What does φιλονεικία (philoneikía) mean in the Bible?
φιλονεικία (philoneikía): Contentious rivalry or competitive ambition, typically negative; contrasts with constructive emulation through its emphasis on quarrelsome nature.
Greek · G5379
φιλονεικία
Love of dispute
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through the Connect page. Screenshots are helpful.
φιλονεικία G5379
Pronunciation philoneikía
What does φιλονεικία (philoneikía) mean in the Bible?
φιλονεικία (philoneikía): Contentious rivalry or competitive ambition, typically negative; contrasts with constructive emulation through its emphasis on quarrelsome nature.
Full entry for φιλονεικία (G5379) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G5379?
The BSB source-word alignment has 1 aligned row for this entry. Common renderings include A dispute (1).
Where does φιλονεικία (philoneikía) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Luke 22:24. Its strongest book concentrations include 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 A dispute 1× Luke 22:24
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Luke 22:24
Aligned rows 1
Books represented 1
Luke 1
Source forms
φιλονεικία 1x philoneikia Luke 22:24
Parsing patterns
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular 1x Luke 22:24
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Contentious rivalry or competitive ambition, typically negative; contrasts with constructive emulation through its emphasis on quarrelsome nature.
Strong's G5379
Lexical occurrences 1 verse Greek text appearances 1 time Word forms 1 form 1 reference Verse guides 0 guides
Source Gloss
love of dispute
Extended definition Source: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
Contentious rivalry or competitive ambition, typically negative; contrasts with constructive emulation through its emphasis on quarrelsome nature.
(φιλόνεικος), [in LXX: 2Ma.4:4, 4Ma.1:26 4Mac 8:26 * ;] love of strife, rivalry, emulation (Plat., al.), but mostly in bad sense (Thuc., al.), contentiousness, contention: Luk.22:24 (but see Field, Notes, 75 f.).
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
1 Greek text appearance shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Luke 22:24 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
φιλονεικία filoneikia
love of dispute, contention
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 1 case and number pattern. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Form patterns 1 Aligned forms 1 Case pattern Nominative (1) Number pattern Singular (1)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · Feminine Luke 22:24 1×
Where It Appears in Scripture
Where this word appears in Scripture: passage, original form, and sense in context.
Witnesses
Luke 22:24–34 φιλονεικία philoneikía
Rivalry, dispute
Word Origins
φιλονεικία is built from this root:
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