What does ματαιότης (mataiótēs) mean in the Bible?
ματαιότης (mataiótēs): Emptiness and futility inherent to creation itself, not merely human foolishness or moral failing
Greek · G3153
ματαιότης
Inutility; figuratively, transientness; morally, depravity
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ματαιότης G3153
Pronunciation mataiótēs
What does ματαιότης (mataiótēs) mean in the Bible?
ματαιότης (mataiótēs): Emptiness and futility inherent to creation itself, not merely human foolishness or moral failing
Full entry for ματαιότης (G3153) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G3153?
The BSB source-word alignment has 3 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include [but] empty (1), [the] futility (1), futility (1).
Where does ματαιότης (mataiótēs) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Romans 8:20. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Peter (1), Ephesians (1), Romans (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 [but] empty 1× 2 Peter 2:18
[the] futility 1× Ephesians 4:17
futility 1× Romans 8:20
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Romans 8:20
Aligned rows 3
Books represented 3
Romans 1 Ephesians 1 2 Peter 1
Source forms
ματαιότητι 2x mataiotēti Romans 8:20, Ephesians 4:17
ματαιότητος 1x mataiotētos 2 Peter 2:18
Parsing patterns
Noun - Dative Feminine Singular 2x Romans 8:20, Ephesians 4:17
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular 1x 2 Peter 2:18
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Emptiness and futility inherent to creation itself, not merely human foolishness or moral failing
Strong's G3153
Lexical occurrences 3 verses Greek text appearances 3 times Word forms 2 forms 3 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link Ephesians 4:17-24 Source Gloss
inutility; figuratively, transientness; morally, depravity
Extended definition Source: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
Emptiness and futility inherent to creation itself, not merely human foolishness or moral failing
(μάταιος), [in LXX for הֶבֶל, Psa.31:6 39:5 62:9, al., and nearly 40 times in Ec; for שָׁוְא, Psa.25:4, al.; רִיק, etc. ;] vanity, emptiness, frailty, folly: Rom.8:20, 2Pe.2:18; τ. νοός, Eph.4:17 (elsewhere only in Pollux, 6, 134, and Eccl.).
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
3 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Romans 8:20 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
ματαιότητι mataiothti
vanity, purposelessness
Read verse Ephesians 4:17 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
ματαιότητι mataiothti
vanity, purposelessness
Read verse 2 Peter 2:18 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
ματαιότητος mataiothtov
vanity, purposelessness
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 2 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 2 Aligned forms 3 Case pattern Dative (2) Number pattern Singular (3)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Genitive · Singular · Feminine 2 Pet 2:18 1×
Dative · Singular · Feminine Rom 8:20 · Eph 4:17 2×
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
Moral and intellectual depravity, the darkened understanding of pagans alienated from God
Showing 1 selected witness from 3 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
ματαιότης is built from this root:
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