Rivalry
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The Greek noun eritheia describes self-seeking ambition or rivalry that advances one's position at the expense of truth, humility, peace, and other people. Paul can identify it in preaching that uses Christ's name to intensify his suffering in prison, in community patterns of rivalry and division, and in conduct opposed to the Spirit's fruit.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἐριθεία (G2052) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Greek noun eritheia describes self-seeking ambition or rivalry that advances one's position at the expense of truth, humility, peace, and other people. Paul can identify it in preaching that uses Christ's name to intensify his suffering in prison, in community patterns of rivalry and division, and in conduct opposed to the Spirit's fruit.
The BSB source-word alignment has 7 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include selfish ambition (3), [are] self-seeking (1), rivalries (1), rivalry (1), selfish ambition [exist] (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Romans 2:8. Its strongest book concentrations include James (2), Philippians (2), 2 Corinthians (1), Galatians (1).
The Greek noun eritheia describes self-seeking ambition or rivalry that advances one's position at the expense of truth, humility, peace, and other people. Paul can identify it in preaching that uses Christ's name to intensify his suffering in prison, in community patterns of rivalry and division, and in conduct opposed to the Spirit's fruit. Philippians commands believers to do nothing from selfish ambition but to regard others with humility.
James joins bitter jealousy and selfish ambition with boasting, denial of truth, disorder, and every evil practice. The word does not condemn faithful work, transparent aspiration, healthy disagreement, or qualified leadership. It exposes motives and methods that turn ministry, knowledge, competition, or influence into a campaign for personal advantage. Responsible teaching examines who bears the cost, whether truth is distorted, how dissent is treated, and whether vulnerable people become tools.
It must not be weaponized by leaders to silence accountability or by institutions to call every complainant divisive. Humble service welcomes scrutiny, shares credit, tells the truth, and refuses advancement through another person's distress.
Eritheia names factional or self-promoting ambition in preaching, community conflict, moral choice, and claims to wisdom. Its fruit includes distress, rivalry, division, disorder, and evil practice, while humility and truth mark the alternative.
The former, however, preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can add to the distress of my chains.
Some preach Christ from selfish ambition, intending to add distress to Paul's imprisonment rather than serve sincerely.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves.
The church is commanded to reject selfish ambition and empty pride in favor of humble regard for others.
But if you harbor bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast in it or deny the truth.
Bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in the heart make boasting a denial of the truth.
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every evil practice.
James identifies disorder and every evil practice as the communal fruit of jealousy and selfish ambition.
For I am afraid that when I come, I may not find you as I wish, and you may not find me as you wish. I fear that there may be quarreling, jealousy, rage, rivalry, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorder.
Paul fears finding rivalry among a cluster of quarrelling, slanderous, arrogant, and disorderly community practices.
Idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions,
Rivalries appear among works of the flesh alongside divisions and factions that fracture community life.
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. Self-seeking ambition that divides community through factious rivalry rather than honest competition
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
7 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
ambition, rivalry
Read verseambition, rivalry
Read verseambition, rivalry
Read verseambition, rivalry
Read verseambition, rivalry
Read verseambition, rivalry
Read verseambition, rivalry
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 4 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.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 7 lexical occurrence verses.
ἐριθεία is built from this root:
Distinguishes sinful motive from faithful proclamation.James 3:13–18
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Eritheia is revealed by what ambition is willing to use. In Philippians 1, people proclaim a true subject, Christ, with a self-seeking purpose: they suppose their ministry can add distress to Paul's chains. Correct vocabulary does not cleanse a motive that exploits another's suffering. Philippians 2 answers selfish ambition with humility that looks to the interests of others and is shaped by Christ's self-emptying service.
James 3 tests claimed wisdom by its source and fruit. Bitter jealousy and self-seeking cannot be covered by boasting; they produce disorder and evil practice, while wisdom from above is peaceable, gentle, open to reason, and sincere. Second Corinthians and Galatians place rivalry among clusters of quarrelling, slander, factions, and division, showing its communal effects.
Faithful application therefore examines incentives, credit, platform, treatment of competitors, and the cost borne by less powerful people. It also protects truthful dissent: a leader cannot simply label criticism rivalry. Evidence, transparent processes, shared authority, freedom from retaliation, and willingness to lose status are practical tests of service ordered toward Christ rather than self.
Php.2.3
Eritheia is a Greek feminine noun used for selfish ambition, rivalry, or factional self-seeking. Its forms occur as the subject, object, or governing motive of conduct, and surrounding lists and contrasts clarify its divisive fruit.
Israel's wisdom condemns rivalry, proud self-exaltation, dishonest gain, and leadership that refuses correction. Jesus likewise warns against status competition among disciples and defines greatness through service, preparing the moral world in which apostolic teaching confronts eritheia.