What does πονηρία (ponēría) mean in the Bible?
πονηρία (ponēría): Wickedness as active malice and harmful intent, distinct from mere badness or depravity
Greek · G4189
πονηρία
Evil
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πονηρία G4189
Pronunciation ponēría
What does πονηρία (ponēría) mean in the Bible?
πονηρία (ponēría): Wickedness as active malice and harmful intent, distinct from mere badness or depravity
Full entry for πονηρία (G4189) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G4189?
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).
Where does πονηρία (ponēría) appear in Scripture?
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).
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 wickedness 3× Mark 7:22, Luke 11:39, 1 Corinthians 5:8
evil 1× Romans 1:29
evil intent 1× Matthew 22:18
of evil 1× Ephesians 6:12
wicked ways 1× Acts 3:26
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 22:18 πονηρίαν to evil intent Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Mark 7:22 πονηρίαι to wickedness Noun - Nominative Feminine Plural Luke 11:39 πονηρίας to wickedness Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular Acts 3:26 πονηριῶν to wicked ways Noun - Genitive Feminine Plural Romans 1:29 πονηρίᾳ to evil Noun - Dative Feminine Singular 1 Corinthians 5:8 πονηρίας to wickedness Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular Ephesians 6:12 πονηρίας to of evil Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Matthew 22:18
Aligned rows 7
Books represented 7
Matthew 1 Mark 1 Luke 1 Acts 1 Romans 1 1 Corinthians 1 Ephesians 1
Source forms
πονηρίας 3x ponērias Luke 11:39, 1 Corinthians 5:8, Ephesians 6:12
πονηρίᾳ 1x ponēria Romans 1:29
πονηρίαι 1x ponēriai Mark 7:22
πονηρίαν 1x ponērian Matthew 22:18
πονηριῶν 1x ponēriōn Acts 3:26
Parsing patterns
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular 3x Luke 11:39, 1 Corinthians 5:8, Ephesians 6:12
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 1x Matthew 22:18
Noun - Dative Feminine Singular 1x Romans 1:29
Noun - Genitive Feminine Plural 1x Acts 3:26
Noun - Nominative Feminine Plural 1x Mark 7:22
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Wickedness as active malice and harmful intent, distinct from mere badness or depravity
Strong's G4189
Lexical occurrences 7 verses Greek text appearances 7 times Word forms 5 forms 7 references Verse guides 0 guides
Source Gloss
evil
Extended definition Source: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
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.
Synonymssee: κακία.
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.
Matthew 22:18 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
πονηρίαν ponhrian
wickedness, iniquities
Read verse Mark 7:22 Noun Nominative Plural Feminine
πονηρίαι, ponhriai
wickedness, iniquities
Read verse Luke 11:39 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
πονηρίας. ponhriav
wickedness, iniquities
Read verse Acts 3:26 Noun Genitive Plural Feminine
πονηριῶν ponhriwn
wickedness, iniquities
Read verse Romans 1:29 Noun Dative Singular Feminine
πονηρίᾳ, ponhria
wickedness, iniquities
Read verse 1 Corinthians 5:8 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
πονηρίας, ponhriav
wickedness, iniquities
Read verse Ephesians 6:12 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
πονηρίας ponhriav
wickedness, 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.
Grammatical Forms
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.
Form patterns 5 Aligned forms 7 Case pattern Genitive (4) Number pattern Singular (5)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Plural · Feminine Mark 7:22 1×
Genitive · Singular · Feminine Luke 11:39 · 1 Cor 5:8 · Eph 6:12 3×
Genitive · Plural · Feminine Acts 3:26 1×
Dative · Singular · Feminine Rom 1:29 1×
Accusative · Singular · Feminine Matt 22:18 1×
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Witnesses
Luke 11:37–44 πονηρίας ponēría
Wickedness
Showing 1 selected witness from 7 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
πονηρία 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