πονηρός (on the accent ef. Lob. ad Phryn. p. 389; Gottling, Lehre v. Accent, p. 304 sq.; [Chandler §§ 404, 405]; Lipsius, Grammat. Untersuch. p. 26), -d, τόν ; compar. πονηρότερος (Mt. xii. 45; Lk. xi. 26); (πονέω, πόνος) ; fr. Hes., [Hom. (ep. 15, 20), Theog.] down; Sept. often for 1; 1. full of labors, annoyances, hardships ; a. pressed and harassed by labors ; thus Hercules is called πονηρότατος καὶ ἄριστος, Hes. frag. 43, 5. b. bringing toils, annoyances, perils: (καιρός, Sir. li. 12); ἡμέρα πονηρά, of a time full of peril to Christian faith and steadfastness, Eph. v. 16; vi. 13, (so in the plur. ἡμέραι πον. Barn. ep. 2, 1); causing pain and trouble [A. V. grievous], ἕλκος, Rev. xvi. 2. 2. bad, of a bad nature or condition ; a. in a physical sense: ὀφθαλμός, diseased or blind, Mt. vi. 23; Lk. xi. 34, (πονηρία ὀφθαλμῶν, Plat. Hipp. min. p. 3874 ἃ. ; the Greeks use πονηρῶς ἔχειν or διακεῖσθαι of the sick; ἐκ γενετῆς πονηροὺς ὑγιεῖς πεποιηκέναι, Justin apol. 1, 22 [ (cf. Otto's note) ; al. take πον. in Mt. and Lk.u.s. ethically; cf. b.and Meyer on Mt. ]); καρπός, Mt. vii. 17 sq. b. in an ethical sense, evil, wicked, bad, ete. [‘this use of the word is due to its association with the working (largely the servile) class; not that contempt for labor is thereby expressed, for such words as ἐργάτης, δραστήρ, and the like, do not take on this evil sense, which connected itself only with a word expressive of unintermitted toil and carrying no suggestion of results” (ef. Schmidt ch. 85, §1); see κακία, fin.]; of persons: Mt. vii. 11; xii. 34 sq.; xvili. 32; xxv. 26; Lk. vi. 45; xi. 13; xix. 22; Acts xvii. 5; 2 Th. iii. 2; 2 Tim. iii. 13; γενεὰ πον.» Mt. xii. 39, 45; xvi. 4; Lk. xi. 29; πνεῦμα πονηρόν, an evil spirit (see πνεῦμα, 3 c.), Mt. xii. 45; Lk. vii. 21; viii. 2; xi. 26; Acts xix. 12 sq. 15 sq-; substantively of πονηροί, the wicked, bad men, opp. to οἱ δίκαιοι, Mt. xiii. 49; πονηροὶ καὶ ἀγαθοί, Mt. v. 45; xxii. 10; ἀχάριστοι x. πονηροί, Lk. vi. 35 ; τὸν πονηρόν, the wicked man, i. e. the evil-doer spoken of, 1 Co. v. 13; τῷ πονηρῷ, the evil man, who injures you, Mt. v. 39. 6 πονηρός is used pre-eminently of the devil, the evil one: Mt. v. 37; vi. 13; xiii. 19, 38; Lk. xi. 4 RL; Jn. xvii. 15; 1Jn. ii. 13 sq.3 iii. 12; v. 18 sq. (on which see κεῖμαι, 2c.); Eph. vi. 16. of things: αἰών, Gal.i.'4; ὄνομα (q. v. 1 p. 447

πονηρός ponēros 78x

bad, unsound, Mt. 6:23; 7:17, 18; evil, afflictive, Eph. 5:16; 6:13; Rev. 16:2; evil, wrongful, malignant, malevolent, Mt. 5:11, 39; Acts 28:21; evil, wicked, impious, and τὸ πονηρόν, evil, wrong, wickedness, Mt. 5:37, 45; 9:4; slothful, inactive, Mt. 25:26; Lk. 19:22; ὁ πονηρός, the evil one, the devil, Mt. 13:19, 38; Jn. 17:15; evil eye, i.q. φθονερός envious, Mt. 20:15; Mk. 7:22; impl. covetous, Mt. 7:11

πονηρός, -ά, -όν

(< πονέω, to toil), [in LXX chiefly for רַע;]

of persons, oppressed by toils (Hes.);

of things, toilsome, painful (καιρός, Si 51:12): Eph 5:16 6:13, Re 16:2.

