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
ματαιότης (mataiótēs): Emptiness and futility inherent to creation itself, not merely human foolishness or moral failing
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ματαιότηςG3153
Pronunciationmataiótēs
What does ματαιότης (mataiótēs) mean in the Bible?
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] empty1×2 Peter 2:18
[the] futility1×Ephesians 4:17
futility1×Romans 8:20
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowRomans 8:20
Aligned rows3
Books represented3
Romans1Ephesians12 Peter1
Source forms
ματαιότητι2xmataiotētiRomans 8:20, Ephesians 4:17
ματαιότητος1xmataiotētos2 Peter 2:18
Parsing patterns
Noun - Dative Feminine Singular2xRomans 8:20, Ephesians 4:17
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular1x2 Peter 2:18
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Emptiness and futility inherent to creation itself, not merely human foolishness or moral failing
Strong'sG3153
Lexical occurrences3 versesGreek text appearances3 timesWord forms2 forms3 referencesVerse guides0 guides
Study linkEphesians 4:17-24Source Gloss
inutility; figuratively, transientness; morally, depravity
Extended definitionSource: 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 corpusGreek 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 8:20Noun Dative Singular Feminine
ματαιότητιmataiothti
vanity, purposelessness
Read verseEphesians 4:17Noun Dative Singular Feminine
ματαιότητιmataiothti
vanity, purposelessness
Read verse2 Peter 2:18Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
ματαιότητοςmataiothtov
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 patterns2Aligned forms3Case patternDative (2)Number patternSingular (3)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Genitive · Singular · Feminine2 Pet 2:181×
Dative · Singular · FeminineRom 8:20 · Eph 4:172×
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.