Favoritism
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Προσωποληψία is a Greek noun for favoritism, partiality, or respect of persons. It names the sinful practice of judging by status, appearance, power, or advantage rather than by truth and righteousness.
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Full entry for προσωποληψία (G4382) · Open the biblical lexicon
Προσωποληψία is a Greek noun for favoritism, partiality, or respect of persons. It names the sinful practice of judging by status, appearance, power, or advantage rather than by truth and righteousness.
The BSB source-word alignment has 4 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include favoritism (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Romans 2:11. Its strongest book concentrations include Colossians (1), Ephesians (1), James (1), Romans (1).
Προσωποληψία is a Greek noun for favoritism, partiality, or respect of persons. It names the sinful practice of judging by status, appearance, power, or advantage rather than by truth and righteousness. The New Testament uses it to declare God's impartial judgment and to confront partiality among believers.
Pastorally, this word is direct and searching. It exposes the church's temptation to treat wealth, position, ethnicity, usefulness, or social power as reasons to value people differently. Scripture does not erase proper roles or responsibilities, but it forbids partiality that contradicts the character of God and the faith of Jesus Christ. That boundary protects both moral clarity and careful application in church life.
Prosopolepsia is currently represented in the local BSB source-word alignment with about 4 aligned occurrences. It names favoritism or partiality in judgment, household authority, and church life.
For God does not show favoritism.
Paul states that God does not show favoritism. The noun serves the impartiality of divine judgment.
And masters, do the same for your slaves. Give up your use of threats, because you know that He who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with Him.
Masters must stop threatening because there is no favoritism with the Lord. The noun confronts abuse of authority.
Whoever does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism.
The wrongdoer will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism. The noun serves accountability before God.
My brothers, as you hold out your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, do not show favoritism.
James forbids holding faith in the Lord Jesus Christ with favoritism. The noun confronts status-based treatment in the assembly.
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. Unjust bias showing partiality to some persons over others based on external status or appearance.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
4 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
partiality, favoritism
Read versepartiality, favoritism
Read versepartiality, favoritism
Read versepartiality, favoritism
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.
Representative Scripture witnesses for this entry: passage, original form, and sense in context.
προσωποληψία is built from this root:
Identifies discrimination rooted in external status, which contradicts gospel faith. Acts 10:24-48
Peter affirms that God does not grant salvation based on ethnic status. James 2:1–7
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Prosopolepsia names favoritism or partiality. It confronts any practice that values people by worldly advantage rather than truth before God.
Jas.2.1
The noun names a moral posture, not merely a social preference. The passages apply it to judgment, authority, and assembly life.
Prosopolepsia exposes partiality before God and among His people. It joins divine impartiality to church practice and everyday relationships.
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
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Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain