Evil
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G4189 is a Greek noun for wickedness, evil intent, iniquity, or active moral corruption. Luke 11:39 records Jesus telling Pharisees that polished exteriors can conceal greed and wickedness within, exposing religious appearance separated from justice.
Reader summary
Full entry for πονηρία (G4189) · Open the biblical lexicon
G4189 is a Greek noun for wickedness, evil intent, iniquity, or active moral corruption. Luke 11:39 records Jesus telling Pharisees that polished exteriors can conceal greed and wickedness within, exposing religious appearance separated from justice.
The BSB source-word alignment has 7 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include wickedness (3), evil (1), evil intent (1), of evil (1), wicked ways (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 22:18. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Corinthians (1), Acts (1), Ephesians (1), Luke (1).
G4189 is a Greek noun for wickedness, evil intent, iniquity, or active moral corruption. Luke 11:39 records Jesus telling Pharisees that polished exteriors can conceal greed and wickedness within, exposing religious appearance separated from justice. Ephesians 6:12 says the church's struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of evil, redirecting hostility away from treating human neighbors as the ultimate enemy.
Acts 3:26 describes God's Servant blessing hearers by turning each one from wicked ways, joining blessing to repentance and changed conduct. Other uses include evil intent in testing Jesus, the corruptions issuing from the human heart, and communities tolerating malice. G4189 opens inward motive, practiced harm, structural power, repentance, and spiritual conflict.
It corrects vague language about evil that demonizes whole groups while leaving greed, deception, abuse, and unjust systems unnamed within one's own community.
G4189 names active wickedness or moral corruption expressed in intent, character, conduct, and spiritual opposition. It is broader than one prohibited act but must still be grounded in the passage's concrete patterns rather than attached to disliked people as an essence.
Then the Lord said, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.
Jesus exposes greed and wickedness within people whose religious attention remains fixed on outward cleanliness.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Paul locates the church's struggle beyond flesh-and-blood enemies in spiritual powers of evil and calls for God's armor.
When God raised up His Servant, He sent Him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”
God's raised Servant brings blessing by turning hearers away from their wicked ways.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Wickedness as active malice and harmful intent, distinct from mere badness or depravity
Wickedness as active malice and harmful intent, distinct from mere badness or depravity
(πονηρός), [in LXX chiefly for רַע ;] iniquity, wickedness: Mat.22:18, Luk.11:39, Rom.1:29, Eph.6:12; pl. (see Bl., § 32, 6; WM, 220; Swete, Mk., 153), Mrk.7:22, Act.3:26; κακία καὶ π., 1Co.5:8.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
7 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
wickedness, iniquities
Read versewickedness, iniquities
Read versewickedness, iniquities
Read versewickedness, iniquities
Read versewickedness, iniquities
Read versewickedness, iniquities
Read versewickedness, iniquities
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.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 5 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.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 7 lexical occurrence verses.
πονηρία is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G4189 is strongest when it makes evil concrete. Jesus names greed and wickedness beneath a carefully maintained religious exterior. Acts describes blessing as being turned from wicked ways, so grace does not merely affirm the present pattern; it creates a path of repentance. Ephesians prevents moral struggle from collapsing into hatred of human beings. Flesh-and-blood neighbors may remain responsible for harmful choices, and institutions may require firm restraint, but no ethnicity, disability, nation, denomination, or political class is the embodiment of evil.
Churches should examine budgets, treatment of workers, sexual conduct, use of power, truthfulness, and care for vulnerable people before deploying the word against outsiders. Spiritual warfare language should produce prayer, truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and persevering witness, not paranoia or harassment. Naming wickedness faithfully protects people and invites turning.
It does not erase due process, evidence, proportionality, or the possibility that accusers and leaders alike need correction.
Acts.3.26
G4189 is a feminine noun related to the adjective for evil or wicked and denotes active wickedness, iniquity, or malicious intent. Its contexts specify inner corruption, evil designs, harmful conduct, or spiritual forces rather than an abstract substance detached from agency.
The prophets expose injustice hidden beneath worship and call God's people to turn from evil ways. Jesus continues that inward and social critique, and the apostles frame resistance through repentance, holy character, truthful community, and hope in God's victory.