What does μωρία (mōría) mean in the Bible?
G3472 means foolishness, a judgment about what lacks wisdom or sense. Every direct New Testament occurrence is in 1 Corinthians 1 through 3, where Paul turns the world's verdict against itself.
Greek · G3472
μωρία
Foolishness
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μωρία G3472
Pronunciation mōría
What does μωρία (mōría) mean in the Bible?
G3472 means foolishness, a judgment about what lacks wisdom or sense. Every direct New Testament occurrence is in 1 Corinthians 1 through 3, where Paul turns the world's verdict against itself.
Reader summary
Full entry for μωρία (G3472) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G3472?
The BSB source-word alignment has 5 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include foolishness (5).
Where does μωρία (mōría) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at 1 Corinthians 1:18. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Corinthians (5).
What This Word Actually Means
G3472 means foolishness, a judgment about what lacks wisdom or sense. Every direct New Testament occurrence is in 1 Corinthians 1 through 3, where Paul turns the world's verdict against itself. The message of a crucified Messiah appears foolish to those who measure truth by status, rhetorical display, and recognizable power. Yet God saves believers through that proclaimed message and exposes the world's wisdom as unable to know Him.
Paul is not praising ignorance, sloppy thinking, or needless offensiveness. The cross is called foolishness from the perspective of unbelief; it is actually God's wisdom and power. The natural person likewise judges the things of the Spirit foolish because they are spiritually discerned. Teachers should therefore resist two errors. Christian faith is not anti-intellectual, and human brilliance cannot sit as judge over God's self-revelation. The church needs disciplined thought humbled by the crucified Christ, Scripture, the Spirit, and love rather than intelligence used for boasting.
How the Bible Uses It
G3472 names the verdict of foolishness placed on the cross by a perishing world and, in Paul's reversal, the verdict God places on wisdom that cannot know Him.
- 1Cor.1.18
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
The same message receives opposite verdicts because the cross reveals whether hearers are perishing or being saved; the term reports unbelief's judgment, not the cross's true quality.
- 1Cor.1.21
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
Worldly wisdom did not know God, so God was pleased to save believers through what the world dismisses as the foolishness of the proclaimed message.
- 1Cor.1.23
But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
Christ crucified collides with Jewish expectations of signs and Gentile expectations of wisdom, yet He is God's power and wisdom to those who are called.
Passage contextBook context
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It foolishness 5× 1 Corinthians 1:18, 1 Corinthians 1:21, 1 Corinthians 1:23, 1 Corinthians 2:14
Show sample aligned rows
1 Corinthians 1:18 μωρία to foolishness Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular 1 Corinthians 1:21 μωρίας to foolishness Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular 1 Corinthians 1:23 μωρίαν to foolishness Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 1 Corinthians 2:14 μωρία to foolishness Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular 1 Corinthians 3:19 μωρία to foolishness Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row 1 Corinthians 1:18
Aligned rows 5
Books represented 1
1 Corinthians 5
Source forms
μωρία 3x mōria 1 Corinthians 1:18, 1 Corinthians 2:14, 1 Corinthians 3:19
μωρίαν 1x mōrian 1 Corinthians 1:23
μωρίας 1x mōrias 1 Corinthians 1:21
Parsing patterns
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular 3x 1 Corinthians 1:18, 1 Corinthians 2:14, 1 Corinthians 3:19
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 1x 1 Corinthians 1:23
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular 1x 1 Corinthians 1:21
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Distinguish the world's false verdict that the cross is foolish from Paul's true verdict that worldly wisdom apart from God is foolish.
- Use respectful language and never apply this noun as a contemptuous label for disability, education level, or ordinary misunderstanding.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not use G3472 to excuse factual carelessness, poor reasoning, needless offense, or refusal to learn. Paul opposes proud wisdom, not faithful thought.
- Do not soften Christ crucified merely because the gospel conflicts with cultural expectations of power or sophistication.
Pastoral applicationPassage contexttheological_synthesis
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Foolishness that rejects God's wisdom; in Paul, divine wisdom appears absurd to human reason.
Strong's G3472
Lexical occurrences 5 verses Greek text appearances 5 times Word forms 3 forms 5 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link 1 Corinthians 1:18 Source Gloss
foolishness
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
5 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
1 Corinthians 1:18 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
μωρία mwria
folly, absurdity
Read verse 1 Corinthians 1:21 Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
μωρίας mwriav
folly, absurdity
Read verse 1 Corinthians 1:23 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
μωρίαν· mwrian
folly, absurdity
Read verse 1 Corinthians 2:14 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
μωρία mwria
folly, absurdity
Read verse 1 Corinthians 3:19 Noun Nominative Singular Feminine
μωρία mwria
folly, absurdity
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.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 3 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.
Form patterns 3 Aligned forms 5 Case pattern Nominative (3) Number pattern Singular (5)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · Feminine 1 Cor 1:18 · 1 Cor 2:14 · 1 Cor 3:19 3×
Genitive · Singular · Feminine 1 Cor 1:21 1×
Accusative · Singular · Feminine 1 Cor 1:23 1×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
The message of the cross perceived as foolishness by those perishing
God's wisdom appearing as foolishness in contrast to worldly wisdom
Christ crucified presented as a stumbling block and foolishness to unbelievers
The wisdom of the world exposed and condemned as foolishness before God
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 5 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
μωρία is built from this root:
For the Preacher and Teacher
G3472 does not give Christians permission to celebrate ignorance. Paul is exposing a collision between God's wisdom in the cross and a world that demands power, signs, rhetoric, or status on its own terms. The cross appears foolish because it announces a crucified Messiah and removes every ground for boasting, yet this message is God's saving power to believers.
Spiritual discernment does not abolish careful thought; it brings thought under God's self-revelation and the Spirit's work. This is especially important for teachers. Poor reasoning, careless speech, and avoidable offense should not be defended as faithfulness. At the same time, the gospel must not be redesigned to win approval from the very standards it judges.
The church thinks hard, speaks clearly, loves patiently, and boasts only in the Lord whose wisdom is displayed in Christ crucified.
Anchor passage
1Cor.1.18
Doctrinal connections
- 1Cor.1.18 - The message of the cross divides the perishing from those being saved and reveals God's power in what unbelief dismisses.
- 1Cor.1.19-21 - God fulfills His promise to frustrate proud wisdom and saves believers through the proclaimed message the world calls foolish.
- 1Cor.1.22-25 - Christ crucified confronts competing demands for signs and wisdom, yet He is God's power and wisdom to the called.
- 1Cor.1.26-31 - God's choice of the weak and lowly removes human boasting so that the church boasts in the Lord.
- 1Cor.2.12-16 - The Spirit enables reception of God's gifts and the mind of Christ, distinguishing spiritual discernment from contempt for learning.
- 1Cor.3.18-23 - Worldly wisdom is foolishness with God, so leaders and knowledge cannot become grounds for factional pride in the church.
Foolishness is the reviewed display gloss for G3472. In this Pauline-focused companion, local STEP TAGNT evidence shows about 5 Pauline use(s), with common forms including N-NSF 3, N-GSF 1, N-ASF 1. As an abstract noun, it names a judged quality; Paul's argument determines whether the judgment comes from the world or exposes worldly wisdom.
From Old to New Testament
Paul explicitly draws on Isaiah 29:14 and the wider wisdom tradition, where fearing the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and self-confident wisdom is exposed. The cross brings that canonical reversal to its decisive gospel center.
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain