What does ἐριθεία (eritheía) mean in the Bible?
ἐριθεία (eritheía): Self-seeking ambition that divides community through factious rivalry rather than honest competition
Greek · G2052
ἐριθεία
Rivalry
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ἐριθεία G2052
Pronunciation eritheía
What does ἐριθεία (eritheía) mean in the Bible?
ἐριθεία (eritheía): Self-seeking ambition that divides community through factious rivalry rather than honest competition
Full entry for ἐριθεία (G2052) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G2052?
The BSB source-word alignment has 7 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include selfish ambition (3), [are] self-seeking (1), rivalries (1), rivalry (1), selfish ambition [exist] (1).
Where does ἐριθεία (eritheía) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Romans 2:8. Its strongest book concentrations include James (2), Philippians (2), 2 Corinthians (1), Galatians (1).
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It selfish ambition 3× Philippians 1:17, Philippians 2:3, James 3:14
[are] self-seeking 1× Romans 2:8
rivalries 1× Galatians 5:20
rivalry 1× 2 Corinthians 12:20
selfish ambition [exist] 1× James 3:16
Show sample aligned rows
Romans 2:8 ἐριθείας to [are] self-seeking Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular 2 Corinthians 12:20 ἐριθεῖαι to rivalry Noun - Nominative Feminine Plural Galatians 5:20 ἐριθεῖαι to rivalries Noun - Nominative Feminine Plural Philippians 1:17 ἐριθείας to selfish ambition Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular Philippians 2:3 ἐριθείαν to selfish ambition Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular James 3:14 ἐριθείαν to selfish ambition Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular James 3:16 ἐριθεία to selfish ambition [exist] Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Romans 2:8
Aligned rows 7
Books represented 5
Romans 1 2 Corinthians 1 Galatians 1 Philippians 2 James 2
Source forms
ἐριθεῖαι 2x eritheiai 2 Corinthians 12:20, Galatians 5:20
ἐριθείαν 2x eritheian Philippians 2:3, James 3:14
ἐριθείας 2x eritheias Romans 2:8, Philippians 1:17
ἐριθεία 1x eritheia James 3:16
Parsing patterns
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 2x Philippians 2:3, James 3:14
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular 2x Romans 2:8, Philippians 1:17
Noun - Nominative Feminine Plural 2x 2 Corinthians 12:20, Galatians 5:20
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular 1x James 3:16
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Self-seeking ambition that divides community through factious rivalry rather than honest competition
Strong's G2052
Lexical occurrences 7 verses Greek text appearances 7 times Word forms 4 forms 7 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link James 3:13–18 Source Gloss
rivalry
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
7 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Romans 2:8 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
ἐριθείας, eriqeiav
ambition, rivalry
Read verse 2 Corinthians 12:20 Noun Nominative Plural Feminine
ἐριθεῖαι, eriqeiai
ambition, rivalry
Read verse Galatians 5:20 Noun Nominative Plural Feminine
ἐριθεῖαι, eriqeiai
ambition, rivalry
Read verse Philippians 1:16 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
ἐριθείας eriqeiav
ambition, rivalry
Read verse Philippians 2:3 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ἐριθείαν eriqeian
ambition, rivalry
Read verse James 3:14 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ἐριθείαν eriqeian
ambition, rivalry
Read verse James 3:16 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
ἐριθεία, eriqeia
ambition, rivalry
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 4 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Form patterns 4 Aligned forms 7 Case pattern Nominative (3) Number pattern Singular (5)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Plural · Feminine 2 Cor 12:20 · Gal 5:20 2×
Nominative · Singular · Feminine Jas 3:16 1×
Genitive · Singular · Feminine Rom 2:8 · Phil 1:17 2×
Accusative · Singular · Feminine Phil 2:3 · Jas 3:14 2×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Additional Occurrences
selfish ambition
New Testament Witnesses
selfish ambition
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 7 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
ἐριθεία is built from this root:
Why This Word Matters
Distinguishes sinful motive from faithful proclamation. James 3:13–18
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain