Word Summary
eritheia: rivalry, ambition
Original Word: ἐριθείαTransliteration: eritheia
Phonetic Spelling: (er-ith-i'-ah)
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Short Definition: rivalry, ambition
Meaning: rivalry, ambition
Strong's Concordance
contention, strife.
Perhaps as the same as erethizo; properly, intrigue, i.e. (by implication) faction -- contention(-ious), strife.
see GREEK erethizo
Thayer's Greek Lexicon
STRONGS NT 2052: ἐριθείαἐριθεία (not
ἐριθεία, cf.
Winers Grammar, § 6, 1 g.; (
Chandler § 99)) (
ἐριθια WH; see Iota and
Tdf. Proleg., p. 88),
ἐριθείας,
ἡ (
ἐριθεύω to spin wool, work in wool,
Heliodorus 1, 5; middle in the same sense, Tobit 2:11; used of those who electioneer for office, courting popular applause by trickery and low arts,
Aristotle, polit. 5, 3; the verb is derived from
ἔριθος working for hire, a hireling; from the Maced. age down, a spinner or weaver, a worker in wool,
Isaiah 38:12 the
Sept.; a mean, sordid fellow),
electioneering or intriguing for office, Aristotle, pol. 5, 2 and 3 (pp. 1302b, 4 and 1303a, 14); hence, apparently, in the N. T. "a courting distinction, a desire to put oneself forward, a partisan and factious spirit which does not disdain low arts; partisanship, factiousness":
James 3:14, 16;
κατ' ἐριθείαν,
Philippians 2:3;
Ignatius ad Philadelph. § 8 [ET];
οἱ ἐξ ἐριθείας (see
ἐκ, II. 7),
Philippians 1:16 (
) (yet see ἐκ, II. 12 b.); equivalent to contending against God, Romans 2:8 (yet cf. Meyer (edited by Weiss) at the passage); in the plural αἱ ἐριθείαι (Winers Grammar, § 27, 3; Buttmann, § 123, 2): 2 Corinthians 12:20; Galatians 5:20. See the very full and learned discussion of the word by Fritzsche in his Commentary on Romans, i., p. 143f; (of which a summary is given by Ellicott on Galatians 5:20. See further on its derivation, Lobeck, Path. Proleg., p. 365; cf. Winer's Grammar, 94 (89)).