bad, worthless; in physical sense: καρπός, Mt 7:17, 18;

in ethical sense, bad, evil, wicked; of persons: Mt 7:11 12:34, 35 18:32 25:26, Lk 6:45 11:13 19:22, Ac 17:5, II Th 3:2, II Ti 3:13; γενεά, Mt 12:39, 45 16:4, Lk 11:29; πνεῦμια, Mt 12:45, Lk 7:21 8:2 11:26, Ac 19:12, 13, 15, 16; as subst., οἱ π., opp. to δίκαιοι, Mt 13:49; to ἀγαθοί, Mt 5:45 22:10; οἱ ἀχάριστοι καὶ π., Lk 6:35; sing., ὁ π., Mt 5:39, I Co 5:13; id. esp. of Satan, the evil one, Mt 5:37 6:13 (v. Lft., Notes, 125 ff.; but cf. McN, in l.) 13:19, 38, Lk 11:4 (WH, R, om.), Jo 17:15, Eph 6:16, II Th 3:3 (Lft., Notes, 125 ff.), I Jo 2:13, 14 3:12 5:18, 19;

of things: Mt 5:11 12:35 15:19, Lk 6:22, 45, Jo 3:19 7:7, Ac 18:14 25:18, Ga 1:4, Col 1:21, I Ti 6:4, II Ti 4:18, He 3:12 10:22, Ja 2:4 4:16, I Jo 3:12, II Jo 11, III Jo 10; ὀφθαλμός (q.v.), Mt 6:23 20:15, Mk 7:22, Lk 11:34; as subst., neut., τὸ π., Ac 28:21, I Th 5:22; opp. to ἀγαθόν, Lk 6:45, Ro 12:9; pl., Mt 9:4, Mk 7:23, Lk 3:19.†

SYN.: v.s. ἄθεσμος.

