Worldly (physically or morally)
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G1919 means earthly, terrestrial, or belonging to the earth. The adjective can describe earthly things contrasted with heavenly things, earthly bodies and splendor, the present body pictured as an earthly tent, creatures on earth bowing to Jesus, attention fixed on earthly things, or wisdom characterized as earthly.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἐπίγειος (G1919) · Open the biblical lexicon
G1919 means earthly, terrestrial, or belonging to the earth. The adjective can describe earthly things contrasted with heavenly things, earthly bodies and splendor, the present body pictured as an earthly tent, creatures on earth bowing to Jesus, attention fixed on earthly things, or wisdom characterized as earthly.
The BSB source-word alignment has 7 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include earthly (4), [is] earthly (1), earthly [bodies] (1), on earth (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at John 3:12. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Corinthians (2), Philippians (2), 2 Corinthians (1), James (1).
G1919 means earthly, terrestrial, or belonging to the earth. The adjective can describe earthly things contrasted with heavenly things, earthly bodies and splendor, the present body pictured as an earthly tent, creatures on earth bowing to Jesus, attention fixed on earthly things, or wisdom characterized as earthly. The word is not morally negative by itself.
Bodies, location, and the created realm are not condemned merely for being earthly. Philippians 3 and James 3 supply negative evaluations from their surrounding descriptions, while 1 Corinthians 15 and 2 Corinthians 5 use earthly language within Christian hope for transformed embodiment. Each passage supplies the evaluation.
The six governed verses use G1919 for knowledge, bodies, location, attention, and wisdom. John 3 contrasts earthly and heavenly matters in Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus. First Corinthians 15 distinguishes earthly and heavenly bodies and their differing splendor without calling the earthly body evil. Second Corinthians 5 speaks of the present bodily life as an earthly tent.
Philippians 2 locates knees on earth within universal homage to Jesus, while Philippians 3 criticizes people whose minds are set on earthly things. James 3 identifies a jealous and selfish kind of wisdom as earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.
If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things
The adjective marks a contrast in the content Jesus discusses. The verse does not declare created earthly reality morally corrupt.
There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies
Two G1919 forms describe earthly bodies and their splendor within Paul's resurrection argument. Earthly embodiment is differentiated, not despised.
If the earthly tent we live in is dismantled, we have a building from God
Paul's tent image speaks about mortal bodily life and hope from God. The adjective does not teach that physical existence is unspiritual.
At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth
G1919 locates those on earth within the comprehensive confession of Jesus' lordship.
Their minds are set on earthly things
The negative judgment comes from the paragraph's portrait of enemies of Christ's cross, not from the adjective in isolation.
Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic
James qualifies a jealous and selfish wisdom with three descriptors. G1919 participates in that judgment but does not make every earthly matter demonic.
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. Belonging to the earthly realm, implying inferiority to heavenly realities or spiritual truth.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
7 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
earthly
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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.
ἐπίγειος is built from these roots:
The adjective prevents two opposite errors. One error treats earthly as automatically sinful and turns Christian hope against the body or created life. First Corinthians 15 and 2 Corinthians 5 do not support that move; they speak of present embodiment, differing splendor, mortality, and God's promised future. The other error ignores the moral warnings in Philippians 3 and James 3.
There, earthly describes minds or wisdom already characterized by hostile, selfish, and unspiritual patterns. Context decides whether the emphasis is location, embodiment, temporality, or moral orientation. A sermon can therefore honor ordinary embodied faithfulness while calling believers away from lives bounded by appetite, selfish ambition, and refusal of heavenly citizenship.
The hope is not escape from creaturehood but life transformed and ordered under Jesus Christ.
John.3.12
G1919 is an adjective used substantivally and attributively. First Corinthians 15:40 contains two forms, one describing bodies and one the splendor associated with earthly bodies. Grammatical form and the modified noun help determine whether the word concerns location, embodiment, subject matter, or evaluated orientation.
The canon begins by calling God's created world good and ends with resurrection and renewed creation, while also warning against life ordered only by present appetite and human pride. Those larger themes help resist contempt for creation and moral complacency. The direct lexical claims remain governed by the six New Testament verses.
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