Unjust; by extension wicked; by implication, treacherous; specially, heathen
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Ἄδικος describes someone or something unjust, unrighteous, or contrary to what is right. Its form is related to δίκαιος, but the word's force must be learned from each setting rather than derived from its parts alone.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἄδικος (G94) · Open the biblical lexicon
Ἄδικος describes someone or something unjust, unrighteous, or contrary to what is right. Its form is related to δίκαιος, but the word's force must be learned from each setting rather than derived from its parts alone.
The BSB source-word alignment has 12 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include [the] unrighteous (3), [the] wicked (2), unjust (2), [is] dishonest (1), {be} dishonest (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 5:45. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (4), 1 Corinthians (2), 1 Peter (1), 2 Peter (1).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
Ἄδικος describes someone or something unjust, unrighteous, or contrary to what is right. Its form is related to δίκαιος, but the word's force must be learned from each setting rather than derived from its parts alone. In 1 Peter 3:18, Christ the righteous suffers for the unrighteous in order to bring them to God. The verse places the word inside the saving work of Christ, but the adjective by itself does not define a complete account of atonement or justification.
First Corinthians 6:9 warns that the unrighteous will not inherit God's kingdom, while verse 11 immediately recalls the washing, sanctifying, and justifying grace received by some who had lived in those patterns. The warning is therefore serious without declaring such people unreachable. Luke 16:10 applies the word to dishonesty in a small trust and uses that conduct to expose whether a person can be trusted with more; one act is morally revealing without exhausting everything that can be said about the person.
Matthew 5:45 names the righteous and unrighteous together as recipients of the Father's sun and rain, grounding Jesus' call to love enemies in the Father's generous action. Romans 3:5 raises and rejects the charge that God is unjust to judge human unrighteousness; Paul's argument defends God's justice without making this word alone explain every question about divine wrath.
Ἄδικος appears in the local Greek index about 12 times in the New Testament, distributed across the Gospels, Pauline letters, 1 Peter, Hebrews, and Revelation. It functions both as a moral descriptor (the character of the unjust person) and as a forensic category (the condition of those outside God's righteous standard). The NT's most theologically significant use is 1 Peter 3:18, where Christ's substitutionary death is framed as the righteous dying for the unrighteous.
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit,
Peter places the righteous Christ and the unrighteous people for whom he suffered in direct contrast. The stated purpose, 'to bring you to God,' keeps the passage centered on Christ's sufficient suffering and reconciling work without asking the adjective to supply a complete theory of the atonement.
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,
Ἄδικος as the category that excludes from the kingdom: Paul's concern is not to compile a sin-list but to name the shape of a life organized against God's order. The shock of 6:11 ('such were some of you — but you were washed') makes the forensic change explicit: these Corinthian believers had been ἄδικοι and had been transferred out of that condition by justification, washing, and sanctification.
Whoever is faithful with very little will also be faithful with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
Jesus treats faithfulness or dishonesty in a small trust as meaningful evidence about readiness for a greater trust. The saying summons disciples to integrity in ordinary responsibilities without claiming that one isolated act provides an exhaustive judgment of a person's whole life.
That you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
The Father gives sun and rain to both the righteous and the unrighteous. Jesus appeals to that generous action as he commands love for enemies, so the verse should shape Christian mercy without being made to carry a full theological account of providence.
But if our unrighteousness highlights the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust to inflict His wrath on us? I am speaking in human terms.
Paul voices the objection that judgment might make God unjust if human unrighteousness displays God's righteousness, then rejects it emphatically. The argument safeguards God's right to judge the world; this verse should not be reduced to the stronger claim that wrath by itself is what makes God just.
Let the unrighteous continue to be unrighteous, and the vile continue to be vile; let the righteous continue to practice righteousness, and the holy continue to be holy.”
The closing words place continuing unrighteousness and continuing righteousness beside the announcement that Christ is coming soon to repay each person according to his deeds. The difficult imperative functions within an urgent final warning; it should not be made to prove a detailed theory of moral fixation.
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.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Violates justice or righteousness; fundamentally opposed to δίκαιος, emphasizing moral wrongdoing not mere mistake.
Violates justice or righteousness; fundamentally opposed to δίκαιος, emphasizing moral wrongdoing not mere mistake.
(δίκη), [in LXX for שׁקר, עול, etc. ;]
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
12 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
unjust, unrighteous
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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.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 12 lexical occurrence verses.
ἄδικος is built from these roots:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Ἄδικος gives the preacher a word for the human problem that is both forensic (a legal status before God) and characterological (a way of living). First Peter 3:18 is the passage that makes this word powerful rather than merely sobering: Christ died for the ἄδικοι. The unrighteous are not simply the guilty; they are the ones Christ specifically came for, bore the specific burden of, and died in the place of.
That means preaching ἄδικος should never land primarily on condemnation but on the precision of the gospel's aim. The exchange Paul names in 2 Corinthians 5:21 is the same reality 1 Peter 3:18 describes: the one who knew no sin was made sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. The forensic shift is total — the ἄδικος is not cleaned up; they are transferred into a new status by the death of the righteous one.
What makes this pastorally urgent is 1 Corinthians 6:11: 'such were some of you.' The Corinthians had been on the ἄδικοι list, and they had been removed from it — not by moral improvement but by washing, sanctification, and justification in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the counter to both despair (I am too unrighteous for God) and complacency (unrighteousness doesn't matter much).
It matters enough that only the death of the righteous one could address it. And it has been addressed.
1Pet.3.18
Ἄδικος is formed with the negative prefix ἀ- and δίκαιος, the adjective for what is just or righteous. That formation helps explain the broad gloss 'unjust' or 'unrighteous,' but context determines whether the word describes a person, an action, or treatment suffered unjustly. Abbott-Smith records legal, moral, and relational uses. No theological conclusion about a person's complete standing should be inferred from the word's parts alone.
The OT background of ἄδικος runs through the legal and wisdom traditions. The Hebrew רָשָׁע (H7563 — wicked/ungodly) and its related forms describe the one whose life is organized against God's order, who stands condemned in the divine court. The Psalms and Proverbs repeatedly contrast the righteous (צַדִּיק) with the wicked (רָשָׁע) as two fundamental orientations of human life.
Isaiah 53:11 introduces the substitutionary dimension that 1 Peter 3:18 inherits: the Servant 'will justify many and bear their iniquities.' The one who is righteous (צַדִּיק) is the one through whose bearing of guilt the many unrighteous are justified. The NT reads this trajectory as fulfilled in Christ and uses ἄδικος to name the condition that the cross specifically targets and overcomes.