Unjust; by extension wicked; by implication, treacherous; specially, heathen
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Ἄδικος is the negative form of δίκαιος (righteous, just) — the alpha-privative removes justice from the picture and leaves what remains: the unrighteous, the unjust, the one whose life or act falls outside the standard of right that God has established. The word is common in Greek moral philosophy (Plato uses it extensively), but the NT presses it into a specific theological frame: the standard against which ἄδικος.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἄδικος (G94) · Open the biblical lexicon
Ἄδικος is the negative form of δίκαιος (righteous, just) — the alpha-privative removes justice from the picture and leaves what remains: the unrighteous, the unjust, the one whose life or act falls outside the standard of right that God has established. The word is common in Greek moral philosophy (Plato uses it extensively), but the NT presses it into a.
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).
Ἄδικος is the negative form of δίκαιος (righteous, just) — the alpha-privative removes justice from the picture and leaves what remains: the unrighteous, the unjust, the one whose life or act falls outside the standard of right that God has established. The word is common in Greek moral philosophy (Plato uses it extensively), but the NT presses it into a specific theological frame: the standard against which ἄδικος is measured is God's own character and the righteousness he has established through Christ.
The most searching NT use of ἄδικος appears in the contrast of 1 Peter 3:18: 'Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.' Here ἄδικος is not merely a moral category but a forensic one — it names the condition from which Christ's substitutionary death rescues. The righteous (δίκαιος) dies for the unrighteous (ἄδικοι), and the direction is deliberate: the one who met God's standard entirely bore the full weight of the failure of those who did not.
This is the most theologically dense use of the word in the NT and establishes the redemptive frame within which all other uses operate. First Corinthians 6:9 uses ἄδικος as the category that excludes from inheriting the kingdom of God: 'Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?' The list that follows (sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, etc.)
Unpacks what kinds of practice characterize ἄδικος life — not a random list but a coherent portrait of a life organized around self rather than God. Paul's point is not that these individuals are beyond hope (6:11 immediately follows: 'such were some of you — but you were washed') but that ἄδικος life, unrepented, is incompatible with the kingdom. Luke 16:10 uses ἄδικος in the context of faithful stewardship: 'whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.'
The word here is practical and character-based — the one who is ἄδικος in small things is revealing the orientation of their whole life. Matthew 5:45 then places ἄδικος alongside 'evil' (ponēros) as the condition of those on whom God's common grace nevertheless falls: 'He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.'
The contrast is not intended to excuse ἄδικος but to demonstrate the extraordinary patience and generosity of God. Romans 3:5 presses the question of divine justice: 'if our unrighteousness highlights the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust to inflict His wrath on us?' Paul's answer is an emphatic 'By no means!' — God cannot be ἄδικος because his wrath against unrighteousness is precisely what justice requires.
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,
The redemptive center of ἄδικος: the forensic exchange in which Christ, the entirely righteous one, died for those who were unrighteous — not as a tragic accident but as a deliberate substitution. 'To bring you to God' names the purpose: the unrighteous are not merely forgiven their condition but escorted into the presence of the God from whom their unrighteousness had separated them. This is the fundamental resolution of the ἄδικος problem in the NT.
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.
Ἄδικος as character that expresses itself across scale: the one who acts unjustly in small things is not in a different moral category from the one who acts unjustly in large things — they are the same person, revealing the same fundamental orientation. Jesus uses this to press the disciples toward a view of integrity that does not divide life into high-stakes moments and inconsequential ones.
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.
Ἄδικος held within the scope of God's common grace: the Father provides sun and rain even to the unrighteous, not because their condition does not matter but because his patience and generosity exceed the limits that human retributive logic would set. Jesus uses this to call his disciples to an ethic of love that crosses the line of desert — reflecting the Father's own character.
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.
The question of whether God can be ἄδικος: Paul addresses the objection that if human unrighteousness serves to display God's righteousness, then God's wrath against that unrighteousness is somehow unfair. The answer is 'By no means!' — God's wrath against unrighteousness is precisely what makes him just, not unjust. The argument establishes that ἄδικος in God is categorically impossible and that the human use of unrighteousness as an excuse is incoherent.
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.”
Ἄδικος at the eschatological limit: as history closes, the categories fix — the unrighteous remain what they are, and the righteous remain what they are. This verse does not celebrate unrighteousness but describes the final crystallization of moral direction at the end of the age. It is a warning rather than a prescription: the one who has not turned from ἄδικος life faces its permanent entrenchment.
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. 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 corpus Greek 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.
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 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 built on the alpha-privative (ἀ-) prefixed to δίκαιος (just, righteous). The root δίκη names the established standard of right, justice, or custom — what is proper and due. Ἄδικος is therefore not simply 'bad' in a vague sense but specifically 'off the standard of right' — contrary to what is owed, due, or just. Abbott-Smith distinguishes uses as both 'acting unjustly' (the doer) and 'suffered unjustly' (the condition), noting the word's range across legal, moral, and relational contexts.
The NT's primary use is moral-forensic: the ἄδικος is the one whose life and status falls outside God's righteous standard.
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.
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