Greek “Virtue” Words

This is the word that can be translated as intelligence or understanding. Certainly it is used in a positive light in several places. In Mark 12:30-34, for example, the word occurs as one of the qualities that one must devote to God in love. Interestingly, this passage occurs in the midst of a kind of intelligence contest between Jesus and the religious leaders, one where Jesus answers their conundrums so well they are afraid to ask him any more, and the one he himself poses is left unanswered.

The word also appears in Luke 2:47 which says, “And all who heard him were astonished at his [intelligence] and answers.”

However, it is easy to get the impression that the New Testament is not favorable to intelligence. Matthew 11:25 says, “At that time Jesus declared, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and [intelligent] and revealed them to little children….’ ” Paul also says something like this: “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong…” (I Corinthians 1:27). These and other similar statements seem to refer to the way having a certain amount of knowledge and expertise can cause one to be trapped in a paradigm which makes new understanding impossible. A Zen-like deprecation of reason can lead to insight.

Nevertheless the New Testament emphasizes the need for knowledge, intelligence and mental preparation. Examples include injunctions to “test all things,” “gird up the loins of your mind,” “I speak to sensible people: judge for yourselves” and like passages. Seeking knowledge is encouraged in many places. But the mind, along with all human faculties, is not the infallible arbiter of all truth. “Knowledge puffs up; love builds up.”

This is the word usually translated as virtue. The lexicon says that it is “a term denoting consummate ‘excellence’ or ‘merit’ within a social context….” We can see it as those traits that make a person admirable in the eyes of his fellow men. I think of it as a kind of catch-all word that applies to praiseworthy superiority in any area, usually the result of diligent application.

In Greek thought, arete was the goal of paideia or child training. The term paideia is used in Ephesians 6:4; from a cultural perspective it is more significant than is often realized. Paideia was the process of training boys to become men. Through paideia one reached one’s full potential, resulting in arete in every area of life: physical, mental, moral and spiritual.

This word appears many times in the New Testament and seems to encourage pursuit of praiseworthy excellence in character and capability.

Often translated (incorrectly) as gentle, this word is another word that has more significance than is usually realized. A better translation might be magnanimous. (Of all the English Bibles I surveyed, only The New English Bible used this rendition.) That word captures the sense of noblesse oblige that adheres to one of superior station.

A magnanimous person, then, yields his rights to another with the sense that he can afford to do so. For example, a rich person might settle a legal controversy with a poorer person in a manner to the advantage of the poor person, reasoning that he can easily afford to do so and the poor person will benefit.

Paul enjoins Christians to be magnanimous because “The Lord is at hand” (Philippians 4:5). The entire passage from 4:4-9 exhorts the readers to a kind of “Christian mental health” of positive attitudes. It concludes with a list of positive criteria with which one is to judge situations, one of those attitudes being our old friend arete (Philippians 4:8).

This word is usually translated self-control. Unfortunately that phrase has come to mean well-behaved, that is, conforming to the standards or desires of another person. I find the notion of self-mastery to be more apropos. When you hear someone say, “I couldn’t help it” you know you are not in the presence of someone with enkrateia.

The idea is that someone with this trait owns himself, to the point that he can do what he intends. He can make commitments and promises and keep them. He can refrain from being driven by his emotions and desires, expressing them only at a time and in a manner he judges appropriate. He is neither “goofy” nor emotionally reactive, not because he is not passionate but because he is master.

Usually translated blessed, this word straddles a number of philosophical and theological categories: permanence and change; divine and human; immortal and mortal; fortunate and unfortunate and so on. It is a Greek word but usually, in the New Testament, it is used from a Hebrew mindset, and this make it more interesting.

To the Greeks this word practically embodied the antithesis between permanence and change when applied to the human condition. The gods were unshakably blessed; humans at best were lucky, with their fate determined by changeable fortune. This was an insurmountable difference; it virtually defined the distinction between the gods and men.

By contrast, the Hebrew idea (expressed by several different words) denoted a connection with God based on having a covenant with him. Blessedness depended not on one’s nature or even one’s own capabilities, but on God’s faithfulness to his promises. Keep the covenant and you will be blessed:

Yahweh intimately informs himself about the righteous
But the wicked wander lost and forgotten.
                                         -- Psalm 1:6

This is a brief survey of some Greek “virtue words” that are in the New Testament. There are numerous other such words, such as eusebia (godliness), theios (divine), sophrosune (sound mind) and so on. Studying words like this will often help us understand concepts that are, perhaps, foreign to our own way of thought and yet loom important in the thought of the New Testament times.