Good/Evil

Question: 

What are the Ancient Greek words for good and evil?

Answer: 

There were a number of different concepts, but they don’t map easily to our more modern concepts. Most of our modern concepts come from Christianity, which of course, was based upon the ancient Greek of the New Testament in the Bible. My specific focus is the Greek that Jesus uses in the Bible.

The Greek term that is almost always translated as “evil” or “wicked” is poneros, which means “oppressed by toil,” “burdened,” and “worthless.” Of things, it means “toilsome,” “painful,” and “grievous.” In a moral sense, “worthless,” “base,” and “cowardly.”

There is a different Greek word that actually does mean “evil” in the sense of malicious. The ,most common term is kakia. It is a word the Jesus uses very rarely, but he does use it (Matthew 6:34). Another similar concept is sapros. That Greek word means “corrupt” or “rotten,” but again, it is one that Christ rarely uses but does use (Matthew 12:33).

So, when Jesus says something is poneros, he is not saying that it is malicious, corrupt, or rotten. He is saying it is worthless and second-rate. In most situations, the best translation for poneros is "worthless" though "burdened by toils" works better in some contexts.

These words have, of course, taken on different meaning over the two thousand years of Christian teaching and, from there, into secular philosophy.

Kalos is Beautiful; Agathos is Useful

There are two different words commonly translated as "good" in Christ's words, kalos and agathos. Neither word means "good" in quite the same way as our English words. Both are more specific in the quality that they describe.

The most common Greek word translated as "good" is kalos . It means “beautiful,” “of fine quality,” “noble,” and “virtuous.” This word appears about three times more often than the other word, agathos , also translated as "good." This word is used in the many verses to describe both good acts and good things (Matthew 3:10 Matthew 7:17“good fruit,” Matthew 5:16 “good works,” Matthew 5:44 “do good,” Matthew 12:33 “good tree,” Matthew 13:8 “good ground,” Matthew 13:24, “good seed,” Matthew 17:4 “good for us,” Matthew 26:24 “good for that man”).

The sense of kalos is possible best captured by the concept of "fine quality." When a something is kalos, it is praiseworthy and easy to appreciate.

The other Greek word translated as "good" is agathos. Agathos, when applied to things, means “good” in the sense of “sound,” “serviceable, ”useful,”beneficial," and “correct.” When applied to people, it primarily “well-born,” “gentle,” “brave,” “capable,” and "correct.” Agathos is not used to describe good things except to refer to good deeds (as is kalos) and good people (’the good”).

Agathos is closer to our concept of "correct" and "useful." Jesus often contrasts aagathos with poneros. This contrast is usually translated as some form of "good and evil." Throughout the Gospels, agathos is translated primarily as "good" in the sense of virtuous. However, this is misleading as well. The contrast here is less between good and evil, but between useful and worthless, well-born and oppressed, healthy and second-rate.

Agathos is from the same roots as agape and agapao, the Greek words usually translated as "love," but whose real meaning is explained in more detail here.

Despite the alliterative ease of contrasting kalos, the fine quality goodness , with kakos, the more accurate Greek word for evil, we just don’t see that form in Christ's words. Kalos is used frequently, but kakos is never used except in the form of the adjective and then it isn't contrasted. As with agathos , it is contrasted with poneros. In Greek, as opposed to Christ's words, the opposite of agathos is most often kakos , which is the root of a word of an adjective that Christ uses, kakia, discussed above, which means “wicked,” “slanderous,” and “cowardly.”