Hypocrite
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Hypokritēs names a hypocrite, one whose presented religious identity conceals a contrary motive or practice. Jesus applies it to public almsgiving designed for human praise, to lips that honor God while hearts remain far away, to correction that magnifies a neighbor's speck while ignoring one's own log, and to prayer and fasting performed for visibility.
Reader summary
Full entry for ὑποκριτής (G5273) · Open the biblical lexicon
Hypokritēs names a hypocrite, one whose presented religious identity conceals a contrary motive or practice. Jesus applies it to public almsgiving designed for human praise, to lips that honor God while hearts remain far away, to correction that magnifies a neighbor's speck while ignoring one's own log, and to prayer and fasting performed for visibility.
The BSB source-word alignment has 17 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include You hypocrites (9), hypocrites (5), [You] hypocrite (1), [You] hypocrites (1), You hypocrite (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 6:2. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (13), Luke (3), Mark (1).
Hypokritēs names a hypocrite, one whose presented religious identity conceals a contrary motive or practice. Jesus applies it to public almsgiving designed for human praise, to lips that honor God while hearts remain far away, to correction that magnifies a neighbor's speck while ignoring one's own log, and to prayer and fasting performed for visibility. The noun is not a casual label for every inconsistency, weakness, or unfinished growth.
In these passages hypocrisy is cultivated performance, selective blindness, or outward piety used to secure reputation while evading God's gaze. Jesus' remedy is not secrecy as an absolute rule but integrity before the Father, self-examination, and worship shaped by God's word rather than human applause.
Hypokritēs exposes religious performance that seeks an audience, honors God verbally while resisting Him inwardly, or corrects others without self-examination. Jesus targets divided motive and pretended righteousness, not every believer who fails while sincerely repenting.
So when you give to the needy, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.
Matthew 6:2 calls showy givers hypocrites because they sound a trumpet to be honored by others. Their public applause is the only reward they sought; Jesus directs giving toward the Father's sight.
Jesus answered them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.
Mark 7:6 applies Isaiah to people who honor God with lips while hearts are far away. Their worship is emptied by elevating human tradition over God's command.
How can you say, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while you yourself fail to see the beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Luke 6:42 calls the person correcting a brother's speck while ignoring his own log a hypocrite. Jesus commands prior self-examination so one may then see clearly to help.
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.
Matthew 6:5 describes hypocrites who love praying in prominent places to be seen. Jesus does not ban all public prayer; He exposes prayer whose governing audience is human admiration.
When you fast, do not be somber like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.
Matthew 6:16 warns against disfiguring the face so fasting will be noticed. Disciples are to attend to God rather than advertise deprivation as spiritual status.
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. Stage actor metaphor: one who performs a false role, masking true character beneath outward pretense
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 20 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a hypocrite, dissembler
Read versea hypocrite, dissembler
Read versea hypocrite, dissembler
Read versea hypocrite, dissembler
Read versea hypocrite, dissembler
Read versea hypocrite, dissembler
Read versea hypocrite, dissembler
Read versea hypocrite, dissembler
Read versea hypocrite, dissembler
Read versea hypocrite, dissembler
Read versea hypocrite, dissembler
Read versea hypocrite, dissembler
Read versea hypocrite, dissembler
Read versea hypocrite, dissembler
Read versea hypocrite, dissembler
Read versea hypocrite, dissembler
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 4 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 4 selected witnesses from 17 lexical occurrence verses.
ὑποκριτής is built from this root:
Exposes religious performance lacking genuine devotion.
Exposes self-righteous blindness.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Hypokritēs names a dangerous split between the person displayed and the person offered to God. Gifts, prayers, and fasting can all be genuine practices while being corrupted into tools for reputation. Lips can recite honor while the heart protects traditions that evade obedience. A critic can become highly skilled at detecting another's fault while remaining willfully blind to his own.
Jesus does not solve hypocrisy by abolishing visible faith or mutual correction. He relocates the audience: the Father who sees in secret. He commands the critic to remove the log and then help the brother. Churches should therefore avoid both image management and cynical labeling. Honest confession, accountable repentance, and imperfect growth are the opposite of pretense.
The cure is integrity shaped by God's gaze, word, and mercy rather than applause.
Mark.7.6
Hypokritēs historically referred to one who answers or performs a role and came to denote a pretender or hypocrite. In Gospel usage the focus is deliberate discrepancy between public piety and inward allegiance, not theatrical etymology as a complete definition.
Prophets repeatedly condemn worship offered with lips and rituals while hearts and justice remain far from God. Wisdom warns against double speech, and David asks for an undivided heart before the Lord.
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