lawlessness. Spurgeon comments that this verse... wants no explanation. In the days of our sin, we sinned with all our power. There was not one part of us but what became the willing servant of sin: and we went from iniquity into iniquity, and now the Cross has made us entirely new, and we have been melted down, poured out into a fresh mold. Now, let us yield every member of our body, soul, and spirit to righteousness, even unto holiness, till the whole of us, in the wholeness and consequently the holiness of our nature, shall be given unto God. ><>><>><> As you submitted yourselves to sin most cheerfully and voluntarily, and yet were slaves under it, so now come, and be slaves under Christ with most blessed cheerfulness and delight: endeavor now to lose your very wills in his will, for no man’s slavery is so complete as his who even yields his will. Now, yield everything to Christ. You shall never be so free as when you do that, never so blessedly delivered from all bondage as when you absolutely and completely yield yourselves up to the power and supremacy of your Lord. SO NOW PRESENT YOUR MEMBERS AS SLAVES TO RIGHTEOUSNESS RESULTING IN SANCTIFICATION: houtos nun parastesate (2PAAM) ta mele humon doula te dikaiosune eis hagiasmon: Regarding the phrase so now Morris writes that Now Paul urges them to a different course. Now that Christ has come, now that atonement has been made, now that they are living in a time of eschatological significance, they must act differently. They have given up slavery to evil; they must accept slavery to righteousness (see on v. 18) with all that that means. This is “with a view to sanctification” (CBSC), that is, to becoming holy as befits the slave of God. The lives of the Roman Christians are to reflect the reality of their full commitment to the service of God. (Ibid) Charles Hodge explains that... The slave is bound to serve his master, and the obedience of the believer to God is no less certain. The one is slavery, because the obedience is independent of the will and coerced, but the other is perfect freedom, because it is given from the heart and with the full consent of the will. Yet both are a slavery as far as the certainty of obedience is concerned. (Romans Commentary - online) MASTER FRUIT Impurity Lawlessness Further Lawlessness Righteousness Sanctification (Holiness) Based on what Paul has just said, he now gives a clear command we are to obey and act upon, making a decisive choice of our will, the result of which will be our progressive growth in holiness (progressive sanctification). When we were initially justified by faith, God's Spirit made us positionally holy in Christ, complete in Him (thus we are called "saints", "holy ones" or set apart ones = positional sanctification), but in this verse Paul is calling for us to participate in the process that takes place in (positionally holy) "saints", the process of growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, progressively becoming more and more in our daily experience what we are in our position. As we daily chose to obey what is right (righteousness), empowered by God's Spirit and His ever present grace (transforming power in this context), we grow in conformity to His Son. That is our Father's great desire for us as His children. Does that make sense? Now that we are justified sinners who have been born again and changed into fruit bearing followers of Christ, we are to give ourselves willingly to this process of change. Beloved, let me ask you...are you giving yourself willingly to this end? Or to ask it another way, who are you yielding your members to? To your former harsh "master", Sin (impurity and lawlessness) or to your new kind "Master", God (righteousness)? You will have many opportunities each day to yield your will and your members to God. Don't pass up these opportunities (often in the form of trials, adversity, affliction, most of which are relatively "small" but sometimes "big") to grow more like Christ. Make it your goal each day, under grace not law. Be careful of falling into the trap of "subtle legalism"! For example, don't begin your day or week by writing out a list of do's and don'ts and "trying" to keep them (in your own natural power) - that is legalism for you are placing yourself under the law and such acts will yield no progressive sanctification. Get up each morning, yielding yourself to God as a living sacrifice, putting on the full armor of God and then going forth into the new day with joyful anticipation, expecting to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.

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