κακοήθεια (Kakoētheia): The Sinful Heart of Malice

Reformed Thinking · May 15, 2026 · 29m · transcript

Deep Dive into κακοήθειαThe concept of evil, expressed through the Greek word kakos and its derivatives like kakoētheia, undergoes significant development from classical Greek thought to the biblical tradition. Initially, kakos denoted a lack, weakness, or incapacity before acquiring moral connotations of wickedness and ruin. Early Greek philosophers, such as Democritus and Socrates, argued that evil stems from human ignorance rather than divine action. Plato and later thinkers expanded this, linking evil to bodily passions or describing it as a cosmic metaphysical principle rooted in matter…