Taat which is morally evil may be contemplated on various sides and from various points of view; the several epithets which it will thus obtain bringing out the several aspects under which it will have presented itself to us. Kaxos and πονηρός occur together, Rev. xvi. 2; as «axia and πονηρία at I Cor. v. 8; the διαλογισμοὶ κακοί of St. Mark vii. 21 are διαλογισμοὶ πονηροί in the parallel passage of St. Matthew (xv. 19). The distinction between these will best be considered when we come to deal with πονηρός. Kaxos, the constant antithesis to ἀγαθός (Deut. eens 06¢) Ps; xxiii; 15; Rom. xii. 21; 2 Cor. v. 10; of. Plato, Rep. x. 608 e), and though not quite so frequently to καλός (Gen. xxiv. 50; xliv. 4; Heb. v. 14; Plutarch, Reg. et Imp. Apoph. Epam. 20), affirms of that which it 316 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. § τχχχιν. characterizes that qualities and conditions are wanting there which would constitute it worthy of the name which it bears.! This first in a physical sense; thus κακὰ εἵματα (Homer, Od. xi. 191) are mean or tattered garments ; κακὸς ἐατρός (Aischylus, Prom. Vinct. 473), a physician wanting in the skill which physicians should possess; κακὸς κριτής (Plutarch, Reg. et Imp. Apoph. Fabr. 4), an unskilful judge. So, too, in the Scripture it is often used without any ethical intention (Prov. xx. 14; Luke xvi. 25; Acts xxviii. 5; Rev. xvi. 2). Often, however, it assumes one; thus κακὸς δοῦλος (Matt. xxiv. 48) is a servant wanting in that fidelity and diligence which are properly due from such; cf. Prov. xii. 123 Jer. vii. 24; 1 Cor. xv. 33; Col. iii. 5; Phil. iii. 2. But the πονηρός is, as Ammonius calls him, ὁ δραστικὸς κακοῦ, the active worker out of evil; the German ‘ Bosewicht,’ or as Beza (Annott. in Matt. v. 37) has drawn the distinction : ‘Significat πονηρός aliquid amplius quam κακός, nempe eum qui sit in omni scelere exercitatus, et ad injuriam cuivis inferendam totus comparatus.’ He is, according to the derivation of the word, ὁ παρέχων πόνους, or one that, as we say, ‘ puts others to trouble ;’? and πονηρία is the ‘cupiditas nocendi’; or as Jeremy Taylor explains it: ‘aptness to do shrewd turns, to delight in mischiefs and tragedies ; a loving to trouble our neighbour and to 1 Cremer: ‘So characterisirt κακός dasjenige was nicht so beschaffen ist wie es, seiner Natur, Bestimmung und Idee nach, sein kénnte oder sollte.’ 2 J. H. H. Schmidt is of the mind that the connexion between πόνος and πονηρός is not this, but another; that we have here an illustration of what we may call the aristocratic tendencies of language, which meet us so often and in so many tongues. What, he asks, is the feature concerning their poorer neighbours’ manner of life which must most strike the leisured few—what but this, namely that they are always at work ; they are πονηροί or laborious, for their πόνοι never cease. It is not long, however, before a word constantly applied to the poor obtains an unfavourable subaudition; it has done so in words out of number, as in our own ‘churl,’ ‘ villain,’ and so many more ; the poor it is suggested in thought are also the bad, and the word moves into a lower sphere in agreement with the thought. δ σχχιν, SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 317 do him ill offices; crossness, perverseness, and peevishness of action in our intercourse’ (Doctrine and Practice of Repentance, iv. 1). In πονηρός the positive activity of evil comes far more decidedly out than in κακός, the word therefore being constantly opposed to χρηστός, or the good contemplated as the useful (Isocrates, Or.i. 6 ἃ ; viii. 184 a; Xenophon, Mem. ii.6. 20; Jer. xxiv. 2, 3; and in the same way associated with ἄχρηστος, Demosthenes, 1271). If κακός is ‘mauvais,’ ‘méchant,’ πονηρός is ‘ nuisible,’ noxious, or ‘noisome’ in our elder sense of the word. The κακός may be content to perish in his own corruption, but the πονηρός is not content unless he is corrupting others as well, and drawing them into the same destruction with himself. ‘They sleep not except they have done mischief, and their sleep is taken away except they cause some to fall’ (Prov. iv. 16). We know, or we are happier still if we do not know even by report, what in French is meant by ‘dépraver les femmes.’ Thus ὄψον πονηρόν (Plutarch, Sept. Sap. Conv. 2) is an unwholesome dish: ἄσματα πονηρά (De Aud. Poet. 4), wicked songs, such as by their wantonness corrupt the minds of the young; γυνὴ πονηρά (De Virt. et Vit. 2), a wicked wife; ὀφθαλμὸς movnpos (Mark vii. 22), a mischief-working eye. Satan is emphatically ὁ πονηρός, as the first author of all the mischief in the world (Matt. vi. 13; Ephes. vi. 16; cf. Luke vii. 21; Acts xix. 12); ravening beasts are always θηρία πονηρά in the Septuagint (Gen. xxxvil. 33; Isai. xxxv. 9; ef. Josephus, Antt. vii. 5. 5); κακὰ θηρία, indeed, occurs once in the N. T, (Tit. i. 12), but the meaning is not precisely the same, as the context sufficiently shows. An instructive line in Euripides (Hecuba, 596), testifies to the Greek sense of a more inborn radical evil in the man who is πονηρός than in the κακός : Ὁ μὲν πονηρὸς οὐδὲν ἄλλο πλὴν κακός. A reference to the context will show that what Euripides 318 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. ὃδιχχχιν. means is this, namely, that a man of an evil nature (πονηρός) will always show himself base in act (κακός). But there are words in most languages, and φαῦλος is one of them, which contemplate evil under another aspect, not so much that either of active or passive malignity, but that rather of its good-for-nothingness, the impossi+ bility of any true gain ever coming forth from it. Thus ‘ nequam’ (in strictness opposed to ‘frugi’), and ‘nequitia’ in Latin (see Ramsay on the Mostelluria of Plautus, p- 229); ‘vaurien’ in French; ‘ naughty’ and ‘ naughtiness’ in English; ‘ Taugenichts,’ ‘ schlecht,’ ‘ Schlechtigkeit’ in German ;! while on the other hand ‘ Tugend’ (=‘ taugend’) is virtue contemplated as usefulness. This notion of worthlessness is the central notion of φαῦλος (by some very questionably identified with ‘faul,’ ‘ foul’), which in Greek runs successively through the following meanings, —light, unstable, blown about by every wind (see Donaldson, Cratylus, § 152; ‘synonymum ex levitate permutatum,’ Matthiai), small, slight (6 schlecht’ and ‘ schlicht’ in German are only different spellings of the same word), mediocre, of no account, worthless, bad; but still bad predominantly in the sense of worthless: thus φαύλη αὐλητρίς (Plato, Symp. 215 c), a bad flute-player; φαῦλος ζωγράφος (Plutarch, De Adul. et Am. 6), a bad painter. In agreement with this, the standing antithesis to φαῦλος is σπουδαῖος (Plato, Legg. vi. 757 a; vii. 814 e; Philo, De Merc. Mer. 1); the Stoics ranging all men in two classes, either in that of σπουδαῖοι or φαῦλοι, and not recognizing any middle ethical position; so too it stands over against χρηστός (Plutarch, De Aud. Poét. 4); καλός (De Adul. et Am. 9) ; ἐπιεικής (Aristotle, Hthic. Nic. iii. 5. 3); ἀστεῖος (Plutarch, De Rep. Stoic. 12); while words with which itis commonly associated are ἄχρηστος (Plato, Lysis, 204 b); εὐτελής (Legg. vii. 806 a); μοχθηρός (Gorg. 486 Ὁ): 1 Graff (Alt-hochdeutscher Sprachschatz, p. 138) ascribes in like manner to ‘ bose ’ (‘ bése’) an original sense of weak, small, nothing worth. διχχχν. SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 319 ἀσθενής (Euripides, Med. 803) ; ἄτοπος (Plutarch, De Aud. Poét. 12; Conj. Prec. 48); ἐλαφρός (De Adul. et Amic. 32); BraBepcs (De Aud. Poét. 14); κοινός (Prec. San. 14); ἀκρατής (Gryll. 8); ἀνόητος (De Comm. Not. 11); ἄκαιρος (Conj. Prac. 14); ἀγεννής (De Adul. et Amic. 2) ; ἀγοραῖος (Chariton). Waidos. as used in the N. T., has reached the latest stage of its meaning; and τὰ φαῦλα πράξαντες are set in direct opposition to τὰ ἀγαθὰ ποιήσανTes, and condemned as such to “ the resurrection of damnation” (John v. 29; ef. iii. 20; Tit. ii. 8; Jam. iii. 16; Aristotle, Ethic. Nic. ii. 6.18; Philo, De Abrah. 3). We have the same antithesis of φαῦλα and ἀγαθά elsewhere (Phalaris, Ep. 144; Plutarch, De Plac. Phil. i. 8) ; and for a good note upon the word see Schoewann, Agis et Cleomenes, p. 71.

πονηρός. This adj. denoting the active exercise of evil is seen in BGU 11. 372%) (a.p. 154) πονηρ[ὃν K]g[l] λῃσίτ]ρικὸν β[(ον, PSI V. 4521 (iv/A.D.) πονηρὰ βουλευσαμέν[ ου]ς, and Syil 809 (= *1175)'® (iv/iii B.C.) ῥῆμα μοχθηρὸν ἢ πονηρὸν φθένγεσθαι. With the Lat. sepulchral formula ad hoc monumento dolus malus abesto, cf. BGU I. 3261-3 (a.nd. 194) ταύτῃ TH διαθήκῃ δόλος πονηρὸς ἀπέστηί( --ω)Ἱ. In the deed of divorce P Grenf II. 76° (A.D. 305-306) a couple are stated to have renounced their married life ἐκ τινὸς πονηροῦ δαίμονος, ‘‘owing to some evil deity,” and similarly P Lips I. 345 (ες A.D. 375). The word is joined with ἀσεβεῖς in Jos. Anét. xii. 252, xiii. 34. For the original meaning of πονηρός, ‘ toilworn,” ‘“laborious ’’ we may cite the description of Heracles, the type of the strenuous life—ovypdtatos καὶ ἄριστος (Hes. Fr. 43. 5)-

πονηρός (ponēros) — evil/bad. πονηρός, ά, όν, in physical sense, oppressed by toils, πονηρότατος καὶ ἄριστος, of Heracles, [Refs 8th c.BC+]

2. of things, toilsome, painful, grievous, ἔργα [Refs 8th c.BC+]

II. in bad case, in sorry plight, useless, good-for-nothing, σύμμαχοι[Refs 5th c.BC+]; κύων, ἱππάριον, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; δίαιτα, τροφή, σιτία, injurious, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; π. σῶμα, opposed to χρηστόν, [Refs]; π. σκώμματα sorry jests, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; π. πράγματα a bad state of things, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; π. ἀρχὴ τῆς παιδείας a bad beginning, [Refs 5th c.BC+] adverb, -ρῶς ἔχειν to be in bad case, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; π. διακεῖσθαι, διατεθῆναι, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

III. in moral sense, worthless, knavish, φήμη, βίος, ζόη, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; πονηρὸς.. κἀκ πονηρῶν rogue and son of rogues, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; ὦ πόνῳ πονηρέ in a comic jingle, [Refs]; π. πόρρω τέχνης past master in knavery, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; π. [ῥῆμα] malicious, [NT]wickednesses, [LXX+5th c.BC+]; δόλῳ πονηρῷ, Latin dolo malo, [Refs 2nd c.BC+]; ὁ π. the evil one, [NT+4th c.AD+]

III.2. base, cowardly, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; π. χρώματα, i.e. the coward's hue, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

III.3. with a political connotation, of the baser sort, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; opposed to καλοὶ κἀγαθοί, [Refs 5th c.BC+] —On the variation of accent, πονηρός and πόνηρος, see at {μοχθηρός} near the end